Extra Punctuation

On Sequels

Fans create sequels that hold up the predecessors as something to live up to, rather than something to improve upon. And that's not the right mindset to take. If you're not going to try to be better, what's the point? To give something to all the other fans? They won't appreciate it. The more fan-oriented an installment becomes, the more holes they find to pick in it. Some kind of Un-fan-ny Valley effect, perhaps. But give it to someone who isn't a fan and they'll force it to change, and evolve. The fans will like it even less, but frankly, fuck 'em.

I'm not saying that drastic changes will always produce something better, I mean, I saw Highlander 2. But in the long run, nothing stays good by wallowing around unchallenged in the same territory as always. I don't honestly think Monkey Island In Space would be good. I think it sounds pretty awful. But I'd definitely play it, if only out of a dreadful, morbid curiosity. It might leave me enriched or standing on a chair with a noose around my throat, but it wouldn't matter. Because when you've got a sacred monument it's better to tear it down and rebuild it with hookers and rocket launchers, rather than leave it unchanged to gather pigeon poo for another few stagnant years.

Anyway.

"You can have half a dimension >.>"
- spleenboy, from the 2.5D Hoedown comments

Alright -

"Speaking as an infuriated geometrist myself, there is such a thing as a 2.5th dimension: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_dimension "
- Matthew Robertson, email

Alri-

"Half dimensions do exist. For example, some scientists consider time to be half a dimension because it can only move in one direction."
- Jeffrey Penney, email

A-

"Yes, you *can* have 2.5 dimensions, though it's nothing like what those games represent."
- Silent Coercion, email

"Actually, fractals are often expressed as having non-integer dimensions. It's referred to as a Hausdorff Dimension."
- Daniel Haas, email

"A Sapinsky Gasket (google it) has 1.6 dimensions."
- Bethany Rogers, email

ALRIGHT! SHUT UP! Jesus, if I'd known this was so important to all you motherfuckers I'd have just made a fucking knob gag.

Yahtzee is a British-born, currently Australian-based writer and gamer with a sweet hat and a chip on his shoulder. When he isn't talking very fast into a headset mic he also designs freeware adventure games and writes the back page column for PC Gamer, who are too important to mention us. His personal site is www.fullyramblomatic.com.