A browser based Doom or Quake engine world sim to run around playing with others sounds like such an awesome concept. I’d love that!! And in the 90"s no less. That would’ve been crazy impressive.

Microsoft and MMOs, man. I remember they were gonna make a really neat online fantasy one for the Xbox and canned it, too.

That’s such a wild story. Thanks for sharing that with us! I wish they wouldn’t have cold shouldered you like that…

Here’s how I was imagining that went down the whole time I was reading it lmao. Just for you.

“Cat? Dog? Pig? LOAF OF BREAD. SYSTEM ERROR!”

https://youtu.be/LaK_8-3pWKk

Haha that does sound slightly familiar! Like Mario Kart’s Lakatu on steroids. 😂

Lol okay solved! Colliding with an opening door just yeets an NPC (safely) out of the way.

Haha there needs to be a “monkey’s paw” community but around what new bugs pop up when someone proposes a fix for a mechanic.

New bug report: Essential NPC unable to be interacted with because they walk toward the door to greet the player and get clipped through the opposite wall at high speed.

Sometimes they fall through the map and the game crashes when they reach -9999 meters, other times they die intersecting the wall and it soft locks the main quest.

Fun story rq: Deus Ex: Human Revolution had the most bizarre bug where, if you talked to a gang before getting the quest to go clear them out, on the second visit one of them would just spawn… like…on the moon, apparently? (A ridiculous distance upwards, not even visible except by objective marker) Made the quest unbeatable until they patched it hahaha.

Now we need to decide in the case of collisions if:

• Doors violently push anyone out of the way, possibly “crushing” them into walls or
• Force themselves back closed, turning any random NPC / obstacle on the other side into an unbeatable lock or
• Just trap an unfortunate NPC in a corner on the other side, or
• If they use the physics system to swing open, in which case they’ll look smooth but possibly bonk the player/actor going through them a few times and could potentially (and comically) insta-kill them if physics is feeling grumpy.

The frustratingly comedic unintended results of any choice makes for great organic marketing though.

Gamedev is magical.

Aside: Know what did this really well though? Resident Evil games after RE:4.

The ability to “slowly quietly open”, and then at any time decide to violently action-hero kick it open to send a zombie on the other side flying, was genius.

Haha yay, first time I got a “username checks out”! :D hahaha.

Reject predatory techbro products, return to monke! XD

I think the saddest part about this is the phenomenon where people who didn’t understand tech were scared of new stuff that was actually really neat and helpful…

…and nowadays they’re ridiculously trusting of shiny user-friendly corporate garbage that spies on them and manipulates them.

Excellent quote and deeply, tragically profound.

l’ve noticed the modern philosophizing kids have distilled this mentality down to the mocking phrase:

“One day I’ll get to be the one wearing the boot! :D”