Is Deadlock going to lean any further into being a shooter, or should I just start filtering the term “Deadlock” for being an unfortunately-awesomely aesthetic’d MOBA? Cause keeping it a band, getting crashed out on by a League-toucher in my first match during playtests no less was enough to make me want formats where the League and DOTA-touchers would not be. Like, if mfs already crashing out on 106% toxicity before day zero even hits, I already know ion’t wanna be in these queues.
Without non-MOBA formats, all I see this as is superfluous in the face of DOTA, and just another Valve Thing™ in the way of TF2 ever getting back on its feet the same way Smite keeps getting in the way of Paladins.
I’ve long since blocked HexBear , but will occasionally click the “show me anyway” button just to validate that decision. I’m somehow still surprised by the advanced stage brainrot every time.
I already uninstalled it, brodie. I’m allowed to be disappointed that something with banger aesthetics is populated by gaming’s most toxic; and wish for the other parts of its formula to be leaned a little harder into.
Like, do you realize how the way you came thru with the “just leave if it ain’t for you” makes you sound like you’re running cover for hard-R spewing League-touchers?
Its a competitive game, it’s going to be free 2 play, so it’s naturally going to attract all kinds of people, including the heated, toxic, and as you put it hard-R league players. It comes with the territory of playing a competitive PvP only game. Report them, laugh at their smooth brains, mute them, and move on.
I’ve been playing quite a bit since May, and I’ve encountered way more friendly people in voice comms than not. Most matches are silent with people only using the ping system/wheel the game has baked in. About 1/2 of my losses are hit with a “gg ez” in text chat though. I respond along the lines of congrats bro, you’re better than me at a closed beta testing game with an NDA. 😂
Running cover for them though…Cmon now…thats a huge stretch…
I’ve had far less obnoxious people in deadlock compared to Dota. There was some smart decisions to have fewer defined “roles” and less emphasis on having one or a few players pop off with all the resources.
The game itself is so solid, has good balance, the movement and abilities are fun… It’s good. Some people are going to get annoying and sweaty in a comparative snowbally team game. I like to thank them for making my games a win-win. Either I get to win the game, or my obnoxious teammate gets to lose.
I too hate the average g*mer but I’m not going to let them steal my enjoyment.
In that vein, if anyone likes well written, story driven, stealth / action / immersive sim games, the Dishonored series & Prey (same devs, different universe) are incredibly worth going back for.
Made by former Bioshock / System shock developers, and they’re just some of my all time favourite games, and I only played them because of all the time I suddenly had with the COVID lockdown, but they hold up incredibly well. Dishonored 1 (2012) honestly feels and looks better than Dishonored 2 (2016) because of the Xbox’s auto HDR and auto FPS boost, but both are super fun and gorgeous games.
I wouldn’t say the writing for dishonored is terribly strong. The first game has a pretty bog standard plot, and the set up for the second was quite contrived. The gameplay and world are their strengths.
I would generally agree with you about the main macro plot beats in Dishonored 1 and leading into 2, but I would still argue that the writing is quite good overall.
In Dishonoured 1, you still have Daud’s storyline which I found a bit more interesting on a macro level (both in the main game and both expansions), but then I would also argue that the Dishonored series has great micro writing which is a large part of the world building and the fun of exploration.
They both know how to write good little interesting world building hooks and stories, and how to pace them out and not overload you with junk documents and writing.
The Outer Wilds, Bioshock, Subnautica, Remedy Games (Alan Wake, Quantum Break, Control, etc.), Obsidian (New Vegas, Outer Worlds, Grounded, etc.), are all masters of rewarding you with more story and world building.
Conversely studios like Bethesda (Starfield, Skyrim, etc.), and Ubisoft (all their RPGs), are pretty bad about trying to make the world seem realistic at the expense of having a ton of just hastily written uninteresting documents around that bore you as much reading real world documents at random would.
And while I would put games like Cyperbunk and the Witcher and even Deathloop, somewhere in-between, I would put all the Dishonoreds and Prey right up there at the top with the best.
I agree that Bethesda’s RPG writing is amateur at best, and I can’t dispute that there can be some good points in Dishonored. But at least for me, a mark of bad writing is that I find myself unable to care about the outcome for any of the characters in a story, and in Dishonored, I personally didn’t care much about any of the character’s struggles or personalities, as they were all pretty one-note. I can’t recall a single character’s name from Dishonored except for Corvo, since I found it novel to hear Stephen Russell as a main character again (big Thief fan, which incidentally I would point to as a game with excellent writing).
There was one instance in the main base/hub of dishonored 1, where there’s a short excerpt of a story about a whaler in a book, I think in the room where Emily was supposed to chill out in. I thought the writing of that little short story was so compelling, I sat back in my chair after I finished it and thought “Why isn’t this game about that?”, because I felt it highlighted how boilerplate the actual game’s story was in comparison. So in that way you’re right, the micro-writing, the world building, the atmosphere, is all top notch. I just wish the characters and plot were able to match it, as then it would be a masterpiece.
I should mention that I’m pretty difficult to impress with writing in video games, as I don’t think most of them can compare to the quality of writing available in books except for a handful of examples such as Thief, Gemini Rue, Mafia, and the original Deus Ex.
I just want to remind you all that Gary Bowser, switch modder, owes 30% of his income to Nintendo for the rest of his life. He also is in a wheelchair and has kids.
There was a joke in my local community that is something along these lines:
An African poor kid has seen a Nintendo console somewhere and asks his dad for one. Dad says no, understandably given the circumstances. The kid then makes a replica using cardboard and other shit he finds. Dad posts this on social media and it gains huge attention. Nintendo’s CEO learns about this and travels to Africa in his private jet to meet the family personally. The CEO arrives there and sues the family for copyright infringement for 1,000,000 dollars.
This is a shining example proving that games don’t need to die. Especially if you’re a company that is completely uninterested in pursuing an IP any further. When I read that they were going to post the server tools and a new client on itch I was over the moon.
Proletariat took the best approach possible with Spellbreak, whereas iron galaxy… Fuck them. The community was actively trying to reverse engineer Rumbleverse to get it running again and they shut it down. They also seem completely uninterested in bringing Rumbleverse back. (Thankfully there are still ways to self host it, it’s just not as clean as it could have been).
Whenever you hear someone say it would take too much effort to give the community tools, point them to Spellbreak. Hell It would be commendable even if the company didn’t give communities tools but didn’t actively shut down any revival projects.
Games are art and I’m sure plenty of devs that worked on these live service games would have loved to keep working on them, but their employer told them to stop. I’m sure there are plenty of devs that would love to see their game continue to live on, but their voice doesn’t matter because they aren’t the decision makers. So much time and manpower just thrown out the window.
Proletariat, thank you. You are one of the good ones.
Always cool to see a thriving online community after a game’s official shutdown. All possible because the devs released a self hosted version, something increasingly rare these days. And it works on Steam Deck? Might have to check this out.
I remember being hyped for the launch of the game, because this looked amazing. It was one of the few live service games I waited for. Then it happened, they went with an exclusivity deal on Epic Games store and it was over for me. And apparently for the game, because it was shutdown as I remember.
I never heard they posted a free version with servers you could host yourself. Why nobody told me! This is actually the best possible case (besides going Open Source) for live service games that shutdown.
My question is, is this game playable on Linux (through Proton)? Does it use Easy Anti Cheat? I don’t know how this works if this is self hosted, so probably not.
The hopes, dreams, and aspirations of generations of creative people getting exploited, overworked, and underpaid because they were willing to put up with that all to chase those hopes, dreams, and aspirations, all eventually got crushed in the corpo mill, only to be replaced by the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of the next successive wave of creative people. That was always working as intended. capitalist-laughyou-are-a-serf
At AAA studios you can pour your heart and craft into creating something beautiful along with hundreds of other wonderful colleagues, for years, only to have it ruined by management who literally doesn’t give af. Not only do they not play games, or even like games, they are proud of this fact in a sort of, “sell me this pen” type of way. These people always existed but the “financialization” of the industry means they are everywhere now. Even one of these people in the wrong place can be poison, and they are everywhere. This mutated organelle has made the entire studio system too neoplastic to perform its primary function.
It’s like training for years as a chef, slaving away in a hot kitchen for the big opening, then having the owner (who hasn’t cooked in decades) insist you serve your food in the toilet because “hey it’s porcelain, it’s the same as fine china”. Then when the restaurant bombs you get fired and he gets a huge bonus because he’s a genius cost cutter and you couldn’t sell his vision. Nobody cares that you made the best bisque of your life when its served in a toilet. How many times can that happen before you say, “fuck it”?
Well for me it was ten years. Not laid off, but just couldn’t take it anymore. I could probably get another job with my resume, but I just can’t bring myself to apply again. Through a little planning and extremely good luck I’m not really under any pressure. Makes me feel like a fool because a lot of people work worse jobs, but then I remember how sad and angry I was all the time. When I look at job postings those feelings return. The problem is I still like it and want to do it. I feel forced out because I care about making good stuff instead of just “line go up”. I would take a huge pay cut to work on a team that had the “magic” again.
Maybe it’s time you made your own project (if you’re up to it) :) time to serve that quality bisque in a bowl deserving of it lol besides, things will never change if we stay the route with Jack Welch-esque CEOs running the show; we need more indie devs, more small businesses, people who want to make something great because they’re passionate, or even just folks who want a sustainable future without strangling ourselves with the noose of “line must go up” mentality.
But also that’s a metric ton of work, and owning a project like that is certainly a risk to take!
No problem! :) If you do opt to try making something yourself I’m sure the folks here at Lemmy would be more than happy to check it out and give you some feedback!
This article could’ve been written any decade since the 1990s. It’s nothing new: The big game companies haven’t changed a bit and continue to exploit workers.
The only way to change things is via stronger worker protections/regulations.
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