Shagittarius wrote on 2022-06-21, 14:16:
I don't have much energy today but I feel like contributing. I'm going to mention some things I don't like in a short style, hopefully it will contain enough for people to recognize what I'm saying.
Open World Design: Or as I like to call it, lazy game design. To me video games are a series of challenges, the more meticulously you craft those challenges for me the happier I am. I'm not saying everything needs to be a corridor shooter but lets not forget that games at their core are about utilizing the play mechanics to overcome all the different scenarios a game throws at you. Open world design is a less tightly controller experience which is sold under the guise of player agency or emergent gameplay. I don't know why all the sudden everyone has to feel empowered and like they are somehow creative for playing a video game, I prefer that I just exploit mechanics to win.
I wouldn't call it lazy ... it takes a lot of work to actually create a large open world.
I would often call it unfocused though, which means a lot of the work goes to waste because the player doesn't interact with it deeply. You have to spend a lot more resources and be a lot more careful to create a really engaging open world.
Shagittarius wrote on 2022-06-21, 14:16:
Free to Play: Be honest with me, give me the complete game and tell me what price I'm going to pay for it. It's hard for me to complain because I never actually play these games, I'm just miffed that they exist.
I can only agree with your free to play comments here. To me, free to play just means some low effort grinding game that tries to force you into spending money to progress ... meaning a compromised experience, because it isn't designed around offering fun.
Shagittarius wrote on 2022-06-21, 14:16:
Dark Souls: I've complained about this in other threads. Clunky game mechanics and required memorization are terrible gameplay elements. Throw in waste of time punishment for failure and this is a turd sunday.
I'm not sure what to say about this one, I'll have to try elden ring soon and see how I feel about a true dark souls style game. I guess if you take dying particularly seriously (like I often do), it is a lot harder to enjoy the challenge.
Shagittarius wrote on 2022-06-21, 14:16:
Collect-a-thon: Modern games that have dozens of different collectables, I try my best to ignore them and focus on the gameplay but in the back of your mind you are always worried you might be missing out on something important.
You are generally not missing anything, I do exactly the same thing, although I did collect all the pokemon in Pokemon Arceus ... mostly because I wanted to access the end boss and because they actually made doing so reasonably accessible, rather than near impossible.
We just have to recognize that most of the faults that people submit as being bains of modern games certainly do not apply to ALL modern games ... by any stretch, and are often just as applicable to old games. ... I mean complaining about modern keyboard controls being complex .... that is what PC gaming has been doing since the early 80's. Or Collect-a-thons ... a regular passtime of old Amiga and console platformers since time began. Of free-to-play ... where it was just a cheaply built advert for some other product (ford simulator anyone!)
Of course, if you listen to YongYea on youtube exclusively, and some other excessively negative youtube channels, you might be convinced that there are only crappy loot box free to play bastard games out there. (yes, I subscribe that their channels, but I also realize they do this because it generates views from the outrage. So it is a very narrow and deliberately negative view.
