Talk:My Buddy Sandman/@comment-7706473-20140618093920

Wow - this is a rather interesting story to wake up to. I felt some parts crossed into 'Hammer horror' territory, but given that I'm quite fond of that sort of thing... Well, let's start with the stuff I wasn't certain of. I felt that occasionally, the story stopped to remind us, the reader - not the narrator - of details that didn't get used. I couldn't tell if you had a plan for these red herrings or not, so I won't really count them against the story either. Finally - although I really liked the addition of fake screenshots, I really wish there could be a way to cycle through them while one was reading... Which there isn't, so I guess I can't and won't count that against the story either.

So now that's over with, WOW. I really, really, liked this. I think you're newer around here? My apologies if we've talked before, my ol' brain isn't at full operating capacity - but to me, gore and scares are old friends. What really makes my spine ache and my paranoia act up are people. People - and what motivates them - are scarier then any maniac or murderer, and you've made a chillingly excellent story here.

Similar to one of my favorite stories, Comorbidity, even though we've got a narrator the deutoragonist (or perhaps even just protaganist) is Sandman, who is both highly sympathetic and highly suspicious at the same time. Is he a victim of bad circumstances, trusting, naive, and gullible? In league with extremely disturbed individuals who wanted to create something more then just shocking? Blaise, and trying to pass off his work as the work of others..? The damn mastermind of the whole thing? It could easily be anyone of those or more, and yet at the same time the image we get to see of Sandman is a hardworking game enthusiast who loves his craft; something not unfamiliar to any of us.

And the thought that we could be that individual, that while we're talking and enjoying shooting the breeze, we might facilitate such unfortunate things... Well, that's horrific, isn't it? Ahahaha - but anyway. The game itself was a nice backdrop and, though I guess I haven't been writing too many game-related pastas recently, reminded me why I like them. Warlocke seems like it'd be buckets of fun to play, though I laugh at the idea that sex and violence sell, and tellingly noticed that while certain images were censored, that there blood demon - well..! I suppose that says quite a bit about me, doesn't it?

To me, the best part was the contrast between the gore proper, and the gore in Warlocke. The latter was amateurish and not unheard of for early nineties stuff; the former was clinical and thus far more disturbing. I actually started to wonder if perhaps the narrator wasn't in the whole thing - and that left me even more pleased with the story.

Seconding good Sater, I'd be quite pleased with playing this game, though I've got a list of design suggestions I wouldn't mind making to Tesserakt - dungeon crawlers are my life, after all. Pffth! Really well written, very much hoping to see more from you. Pressed paper flowers, for artifice and the semblene of reality.