spankmonkey

spankmonkey, 4 dni temu

Yeah, there is a huge gap between being forced to do what you need to do because the whole thing is on rails and not being given even a hint of what to do. So many games can’t find a spot in between the two extremes.

Not being able to find things isn’t finding my own way, it is just frustrating because I probably walked right past it and didn’t happen to look at it the right way to get the interact option. I need strong hints or even the choice to be told where to go or I get frustrated and quit games.

spankmonkey, 9 dni temu

Depends on the game. Many games let you create a custom character and the character is defined by their actions.

Some games have zero character to the character you control.

Some are story based with strong characters where it isn’t about the player, sure, but those are less common than the ones that allow the player to either self insert or play a one dimensional archetype character.

spankmonkey, 9 dni temu

You are really missing out by refusing to play Portal.

spankmonkey, 9 dni temu

Yeah, and she wasn’t sexualized or have any stupid stereotypes. Just a person doing a thing!

spankmonkey, 9 dni temu

Yeah, it should be off by default with the option to turn it on.

spankmonkey, 11 dni temu

They dumbly failed to vet the dumb system.

spankmonkey, 22 dni temu

Street Fighter II for getting me into fighting games. While I don’t play that version anymore it is a favorite because of how much I did play it and later fighting games.

Valheim - hundreds of hours of enjoyment from the first moment I was dropped into the world by a giant crow. So much fun time with friends, building stuff, and just exploring. Such a well done game with fantastic lighting, sound, and things to do. Only long tine gripe is fighting on slopes!

Helldivers 2 - yeah, another more recent game but it is also just the exact thing I am looking for in a mutiplayer game with friends. Nearly everything is viable in most difficulties, the game has mechanics for accidental team kills, the setting evolves, but in a way that encourages participation in scheduled events without forcing it, and the devs have listened when the player base pushes back on changes that don’t mesh with the tone of the game.

Enjoyed a lot of other games too, but those are ones that hit specific things that I love and enjoyable to replay over and over and over and over…

spankmonkey, 30 dni temu

With more ads and microtransactions!

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

Thinking of picking it up a month after release?

They haven’t had successful plans for the life of games.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

“This thing we did because some whiny group was wasting our time is costing us more time from the complaints.” is a business reason to reverse a decision.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

Why are they capitulating though?

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

Wanting closure is a preference and does not apply to all games. Counter Strike 2 doesn’t have a story and there is zero closure for example.

The industry trying to force games into a live service model when they shouldn’t be is a problem, sure. There are a few games where the model actually is a benefit though, like Helldivers 2. Other than wrapping up things somehow while winding down the game there isn’t an opportunity for closure while an endless war is going on. The setting itself is why closure isn’t on the table.

So I agree with the overall idea as it applies to games in general, but it isn’t some universal truth.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

One developer at a separate company who played Subnautica 2 and requested anonymity because they signed a non-disclosure agreement told Bloomberg they enjoyed the game and that it “seemed way more robust” than other titles in early access.

Yeah, this is clearly the publisher trying to get out of paying the full bonus.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

They paid for their expertise, even offering a bonus that was clearly less than whatever their projected profit would be, and then tried to squander it because they didn’t listen to their expertise.

Publishers in all kinds of industries are risk adverse to the point of not trusting whoever they made deals with to follow through. This is totally on brand for publishers!

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

No, they should have zero say because they have weaseled themselves into a position that is the equivalent of a utility or whatever ISP are classified as. Their only involvement is whether they complete transactions between parties in a legal way.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

If a large number of refunds came from a single source it seems like Steam would be the one addressing the issue, not payment processors.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

However, instead of participating in the game development, he chose to focus on a personal film project.

My assumption is that Krafton expected the leads to put in 12 hour days 7 days a week to meet ridiculous expectations and the leads took some vacation time or something along those lines. That would match up with common publisher behavior, especially the ones that trash people publicly.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

They did not have any reason to personally attack the leads except out of spite, and odds are high that doing so will only anger the player base towards the publisher.

Trashing the devs was a terrible idea, and what they wrote was clearly petty and spiteful.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

A publisher trashing devs of a beloved game with personal attacks certainly was a bold move.

However, instead of participating in the game development, he chose to focus on a personal film project.

We are deeply disappointed by the former leadership’s conduct, and above all, we feel a profound sense of betrayal by their failure to honor the trust placed in them by our fans.

So professional!

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

Early release was supposed to be in 2024. We have halfway through 2025.

Lead devs have said the game is ready for early release, so they are likely taking a break from a game they feel is being delayed by the publisher. The publisher is whining about expectations, not obligations or anything along those lines.

I’m with the devs on this one, project burnout is real.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

The publisher delaying the game would allow them to keep the $225 million so of course they are going to say it isn’t ready.

See how this works?

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

If they typed out an explanation like the game was massively changed for the worse after the vast majority of their game time then they are probably legit. Like if there was suddenly an additional 3rd party login added, or the game became unplayable due to a bug introduced and not fixed, or something along those lines.

Most “reasons” for players with thousands of hours tend to be pretty reasonable in my experience.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

When starting a new game, don’t include that stuff. Not including proprietary stuff without meeting the licensing requirements is already a step in the process.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

None of those things will be affected because this isn’t about making games open source. It is about making games that have a design that allows them to potentially function indefinitely instead of allowing the companies to design them with planned obsolescence like tying single player games to server verification.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

When the law passes, the owners of proprietary functionality will adapt their licensing to meet the requirrments or go out of business when everyone stops using them.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

This has nothing to do with open source.

Nothing.

Open source has zero relevance.

None whatsoever.

Nada.

Their licensing will change so that it doesn’t restrict keeping the game alive after servers go down or their license can’t be used to kill an otherwise functional game. That’s it.

Games will be designed to include the ability to do private servers after the company servers go down. It will be a cost of development just like anything else they are required to do. If they don’t want to include that, then they can choose not to make an online game.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

Or buying a physical book where they printed it with ink that fades after 2 years so it is no longer readable.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

Cool, so after they are legally required to then they will start creating the documentation.

The point is making them change how they do things when how they do it is shitty for consumers.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

Decades and decades of no consequences for their actions.

Being rewarded for their actions.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

Hooray!

I have a friend who is Xbox only and so far the only crossplay game he has in common with our friend group is Call of Duty.

spankmonkey, miesiąc temu

I accidentally hit characters and assume they all see me ‘typing’ for the next 12 hours until I notice.

spankmonkey, 2 miesiące temu

What about on a country’s flag?

spankmonkey, 2 miesiące temu

Oh, I thought it was a game about seeing how far you could dive with another of the same sub before it imploded…

spankmonkey, 2 miesiące temu

Which is placed exactly where the most recently used blueprint used to be, making it extremely easy to click on out of muscle memory.

spankmonkey, 3 miesiące temu (edited 3 miesiące temu)

There are a very small number of games where a changing world is a benefit to the game, although sometimes the approach also means skimping on some development before going live.

Helldivers 2 is an example of a game that benefits from the changing world approach of GaaS and it doesn’t have predatory monetization. Playing the game gives enough in game currency to buy optional equipment needed for the changing world even if you only play a few hours a week. Heck, play it more regularly and you can afford most of the thematic warbonds which again and not necessary. The changing world and adding more enemy units keeps the game fresh over time, and the evolving story is like playing a giant semi shared campaign. You play a small part in a shared experience. I don’t think doing the game as a single or coop campaign would have been a better experience.

That said, when they do end the ongoing campaign at some point it would be awesome to have some kind of automated system campaign for people to still do things. It wouldn’t be as focused, but it would extend the game’s life.

MultiVersus was hurt by trying to do SaaS because they added more predatory monetization after the beta where it was bad enough and tried to milk it for everything to the detriment of the gameplay. It is a great example of a game where the SaaS approach was terrible, and that is the case for the vast majority of SaaS games.

spankmonkey, 3 miesiące temu

The beta was fun, although the monetization was bad even back then.

But the official release made all the wrong decisions to amplify the worst parts of gameplay and dial up the monetization. It was like they got all the player feedback backwards.

spankmonkey, 3 miesiące temu

Were any characters in the game not owned by Warner Bros?

spankmonkey, 3 miesiące temu

Fuck that, kids are kids. The companies are responsible for being able to easily roll back invalid loot box purchases if we allow them to exist in the first place.

My preference would be to ban them entirely.

spankmonkey, 3 miesiące temu

Industry led standards around for profit exploitation are always a way for companies to avoid real regulation that would curb their malicious behavior.

spankmonkey, 3 miesiące temu

“Parents who leave loaded guns on the table bear no responsibility if their kids shoot themselves with it.” That’s you right now.

spankmonkey, 3 miesiące temu

We already did, but we will again too!

spankmonkey, 3 miesiące temu

Smart like in smart appliances that are anything but.

spankmonkey, 3 miesiące temu

Quality design will show you the important parts early on without needing to explicitly state them. Leaving that out in sequels is poor design.

spankmonkey, 3 miesiące temu

Hard to recall them since I tend to drop them when I get stuck. If I look up a hint and find out it is something that never had any previous hints to figure out I also drop the game because nothing is more frustrating than guesswork.

spankmonkey, 4 miesiące temu

I assume it was because the story involved everyone around Trinity and Neo being different/recast.

spankmonkey, 4 miesiące temu

Because you stop looking…

spankmonkey, 4 miesiące temu

Stop having fun!