The Official Status Thread
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@error said in The Official Status Thread:
I'm more likely to quit altogether than to choose a less punishing game mode
I start on easy mode, if there is one. I want to have fun, not punish myself. I have considered upping the difficulty in some games where I'm so OP that it's getting boring, but I haven't actually done so, yet.
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@HardwareGeek the problem with easy is that it's often so easy there's literally no challenge. You need to fail once in a while to feel good about victory. Nowadays I'm too old for this shit and prefer easier games too, but given a choice between easy and normal, I will choose normal almost every time - usually it's easy enough.
Although I'm a sucker for gold medals. If there's a side objective that's juuuuust out of reach, I'll grind the hell out of it and try 80 times to get a perfect score before continuing with the rest of the game. I did give up on doing 100%'s though, for the most part - ain nobody got time fo dat.
I like to replay old Call of Duties once in a while. I completed each of them several times on veteran but now I usually play for hardened. I like not dying every other second.
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@Gąska I'm one of those strange people who doesn't her excited about beating a challenge. I play almost entirely due story and exploration. So it has to be really really easy for me to get bored just because of that factor.
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@Benjamin-Hall if I wanted a story I'd watch a movie. They have much better writers.
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@Gąska I fail plenty, even on easy mode, when I first start a character. But in Skyrim, for example (because it's one of the games I've played the most), with a level 60-something character, there's nothing I can't kill, and almost nothing can kill me unless I'm careless. In Saint's Row 3, my character can stand around stark naked while tanks and helicopters are unleashing everything they have without taking any damage. The only way that character can be killed is suicide (jumping off a building or out of an aircraft without opening her parachute), being in a vehicle that explodes, or I think maybe a brute with a flame thrower can do enough fire damage to kill her.
I did give up on doing 100%'s though, for the most part - ain nobody got time fo dat.
I've only ever gotten 100% on one game, Saint Row: Gat out of Hell.
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@HardwareGeek well I guess I have the advantage of having grown up playing 3D games of all kinds all the time. Sometimes on YouTube I see videos of people over 50 picking up video games for the first time - I guess easy difficulty was designed for them.
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@Benjamin-Hall said in The Official Status Thread:
I'm one of those strange people who doesn't her excited about beating a challenge.
I like beating challenges, but I get too frustrated if it takes more than a dozen or so tries. I may come back and try again later, but in the meantime, move on to something else. Or look up hints on fandom or wherever, if it's something I can't just skip. Because being frustrated isn't fun.
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@Gąska said in The Official Status Thread:
people over 50 picking up video games for the first time
I played video games before I was 50, but only to a limited extent, things like NetHack (starting with the original Rogue, way back in college days). I was in my mid-50s when I first got a Steam account. As my Steam profile says, "Old fart. Very casual gamer."
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@Gąska said in The Official Status Thread:
@HardwareGeek well I guess I have the advantage of having grown up playing 3D games of all kinds all the time. Sometimes on YouTube I see videos of people over 50 picking up video games for the first time - I guess easy difficulty was designed for them.
I've got a decade on you and I'm a completionist too.
The only reason I don't more games is too many games, too little time.I'm acutely aware that there are games which end I haven't reached yet and it bothers me.
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@Gąska said in The Official Status Thread:
if I wanted a story I'd watch a movie. They have much better writers.
True, video game stories kind of suck. There is a thing, though, and one that videogame movie writers do not appear to get. In a video game with a blank slate protagonist, often with loads of side objectives, the story is only a shell or a frame that holds things together, sets a starting point and puts some boundaries to keep the hero from going off the rails, and there's a some sort of finishing point, which is usually rather unfulfilling, because it was always about the journey.
I play the big hero, I invent my own motives, I fill in the gaps. In my mind there's a little headcanon where even the order of the events and facts themselves don't have to strictly match with the provided story. This creates a rather... well, I wouldn't say unique, but probably pretty close to that experience that no movie can provide.And the difficulty? My entire life summed up is a fucking failure (). If I can prevent more failure by reducing the effort instead of increasing it, I'm probably going to do just that. A hero of an epic never really fails. There are only temporary setbacks.
Saints Row is kind of an exception. Just get to blow shit up, without any particular reason or accountability .
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Official Status Thread:
There is a thing, though, and one that videogame movie writers do not appear to get. In a video game with a blank slate protagonist, often with loads of side objectives, the story is only a shell or a frame that holds things together, sets a starting point and puts some boundaries to keep the hero from going off the rails, and there's a some sort of finishing point, which is usually rather unfulfilling, because it was always about the journey.
There was one game that had a truly satisfying ending: the original Evil Genius. When you completed the final objective, the game would slide out and unfold a whole new UI dominated by a button that would launch the superweapon, take over the world and win the game. You'd press the button while cackling like a total madman, and it was just a moment of such glory.
Absolutely nothing else has come close.
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@HardwareGeek said in The Official Status Thread:
@Benjamin-Hall said in The Official Status Thread:
I'm one of those strange people who doesn't her excited about beating a challenge.
I like beating challenges, but I get too frustrated if it takes more than a dozen or so tries. I may come back and try again later, but in the meantime, move on to something else. Or look up hints on fandom or wherever, if it's something I can't just skip. Because being frustrated isn't fun.
Exactly: frustration is no fun, and beating a fight (or similar) after failing enough times isn't satisfying, just frustrating and a slight relief that I can move on. Especially bad are the times where I know what to do but can't execute it with enough regularity to get through. (Think precise timing.)
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Official Status Thread:
@Gąska said in The Official Status Thread:
if I wanted a story I'd watch a movie. They have much better writers.
True, video game stories kind of suck. There is a thing, though, and one that videogame movie writers do not appear to get. In a video game with a blank slate protagonist, often with loads of side objectives, the story is only a shell or a frame that holds things together, sets a starting point and puts some boundaries to keep the hero from going off the rails, and there's a some sort of finishing point, which is usually rather unfulfilling, because it was always about the journey.
I play the big hero, I invent my own motives, I fill in the gaps. In my mind there's a little headcanon where even the order of the events and facts themselves don't have to strictly match with the provided story. This creates a rather... well, I wouldn't say unique, but probably pretty close to that experience that no movie can provide.I think writers do get it, those are just two completely different approaches/genres.
In the blank slate env you are just given a bunch of mechanics to keep you engaged and you fantasise your way through it.
In the 'movie' env you are given a story with which you can interact in a way you can't with a real movie (Bandersnatch being a curious experiment in this regard).My preferences when it comes to this are binary: give me good mechanics or don't bother with them at all, give me good story/characters/dialogues or don't pretend.
So interactive movie where you only click 'next' is fine if the story is good. Quake, or Spacechem, or Escape Goat are fine because of great mechanics.
Best of both worlds is rather rare, though.What I don't like are games that have good (or somewhat good) mechanics and shitty story, infantile plots, painfully cliched dialogues, etc. Which unfortunately seems to be super popular. I stopped playing RPGs because of this trend. When empty boring wasteland with toddler level writing, also know as Skyrim, is hailed as the best RPG ever, you know that the genre is dead, at least worldbuilding and storytelling parts of it.
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@MrL have you tried Disco Elysium?
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@Arantor said in The Official Status Thread:
@MrL have you tried Disco Elysium?
Not yet, it's on my list.
Last things I played, that are worth mentioning:
from good story department: Medium
from good mechanics department: HedonAlso still in progress: Gloomhaven
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@MrL said in The Official Status Thread:
I think writers do get it
Before I start yelling at you, I would like to refer you to the exact words I wrote:
videogame
movie
writersThe point you veered into is orthogonal to what I said.
@MrL said in The Official Status Thread:
RPG
The issue with RPG is that the concept has lost its meaning entirely. RPG for quite some time has come to mean shit like stats, levels, skills, abilities, quests and random babbling. That's not what RPG is. That's what RPG usually has -- but does not have to have. Nor is every game with some kind of a story and choices automagically an RPG.
@MrL said in The Official Status Thread:
at least worldbuilding and storytelling parts of it.
IMO, Skyrim has decent show-don't-tell worldbuilding. The storytelling part sucks a really short one, on that we can agree.
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Official Status Thread:
@MrL said in The Official Status Thread:
I think writers do get it
Before I start yelling at you, I would like to refer you to the exact words I wrote:
videogame
movie
writersThe point you veered into is orthogonal to what I said.
Then I don't know what your point is.
@MrL said in The Official Status Thread:
RPG
The issue with RPG is that the concept has lost its meaning entirely. RPG for quite some time has come to mean shit like stats, levels, skills, abilities, quests and random babbling. That's not what RPG is. That's what RPG usually has -- but does not have to have. Nor is every game with some kind of a story and choices automagically an RPG.
True.
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Status: discovered that I have managed to teach my iPad that “fuckery” is an acceptable autocorrect correction (when normally it will avoid correcting to a swear word)
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@Arantor That sounds useful for both working with PHP and posting here…
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@MrL said in The Official Status Thread:
Then I don't know what your point is.
Netflix and Amazon making "adaptations". Used to be some nonsense nobody paid any mind to, maybe a Resident Evil once in a while. Now a whole slew of big names is coming. I almost wonder how Skyrim didn't make the list... yet, probably. Doesn't mean they'll lift stories directly from the games. In most cases it'll be the "same universe", with great deal of canon-breaking shit and general nonsense. But, as far as the C-suits involved are concerned, it should reinvigorate subscriptions, and the action figure and t-shirt business, because nerds are stupid.
I'll have you all know Disco Elysium sold out to corporate overlords, too.
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Official Status Thread:
Netflix and Amazon making "adaptations". Used to be some nonsense nobody paid any mind to, maybe a Resident Evil once in a while. Now a whole slew of big names is coming. I almost wonder how Skyrim didn't make the list... yet, probably. Doesn't mean they'll lift stories directly from the games. In most cases it'll be the "same universe", with great deal of canon-breaking shit and general nonsense. But, as far as the C-suits involved are concerned, it should reinvigorate subscriptions, and the action figure and t-shirt business, because nerds are stupid.
Ah, I see. And agree.
nerds are stupid
Yes they are.
I'll have you all know Disco Elysium sold out to corporate overlords, too.
Cool, so when I'll finally play it I'll have the opportunity to not watch the adaptation. Double the fun!
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Official Status Thread:
I almost wonder how Skyrim didn't make the list... yet, probably.
Bethesda probably said that they didn't want it happening at a moment that would spoil their next big release, reputedly fairly soon.
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@dkf Is there any corner of Tamriel that can be spoiled yet? I don't know how many DLCs ESO has, but it's .
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Official Status Thread:
@dkf Is there any corner of Ta
muriel that can be spoiled yet?I don't know, but I'm eager to find out.
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Official Status Thread:
Is there any corner of Tamriel that can be spoiled yet?
I have literally no idea. (I don't do anything with ESO.)
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Status:
It's Caesar-Stabbing Day today (all day)! Don't forget to get one of your bosses fired!
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@Gąska said in The Official Status Thread:
@Benjamin-Hall if I wanted a story I'd watch a movie. They have much better writers.
Exhibit A: Indiana Jones 4 - The game
Exhibit B: Indiana Jones 4 - The movie
(yes, it's not the same story. But the game has the better writing.)
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Official Status Thread:
I almost wonder how Skyrim didn't make the list... yet, probably.
There are still more devices that they haven't ported it to
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@Zerosquare we pretend that “Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis - the Action Game” does not exist.
Conversely, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (the Adventure Game) is a shockingly decent video game licensed title, executed as a point & click game.
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@Arantor said in The Official Status Thread:
we pretend that “Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis - the Action Game” does not exist.
We do?
I've not played it for a long time but I remember liking it back in the day.
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@loopback0 said in The Official Status Thread:
We
I swear if anybody brings up "we" to mean "me and my girlfriend, who also happens to play videogames", I'm going to lose it.
...
And do nothing else, of course.
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@Applied-Mediocrity I'm not going to do that, at least
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@Zerosquare said in The Official Status Thread:
@Gąska said in The Official Status Thread:
@Benjamin-Hall if I wanted a story I'd watch a movie. They have much better writers.
Exhibit A: Indiana Jones 4 - The game
Exhibit B: Indiana Jones 4 - The movie
(yes, it's not the same story. But the game has the better writing.)
I said writERS, not writING. Amateur writers produce masterpieces too every so often. But 99% of games is closer to Harry Potter fanfiction than Hary Potter the book series.
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@Gąska Looking at movies for the past few years, do those writers have any better track record?
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@hungrier said in The Official Status Thread:
@Gąska Looking at movies for the past few years
The ones made without writers because they all went on strike?
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Official Status Thread:
Saints Row is kind of an exception. Just get to blow shit up, without any particular reason or accountability .
Damn right. I think I've completed just about every objective that doesn't involve driving a vehicle (because I suck at that) (except one inter-gang battle that I just can't find). Blowing random shit up is the only fun left in the game.
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@Gąska said in The Official Status Thread:
@hungrier said in The Official Status Thread:
@Gąska Looking at movies for the past few years
The ones made without writers because they all went on strike?
The strike that started and ended like 15 years ago?
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@loopback0 you played the action game, as opposed to the adventure game? The shitty-ass isometric nonsense?
Both Last Crusade and Fate of Atlantis got two games.
Atlantis - action game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwXV5Ylc680Atlantis - adventure game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sDdCNU8Tz0The Last Crusade action one is even worse.
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@Arantor Ohhhh didn't realise there were two games with the same name. I played the adventure game.
I guess I was pretending the action game didn't exist without realising it.
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@hungrier said in The Official Status Thread:
@Gąska said in The Official Status Thread:
@hungrier said in The Official Status Thread:
@Gąska Looking at movies for the past few years
The ones made without writers because they all went on strike?
The strike that started and ended like 15 years ago?
No, the recent one. There were like three of them just in the last decade.
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@HardwareGeek said in The Official Status Thread:
one inter-gang battle that I just can't find
Let me guess: the central island one. It's not on the ground, but on a roof. Get into sme some flying contraption.
driving a vehicle (because I suck at that)
Weirder things have been heard (but not many )
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@Applied-Mediocrity said in The Official Status Thread:
Let me guess: the central island one. It's not on the ground, but on a roof. Get into sme some flying contraption.
Could be. I fly around a lot in the game, but I'm not generally looking at rooftops, and I don't remember all of the ones I already found. Next time I play, I'll fly around specifically close to the rooftops on the central island.
Weirder things have been heard
I generally suck at hitting the keys I intend to hit, whether that's WASD in a game or just typing. That seems to manifest itself most badly while attempting to control a vehicle under a tight time limit to achieve the objective. I usually wind up failing the mission because either the time expires or I wreck the vehicle. I like the tank as a ground vehicle because it steers with the mouse and it's pretty much immune to collision damage, and the VTOL as an air vehicle because it also steers with the mouse.
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@HardwareGeek said in The Official Status Thread:
I generally suck at hitting the keys I intend to hit, whether that's WASD in a game or just typing. That seems to manifest itself most badly while attempting to control a vehicle under a tight time limit to achieve the objective.
This is why I threw down the controller and pretended that the last mission of Halo: CE never existed. Stupid Warthog.
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@HardwareGeek said in The Official Status Thread:
@Parody said in The Official Status Thread:
Think precise timing.
Oh, how I hate games with QTEs.
Yes, but my mind reading tells me @Parody might have meant precision platformers.
Or maybe I'm just projecting based on my own love/hate relationship with the genre.
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@loopback0 said in The Official Status Thread:
@Arantor Ohhhh didn't realise there were two games with the same name. I played the adventure game.
I guess I was pretending the action game didn't exist without realising it.
IJ:FoA the adventure game could be played with an emphasis on beatin' 'em up vs solving puzzles (or vice-versa obvsly), and I've always thought that was brilliant.
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@Applied-Mediocrity we mostly played Windward, but were already married. You are all gaming wrong.
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@loopback0 Reasonable guess without looking, there are also at least two novels and two pornos named "Atlantis".
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@Zecc said in The Official Status Thread:
@Parody might have meant precision platformers.
Either way, precision is something I'm not good at (not in this context, anyway), and games that require it are frustrating to me.
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@Zecc the paths stuff in FoA was neat. I remember solving both Team and Wits back in the day but Fists was more for me.