Ramblings

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~~Title:DEFCON (Game)~~
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<WRAP centeralign accent><fs xx-large>DEFCON</fs></WRAP>\\
<WRAP centeralign>"Inspired by the 1983 cult classic film, Wargames, DEFCON superbly evokes the tension, paranoia and suspicion of the Cold War era, playing on the fascinating aspects of psychological gameplay that occur during strategic nuclear warfare. You play a General hidden deep within an underground bunker."</WRAP>
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Reviews
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Very Favorable
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Developer
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Introversion Software
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Composer
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Alistair Lindsay
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[[Extraction]]
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Yes, Full
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{{page>Templates:video_games}}
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<fs xx-large>//**"**//</fs>
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A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
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<fs xx-large>//**"**//</fs>
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<WRAP centeralign>~WOPR, giving valuable advice on what to do with the DEFCON video game.</WRAP>
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<fs xx-large>**DEFCON - Everybody Dies**</fs> is a 2006 video game promising an atmospheric and realistic depiction of nuclear war. While that on its own isn't even necessarily wrong, it has little in the ways of gameplay value to merit the word "game". My personal experience indicates that it's successful and then some, pulling in too many [[I'm 14 and this is deep|teenagers fascinated by the topic]] that then go on to get VERY knowledgeable about the topic all of the sudden in these painfully obvious ways, like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6neDk_4XBs|this one YouTube video]] and [[Science Says|the study mentioned inside of it]] that they will keep bringing up and up and up again. We get it, you want everyone to know that the game is scary. And, honestly, it's [[People are the Problem|not even the game per se]]: The game on it's own is perhaps the simplest and most straightforward way to communicate the intended feelings using the WarGames bunker style. It's textbook. For that it's actually got quality to it, however the issue with that is that it is, from a game perspective, never excelling or otherwise noteworthy in any part of the game. It's exactly what you would expect. The fascinated teens aren't fascinated because the game is so good, it's because the entire topic on it's own is quite impressive the first time you are taught about it in a way that isn't academic, ie. factual, pragmatic, matter of fact, formal, and instead is presented in a cinematic/emotions-focused way. I went through a similar phase, though me being me I haven't ever told anyone about it, I just eat the fear into myself.

DEFCON is a text book example for why video games aren't movies and that they shouldn't be treated as such. The game lacks actual gameplay value - no strategies, no mechanics, little interaction, no goal to play towards, no reason to play in the first place. It IS a good movie, but since I am looking at this from the perspective of //game design//, the end result is just really, really painful to witness.\\
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Or, how I would put it to friends on a Discord server:
{{ ::defcon_rant.png?nolink&1000 |}}\\
We were just having fun, don't worry. Me going off at DEFCON is a meme in our group.