Sensible Erection | My Brute: addictive pyramidish flash combat timewaster

Friday, 10 April 2009

My Brute: addictive pyramidish flash combat timewaster

quote [ Insert a name to create your own Brute. You will be able to fight against other Brutes in the arena and recruit new pupils. Gain experience and fight tough in the ranking to become... THE BRUTE! ]

There are various weapons, abilities, and pets you get as your brute levels up, and you don't have any control over any of it. Just choose your opponent and watch the cute little buggers beat the crap out of each other.

The pyramidish part comes from starting other people off at your character page, they then become your "pupils" and give you xp boost when they level up. Of course, there is nothing stopping you from creating a boat load of alts to be your own pupils.

[games] [by Periander@5:09pmGMT] [+3 Good]

Comments

Chop-Logik said @ 5:11pm GMT on 10th Apr
As fun as it is to see them duke it out, I don't support this referral-link pyramid-scheme methodology.

blood_hawk said @ 5:24pm GMT on 10th Apr [Score:1 Funny]
Same!
Lame!
Blame!
FLAAAAME!

Stension said @ 5:35pm GMT on 10th Apr
The average age of SE members is not 12.

Shirobake said @ 5:57pm GMT on 10th Apr
In the poster's defense, sometimes the more simplistic the escapism, the better. Not everyone wants to get into WoW in between breaks at work, for example- but Alien Hominid? Does the trick.

v21 said @ 7:18pm GMT on 10th Apr
"sometimes watching a number slowly increase is enough"

blood_hawk said @ 5:36pm GMT on 10th Apr [Score:1 Funny]
Haha! People hate your post!

You should've been here like, 5 years ago. We all played Kingdom of Loathing.
An adventurer was us!

Periander said @ 5:42pm GMT on 10th Apr
No question, it's basically progress quest with animations. Still, I found it inexplicably fun. Much like your glee at my being downmodded.

headlessfriar said @ 5:57pm GMT on 10th Apr
I think I'm one of 3 people from SE who still plays KoL. Shame because the game itself still has a huge community, and they still add new stuff to it all the time.

Chop-Logik said @ 6:01pm GMT on 10th Apr
I still play it. Not as rabidly as I did, but steadily pluggin' away. That game rules.

theolypse said @ 9:45pm GMT on 10th Apr
Or last year, for Travian.

jutetrea said @ 6:26am GMT on 11th Apr
travian was evil

DarkShadowRavenDragonGrrl69 said @ 5:39pm GMT on 10th Apr
-1 "kushana.mybrute.com"

Context said @ 5:41pm GMT on 10th Apr
yep

Periander said @ 5:43pm GMT on 10th Apr [Score:2 Good]
Shrug. Removing that and putting the main site then.

Context said @ 5:45pm GMT on 10th Apr
Yeah, it's a pretty decent game. I just wish there were more fights per day. As it is, I spend about a minute and a half, and then I can't play anymore.

Chop-Logik said @ 5:47pm GMT on 10th Apr
That's the driving force behind bothering your friends & family into fighting your character.

Misanthrope said @ 11:44pm GMT on 10th Apr
click now.

stormshine said @ 12:36am GMT on 11th Apr
my friend and I were just discussing this aspect of the game. We decided to make a clone and charge money to buy more game plays. CHACHING!

-_- said @ 12:45am GMT on 11th Apr
Good call.

I'd also recommend:
having the player select limited weapons and defenses before going into the arena to fight. (make them feel more in control)

having "last man standing" fights of multiple players at once.

Of Course, selling clothing and accessories and decorative items for their cells so they can play dress up.

Allow players to wager on their own games .. let them wager items and accessories and in-game currency.

Sell them in-game currency ;D

Hrmmmm ... what else?

stormshine said @ 12:55am GMT on 11th Apr
"I'd also recommend:
having the player select limited weapons and defenses before going into the arena to fight. (make them feel more in control)"

Already implemented this on another game I work on. Duels

mwoody said @ 2:16am GMT on 11th Apr
The Zork MMO that just came out supposedly does that. It was a large part of why I ignored it entirely.

shiney things said @ 6:02pm GMT on 10th Apr [Score:2]
Upmodded because I like the game and you took out the referral.

-_- said @ 6:27pm GMT on 10th Apr
Since he took out the referral I too shall upmod this post, for it is an honest and stright forward sharing of information without being a sinister harvesting of "students" nor a self link.
:D

-_- said @ 6:38pm GMT on 10th Apr
BTW: if you dare to challenge ME, I am HERE!!

sythe said @ 6:48pm GMT on 10th Apr
Don't listen to him, MY brute kicked his brute's butt.

yevishere said @ 6:59pm GMT on 10th Apr
Challenge me here .

rosary said @ 7:23pm GMT on 10th Apr
Well hello there

Makopelli said @ 8:15pm GMT on 10th Apr
B.A. Baracus pities these fools.

EtOH said @ 9:30pm GMT on 10th Apr
Star-flinging action

601 said @ 11:06pm GMT on 10th Apr
mouthhugs if you win.

3bop said @ 11:13pm GMT on 10th Apr
Come pick on Choatus Maximus

yevishere said @ 9:30pm GMT on 10th Apr
Do I have to make a new character to challenge?

Makopelli said @ 10:14pm GMT on 10th Apr
No... the UI is pretty hideous. See the box and the bottom of the page? It says "Are you already signed up?" Enter your character's name there.

Transfer said @ 1:30am GMT on 11th Jul
I joined as your Pupil TransferSE. Yes I know I'm late to the party.

taeyn said @ 6:19pm GMT on 10th Apr
not going to the link. i'm upmodding because of your good attitude in the face of downmods. :D

Periander said @ 6:27pm GMT on 10th Apr
As already noted I removed the referral, the link goes to the main site. Since this site is more timewaster than an actual "game" (you don't really control anything) I thought it harmless, but since people object (people that post lots of porn to boot) it goes.

mwoody said @ 2:17am GMT on 11th Apr
Protip: don't try to post it on 4chan. At least I know what the ban screen looks like now.

Silent said @ 6:20pm GMT on 10th Apr
As a game it is lacking, were it unknown I (and the rest) might be more forgiving but the game consists of nothing more than getting others to sign up.
I'll withhold my mod for now, but you might want to flesh out the post...

sythe said @ 6:33pm GMT on 10th Apr
My real issue with this post is that this site been discussed in several other posts already, to similar response.

rosary said @ 6:43pm GMT on 10th Apr
talk about the exact wrong way to sell people on this game

v21 said @ 7:17pm GMT on 10th Apr
I reckon claiming it's the new Goatse would help. And cutting the url into their loved ones flesh. And tattooing it on your penis, and then paying hookers to fellate you?

I know there's some easy ones I'm missing...

jaxtraw said @ 7:12pm GMT on 10th Apr
Fantastic Contraption was the dog's bollocks. That was totally beyond awesome.

pestilence said @ 7:31pm GMT on 10th Apr
The Brute.

pestilence said @ 7:32pm GMT on 10th Apr [Score:-4 Illegal Pr0n]
*discovers 'embed'*

Courtesy of SexInfo101.com.

pestilence said @ 7:33pm GMT on 10th Apr
wait, was this post supposed to be SFW?

i think it's time for me to leave

nik said @ 9:10pm GMT on 10th Apr
I think I would fart a lot in my wife's face, in that position.

theolypse said @ 9:47pm GMT on 10th Apr
Looks wildly painful, if you haven't had your erectorsomething tendon cut.

sacrelicious said @ 10:10pm GMT on 10th Apr [Score:1 Insightful]
maybe she has a strapon.

3bop said @ 11:25pm GMT on 10th Apr [Score:-3]
That can't be good for her back, or his erect penis.

Tirade said @ 11:05pm GMT on 10th Apr
That would work a whole lot better if it was two dudes.

mwoody said @ 8:30pm GMT on 10th Apr
Yeah, this is why I stuck it in a comment on a porn post. The game is indeed fun despite its simplicity, but as a post by itself, it's too self-serving.

EtOH said @ 9:13pm GMT on 10th Apr
Haha
Mine has ninja stars!
http://liquid-mercury.mybrute.com

steele.ero said @ 9:19pm GMT on 10th Apr
Fight me, bitches!

Fenny said @ 10:39pm GMT on 10th Apr
I have, I beatchoo!

steele.ero said @ 12:25am GMT on 11th Apr
Noooos!

Fenny said @ 7:33am GMT on 11th Apr
lolololol , beeatchoo witha spear again! Dungcast!

afrasr said @ 10:51pm GMT on 10th Apr
Fight me ! http://afrasr.mybrute.com/cellule :)

sacrelicious said @ 10:57pm GMT on 10th Apr
I do not advocate games that you don't actually play. having a game built on the notion of the computer playing the game for you is the pinnacle of laziness, and not particularly fun either.

you got a problem with that? then let'ssettle it in the ring!

3bop said @ 11:14pm GMT on 10th Apr
Who can create a clan? Make a Sensible Erection clan!

mwoody said @ 11:21pm GMT on 10th Apr
Gotta be level 10, so unless someone has been playing for a while, not yet.

sythe said @ 12:11am GMT on 11th Apr
We've got several level 5s, but 10 is awhile off.

Stratafyre said @ 11:34pm GMT on 10th Apr
Sigh, am I the only one with a retarded Brute? I win like, 20% of the time.

sacrelicious said @ 11:35pm GMT on 10th Apr
that seems to be the going rate. not that I have tested this by having multiple brutes and having them pupil one central brute in the hopes that this will increase my experience gains.

sythe said @ 12:12am GMT on 11th Apr
Yeah...it doesn't.

sacrelicious said @ 12:30am GMT on 11th Apr
it seemed to work with the first one.

f00m@nB@r said @ 11:54pm GMT on 10th Apr

http://www.adamanddave.com/

they made "knights of atomikaron", a hilarious short.

eviltwin said @ 4:19am GMT on 11th Apr
For the first two minutes, I thought it was a demonstration of using online strip shows as Turing tests.

mwoody said @ 11:55pm GMT on 10th Apr [Score:5 Insightful]
What's fascinating about these sorts of game is that they so clearly demonstrate a basic concept re: the mammalian psyche in general and the psychology of gaming in particular:

What we describe as "fun" in gaming is nothing more than a system of random rewards.

There are other factors that can play a part - story, an appreciation of the art, a sense of accomplishment, etc. But the main driving force behind our most addictive pastimes is random (i.e. NOT every time) rewards for successful or desired behavior. That's not a new revelation to anyone who's had to train animals: a treat with every success only leads to a bored dog that stops performing the instant the treats stop coming. As much as we might like to think otherwise, we're not much more complex.

Let's look at gaming examples specifically. This Brute game has nothing of what we would traditionally call "gameplay." What you do has no effect on your chances of winning. You could argue that there's a metagame of getting more pupils to sign up, but as you level, you're forced to fight other Brutes of the same power: it's a treadmill, with advancement gaining no real competitive rewards. So why do we play? Because it gives you random little treats. New weapons, new abilities, new stats, and new companions are such a guilty little delight that we immediately forget that we've done nothing more complicated than pushing the "start" button to earn them.

We'd like to think that it's a clever challenge that enthralls the hardcore gamer. But let's imagine - and we have to imagine it, because I can think of no real-world example, tellingly enough - a counterpart to MyBrute with gameplay but no rewards. You have full control over your character, and you fight enemies in an endless stream. You do not level up. You do not gain new items. You do not move from the first room. The enemies do not change. There's not even a counter, timer, or score to provide some sort of sense of accomplishment. Imagine your most ideal, most perfectly executed fighting system possible, and then try to picture playing it for more than five minutes, tops. I'd wager you can't, if you're honest with yourself.

But that only proves that gaming requires rewards more than gameplay. We're talking random rewards as opposed to a constant, salary-like bonus. There, we don't need to make up a fake example: we can use the critically panned "Space Siege." A Diablo clone and sequel to "Dungeon Siege," it's a space-based hack and slash game that has no item drops. Instead, it has an upgrade system purchased with points dropped by enemies, supplementing a story-based progression of weapons dropped by pre-set bosses. Enemies drop a specific amount of points when killed, possibly giving a set amount more if killed in a combo (it's been a while since I played).

It's awful. The only thing that makes it even remotely playable, if you're a masochist, is the sense of progression and as branching story. But removing the famously addicting roguelike random item drops robs every moment of gameplay of some indescribable essence of gaming, leaving a hollow, plodding experience far worse than the moderately competent fighting system should allow.

Slot machines are perhaps the most flagrantly obvious real-world example of the principal of random rewards in action. Imagine a job where you pull a lever, some lights flash, and ten seconds later you get a dollar. That's your job, all day, every day. That's going to be a damn good salary; I think many of us would like to be making that much. But can you imagine yourself, day in and day out, enjoying the job itself?

Now replace that lever with a slot machine. A machine you know full well will cheat you over time; the house always win. And then go to Vegas and look around: people are sitting in chairs pulling levers and making lights flash and losing money hand over fist. It's a cruelly intelligent gambit, preying on this very facet of the human - nay, animal - brain. A certainty of making a lot of money is far less interesting than a slight chance of making a mediocre amount. Even if we logically force ourselves to take the safe, better bet, it would still fall squarely in the realm of what we call "work."

Anyway, I've rambled on and could ramble on further. It's just, as a hardcore gamer who had a near-religious revelation sitting in Psy101 in college - "holy shit, lecturelady just described my entire fucking childhood in one sentence" - it's a topic that's always fascinated me.

sythe said @ 12:15am GMT on 11th Apr [Score:1 Insightful]
Correct. This is why I don't gamble. I would be dead in a gutter.

3bop said @ 12:24am GMT on 11th Apr
Please tell us more about lecture lady.

mwoody said @ 2:15am GMT on 11th Apr
She stood on a wooden stage and read verbatim from a book I was expected to have read before attending while the lions' share of those who had paid dearly for the privilege of her tutelage wisely loitered elsewhere.

blueatheart said @ 12:35am GMT on 11th Apr
This is exactly why I don't play most videogames anymore, particularly these sort.

I'm becoming consistently more frustrated and amazed at the average human's largess for this sort of thing, even in the face of arguments which rationally destroy all arguments for it.

I instead opt for board games now, drawing further and further away from the random settlers or carcassonne, towards the far superior (intellectually and game-y) Chicago Express or Imperial.

Many of these arguments can be made in the boardgaming hobby as well, and I thank you for your thoughts, they will assist me greatly in my quest of deriding the random.

mwoody said @ 2:12am GMT on 11th Apr [Score:1 Insightful]
You're of course welcome to do what you want, but I can't agree with your response. This isn't some sort of weird psychological cheat game designers exploit to sneakily stimulate undeserved endorphins; it's a revelation about what fun actually is. I didn't mean to imply with any of my post that having discovered their dastardly secret, I swore off games or gambling and threw myself into scholarly pursuits. Quite the opposite: it's helped me determine why some game mechanics bore me while others keep me coming back for more. In the absence of serious consequences, what is addiction but a sign of enjoyment?

Certainly, there's a sense of accomplishment to be had in no-luck "games," though I've always felt that any competitive pastime without a random component should be labeled a "sport." But don't logic yourself out of fun because you've seen the clown behind the rubber nose.

blueatheart said @ 10:30pm GMT on 11th Apr
This random reward structure yields a false sense of enjoyment and accomplishment. I have long been loathe to enjoy such useless pursuits, but have a great deal of difficulty convincing my peers of just why. The original comment was something which put my thoughts through a good filter, and I was simply thanking you for them.

I feel it is not intelligent to enjoy such things excessively, and am amazed at people's capacity for both being entertained by such nonsense, and their refusal to accept it as ridiculous, shrugging it off and going back to it.

I have a perhaps different sense of fun than most, it seems. I enjoy fun, I enjoy silly things, but I believe something like the game posted here goes beyond silly fun to stupid "fun".

v21 said @ 12:20am GMT on 12th Apr
I have been pondering for a while now a project that tries to use these same mechanisms to get you to tick things off your to-do list. Just because - watching friends who are probably smarter than me get shitty degrees and win Travian, or WoW or whatever depresses me. Still very much at the "idly turning thoughts about" stage, but we'll see what happens when I finish these exams, and graduate uni.

-_- said @ 12:36am GMT on 11th Apr [Score:3]
I read a fun study once where they put rats in cages with buttons.

First combo: push the button, get food ... rat experiments then only pushes button when hungry.

Second combo: push button, get an electric shock ... rat experiments then never pushes button again.

Third combo: push button first time, get food
push button second time, get electric shock
after that each button push had randomized result of either food or a shock.
rat experiments and then sits there pushing the button until it passes out, wakes up after enough sleep, and begins pushing button again.

I think of this every time I see the slots floor at a casino.

v21 said @ 12:27am GMT on 12th Apr
Sometimes the gameplay mechanic can be enough in itself. I remember being impressed with Rez: when I died I was punished by not getting to carry on playing. Um, but generally, yes.

Nihil said @ 1:49am GMT on 12th Apr
Every day I wake up I thank Τὸ Μεγα Θηρίον that my brain's "fun" response is triggered by learning new rules, rather than by receiving random rewards.

Transfer said @ 12:25am GMT on 11th Apr

structured_spirits said @ 6:03am GMT on 11th Apr [Score:1 Interesting]
Just wanted to pop in and say hi to the person who gave me the travian account. I did pretty good with it. If anyone is interested in how the game endedwe made a powerful alliance, here's the score at endgame.

jutetrea said @ 6:39am GMT on 11th Apr
ha, i see a bunch of SE in there. Can't believe you guys stuck around that long, or did you just trade away your accounts?

Travian is evil.

Chop-Logik said @ 6:51am GMT on 11th Apr
That game was the devil.

structured_spirits said @ 7:02pm GMT on 11th Apr
As far as I know, the only SE'rs to make it to the end were nibbon, jpgfour, morris, and me. End game was neat because the game staff completely fucked up and everyone was really angry with the result. There was so much back-stabbing that they had to close the s1.com forum for the last 3 or 4 days of the server to stop epic flame wars. Yes travian is evil, but I loved it's pure brutality.

jutetrea said @ 3:24am GMT on 19th Apr
cool, good to know. Must have been a crazy amount of invested time near the end. I left and it was time intensive by that point. What was your in game name or did you take over Periander's account as below? Can't remember who mine ended up with, might have been someone in CDW at that point.

Long time ago, luckily after playing on S2 for awhile I quit for good...just sucking up too much of life. Well, then I played Ikariam and then Tribal wars. THEN i quit for good :P

f00m@nB@r said @ 8:36am GMT on 11th Apr
unfortunately, i started playing tribal wars again, on a world with older rules (no paladin), though faster rates. just broke 1 million points, and then i got jumped by a bunch of big players. blah. :D

Periander said @ 9:12pm GMT on 11th Apr
That person was me. Nice to see you guys finished on top. :)

f00m@nB@r said @ 8:42am GMT on 11th Apr
why should i be any different?

f00m@nB@r said @ 9:09am GMT on 11th Apr
what's interesting is that using genitals as names brings up the appropriate gender character, i.e. "penis" -> male, "vagina" -> female. some slang terms work, too, but "schlong" -> female.

mwoody said @ 9:37am GMT on 11th Apr
Almost certainly just random chance, particularly since "male" and "female" produce their opposites.

Chop-Logik said @ 4:10pm GMT on 11th Apr
Someone should create 1000 characters each, to work out the odds.

Caffeine said @ 10:06am GMT on 11th Apr
PAJAMA FIIIIIIGHT!

	-_- said @ 12:45am GMT on 12th Apr That hammer is freaking bad ass, took me a while to
	-_- said @ 12:45am GMT on 12th Apr get one too ;D

-_- said @ 12:45am GMT on 12th Apr
That hammer is freaking bad ass, took me a while to get one too ;D

mwoody said @ 9:58pm GMT on 11th Apr
So, uh, I have a question. What's the ability in the center, third row down? The silhouette looks... SE-appropriate.

3bop said @ 5:21am GMT on 19th Jun
Just got my Brute to Level 10

Sensible Erection Clan:

http://mybrute.com/team/59611

Amul Muzz said @ 1:33am GMT on 27th Jul
Female Problems owns all of your souls.