Selfsurprise

Impure by Arphaxat

I find it helps to keep a word file or even a notebook for all my random scraps of ideas and themes, which you can elaborate on later if the mood takes you. I'm glad you liked my Trash Fairies idea. I was inspired by the weird rough n' ready style of the comic artist and illustrator Leon Sadler. All of his characters look like badly drawn and childishly coloured cartoons, but are somehow painterly and strangely deliberate in execution.

I don't want this thread to fade into obscurity and die, so I'll posit a question. Which of all the imaginary games and mods proposed so far would you like to play the most? I've already commented on Enguzrad's "DayZ with triffids" concept as being something I'm sure I'd enjoy, at least in regards to the idea of monstrous plant-themed survival horror. However I sort of glossed over Jeb's rather marvellous "openworld animal simulator/RPG" concept, due to my impatience at putting forward my own ideas I suppose. I think that would be a great game to play! It would be less about fulfilling quests and fetching items than it would be about your own curiosity and wanderlust, with some pressure being added by the need to feed, defend yourself and your fellows, and continue your line by siring children - and unlike most RPG's it needn't be marred by a somewhat half-hearted plot. There's a good chance that you'll end up dying a lot, but rather than strictly losing you simply get the opportunity to begin life as another young individual of your species, perhaps from your own herd/pack/litter/flocks/hives/etc offspring, or even a different species entirely. My own musings remind me of the secondary "Creature Stage" of Spore, only this game would be much more diverse and progressively nonlinear improvement upon that game. BTG's suggestion of an experience or point system would certainly give some meat to some otherwise rather nebulous gameplay. In fact I reckon this would make a excellent tie-in for the work of the writer and "future zoologist" Dougal Dixon, in particular his book After Man. It's an illustrated guide to the fauna of earth 50 millions years from the present. Humans are no longer present on the planet, the manner of absence which he purposefully left ambiguous so he could focus purely on how the current niches of animal species, particularly that of mammals and birds, might develop over the course of the aforementioned timespan. Stumbling upon clues and the rare survived artefact from the past could be another one of those completionist elements for trophy hunting gamers. I can't begin to express how much I love this book, and you're interested you can read the whole thing here, it's full of the books illustrations too.

I'm thinking it's time to make another patch jacket. There's a lot of really good metal albums out this year, and we're only in May!

Excellent thread idea Helio, sorry it's taken me a while to respond. Silent Hill: Although there have been some weak games in the franchise, I still can't help but love the entire premise of the Silent Hill-verse. It's that tension between what is real and imaginary that makes the setting so intriguing as it is harrowing. I'm a sucker for the concept of conterminous planes of existence, mirror worlds that are both familiar and yet unearthly. I also can't think of any series that puts more effort into conceiving enemies and locales that symbolize and prey upon the failings and neuroses of the game's protagonists. It also has a highly open-ended potential for many characters and backgrounds, although the titular town is the focus of the series there are instances (Silent Hill 3 and 4, spring to mind) in which characters find themselves in either a decrepit fogbound purgatory or a brutally claustrophobic and surreal hell of corroded metal and appalling flesh. Fallout: I have mixed feelings about this franchise, and much of that may have something to do with the internet being conceited and conservative more than real blame that can be assigned to the games themselves. There's something undeniably appealing about the idea of slightly barmy alternative history which resulted in empire ending nuclear holocaust. But I find certain aspects of the timeline both oversimplified and silly. Given the bombs fell in 2077, why does everything have that ubiquitously 1950's vibe? Are we supposed to believe that nothing changed, stylistically or culturally, between the second world war right up to the nuclear apocalypse? Did the 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's and even 00's and contemporaneous 10's really remain the same? Despite of what was clearly a rapid progression of technology? I also find all of the not particularly well elaborated guff describing how Europe and Asia are "uninhabitable" whilst other continents (Africa, South America) barely get mentioned at all, annoying in the extreme. Given the amount of potential a more globalized scope could have on a post-apocalyptic setting like Fallout, isn't this insistent American fixation all rather tedious? It basically amounts to DUH WURLD GOT BLOWED UP CEPT AMERICA CUZ AMERICA. Come on Fallout fandom, I dare you to use some imagination. Oddworld: I always love a setting and a fictional world in which there aren't any humans or even any recognizable animal species, so the Oddworld franchise was almost guaranteed a cosily soft spot in my bosom. I particularly like how this series offsets it's often quite disturbing and dystopian themes (slavery, butchery and consumption of sapient life, extinction, etc) with a charming and rather cartoonish sense of humour. Deadspace: I'm not sure why the internet and gamers aren't necessarily very keen on this series, often accusing the franchise of having "too many jump scares" and being too linear. Personally I think the first two games are some of the best survival horror games ever made, at least that I've played. I love futuristic space faring sci-fi settings that present human colonization and habitation in a less than flattering and even quite banal light - think how the Aliens films captures a rather matter-of-fact corporate attitude and aesthetic despite the staggering leaps in technology from what is currently possible. I also find the necromorphs more than a little repulsively terrifying, an advanced viral strain that manipulates and reinvigorates dead flesh in order to propagate itself. Speaking broadly for a genre trope than an actual game or franchise, but I find sci-fi settings in which only human beings appear to exist (usually in the context of war) really disappointing. It may be one of the reasons I've never bothered with the Killzone series, but I can't help feeling cheated by a game that gives me space and withholds any aliens. It's a bit of a bias on my part, but I'm sticking with it for now.

I'm sorry for being a massive walking simulator dork, I'll go again. Kholat + Abe's Oddysee = Abdulov's Oddysee On a mysterious alien planet in an unimaginably distant future where the natives inexplicably speak Russian, a proletarian mudokonov named Abdulov discovers a terrible plot by the monstrous glukkonov's to use his race as fuel for a giant planet-wide central heating system.

Forever Grey by Bus

Pro Doorboarding

Way too many people to reply to here, so I'm broadly responding to everyone's posts so far. Having read some of the descriptions on the profile of what some of these genders mean, I'm sort of hovering between the polar opinions that this either an elaborate parody that's gotten way out of hand, or it really genuinely is the future of sexual identity. Whatever your opinion, a lot of them seem like a quirky point of pride for anyone utilizing any given flag or else a rather sad excuse to feel offended when someone doesn't understand or even acknowledge that you are an "Exiccogender- A gender which, when thought about, feels empty and has a draining effect, making the individual whose gender it is feel empty themselves." (< I bet Michel Houellebecq is one of these) The site is a little bit stronger when it's describing various degrees of the sexual spectrum, the "Bisensual" and it's masculine/feminine/neutral leanings strikes me a valid assertion of how some people might experience bisexual or pansexual preferences. But then the profile has some strange and somewhat indefensible biases. ln this FAQ the creator mentions not making certain flags, citing "Sapiosexuals (i.e. "sexually attracted to intelligence or intelligent persons") as an example, because the definition implies a pejorative attitude towards those that fail to meet the criteria. Going by Vapymid's previous observations regarding the obsessive listing and categorization of things, it seems to lump these rather more established and well-known extranormal orientations in with weird kinks and outright paraphilia. Having a peek at the FAQ again the creator also explains the term MOGAI ("Marginalized Orientations Genders And Intersex") as "a more inclusive alternative to LGBT." It's as if the creator is against any kind of discriminating elements of definition even in the face of broader and more general view of a field he/she has so clearly spent a lot of time researching. Some of the genders seem purposefully vague and I'm struggling to grasp how anyone would come to the conclusion that they were a "Thymromantic - Feeling attraction which varies depending on emotional state", or sometimes even seemingly defies the profiles non-discriminating gender-type stance with the likes of "Kingender- An umbrella term for anyone who's gender has to do with or is influenced by their kintype." Arbitrarily, this might be a different definition of the word kin I'm not familiar with, but this strikes me as not being dissimilar to the Sapiosexuals avowed arousal by intelligence. Personally, I'd rather live in a world where people feel they can identify as a MOGAI-something-or-other rather than feeling they absolutely cannot express it. But as the FAQ stated, there is a clear demarcation between LGBT at large and this phenomena. Am I allowed to be sexually attracted to Chinese food?

I think this is quickly becoming my favourite thread. Kids in Space Well that's just rude! You know you care about someone when this happens.

I've got to be honest, as bandwagon-jumping and conceited as some of the current discourse on gender can be, I don't really mind it. I think what we are looking at here is a very superfluous (and intrinsically digitally-orientated) manifestation of shifting attitudes towards queer culture and so called "non-binary" sexual mores. The flag might seem a little excessive and a certain younger generation of pro-LGBT individuals are prone to buying into some of pansexual creativity that queer culture promulgates with a deathly soberness not befitting the subject, but I suppose it's better than the pre-80's situation we had in the western world where it was largely mainstream consent that cast all non-binary sexualities as perversions or maladies. If I've understood it correctly, that gigantic list you posted seems to be confusing paraphilias with sexual orientations, or maybe it's rejecting the psychological (often interpreted as "aberrant") tone of paraphilias. I guess what it boils down to is the idea that a world in which we rejected cultural neuroses for a degree of tolerance towards bizarre fetishes and non-traditional relationships we'd more than likely be a little more better off. CHAOSGENDER Do you prefer Nurgle or Tzeentch? If you say Slaanesh then your bigoted neo-fascist cis scum... :3

8/10, don't know the source of this one but it's nice to see you going for something different Alyxx.

With the panda it would feel less personal, I guess, you might not have time to feel offended as a howling black and white bear gnaws your face off. Plus you'd get the satisfaction of knowing that it's herbivorous digestive system would most likely give it a lousy time after it's done sopping up your remains with bamboo leaves. I'd imagine my best friend would have an exceedingly hard time finishing me off. Not least because I'm not exactly the sveltest of figures, but on a definitely-unamusing-but-actually-quite-funny-when-you-think-about-it note, he also has cerebral palsy. If he could eat me, I'd be impressed! Was my answer offensive in any way?

No, it's fine. Just totally ignore my quote BTG. That's cool! ;3 (I'm only joking) @ ScottD.Benson 9/10, "You have ten seconds to rate the next quote". "The only interesting answers are those which destroy the questions." - Susan Sontag

Did I break the game?

Om Syndernas Förlåtelse 3 by Ulwhednar

I sincerely hope you screamed "BICYCLE TERRORIST!", just to teach them a lesson.

This made me laugh a lot more than I care to admit. THE EAST BERLIN IN POLAND

I DON'T NEED GOOD GRADES TO BE IN METALLICA MOM! IT'S ALL ABOUT YOUR KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS OF AN ARTIST :3

Might as well carelessly throw all my eggs in one basket, someone is bound to like at least one of my madcap ideas... :3 Lumpenproletariat: A kind of Katamari Damacy inspired game with much grimmer and painterly aesthetic, in which you play a grotesque self-propelling tumour that gathers up various detritus, kitsch junk and unlikeable people. There's a definitive element of humour in amongst the Butzer-esque gross absurdity of the setting. Feygangr - After Innocence: An open world RPG set after the decline of the human race. Years ago (decades, centuries, who knows?) a mysterious contagion engulfed the world, warping the plant life into ethereal forms, mutating the taxonomic niches of earthly fauna, and killing everyone except the most bitter and insular individuals. The bodies of those children who died transformed into achingly beautiful mummies, from which spring innumerable, tiny, child-like fairy species, whilst those older men and women who weren't susceptible to the plague lived on as raging utterly warped wights in a world they no longer belong in. You play as one of the wee folk, in a world where the most naive and infantile communities live cheek-by-jowl with the most untenable evils. Mayamiko Campany, Monster's Friend or Foe: A cutesy anime-stylized monster hunting game, in which the swashbuckling titular character and her companions (human or otherwise) in a technologically and culturally anachronistic kingdom of Brunfeggerzia. Resembling a kind of 2D side-scrolling open-world platformer, Mayamiko is a bounty hunter who has vowed to defeat evil monsters whilst simultaneously sanctifying and/or protecting monsters that are or want to be good. Queek Headtaker: One of my favourite characters from the Warhammer franchise. Queek is a legendary Skaven warrior renowned for being a fearsome and uncontestable warrior (traits almost unknown amongst the cowardly, scheming, teeming Ratmen), his bloody rack of trophies garnered from the skulls of worthy opponents, as well as being irretrievably insane - he often argues and implores to his aforementioned skull collection. Some kind God Of War action adventure with little pretense other than destroying everything in sight, dwarves, goblins, humans, beasts, even traitorous and unworthy fellow skaven. Mask of Gug: Broadly inspired by Donald Tyson's short story The Skinless Face, as well as the freakish race called Gugs from Lovecrafts The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath. Mask of Gug takes place in the 90's, in East Timor, where a small international team of archaeological surveyors, specialist historians and even a secretive clique of alienists are exploring a series of unusual ruins. They rapidly begin uncovering strange anthropomorphic figurines and ritual artefacts, as the story truly begins when they unveil a large statue donning an anomalous mask - that always resembles the person looking at it. I had in mind a slow burner of an atmospheric first-person point n' click game in the vein of Darkness Within: In Pursuit of Loath Nolder. See Your World: The name is a technique actors often employ in order to empathize with a character they are playing, but the inspiration comes from painter Fiona Rae's passing interest in acting. This is a growth-based puzzle game with lushly abstract imagery drawn from the work and motifs of various contemporary British artists like Dan Perfect, Barry Reigate, Sara Barker, Karla Black, Martin Boyce and the aforementioned Fiona Rae. Each artists "tropes" start off as small and disconnected levels which the players cultivates, until the begin to meet at the darkened borders of each artist's body of work, eventually co-mingling and hybridizing disparate styles into a colourful and diverse ecosystem of shapes, movement and sound. Concrete Veins: A survival horror game heavily influenced by brutalist architectural psychology and the idea of tulpas, or "thought-forms". I haven't got a distinct narrative in mind, but you are essentially alone in a labyrinthine and largely unadorned interior of ambiguous purpose, with only enraged petrified ab-humans with stony unblinking eyes for company. Pursuivant Arcana: A virtual card game heavily inspired by Magic The Gathering, but instead of environmentally based mana colour sets you have card types inspired by different schools of magic (abjuration, binding, chronomancy, conjuration, necromancy, true naming, plus many more) in which the key is to counter different spell and minion types with polarised schools of similar or greater value. I could see it being a relatively simple set of standard rules which could be easily scaled in complexity, with "instant" cards and scenario/arena factors, and a hell of a lot more besides. Oedipus Butterfly: This one came to me whilst watching (and being thoroughly creeped n' freaked out by) the Youtube series Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared. OB is a first-person Silent Hill-esque survival horror game with abjectly surreal environments and imagery inspired by children's television, offset with deeply jarring presence of eerie materials and items (dead fish set against coloured paper, and lamb hearts pitifully covered in glitter are recurring motifs) as well as startlingly brutal "sweat and hair streaked up-closeness" whilst combating the harrowing and unpredictable enemies, often barehanded - think of the fighting mechanics in Condemned: Criminal Origins, but without the dull machoism. You roam through claustrophobic and grotesquely twee sets inhabited by pseudo-anthropomorphic entities that roar in seeming frustration and grief, their puppet-like textures and googly eyes indefinably enmeshed into their unnatural flesh, frequently having their cartoonish visages torn open to reveal a distressing likeness of the same woman's terrified face. The interiors, the monsters, the symbolism all ambiguously yet invariably point to some traumatic domestic event you suffered as a child, implying a hatred of other men and keeping you guessing at the nature, age and even gender of your unseen protagonist from the beginning of the game and right through the very end, which will almost certainly have a truly shocking and not in the least bit contrived twist. Trash Fairies: Bizarre strategy game with underground comic inspired visuals, in which you send out troops of ugly lumpen goblinoids to collect rubbish from modern day streets to build scrappy flyblown forts and wage siege warfare against other trash fairies. Psychic Terror Youth: Squad-based turn-based 2D fighting game that owes as much to early ultraviolent/hypersexual manga films as it does to dystopian English subculture. Your highly customizable and stat-detailed character founds and manages an extended syndicate of teenage gangers whom you can edit in equally great detail, recruiting new members, giving it various traits, agendas and philosophies -even the kind of apparel or music your group is into, if you like- and generally carving out your own niche in an anarchic future metropolis. One of the predominant features on this game are the countless modes of attack, defense and passive abilities of your gangers. These range from diverse psionic abilities (as suggested in the title) both from chaotic mutation to neurological augments, cybernetic implants veering between subtle and highly advanced "Nerve-Tek" right through to clumsily savage improvised tools, numerous deadly weapons of dubious origin and even physical mutations of varying degrees of severity. SCP-999-J - Creepy Speedo Guy: You really should check out the link first. I'd love a larger Goat Simulator-style game where you play as this guy, running around various world cities causing untold mayhem and awkwardness. There would be loads of missions and even some half-arsed back story, but actually you could tackle those in your own time as most of the gameplay actively encourages the player to fanny about, being inappropriate with minors and randomly teleporting into people's houses at night. Just avoid Foundation agents and the Alchestbreach cameo, who will "punch you in the dick with a sledgehammer" whenever the opportunity presents itself. That's quite enough "creative self-therapy" for one night!

But China is a glowing crater. Is that China though? It's hard to tell. Plus China is a really big place As much as this may annoy some of the serious lore advocates, given what has already been said on this thread about it, I tend to ignore it in order to unfetter my imaginationary forays. One of my biggest pet peeves are lore'd-up superfans dismissing concepts that don't fit into their own subjective or conservatively boring interpretation of a fictional world.

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory + Kholat = Dyatlov Pass Cell: Dead Mountain Theory In DPC:DMT, you play as Russian stealth operative Samuil Filippov who specializes in preventing enemy federations from utilizing supernatural phenomena against Russia's national sovereignty. Sent into the frozen Dyatlov Pass where nine Russian students disappeared after rumoured sightings of American operatives, Samuil stumbles upon a covert conspiracy involving ancient pre-human forces of darkness in an attempt to menace communism.

It's wet, but actually a hell of a lot cooler today.

My sodding internet connection deciding to be lousy again, despite following advice involving unplugging the modem for a hour to improve speed and general performance. "Oh, you want to open TWO entire tabs on your browser?! AND run Spotify at the same time?!! You must be having a laugh. Welcome to Windows 10!"