Dissecting Transgression-Arcane Reviews Genius

[ArcaneArts]

Is it bad that I'm interested in hearing about your take on Sword Art Online too? *cough*

The deepest regret Felix and I have is that we didn't realize what we might have on our hands when we started fighting over SAO. It's gonna take, like, a year to get to a point where we might be able to talk about the series with the same vigor as we did this time around.

I might get out my side of it in the anime thread, but Genius is pulling on my sleeve.

[ArcaneArts]

In Genius a mad scientist's insanity is a bi-directional metaphor with the dinosaurs in Jurassic park breaking out of control. The loss of control over a Genius' own mind reflects the loss of control over the cloned dinosaurs. The loss of control over the cloned dinosaurs reflects the loss of control over a Genius' own mind.

(I feel the same about real life, so that's probably why. If I recall you're religious Arc? Mormon wasn't it? Faith in a higher power with a hand on the rudder of the universe might result in you reading it very differently to me, and I think I'm reading it as intended. A core theme element is that nobody is in charge and nobody has a plan or any idea where we're going).

Addressing these two in reverse order.

1) Not a Mormon anymore. I couldn't keep justifying the bullshit as well as the sense of things outside of the church. But I am of a strongly spiritual bent. Of course, my spiritual humanism is an absurdist response, because nihilism is the thing that is pervasive in my life.

Anyways, as it relates to Genius...are you seriously trying to tell me because I have belief in powers that be, I'm not gonna like Genius which posits nothing is in control? Me, who's main argument anytime cosmology comes up is "Reality is, at best, a bunch of squabbling occult god-children-principles fighting over a toy with all the sound and sense of those children and at it's most realistic is this great abiding mystery that has no answer because it's very nature is unanswerable, indirectable, unguidable?" You are literally telling the guy who has been saying for years that there is no order or reason or sense or knowing to the universe of ChroD that he might have a different reading because the book strongly stands by a universe that has no order or reason or sense or knowing.

Think who you're talking to.

2) Jurassic's Parks theme was not mad scientists, but greedy corporate monguls who forced the hands of scientists out of a desire for profit. Jurassic Park was not anti-science, it was anti-corporate. Notice anyone with an inkling of scientific understanding comments on the insanity of this, at a minimum "I'm not really sure I should be doing this" to Ian Malcolm.

[Malus]

Eagerly awaiting the other chapters.

[ArcaneArts]

Spoiler: 488 pages of nothing but text is, in retrospect, a bad idea for a game book.

[Vent0]

Spoiler: 488 pages of nothing but text is, in retrospect, a bad idea for a game book.

Art requires artists (or at least artistic talent). If it was assembled by one person, that explains it.

If I recall, neither Princess nor Leviathan have much in the way of art (though Leviathan has art notes).

[ArcaneArts]

Art requires artists (or at least artistic talent). If it was assembled by one person, that explains it.

If I recall, neither Princess nor Leviathan have much in the way of art (though Leviathan has art notes).

I'll talk about this in the review, the problems of art and word count and other such things, but for now I am going to point out a case of "Be careful what you wish for."

For years, I have dealt with Genius fans who have wanted Genius treated as though it were an actual game from White Wolf/Onyx Path, to count it among the canon-hell, it was actually listed in the canon list of games on TvTropes for a time, if you can believe it.

I could review this game as a fangame and give it a bunch of slack-an okay game from the fans is quite frankly an excellent result in my eyes.

Or I could give what those fans wanted all along, and treat Genius as though it were a professionally made game.

I'm not sure it's worth doing this just treating it as a fangame anyways.

Be careful what you wish for, and don't make promises you can't keep.

[ArcaneArts]

Also worth noting:

The credits have made it clear that there is only one guy who worked on it, but I'm going to talk about this project as though it had a team, for two reasons.

1) It's easier for me to just talk that way, I think of projects in terms of teams.

2) As has been pointed out a couple of times, Genius may have only been "made" by one guy, but the development of that game was open source, with Kyle Marquis taking in a bunch of advice and ideas in from the people at RPG.net. Therefore, I don't feel comfortable in criticisizing or praising(yes, believe it or not, I do have points of praise) Marquis alone, since it's really kind of the thought baby of everyone Kyle valued the opinion of over the course of it's creation. Marquis might be the one who made the book, but it was developed by a team of people.

[MCN]

The deepest regret Felix and I have is that we didn't realize what we might have on our hands when we started fighting over SAO. It's gonna take, like, a year to get to a point where we might be able to talk about the series with the same vigor as we did this time around.

I might get out my side of it in the anime thread, but Genius is pulling on my sleeve.

Links, please, if you do. I'm kind of curious, since I have a lot of friends who like it.

[The Kings Raven]

You are literally telling the guy who has been saying for years that there is no order or reason or sense or knowing to the universe of ChroD that he might have a different reading because the book strongly stands by a universe that has no order or reason or sense or knowing.

Think who you're talking to.

Take Changeling. Changeling's cosmology might be a bunch of squabbling occult god children fighting over a toy, but it's about moving forward after surviving abuse. Genius is actually about the meaninglessness of the universe (among other things). Genius player characters should be confronted with that meaninglessness directly and if they're lucky, find inner peace through accepting it.

To me comparing nihilism-as-setting-element to nihilism-as-core-theme is like comparing apples to oranges. But if you say your views on nihilism-as-setting-element transfer to nihilism-as-core-theme then I'll take your word for it. You know yourself far better than I ever will.

2) Jurassic's Parks theme was not mad scientists, but greedy corporate monguls who forced the hands of scientists out of a desire for profit. Jurassic Park was not anti-science, it was anti-corporate. Notice anyone with an inkling of scientific understanding comments on the insanity of this, at a minimum "I'm not really sure I should be doing this" to Ian Malcolm.

1) Jurassic Park: the Lost World reveals John Hammond has a doctorate and in the video game Jurassic Park: Tresspasser he is explicitly described as a "jovial mad-scientist".

2) Even if John Hammond wasn't a mad scientist Jurassic Park would still be a film about mad science. The very core of mad science is the fear of change caused by a new idea or new technology. A mad science story then takes those fears which are often highly abstract and complex (how will society change once cloning technology makes it possible to create babies without romance, sex, marriage or even parents?) and distils it down into into something understandable and comforting (our heroes vs dinosaurs). The mad scientist, the cackling man with bad hair and a labcoat, is not technically needed for a mad science story.

3) Nothing you said contradicts the idea of using Jurassic Park as an inspirational source for Genius anyway. Genius is not anti-science (I'm not sure if you meant to imply that or not. It's not anti-corporate either). The scientist characters trying to warn John Hammond is exactly how sane scientists would react to a Genius talking about their crazy schemes.

Art requires artists (or at least artistic talent). If it was assembled by one person, that explains it.

If I recall, neither Princess nor Leviathan have much in the way of art (though Leviathan has art notes).

Sadly this is true. I am planning to include art found around the net for Leviathan 2ED if I can get permission.

Also, If you know any interested fan artists do send them my way.

[MCN]

Telling one of the writers of Changeling to consider Changeling? Ummm..... I think that Arcane is rather familar with that game, KingRaven.

[The Kings Raven]

Obviously. That's why I used it as an example.

(Do let me know if I'm wrong when I say Changeling is about moving on after surviving abuse - I would have to reconsider a LOT)

[Second Chances]

2) Even if John Hammond wasn't a mad scientist Jurassic Park would still be a film about mad science. The very core of mad science is the fear of change caused by a new idea or new technology. A mad science story then takes those fears which are often highly abstract and complex (how will society change once cloning technology makes it possible to create babies without romance, sex, marriage or even parents?) and distils it down into into something understandable and comforting (our heroes vs dinosaurs). The mad scientist, the cackling man with bad hair and a labcoat, is not technically needed for a mad science story.

3) Nothing you said contradicts the idea of using Jurassic Park as an inspirational source for Genius anyway. Genius is not anti-science (I'm not sure if you meant to imply that or not. It's not anti-corporate either). The scientist characters trying to warn John Hammond is exactly how sane scientists would react to a Genius talking about their crazy schemes.

Sadly this is true. I am planning to include art found around the net for Leviathan 2ED if I can get permission.

Also, If you know any interested fan artists do send them my way.

JP stIll isn't about mad science. Girl Genius is mad science. Dozens of Frankenstein movies have mad science. Jurassic Park is a perfectly good source for Genius, but that is becuase it is about Transgression, and paying the consequences of transgression. Mad science is doing the impossible. Transgression is "so busy thinking about if you could, that you never thought if you should." The two definitely overlap, but they aren't the same.

On the art front, there are some are sources you can buy the license to on DriveThru. I'd also suggest contacting the editors of Wayfinder, since the fanzine is free, I'm pretty sure that people donate their art, but I'm not 100%. You may be able to get some contacts that way.

[ArcaneArts]

Telling one of the writers of Changeling to consider Changeling? Ummm..... I think that Arcane is rather familar with that game, KingRaven.

Nope, never heard of it.

*snorts*

[The Kings Raven]

JP stIll isn't about mad science. Girl Genius is mad science.

I think we're using different definitions and since definitions are fundamentally subjective there's no point debating whose definition is more correct.

Can you accept "any story using fantasty to convert the fear of a new idea that disrupts a safe status quo into a simpler safer idea" as a valid definition of mad science (distinct from mad scientist, and distinct from definitions about the inventions created by mad scientists) even if it's not the one you personally use?


We can definitely agree that Jurassic park has transgression as a theme; and that it makes a good source for genius.

[Charlaquin]

I'll talk about this in the review, the problems of art and word count and other such things, but for now I am going to point out a case of "Be careful what you wish for."

For years, I have dealt with Genius fans who have wanted Genius treated as though it were an actual game from White Wolf/Onyx Path, to count it among the canon-hell, it was actually listed in the canon list of games on TvTropes for a time, if you can believe it.

I could review this game as a fangame and give it a bunch of slack-an okay game from the fans is quite frankly an excellent result in my eyes.

Or I could give what those fans wanted all along, and treat Genius as though it were a professionally made game.

I'm not sure it's worth doing this just treating it as a fangame anyways.

Be careful what you wish for, and don't make promises you can't keep.

A third option might be to treat it as a fan game that wants to be adopted into canon - acknowledging the limitations that being a fan game puts on it, while still being frank about where it would stand if it were to undergo professional development.