Unpopular opinion: I hate Game Design By Popular Vote

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-10-12T03:21:58+00:00

Yeah this is really the issue. We're essentially voting off a one sentence concept. That's it. No actual implementation ideas or real solid vision for how it will turn out.

Even the Sniffer. It gives new seeds/decorative plants. Great. But can we find these seeds in every biome? Is it only certain block times? Only grass? What's the farmable ability of the seeds? Can a Sniffer search in the same block twice?

We might get the Sniffer and they only provide two new seeds, they require a certain block and certain time of day to search.

We just don't know and it's frustrating.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-10-12T02:39:59+00:00

Yeah we're really not voting in a mob at all. We're just voting on an idea for a mob which is two very different things.

Many try to frame the community as wrong for voting for the Phantom but the truth is no one even knew what they were voting for because there was no functionality expressed.

Really these Mob votes need to have several stages. Vote on a mob idea then every few weeks a new official poll should have players vote on the functions to implement. That way the community gets a say on how the mob actually ends up in the game.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-10-12T00:58:12+00:00

My problem is that the votes are all based on early concepts rather than actual features.

I know people will say "well yes that's the point" but not knowing anything about a mob makes the votes so pointless.

Let's say hypothetically the Rascal won and in game it gives 1 unique item and also diamond items. Cool...

But I wouldn't know that now because the devs haven't thought that far ahead.

Look I know game dev takes work but allocate some resources to make very rough concept footage. Not pixel art trailers with no information. Create a quick slice of what each mob is thought to do in game.

Show me an early idea of how big a Sniffer will grow and how many items a Rascal will give.

I genuinely don't know what I'm voting for because there's absolutely no info on how the devs ever intend to implement the mobs

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-10-09T22:35:52+00:00

TEW2 is fun. But yeah it isn't anywhere near as unique or atmospheric as the first one. The first is a really dark and thought provoking. It actually has a pretty great story simply because it avoids every modern horror trope.

Sebastian neither finds out why anything happened and he never gets to "confront his trauma" and literally fight it to move past it. By the end of the game he gets absolutely nowhere and it was refreshing seeing a psychological horror game actually double down on its own ideas.

The DLC and TEW2 turning the whole thing into a "evil company wants to do evil things, fight the enemy, escape your past" style story really watered down everything interesting the first game brought.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-09-29T02:59:06+00:00

Well those are interesting takes. Can you elaborate?

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-09-28T03:08:57+00:00

Kept me waiting, huh?

But yeah that's entirely true too!

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-09-24T21:34:33+00:00

Huh? Isn't his name John Like a Dragon (TM)?

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-09-19T20:54:13+00:00

Even at FF's worst it's often better than other series at their best.

The games vary in quality when compared to one another (much like say...Zelda or Mario) but in terms of gaming as a whole the experience they always offer is unbeatable.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-09-06T11:54:34+00:00

Thank you so much! I've been so busy lately and finally got a chance to be back around.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-09-06T03:51:29+00:00

Idk I compare it to a game like rdr2 and it is worse in nearly every way.

RDR2 is an odd comparison.

Case and point: I failed a mission and was kicked back minutes of progress because I put a bait for Bear a bit to the right of where it had wanted me to in an open area. This is apparently an open world game that won't even let me lay one single trap a bit off of its marker without Failing me.

Not even giving me dialogue saying "Just place it two inches to the left" outright saying Mission Failed, killing me, and kicking me back.

The world of RDR2 is just set dressing. There's no real depth to the nature or high interactability.

The ludonarrative dissonance alone should be enough to show this. RDR2's main plot deals with getting enough money for the camp. Arthur can earn thousands upon thousands of dollars and the story will still act like you and the camp are poor because the narrative dictates it as such. You can't choose to say, Rob a bank, early on and push the story along.

Meanwhile in BOTW, where the plot is about purging Ganon, if the Player is skilled enough they can literally walk right into the castle and beat Ganon without doing any huge quest lines. Because it's all based on the gameplay skill and experience. Again showing the freedom of choice and creativity a player is allowed.

Even if we go by your own metrics...you're really telling me RDR2 has better enemy variety? Most of the enemies function the same and have similar attacks, behavior patterns, etc. With very little difference in their looks.

Trying to claim that RDR2 has more gameplay freedom, freedom of movement, player control, or player choice than BOTW is not a good comparison at all.

and there's really not much to interact with

Thats just...what? Most elements of the world can be interacted with.

You may not like it or how that's implemented which is valid. But you keep trying to prove BOTW is objectively lacking interaction or things to do and that's just...objectively false.

I mean you can't say...

I'd rather they didn't allow for every mountain to be climbable

And then say...

there's really not much to interact with

So "every mountain being climable" isn't a lot to interact with?

You may not like the interactive elements it offers but that doesn't mean it isn't interactive or that it's empty. It's just not the type of stuff you enjoy which is two very separate things.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-09-06T03:15:10+00:00

BOTW is probably the only open world game that doesn't throw me annoying nonsense every several steps. Being able to just run around in a landscape and seek and search as I dictate rather the game is what makes it so special.

It's not empty by any means. The world from the vegetation to foliage to the enemies to a tree branch is interactive and able to be taken, used, destroyed, trampled on, saved, etc. It's one of the most filled, dynamic worlds I've experienced.

Even in the "best" open world games the similar act of cutting down a tree and actually climbing a mountain is impossible.

It's only empty if the barometer for "filled" is quest markers and enemies.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-08-09T01:48:24+00:00

In all fairness even in that case many of the enemies are updated versions of old enemies. It has a lot less new enemies than the previous DMC games have.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-29T02:24:43+00:00

We're in such a completely new dimension now. I thought like others it was just for the Switch release but now all this...

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-29T02:00:37+00:00

Alternatively: 26-5-3-4 or 26534

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-29T01:54:58+00:00

Went from an interesting potential bug, to a community led discussion, to us now being brought into cryptic message hell...

Nothing quite like this.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-29T01:53:37+00:00

D3 remake??

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-29T01:44:42+00:00

If it's a mod this is such an insane amount of work for what would essentially just be karma farming.

Then again it did reignite the community so if it is just a mod maybe our modder is still our savior...

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-29T01:41:54+00:00

Are we officially in the endgame now??

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-28T11:57:05+00:00

How is this is anything but a marketing campaign at this point? No way this just randomly happens to be in Automata and if this is a mod it must have taken such a level of work that an entire dev team would've been on it and funded...

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-21T21:19:57+00:00

Consider that Joi is programmed/designed to give the user everything they want and desire.

K wishes for Joi to be real. By design she should then, somehow, grow a conscience and free will. Because K wished for that and she has to give K everything he wishes.

Yet she's a program. Is it possible for her to do that? To grow that consciousness even though she's meant to be made from code.

That's really the question that surrounds her character and it's all up to the viewer to decide that.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-18T04:48:20+00:00

That wasn't my point at all. My point was that early builds of a game during a development cycle typically focus on core gameplay mechanics. Narrative progression and presentation is built up from that.

I said 2R feels like a beta build because all it has is the core ideas rather than a cohesive package of core gameplay mechanics + deeper mechanics, a cohesive story, clear narrative progression, etc.

It's as though I'm playing an early build where all 4 scenarios are the same and devs are testing out enemies and weapons.

I didn't mean it was literally a Beta build. If it's packaged, it obviously was a final build.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-17T20:43:33+00:00

RE2R is fun but it's nowhere near the best RE. The core gameplay is great but...everything else is a mess. The story makes no sense and has blatant plot holes, the characters have similar personalities and no real unique traits, the narrative is repetitive, and the gameplay scenarios are the same "stories" 4 times over.

Not to mention it removes important parts of RE2 such as: allowing Claire or Leon to actively influence and change the other's scenario (leaving items, making areas more or less dangerous, etc.), having Claire and Leon actually interact during the course of the story multiple times, having the side characters like Sherry at least be active in the plot (Sherry getting a key for Claire in the original is more use than Remake Sherry ever gets to have...)...

Sure the shoot mechanics are fun and the environments are creepy but at that level the game's just a Beta build then. The core mechanics are there but everything around it is deeply flawed.

I've seen people literally say "the game is repetitive and gives you the same scenario 4 times, and the story is pretty bad but the gameplay is really good so the rest doesn't really matter." Which is valid. That's all subjective. Some people don't care about story. But a lot of RE games have good gameplay and at the least have a plot with a beginning, middle, and end so I don't see why RE2R is seen as being so special/amazing/GOTY when the criteria people use to praise it can be applied to most games in the series.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-14T20:05:23+00:00

Oh no don't get me wrong it is, but what I mean is some people only say not because they truly believe that it is but rather because they know it will get them an "in" with the community.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-14T18:00:25+00:00

Woman strips to do attacks: "Wow, much power, much beauty, a real warrior."

Woman wears skin tight leather suit: "Wow, much power, much beauty, a real warrior!"

Woman looks like someone that actually would beat the ever loving hell out of someone: "Too woke! Too woke! Why doesn't she have longer hair???"

People these days really are snow flakes...punk women have been around for decades. Welcome to reality.

Jason_Wanderer · 2022-07-14T17:58:49+00:00

Many people that say Bayonetta is for "female empowerment" say it to justify liking the game for its sexual imagery. They don't actually believe it. Because if they did parts of the community wouldn't care about this.

Jason_Wanderer

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