It's not once you take into account how they get ahold of the copies they review, who advertises on their page, or who gives them game goodies. (It's the gaming industry, and it's why I haven't...
Seems like a pretty big oversight on the part of the authors to not mention even one of the many predatory practices that have become common in the gaming industry
It's not once you take into account how they get ahold of the copies they review, who advertises on their page, or who gives them game goodies.
(It's the gaming industry, and it's why I haven't trusted this kind of publications for years)
I work in networking. I once got an email address at one of our clients who is a publisher to test things relating to networking and their mail servers. This address was mistakenly published as...
I work in networking. I once got an email address at one of our clients who is a publisher to test things relating to networking and their mail servers. This address was mistakenly published as one of several contact emails relating to a culture-section on the site. It was left up on the site for around a week before I figured out why I was getting a lot of mail clearly meant for journalists/regular employees.
The number of companies that send unsolicited emails with reviewer copies of games, books, tv series, physical products and gadgets, coins/tokens for paid services, event tickets, etc. was surprisingly high to me. (Granted this was several years ago and this was a relatively large, serious publication)
I looked at the conditions for activating some of these products for some larger gaming companies because I'm interested in gaming.
I didn't have to be a writer/reviewer to avail myself of the offers. Some specifically stated that by receiving the email I could use whatever was on offer.
I didn't have to agree to actually writing something on the product, much less anything specific about parts of the game.
There were no offers of compensation for writing about a product in any way, no questions for contact info. for advertising departments etc. or other "sneaky" ways of hinting at possibly spending money if the publication were to write about whatever was on offer, or access to interview people or not etc.
Some things were simply just free stuff. Swag given as part of a publicity budget in the hope that someone chooses to spend time that might possibly lead to press of some kind.
( I know nothing of what advertisers do/agree to in terms of promotions. I know nothing of how the industry wheels and deals. I know nothing of whether outlets just accept all this free stuff or have policies that they buy everything they review or how that differs from publication to publication)
I think it's too easy to distrust a whole sector because some online-only companies aren't ethical.
Not really. Media reviews used to be things papers published because it brought subscribers and editors used to view it as "annoying stuff we do to pay the journalism bills." They'll hire a film...
The only difference I see is that major journalism institutes like NPR, NYT, etc., care about reviewing books/tv/movies on a regular basis
Not really. Media reviews used to be things papers published because it brought subscribers and editors used to view it as "annoying stuff we do to pay the journalism bills." They'll hire a film critic or a food critic or whatever to be in charge of it and leave it at that. As long as they avoid blundering into saying racist shit they don't care how good their reviews are. Nowadays the enthusiast and online press for each of those has hollowed out the value proposition so really nobody cares about them.
Think of it more like car magazines. They're also sponsored mostly by car companies and after-market parts/accessories. That's just the nature of the beast with enthusiast media. Gaming is no different from cars, guns, sneakers, or anything with an active hobbyist base.
Can we just get something new? Not just a new setting, but something different. I was playing Tetris Effect yesterday and it hit me that I'm just so tired of the same old shooters (with obligatory...
Can we just get something new? Not just a new setting, but something different.
I was playing Tetris Effect yesterday and it hit me that I'm just so tired of the same old shooters (with obligatory RPG treadmill thrown in), hack-n-slash Diablo variations and 3rd person open-world RPG adventures, that even just playing Tetris feels fresh.
I want more games like Disco Elysium, I want more weird stuff like Death Stranding, just give me some fresh gameplay, because staleness of the genres I've mentioned is starting to remind me of FIFA series.
There were 2 articles over the past year that I thought had good points in this regard: What games are like for someone who doesn't play games - Honestly, I don't think this is restricted to...
There were 2 articles over the past year that I thought had good points in this regard:
What games are like for someone who doesn't play games - Honestly, I don't think this is restricted to people who don't play games. I've been playing video games since the 1970s and I often have no idea what a game expects me to do. I find myself asking, "Is that something I'm supposed to get or something I'm supposed to avoid?" "Is that thing over there set dressing or will it kill me?" "How the @#$% do I turn this damn thing around?"
The year in Tiny Video Game Text - Super tiny fonts throughout games. I just tried playing "The Mosaic" on my phone, and I literally could not see the text that you need to press to start the game. It's about 2 points high and it's the same color as the background. It's fucking absurd.
The whole section on real-time-with-pause combat is such a ridiculous, hyperbolic mischaracterization, IMO. I have played pretty much every RTWP game since Baldur's Gate, many of them several or...
The whole section on real-time-with-pause combat is such a ridiculous, hyperbolic mischaracterization, IMO.
You've got a whole party of characters to control, you pause to assign commands, press spacebar again, and chaos reigns. The charging barbarian takes the long way around, the area-of-effect spell manages to catch a single kobold, the rogue detects a trap but then walks into it anyway. You try to take direct command of someone but they're in the middle of waiting to act, so they huff on the spot instead of doing the thing you need them to do. In summary: It sucks, I hate it.
I have played pretty much every RTWP game since Baldur's Gate, many of them several or even dozens of times over now, most recently having put in 121 hours in Pillar of Eternity, and am currently working my way through Pillars 2 right now. And in all that time, I have never really had any of the issues this person claims are the fault of RTWP combat. So honestly, it sounds to me like the author kinda just sucks at these games and needs to "git gud" (as the kids say).
I get that being able to steamroll over trash mobs in real-time is faster than having to do it turn-by-turn, but a better solution to that problem is to not fill RPGs with hours of piss-easy fights against trash mobs.
I also don't understand the point of including this last sentence, since it seems to have nothing to do with RTWP at all. And if someone finds a game too easy, there is a remarkably simple solution to that; Turn up the difficult.
And TBH, I think even the premise that RTWP is a "trend" itself is flawed, since to my eyes it's pretty much the exact opposite! RTWP used to be in practically every cRPG but has been dying a slow death for decades now. Us fans of the system have even had to resort to Kickstarting RTWP games ourselves because very few major publishers seem willing to fund the making of them anymore.
Have you tried playing Divinity 2 on console? The controls are super annoying and pathfinding is terrible. It makes you spend a ton of your time and energy fighting the interface to play the game....
And in all that time, I have never really had any of the issues this person claims are the fault of RTWP combat.
Have you tried playing Divinity 2 on console? The controls are super annoying and pathfinding is terrible. It makes you spend a ton of your time and energy fighting the interface to play the game.
I also don't understand the point of including this last sentence, since it seems to have nothing to do with RTWP at all. And if someone finds a game too easy, there is a remarkably simple solution to that; Turn up the difficult.
That’s a sentence about design intention. They want to have lots of fights so they have fights with trash mobs. Then those fights are annoying when you have turn-based, menu centric battle systems, so they come up with ways to make it faster and less annoying by making it semi-real time. But those ways to make it less annoying make the gameplay feel either bland and repetitive or incoherent.
So the advice is to go back to basics and rethink how much and what kinds of combat/interactions your game needs. Fewer filler/trash mobs, more meaningful or interesting conflicts that encourage engagement instead of feeling like you’re running on semi-autopilot.
The restrictions that are often put on games like requiring an internet connection, not having LAN/local multiplayer, not allowing local file storage in some cases (mostly StarCraft 2). Why can't...
The restrictions that are often put on games like requiring an internet connection, not having LAN/local multiplayer, not allowing local file storage in some cases (mostly StarCraft 2). Why can't I play Path of Exile offline, either single player or LAN? I know everyone has an internet connection now, but someday these games' servers will be shut down and then you won't be able to play them anymore. Meanwhile I can play Brood War and Diablo 2 with no problem 20 years later because they don't have any of those restrictions.
Wait, are we putting unwinnable battles in our action games now? I can see what they are upset about that. It's one thing for that to happen in turn-based RPGs where stats are 75% of the battle,...
Wait, are we putting unwinnable battles in our action games now? I can see what they are upset about that. It's one thing for that to happen in turn-based RPGs where stats are 75% of the battle, but in action games where it's 100% skill that is just traumatic. Just put that into a cutscene.
I honestly have no problem with games having loot crates and obvious addiction mechanics. It simply tells me which games to ignore. That being said, I also know that video game addiction is real and these mechanics prey on these people, so it's my sincerest wish that the people who decide to implement these mechanics one day get to suffer a portion of the pain they have inflicted on these poor people.
It's not once you take into account how they get ahold of the copies they review, who advertises on their page, or who gives them game goodies.
(It's the gaming industry, and it's why I haven't trusted this kind of publications for years)
I work in networking. I once got an email address at one of our clients who is a publisher to test things relating to networking and their mail servers. This address was mistakenly published as one of several contact emails relating to a culture-section on the site. It was left up on the site for around a week before I figured out why I was getting a lot of mail clearly meant for journalists/regular employees.
The number of companies that send unsolicited emails with reviewer copies of games, books, tv series, physical products and gadgets, coins/tokens for paid services, event tickets, etc. was surprisingly high to me. (Granted this was several years ago and this was a relatively large, serious publication)
I looked at the conditions for activating some of these products for some larger gaming companies because I'm interested in gaming.
Some things were simply just free stuff. Swag given as part of a publicity budget in the hope that someone chooses to spend time that might possibly lead to press of some kind.
( I know nothing of what advertisers do/agree to in terms of promotions. I know nothing of how the industry wheels and deals. I know nothing of whether outlets just accept all this free stuff or have policies that they buy everything they review or how that differs from publication to publication)
I think it's too easy to distrust a whole sector because some online-only companies aren't ethical.
Not really. Media reviews used to be things papers published because it brought subscribers and editors used to view it as "annoying stuff we do to pay the journalism bills." They'll hire a film critic or a food critic or whatever to be in charge of it and leave it at that. As long as they avoid blundering into saying racist shit they don't care how good their reviews are. Nowadays the enthusiast and online press for each of those has hollowed out the value proposition so really nobody cares about them.
Think of it more like car magazines. They're also sponsored mostly by car companies and after-market parts/accessories. That's just the nature of the beast with enthusiast media. Gaming is no different from cars, guns, sneakers, or anything with an active hobbyist base.
Can we just get something new? Not just a new setting, but something different.
I was playing Tetris Effect yesterday and it hit me that I'm just so tired of the same old shooters (with obligatory RPG treadmill thrown in), hack-n-slash Diablo variations and 3rd person open-world RPG adventures, that even just playing Tetris feels fresh.
I want more games like Disco Elysium, I want more weird stuff like Death Stranding, just give me some fresh gameplay, because staleness of the genres I've mentioned is starting to remind me of FIFA series.
Hmm, you might be on to something. There are only a handful of games or mechanics that changed gaming. Most games are, like you said, a rehash.
There were 2 articles over the past year that I thought had good points in this regard:
What games are like for someone who doesn't play games - Honestly, I don't think this is restricted to people who don't play games. I've been playing video games since the 1970s and I often have no idea what a game expects me to do. I find myself asking, "Is that something I'm supposed to get or something I'm supposed to avoid?" "Is that thing over there set dressing or will it kill me?" "How the @#$% do I turn this damn thing around?"
The year in Tiny Video Game Text - Super tiny fonts throughout games. I just tried playing "The Mosaic" on my phone, and I literally could not see the text that you need to press to start the game. It's about 2 points high and it's the same color as the background. It's fucking absurd.
The whole section on real-time-with-pause combat is such a ridiculous, hyperbolic mischaracterization, IMO.
I have played pretty much every RTWP game since Baldur's Gate, many of them several or even dozens of times over now, most recently having put in 121 hours in Pillar of Eternity, and am currently working my way through Pillars 2 right now. And in all that time, I have never really had any of the issues this person claims are the fault of RTWP combat. So honestly, it sounds to me like the author kinda just sucks at these games and needs to "git gud" (as the kids say).
I also don't understand the point of including this last sentence, since it seems to have nothing to do with RTWP at all. And if someone finds a game too easy, there is a remarkably simple solution to that; Turn up the difficult.
And TBH, I think even the premise that RTWP is a "trend" itself is flawed, since to my eyes it's pretty much the exact opposite! RTWP used to be in practically every cRPG but has been dying a slow death for decades now. Us fans of the system have even had to resort to Kickstarting RTWP games ourselves because very few major publishers seem willing to fund the making of them anymore.
Have you tried playing Divinity 2 on console? The controls are super annoying and pathfinding is terrible. It makes you spend a ton of your time and energy fighting the interface to play the game.
That’s a sentence about design intention. They want to have lots of fights so they have fights with trash mobs. Then those fights are annoying when you have turn-based, menu centric battle systems, so they come up with ways to make it faster and less annoying by making it semi-real time. But those ways to make it less annoying make the gameplay feel either bland and repetitive or incoherent.
So the advice is to go back to basics and rethink how much and what kinds of combat/interactions your game needs. Fewer filler/trash mobs, more meaningful or interesting conflicts that encourage engagement instead of feeling like you’re running on semi-autopilot.
The restrictions that are often put on games like requiring an internet connection, not having LAN/local multiplayer, not allowing local file storage in some cases (mostly StarCraft 2). Why can't I play Path of Exile offline, either single player or LAN? I know everyone has an internet connection now, but someday these games' servers will be shut down and then you won't be able to play them anymore. Meanwhile I can play Brood War and Diablo 2 with no problem 20 years later because they don't have any of those restrictions.
Wait, are we putting unwinnable battles in our action games now? I can see what they are upset about that. It's one thing for that to happen in turn-based RPGs where stats are 75% of the battle, but in action games where it's 100% skill that is just traumatic. Just put that into a cutscene.
I honestly have no problem with games having loot crates and obvious addiction mechanics. It simply tells me which games to ignore. That being said, I also know that video game addiction is real and these mechanics prey on these people, so it's my sincerest wish that the people who decide to implement these mechanics one day get to suffer a portion of the pain they have inflicted on these poor people.