bin.pol.social

exscape, do gaming w Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of August 6th
@exscape@kbin.social avatar

Baldur's Gate 3.
I can probably count the number of games I've paid full price for in the past 15 years on one hand, and this is one of them. No regrets whatsoever.

Looking back on Steam, last time was GTA V. Prior to that Skyrim, and prior to that Portal 2.

hoodatninja,
@hoodatninja@kbin.social avatar

I swear 40-50% of all dialogue, interactions, etc. reflect the character I built. It is insane. They made D&D into a video game. They actually did it.

bijuice,

I didn’t pay full price for it and I’m being punished for it. The pirated copy I downloaded had a virus on it :(

The game is brilliant though! Shoving people into pits is the best class hands down.

DmMacniel,

Shoving gobbos from a cliff to kill them by falling damage. Soo good!

MJBrune,

Honestly if it’s not worth paying for it’s probably not worth playing. Your time is more valuable than that.

bijuice,

I get what you mean but not everyone can afford $60 games. In some parts of the world that’s more than half a month’s salary.

MJBrune,

In those places, the games are differently priced. Regional pricing is on Steam, epic, and a few other stores. Also, I only buy games, I don’t pirate and I rarely buy games for 60 dollars. I typically just wait a bit and pick them up for 30 or less. That said I understand, pirating is easier and for AAA games it might truly not matter if you do or not. Indie games are certainly a different story and each purchase, even extremely discounted, gives the developer that little bit more which can mean a lot.

bijuice,

I live in one of those places and we don’t have regional pricing. When Steam starts offering competitive pricing in Africa I’ll start buying games at full price but for the moment I’ll stick to buying games on sale and piracy.

MJBrune,

What currency do you use? Rand?

bijuice,

Shillings. I’ll let you guess which kind of shillings ;)

MJBrune,

Ah, okay. Yeah, looking at Steam’s pricing it doesn’t give me the option to regionally price for shillings of any kind. The most I can regionally price is the South African Rand. Do prices on Steam then just show in USD for you or do they actually sell stuff in shillings?

bijuice,

Sucks for us :/ The prices show up in USD.

bijuice,

I caved and bought it at full price 😭 Responsible spending habits are a capitalist conspiracy.

HidingCat,

Seen the hype, but man, I don't feel like slogging through a 100 hour RPG at this point in my life.

exscape,
@exscape@kbin.social avatar

I play with a friend. If it works out anything like Divinity: Original Sin 2 we'll be finished maybe around April or something.
We usually play about 1 hour at a time, almost never more than 1.5 hour... and about 2-4 times a week. So it'll take a long while, but it's a lot of fun.

mifan,
@mifan@feddit.dk avatar

As a new dad I don’t have the time for games that I used to, but I’ve been playing BG2 for a few hours every week, and now BG3 has taken over, it’s actually a perfect game to play whenever you just have a short time on your hand.

It’s one of those game experiences where I think of my character all the time when not playing. Can’t wait to get back, when the little one is sleeping again.

gaytswiftfan, do gaming w What game mechanics do you love and hate?

I hate when games are open world just cause. I only ever enjoy an open world when there’s an insane amount of lore like in Skyrim or Fallout, but in most games I prefer a linear gameplay or semi-open (Mass effect, Dragon Age)

At some point something happened and literally every game has to be open world now 😭

PlantJam,

A Plague Tale is an incredible example of what can be done with a linear design. Both Innocence and Requiem were amazing.

Open world games like the Witcher 3 leave the player with this really weird interaction with plot urgency. I’m looking for someone but just barely missed them? Hurry to the next town so I don’t miss them again? But then zero consequences when I ignore that quest for twenty levels.

Pfnic,

Agreed. Like the original linear Mirror’s Edge is way better than it’s open world prequel. It’s my go-to example for exactly this problem.

echodot,

And that Halo game I can’t remember what it’s called, but there’s an open world Halo game and it’s awful.

The biggest problem in that game, and in general, is the fact that, yeah it’s an open world game, but there isn’t really a lot to do, so you have to run around through the level, which is usually boring, to get to the actual next bit of the game.

It wouldn’t be so bad if they just teleported you to the next bit. Then the open world aspect could be played around with on your terms, but you could also just ignore it if you wanted. But they never do that because they’ve made an open world, and they want you to look at it.

r1veRRR,

While I don’t mind openworld games, they definitely feel off, esp. with regards to the main quest. Can’t save the world, gotta get this granny laid.

One of the only games with a open world that actually REQUIRED it for the game to make sense is Paradise Killers. It’s a detective open world game on an island. The open world makes a lot of sense, because a detective has to find their clues. It’s not a detective game if there’s a counter of “clues found” or there’s a linear progression. The game never tells you that you’re done finding clues. Like a real detective in a real open world, you have to decide whether you’ve seen enough.

Faydaikin,
@Faydaikin@beehaw.org avatar

I mostly dislike open-world games because of the lazy travel systems. Either you have to run everywhere or you free fast-travel from any point, too any point.

There is no middelground.

I miss games like Morrowind, where you not only had to pay for fast-travel, but it functioned more like an actual transportation system. Like, you had to go to this city and take a Strider to that town and then a boat ride to get to your destination.

Giving the world some infrastructur and natural money drainers helps with immersion and facilitates the need to go do some side-quests every now then. You get fast-travel, but you also get to see the world that was build for you. And you don’t run around as the richest douche in the world by level 10 with the best gear available because nothing costs anything.

Bethesda skipped this aspect entirely back in Oblivion and never looked back. Making your characters golden gods from the get-go, with no reason to interact with anyone or do anything except screwing around and collecting trinkets.

There’s more to it, ofcause, but this is the biggest pet-peeve I have.

Rakqoi, do gaming w What game mechanics do you love and hate?

Here’s one I genuinely love and hate at the same time. In Dark Souls and Elden Ring, you drop your souls/runes (currency) on the spot where you last died, and if you die again before recovering them, they’re lost forever. You get souls and runes by killing enemies and generally progressing, so this leads to some interesting scenarios.

One one hand, it incentivizes you to spend your currency (to minimize risk of losing it) instead of just sitting on it, forcing you to make decisions on how you spend it, and whether to take the risk to save up to get more expensive items or level ups. It also forces you to play very deliberately, since there’s a penalty, but only if you die twice.

But… it makes me scared to progress, because I don’t know what to expect, and I don’t want to risk losing my souls/runes. Unless I have just recently lost everything and I have nothing to lose, I feel pressured to play overly carefully and never take risks and play the game in the most fun way possible, out of fear of loss. And even when I DO die and lose my currency, the freedom to play in risky ways only lasts for a short time, because as I kill enemies I start to build up my souls or runes again, and then I’m back in the same situation of not wanting to lose them.

I think that’s the main reason why I haven’t finished Elden Ring despite getting so close to the end. That overly careful playstyle is not very fun, but I can’t get over that fear of losing my runes in order to enjoy the game more.

Cethin,

The run back to your body helps you build up runes too, where a game where you’re loading a save it reverts progress. The souls style allows death to create progress for people struggling. If you’re dying then you’ll be forced to build runes up and can then go level or upgrade gear.

Usually you shouldn’t be too worried about losing souls though because they’re fairly easy to come by. It’s a bit of a trap in souls games to value your souls too much. There are many ways to farm them that don’t take much time or effort, including just going exploring side content and finding new equipment. Once you level up yourself or your gear a few times, the part you were struggling with will be easier. That’s how Elden Ring especially, but even Dakr Souls, is supposed to be played. If you’re struggling and don’t want to be, just go somewhere else. There’s plenty of content to do.

Toribor,
@Toribor@corndog.social avatar

This is definitely one of the things I originally didn’t like about Souls games that have come to realize is a pretty cleverly designed mechanic. Earning enough souls to purchase something shouldn’t take very long and it if is, then it means you already have what you need to be succeeding in your current area. The ‘git gud’ joke is worn out, but genuinely you just need to learn how to face off with enemies (or run past them) until they stop being scary.

The game will not let you progress without learning how to engage with the systems it presents to you. There are typically several or many viable strategies, you just have to figure out what works for you.

By the time you’re dragging yourself through a toxic poison swamp you’ll realize that your level is just a number and nothing lasts forever.

Rakqoi,

I have several hundred hours across the 3 souls games and ER, and I totally get that it’s a well designed mechanic, which is why I love it. and yeah, I know that valuing souls too much is a mental trap that prevents me from enjoying the game, but I just can’t shake it in Elden Ring for some reason, despite doing so more easily in souls games. (though, it especially sucks in DS2 because of soul memory but that’s a whole can of worms)

The souls series is one of my favorite game series of all time, and I would definitely not change the blood stain mechanic whatsoever because I think it’s about perfect. Especially with rings of sacrifice (or the weird twigs) and homeward bones to give you chances to mitigate the penalty when you really think you need to. It’s excellently designed and forces you to improve at the game.

Despite that, it still causes me hesitation and demotivates me from playing the games sometimes. I have to be in a specific mood to want to improve at a game, and I’m in that mood less often as I have more things I need to spend my time on, and usually play games just to relax and have an easier time nowadays. I still love Elden Ring to death and it’s genuinely one of the best games ever made (in my opinion), and yet I have a love/hate relationship with death mechanics in these games.

BlameThePeacock, do gaming w What type of game do you want to play that doesn't really exist?

I would like a language learning video game which is set up as a MMO, and you “reverse” level. You start with massive equipment because you need it to be able to fight the learning monsters, but as you get more proficient you get hit less(fewer mistakes) and do more damage (faster language entry) so you can start dropping equipment. So the monk running around in a loin cloth is the goal. All sorts of multi-player interactions are possible around setting up conversations, handling larger readings, etc.

deltasalmon,

this sounds awesome. I don't know if it's on your radar but there's a game coming out called Newcomer that looks like a half decent language learning video game.

Nepenthe,
@Nepenthe@kbin.social avatar

That's the one I was trying to remember, I'd heard about it back when it was just starting out! Unfortunately, it still doesn't support türkçe, and I'm not exactly in the position as a learner to help add it or I'd be all over that :(

wildeaboutoskar,
@wildeaboutoskar@beehaw.org avatar

That sounds great. I think there should definitely be more educational games for grown ups along this line

Scary_le_Poo, do gaming w Steam is a buggy mess.
@Scary_le_Poo@beehaw.org avatar

I’m using Lubuntu.

Talk about burying the lede

Credibly_Human, do gaming w Three developers' different philosophies on difficulty for their games

All games should have difficulty settings as fleshed out as Atomfall.

The idea that games should be a set difficulty with the set annoyances that game includes is stupid.

LIke I personally, would delete all minigames, fuck em, and have hard combat. Thats my preference.

I fucking hate creatives who believe super deeply they’ve created some masterpiece meant to be played one way.

SkyezOpen,

Yeah and I’m pissed that expedition 33 isn’t a survival crafter.

See how ridiculous I sound?

Atomic,

I fucking hate that Apex Legends doesn’t have a “peaceful” difficulty. Can’t we all just get along?

Credibly_Human,

You sound ridiculous because you’re making a cartoonishly bad faith argument where you pretend not having good difficulty options is a genre.

SkyezOpen,

“Git gud or die” literally is a genre. It’s called soulslike.

Also “every game should have difficulty options” and “every game should be a survival crafter” are both fundamentally “every game should be what I like.”

kkj,

You can set a difficulty option to the default, what it would be if there weren’t a choice. Changing the genre of a game isn’t generally in the settings menu.

“Soulslike” is an absurdly nebulous term that just means “hard.” It isn’t a genre. It gets applied to games of every conceivable genre based solely on their difficulty. Battletoads is a Soulslike. Path of Exile is a Soulslike. Dead Cells is a Soulslike. Never mind that all of Fromsoft’s Souls games are specifically action-adventure RPGs, which is a genre.

prole,

Nah, difficult settings would ruin From Software games imo. It really is genre, or even game, dependent

Credibly_Human,

Lets say they keep everything as it is right now, like they literally have the games they already have and add some difficulty options like less annoying backtracking. How does this “ruin” your experience?

Every one of these arguments is based on the entirely made up idea that sacrifices must be made to achieve these improvements.

Jax,

What makes you think every game should be for every person?

No, it absolutely isn’t a made up idea that allowing barnacles to glomp on to an experience so that they can feel included cheapens the whole experience.

I do not want McDonald’s Souls. I get that you’re fine with it, I’m not.

Credibly_Human,

What makes you think every game should be for every person?

What makes you want to make such a clear strawman argument?

No, it absolutely isn’t a made up idea that allowing barnacles to glomp on to an experience so that they can feel included cheapens the whole experience.

I love that you literally cant answer the question because you know its immature gamer gate keeping. You just completely avoided it.

I’ll repeat:

Lets say they keep everything as it is right now, like they literally have the games they already have and add some difficulty options like less annoying backtracking. How does this “ruin” your experience?

Jax, (edited )

Shrugs

Git gud

Edit: for a real answer, since the advent of video games there have been people like you claiming that they’re too hard. Video games are meant to be beaten. They are literally designed that way, just because you can’t seem to beat them doesn’t mean everyone should conform to you.

Seriously, go pick a different game. Thousands of games exist with difficulty sliders. Pick one and shut the fuck up about the ones that don’t.

Credibly_Human,

for a real answer, since the advent of video games there have been people like you claiming that they’re too hard. Video games are meant to be beaten. They are literally designed that way, just because you can’t seem to beat them doesn’t mean everyone should conform to you.

This is not a real answer at all.

This is you first poisoning the well by insinuating that I’m bad at games firstly, and then pretending that these settings only have to do with hardness in 1 dimension. Its not remotely a good faith effort to answer.

Jax,

Why would I assume anything but ineptitude on your part?

You either have a fundamentally flawed understanding of why single difficulty games exist or you are just bad at games. I don’t care which, I will say that Atomfall is extremely fucking boring.

Credibly_Human,

Why would I assume anything but ineptitude on your part?

If you were being a reasonable well rounded human being and not a toxic gamer trope, that would be a reason.

You either have a fundamentally flawed understanding of why single difficulty games exist or you are just bad at games.

Given that not a single person has been able to make a cogent argument for them existing and the second thing is the comment of a toddler, Im going to go with the third option that Im shocked this level of toxicity exists on lemmy.

I don’t know why I expected better, but this is bottom of the barrel. You get better conversation on reddit, legitimately. This is all over a difference in opinion on difficulty settings in gaming. Its amazing really. Like you never sat back for a second and thought about how you were acting over a video game opinion.

Jax, (edited )

No, this is all over you deciding that what you think is superior to everyone simply because you’ve declared it.

There are games that are designed to have varying difficulties. There are games that are not. Both can be complete experiences, both can be dogshit and lazy. I really don’t care what you ‘expect’ because Atomfall absolutely falls in the ‘lazy as fuck’ category. Gunplay is basic. Melee combat is basic. Stealth consists of ‘be behind something, don’t not be behind something’.

And you want to know something? It’s ok to be entertained by a game like that! What’s not ok is turning around and acting like you have some valuable opinion centered on games being more like fucking Atomfall.

Edit: I’m gonna quote you

Apples are so much better than oranges. You don’t have to peel Apples, the skin is actually good for you. I honestly fucking hate oranges because I can’t just bite into them.

If the above seems like an unreasonable statement to you, congratulations — you have conceded the argument. If you agree with the above statement, congratulations — you have outright lost the argument.

Credibly_Human,

No, this is all over you deciding that what you think is superior to everyone simply because you’ve declared it.

At this point you arent even pretending to argue in good faith so there isn’t much point in continuing. You’re incapable of good faith discussion it seems, cant answer simple questions and couldn’t make an honest comparison to save your life.

Hopefully you don’t explode over every minor disagreement you have.

Jax,

Lmao, lashes out and calls people toxic children and can’t handle being shut the fuck down.

Cry more, Atomfall is dogshit — your argument hinges on a joke.

Edit: the cherrypicking is amusing, I’ll be sure to share this with my MonHun friends. They’re really gonna get a kick out of this.

Credibly_Human,

Lmao, lashes out and calls people toxic children and can’t handle being shut the fuck down.

If you aren’t 14 you should be embarrassed to be writing like this.

Jax,

What was that? I couldn’t hear you over the ad hominem, you can cry in this cup I’m holding.

Difficulty sliders have existed for decades, just because you’re an idiot that’s never noticed that the games they’re attached to are typically bad isn’t my problem. Maybe go research game balance and why different designs exist for different games, it isn’t my responsibility to drag you to the finish line.

Credibly_Human,

You are so toxic right now that if you ever grow as a person you’ll think back to how shitty you were right now in time.

Literally talking like a 4channer to someone, calling them an idiot, pretending you know what an adhominem attack is because you … don’t like adjustable difficulty settings in video games (and seem to think that sliders are all that difficulty settings are).

Jax, (edited )

Holy fuck you’re dense.

I have already addressed that you can have complete experiences from both single difficulty games and variable difficulty games.

The only thing that is unique about Atomfalls difficulty settings outside of the difficulty sliders is that there’s a very very easy mode instead of a very hard mode.

Again, research design philosophy for video games. Because as other users have mentioned — you are objectively incorrect. In the exact same way as someone who believes that games should only have one difficulty are incorrect.

Edit: actually, fuck you — I’ve read the rest of these comments. You’ve earned the tag “Terrible at video games”.

Edit 2: no no, I’ve got an even better tag — “IGN Game Journalist”.

Credibly_Human,

You are by far the most toxic person I have met on this platform.

Its crazy you keep responding, and each response is worse, and less reasonable than the last.

Jax,

Cry more you fucking baby

prole,

The difficulty is a key part of the developer’s vision for the game, and changing that compromises it.

Credibly_Human,

It’s interesting you literally cant answer the question.

Its because there is no answer. The truth is its 100% about useless gatekeeping.

prole,

What question?

Credibly_Human,

The only one posed in the question this spawns from??

Lets say they keep everything as it is right now, like they literally have the games they already have and add some difficulty options like less annoying backtracking. How does this “ruin” your experience?

prole,

Oh so literally the question that I just answered.

Credibly_Human,

In no conceivable way did you answer that question.

prole,

lemmy.blahaj.zone/comment/17760131

Sorry if it’s not an acceptable answer to you, but it is true

notgivingmynametoamachine,

You’re objectively wrong. I just wanted to make sure you understood that.

No one cares what “you” want, unless “you” perfectly describe the purchasing power of 100k potential customers.

FROMsoft doesn’t care if you play their game, which is great for me because I like their artistic vision unfettered by useless contrarianism.

Oh, and to answer the question you think is a gacha - I’d rather the team spend every second making the game they want to then to spare even one developers afternoon to add “difficulty settings” - that employee could have been doing something actually useful to the game and its target audience.

Credibly_Human,

You really following me around to just assert that your bad take is “objectively” right over and over again?

No one cares what “you” want, unless “you” perfectly describe the purchasing power of 100k potential customers.

This is a common complaint, and its what the folks like you are bitching about; the idea that anyone would dare have criticisms that you dont agree with.

Oh, and to answer the question you think is a gacha - I’d rather the team spend every second making the game they want to then to spare even one developers afternoon to add “difficulty settings” - that employee could have been doing something actually useful to the game and its target audience.

This isn’t an answer at all, as expected from you given that the stipulations are that this is separate to the games creation. The fact you can’t answer really goes to show that it is indeed just useless gatekeeping. That you follow me around for this really goes to show how toxic your mentality is.

notgivingmynametoamachine,

I have 0 respect for you, don’t bother. Goodbye.

Credibly_Human,

Its very obvious. You seem very toxic.

notgivingmynametoamachine,

You’re right, that was overly harsh. I have 0 respect for this clown shoes opinion of yours, don’t bother, goodbye. It’s possible not all of your opinions are this asinine - not likely, but possible. Not interested in learning really.

Credibly_Human,

Why do you keep commenting to me? You seem to be extremely bothered by my opinions, I assume mostly because you have no real rebuttal, just weird gatekeepy anger.

jjjalljs,

Dark souls would be a very different experience if the monsters weren’t threatening and there were no setbacks for defeat. People believe the experience is important. Accepting that defeat is only a temporary setback and you can just try again is a significant experience, and if you make the game trivial you won’t achieve that.

Credibly_Human,

Dark souls would be a very different experience if the monsters weren’t threatening and there were no setbacks for defeat.

Crazy strawman argument here. Its not even remotely close to what is being argued.

People believe the experience is important.

What Im suggesting doesnt prevent them from having that. The fact they feel it must be imposed on others for them to play those games is ridiculous and childish.

Accepting that defeat is only a temporary setback and you can just try again is a significant experience, and if you make the game trivial you won’t achieve that.

This assumption that difficulty settings are all about making a game trivial is just so obviously bad faith nonsense.

More than that, some people do just enjoy things that way and they don’t care about the other parts of the experience. There is literally no reason all people involved cant have cake. Its literally just angsty gatekeepers whining that they think there needs to be a bar to entry to play a video game; something people do for fun.

Let me just skip ahead to asking you the question none of you annoying gatekeepy folks can answer.

Lets say they keep everything as it is right now, like they literally have the games they already have and add some difficulty options like less annoying backtracking. How does this “ruin” your experience?

jjjalljs,

I think our assumptions are not shared, so arguing more isn’t going to be productive until that’s straightened out.

When you say difficulty settings, I think of lowering enemy effectiveness, raising player effectiveness, and removing consequences for bad play (eg: permadeath of characters). Is that what you mean?

You mention less annoying backtracking. Can you imagine a game where the “annoying back tracking” is fulfilling an important role (eg: resources attrition, encouraging revisiting areas)?

If so, is there a threshold beyond which is too much? If there’s a slider that adjusts enemy damage, should it go to zero? If no, how do you decide the limits? What about the players who want to exceed them?

It seems like you have the assumption that everyone should be able to complete every game. Is that correct? Is that true for all media, or only video games?

I would write more but I’m on my phone and almost to my destination.

Credibly_Human,

When you say difficulty settings, I think of lowering enemy effectiveness, raising player effectiveness, and removing consequences for bad play (eg: permadeath of characters). Is that what you mean?

Can be, doesn’t have to be.

Can be things like making it such that you can fast travel instead of travelling slowly back. Can be that you skip a minigame you just don’t think adds anything to the game. Can be that you do or don’t want certain queues etc.

Can be a lot of things and the point is basically that there are a lot of things which can be toggleable settings which are extremely easy to implement, and greatly improve the experience for some players, while players who want “what the developers envisioned” or whatever, can play it that way just fine.

Others can make certain elements harder or easier or non existent based on their preferences.

You mention less annoying backtracking. Can you imagine a game where the “annoying back tracking” is fulfilling an important role (eg: resources attrition, encouraging revisiting areas)?

I can imagine some situations where it could be sure, but most of the times it isn’t and the times it isn’t isn’t worth the effort for me. It just makes the game less fun for no conceivable benefit most of the time. The backtracking Im describing here is essentially filler (the type I don’t think most people like).

If so, is there a threshold beyond which is too much? If there’s a slider that adjusts enemy damage, should it go to zero? If no, how do you decide the limits? What about the players who want to exceed them?

I think the idea here that you seem to be putting out is that there is some point at which a players choice to change the difficulty is no longer valid, and I don’t think any such point exists. Let people do what they want, and give them some reasonable defaults that you’ve actually tested for/think blend well.

It seems like you have the assumption that everyone should be able to complete every game. Is that correct? Is that true for all media, or only video games?

I’ve seen someone ask this before and I think its an absurd question to ask. No one in their right mind buys any media to not finish it. No one walks into a movie hoping its so shit they walk out half way, or starts a novel hoping they’re so bored they put it down.

Of course everyone should be able to complete every game. I can’t even think of what point this could be leading to except the obvious absurd idea that people should be expecting not to be able to enjoy the things they purchase.

jjjalljs,

Still on my phone so this might be a little limited.

I can imagine some situations where it could be sure, but most of the times it isn’t and the times it isn’t isn’t worth the effort for me. It just makes the game less fun for no conceivable benefit most of the time. The backtracking Im describing here is essentially filler (the type I don’t think most people like).

So when it is not filler, should you be disallowed from skipping it? Who is to say what the benefit is? Does the design intent matter?

Of course everyone should be able to complete every game. I can’t even think of what point this could be leading to except the obvious absurd idea that people should be expecting not to be able to enjoy the things they purchase.

This is a big disagreement. I don’t think everyone should be able to finish every game. They should be able to work the controls. If someone made Calculus Souls I’m just not going to beat it. I’m not good at math. I don’t expect them to give me the answers or add in an Arithmetic mode. If it’s there, fine, but that’s gravy. That’s like getting a second game for free.

Did you ever read the book House of Leaves? It’s great. Unreliable narrators, unconventional layout and use of form. Several friends of mine bounced right off of it. “Can’t read this”, they said. I wouldn’t say they were gatekept. I wouldn’t say the author is ableist because they didn’t also provide a linear narrative, without all the footnotes. I accept that not everyone is going to finish that book. Even if they paid money for it.

My dad bought a big jigsaw puzzle once. Loves puzzles. Couldn’t do this one. He put it back in the box and never finished it. He didn’t say it was an accessibility problem. It would never occur to him to ask for, like, the backs of the pieces to be numbered

People routinely accept that things will be hard, and maybe they can’t beat them. Maybe they could with more practice, but it’s not worth it. This is not a failure of the game or toy.

That’s what a lot of these discussions feel like. Someone made something interesting and challenging, and people want it changed. If you take all the footnotes out of house of leaves, you get a very different, much reduced, result.

I think the idea here that you seem to be putting out is that there is some point at which a players choice to change the difficulty is no longer valid, and I don’t think any such point exists. Let people do what they want, and give them some reasonable defaults that you’ve actually tested for/think blend well.

Well, earlier I said something about tuning difficulty down to the point of triviality, and you said that was a straw man.

But look, I’m not against options in games (assuming everyone playing gives informed consent. Unilaterally cheating is not okay). I just think the framing of it as accessibility in the same way that subtitles or changing controller inputs is dicey. “I think this would be more fun” is a fine, subjective, argument. “This game is ableist” is much shakier.

Of course, if you’re not saying lack of options is ableist but having them makes the game more fun, then I guess we violently agree.

Well, with the footnote that I do believe some people would ruin their own fun by turning the difficulty too high or low, but that’s not my business, and could be a net zero when compared to people not having fun with the available options. (But like for real when I was a kid I briefly ruined Diablo by cheating myself all the cool items.)

And the thing I was waiting for in real life has occurred. No more editing! Post away!

Credibly_Human,

So when it is not filler, should you be disallowed from skipping it? Who is to say what the benefit is? Does the design intent matter?

Why should you? Why should the player be disallowed from doing anything? They bought the game. They should be allowed to do whatever to the point of unreasonable hardship for the developer. Like if a dev has to go out of their way, fair enough, but if its like, they’re just not exposing the ability to change a setting, thats ridiculous.

Did you ever read the book House of Leaves? It’s great. Unreliable narrators, unconventional layout and use of form. Several friends of mine bounced right off of it. “Can’t read this”, they said. I wouldn’t say they were gatekept. I wouldn’t say the author is ableist because they didn’t also provide a linear narrative, without all the footnotes. I accept that not everyone is going to finish that book. Even if they paid money for it.

These aren’t comparable situations. That one person almost certainly would have had to actually make significant effort, probably exceeding the effort of making the book to make it accessible. Video games aren’t that. More than that, the changes we are talking about are minor and relatively (compared to the scale of a game) easy to add. to add to that, people can still be into the majority of a game and not like one particular element, and there is no reason they shouldn’t be able to remove the bug bear. It is for entertainment after all.

That’s what a lot of these discussions feel like. Someone made something interesting and challenging, and people want it changed. If you take all the footnotes out of house of leaves, you get a very different, much reduced, result.

The question, as before, is, if the people who want that original experience can still just choose that, why are they up in arms at the idea of allowing people to experience things differently that don’t affect them?

Outside of completely made up arguments that this is not possible, no one has had an answer for this, just anger, as if they are mad at the idea of people not having to go through the “struggle” they feel they went to. Not having to have the “skills they built up”.

I’ve had countless people say the most toxic things I’ve seen on lemmy in this very thread over that idea, and I think thats the core of it. That behind all the bullshit excuses people have come up with, they feel like their achievements would somehow be worth less if other people could play the game differently to how they played. Like their other way of playing isn’t “official” enough and shouldn’t be supported at all.

I’ve had someone really iron in that this is the true intent when they revealed that they would prefer someone cheat in the game rather than the developer simply exposing those same things as options.

Well, earlier I said something about tuning difficulty down to the point of triviality, and you said that was a straw man.

It was. My point initially wasn’t about that, but when asked specifically, I think yea, why not, who cares. Why are other people caring so much about how others enjoy their media product.

But look, I’m not against options in games (assuming everyone playing gives informed consent. Unilaterally cheating is not okay).

I mean this conversation, I think, has pretty clearly morphed into a bunch of people vehemently angry about the prospect of souls like games having any difficulty changes, harder or less hard.

I don’t think anyone has been thinking about multiplayer.

I just think the framing of it as accessibility in the same way that subtitles or changing controller inputs is dicey. “I think this would be more fun” is a fine, subjective, argument. “This game is ableist” is much shakier.

I’m not sure I’ve used that as the core of my argument or my argument at all actually. Not sure though as, like you’ve probably seen, there are a shit ton of comments on this tree.

I think some forms of media will inherently be somewhat inaccessible, but there is no reason to go out of your way to support things being less accessible, even if accessible means to people who simply don’t like a thing one way vs the other.

Well, with the footnote that I do believe some people would ruin their own fun by turning the difficulty too high or low, but that’s not my business

See thats the thing. Everyone else in this thread has been violently angry at the idea that other people could have fun differently to them.

Ill give you one example. I liked Cyberpunk. It was a decent game, and I’ve played through it a few times.

The first time I played it, I played without any mods, very hard, just because (I’m honestly only including this to stop bs arguments, though you haven’t seemed supremely disengenous like many others on this thread so far, and feel I shouldnt need to, to make my point), and then every time after that I played with mods, and I wish I just played with the mods from the start.

What did I change? I completely removed the breach protocol minigame (I generally feel all minigames suck, add no fun, and are just literally wasting my time, easy or difficulty), I used teleportation to avoid needing to do lengthy backtracking or worrying too much about missing items, I added a multiplier to xp to reduce grind and I used mods to remove useless mods (in game term) from guns and skip the randomized store inventories in the game. These were all downsides to the game that some people swear up and down add to the game. They absolutely do not to me.

With much experience now, I can confidently say that had I been presented with the options to simply tune things in that way, it would have massively improved my experience with the game.

Cyberpunk luckily, is relatively open for a game in that mods like this are plentiful and easy to come by, and the code fairly accessible. Many games are not. In many games, you just have to deal with the shitty minigame, or random loot or whatever.

Its not that I would necessarily hate those games or that they “aren’t made for me” as many assholes in this thread have tried to imply must be the logic behind every critique, its that those elements were just generally subtractive to the experience, and I have yet to see anyone explain why I should be forced to play with them.

To many people, dying over and over isn’t fun, and in Cyberpunk if that was a problem for me, I probably wouldn’t find it all that fun either. Given this game has so many ways to solve every problem, and the combat I found pretty easy, I played with very hard, but if I was getting annoyed by having to repeat the same thing for hours on end, I would have no problem changing difficulties for this.

Cyberpunk is no worse for wear for having these options available to people. People who don’t know modding exists and who like the game as it is, aren’t affected by this.

I think its a great example of how this mentality of “made to be played this way” is all elitist gatekeeping in gaming. People don’t know fuck all about development. Their opinions aren’t coming from some deep love of a genre. They’re coming from feeling like a part of their identity will die if the game they feel they are “good at” is more accessible, and thats it really. This isn’t a job or for money, so that idea is just absurd.

DupaCycki,
@DupaCycki@lemmy.world avatar

Thats my preference.

Then play the games you prefer.

I don’t like romance movies. Can you guess how I solved that problem?

Credibly_Human,

What a trite, immature, troll like response this is.

Not having good difficulty settings is not a genre. It’s a lacking.

This tired response of pretending any criticism of anything means a person “must clearly not be the target audience” is extremely thoughtless gatekeeping.

It’s such a bad argument on its face too, as if someone disliking a flaw in something means they clearly must haste the thing in its entirety. insufferable people.

DupaCycki,
@DupaCycki@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t know where all your hatred is coming from. My comment was a genuine suggestion to a problem you’re facing that worked for me. Do you need to be able to consume and experience everything there is? Personally, I don’t. If a game is not for me, then it’s not for me and I move on. It has never stroke me as ‘gatekeeping’.

Furthermore, what you’re expressing are neither criticism nor preferences. It’s just pure hate towards anything and anyone you don’t like, as displayed here:

I fucking hate creatives who believe super deeply they’ve created some masterpiece meant to be played one way.

Sure, ‘hate’ doesn’t have to be literal. I sometimes say it too, without meaning it literally. However, I’d argue that the second comment has clearly showed the intent and meaning behind the first one.

Credibly_Human,

I don’t know where all your hatred is coming from.

Yes, you do

My comment was a genuine suggestion

You know it wasn’t

Do you need to be able to consume and experience everything there is?

No one has made the claim they do. They’re discussing something they dislike, in this, a place for discussion.

Meanwhile, you’re over here like “just dont play games then if you’re going to complain”. Why don’t you just not use lemmy if you’re going to complain. See how useless and bad faith that argument genuine suggestion* is?

Personally, I don’t. If a game is not for me, then it’s not for me and I move on.

This right here is annoying, trolling, gatekeepy bullshit too where you pretend that if someone has any criticism of anything, clearly it’s not for them.

Furthermore, what you’re expressing are neither criticism nor preferences. It’s just pure hate towards anything and anyone you don’t like, as displayed here:

This is the most ridiculously blatant words twisting I’ve ever seen. Your brain stem must be tied into knots with those mental gymnastics.

notgivingmynametoamachine,

Jesus Christ go back to Reddit.

NotASharkInAManSuit,

In this context, though, yes, you are obviously not the target audience and that is specifically your issue with it. You really are just being a crybaby about something not having a specialized programming element to allow you to customize the game to make it just right for your specific taste and play style preference.

Should every restaurant make sure to have everyone’s favorite food available even if it’s entirely antithetical to the intention of the menu?

Credibly_Human,

In this context, though, yes, you are obviously not the target audience and that is specifically your issue with it.

It literally isnt at all. You know you’re wrong too and thats why this is a frustrating argument. You aren’t arguing with your real opinions here.

If you made your restaurant analogy honest, it would be like a restaraunt has peanuts sprinkled on a dessert you like, so you ask them not to sprinkle peanuts there, and some other patreons flip their tables and bark like dogs at the idea that you would dare ask them not to do that, acting as if it must mean you don’t like the dessert if you don’t get the peanuts.

You really are just being a crybaby about something not having a specialized programming element to allow you to customize the game to make it just right for your specific taste and play style preference.

This part is just childish.

NotASharkInAManSuit,

No, it’s more like they told you no, they don’t do that here, and you flipped the table.

Credibly_Human,

Except no tables are flipped, and its you lot with the insults and anger.

NotASharkInAManSuit,

Sure.

ohshittheyknow,

While I like games that have multiple difficulties to make them more accessible this is an unrealistic expectation. Difficulty settings can add a lot of extra development time. Its not always as easy as just adding a slider in the menu. There is a lot of Q&A that needs to go on behind the scenes. I do appreciate the games that put in the effort to flesh out a good difficulty system. Single difficulty games also have a rough balancing act as now matter what they do there will be people that say its to easy or too hard.

Credibly_Human,

In what way is any of what I said unrealistic? Its already been done. Many games have much higher standards than just one difficulty.

Difficulty settings can add a lot of extra development time.

Literal nonsense. This is one of the things that modders change most easily. Many of the things I want in difficulty settings are as simple as flipping a boolean.

I’m not saying difficulty settings that are robust are nothing, but you’re pretending they take up way more effort than they do.

notgivingmynametoamachine,

Difficulty is a way some devs express their vision - nearly anything by FROMsoft, for example.

Why would you want to limit their artistic expression to suit your needs? Just play something else. Or mod the difficulty down if it’s so important to you, but it’s not their job to make sure you, personally, enjoy the game, because that’s how you end up with mediocre catch all by-the-numbers fests like GTA.

Credibly_Human,

Why would you want to limit their artistic expression to suit your needs?

This is a nonsensical argument as no ones artistic vision is limited with what I’ve suggested.

You are now following me around and its kinda weird you are so entrenched and toxic about it.

The fact you could not answer the question regarding fromsoft of

Lets say they keep everything as it is right now, like they literally have the games they already have and add some difficulty options like less annoying backtracking. How does this “ruin” your experience?

Combined with this super weird behaviour of following me around with comments varying from just insults to half-assed answers tells me that your toxicity is something you are aware of and don’t have a problem with.

ebolapie, do games w What's your favorite case of a game making fun of you?
@ebolapie@lemmy.world avatar

Risk of Rain 2’s death messages crack me up.

That was definitely not your fault

That was absolutely your fault

Come back soon!

ur dead lol get rekt

And so on

AMillionMonkeys, do games w What are your favorite games from a worldbuilding standpoint?
@AMillionMonkeys@lemmy.world avatar

Pillars of Eternity. I really appreciate that they must have had some Anthropology majors on the team, especially for II, because the worlds feel much more exotic than other RPGs. It shows up just how generic Medieval Fantasy most RPGs are.
The tropical Roparu (?) society with its caste system is particularly interesting. The interaction of the various factions is believable. And of course the pantheon is well though out.
The downside is that they can be clumsy about exposition of the world - especially in the first one, you get these enormous lore-dumps.

Agent_Karyo, (edited )

I can't wait till they add true turn based combat to Pillars of Eternity.

I played about 3-4 hours and the loved setting and the world, but the real time combat did not work for me.

I don't mind real-time combat, but it has to be in third person.

seat6,

I couldn’t agree more! It’s a fantasy game but it explores some really cool concepts; like colonialism and freedom vs order.

zerofk,

I also love how reincarnation is a fact of life in that world, and souls are a real, almost physical, thing that can be manipulated and used.

eneff, do games w Day 468 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I've been playing

I rarely interact with these post, but I read them every time. Keep them coming, this is top shelf content. Thank you! ~

Oofnik,

100% agree with the above!

Jackhammer_Joe,

101% agree with the above

viral.vegabond, do games w Preserving Play: How Eden Grew Into the Switch Emulator Everyone’s Talking About (my interview with the devs)

Oh, awesome! I’m checking this one out later for sure 😁

PerfectDark,
@PerfectDark@lemmy.world avatar

I hope you enjoy it!

codexarcanum, do games w Why would I buy this?

This kind of thing is why I dont get excited for steam sales now. Oh, 50% off Recent AAA Game? Haha, yeah, half off the base price, but the entire game is DLC now and each of those is still full price, and there’s a dozen of them.

warm,

AAA is just cash grab, they haven't been good or innovative games for a long, long time now. They are very good at marketing to the masses though and they have the pricing tiers laid out perfectly to extract as much money from people as they can.

They start off with their massive price tag like $70-80, plus the deluxe editions for $100-120 for any suckers who want a fucking extra skin. Then after a couple months when sales slow down, they put it on sale for like 20% off, then a couple months more, its like 40% off and so on. DLC has kind of fallen off, as they get people stuck in the battle pass and cosmetic buying loop instead (people are crazy).

If a AAA game looks interesting to you at all, you are literally best just waiting a few months or more, it's a win-win, you either buy it it's actual value or you get the reviews that its a disgusting broken mess or was completely over-hyped (it's these last two 99% of the time).

Steam sales are for getting them older games a bit cheaper, good indie games are worth their price tag multiple times over honestly so unless you are tight on money, I'd support the developer regardless of sales.

Hond, do games w Darkenstein 3D free on Steam

Ugh, not available in my country because of stupid laws. My steam account is old enough to vote and drink liquor. But god forbid i could see the shop page of a game which wasnt rated properly.

dukemirage,

The dev/publisher is working on a solution and is considering the USK rating.

Hond,

Sweet. I didnt want to throw any shade towards the developer btw. Just in case.

bjoern_tantau, do gaming w Games designed to be one thing, but are commonly played other than intended?
@bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de avatar

Just remembered all the servers for Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy that were dedicated to polite dueling. You had a big etiquette to follow if you wanted to do lightsaber battles. If you attacked someone with their lightsaber off you got banned instantly. Those servers were mostly used for chatting.

Kolanaki,
@Kolanaki@pawb.social avatar

Those were basically the reason I played the game so much back in the day. The lightsaber combat was insanely good. I especially liked the ones that only allowed the Force Jump and Force Throw powers, so it was pure melee combat and not just throwing each other around or zapping a dude with lightning from across the arena.

False, do games w Hollow Knight Silksong (mod recommendations)

I installed one that gives me 1000 rosaries when I press f3. I came to the conclusion that being able to buy things was more about grinding than anything else, and I didn’t enjoy it.

Technically cheating I guess but I don’t think it really makes the game any easier.

bamboo,

I might not be as far (just past act 1), but I haven’t felt the need to grind rosaries (yet). A bunch of times I’d be exploring for an hour and notice I have like 500+ rosaries, and then I get them made into strands till I have to spend them. I don’t think I’ve seen anything on sale for more than 800 rosaries, Maybe it’s different later in the game but at least in the beginning of the game, it doesn’t feel like a chore.

caseofthematts,

I suppose my experience may be different than others, I’m at the tail end of Act 3 and I have yet to grind for rosaries or shards. I remember people saying I’d need to do that, and I never have.

janewaydidnothingwrong,

I do the shard grind but that’s because I love messing around with the tools. Luckily I can farm 500-1000 rosaries relatively quickly and that lets me buy a full stock of shards and a backup of consumables if I do 1k

SnoringEarthworm,

My second run through, I knew what I needed to buy vs what I could come back for later.

Didn’t need to farm rosaries until the end of Act 2, when it was easy because of the tall bugs outside the gay robot boss room.

NavySqueal, do games w Xbox consoles are now getting a fullscreen Xbox Game Pass Ultimate ad at boot, just a day after a 50% price hike was announced
@NavySqueal@lemmy.world avatar

Extremely scummy to not even list the price, but I shouldn’t be surprised since it appears they are going to milk whoever still has autosub on for an extra 10 bucks.

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