Unpopular Opinions about Video Games

[Super Hans]

In the latest MATI, Jersh mentioned a video essay he liked about the predatory monetization in Diablo Immortal. I got about five minutes in before I realized I'm not too smart to be victimized by modern micro-transactions - I'm too stupid.

It seems like you'd want your loot boxes and microtransactions to be as easy to possible to tempt every dummy with a wallet, but all the mechanics and various currencies and systems are so baffling that I can imagine even degenerate gamblers throwing up their hands and saying "oh, the hell with it!" and either quitting or simply playing the game like Diablos of yore.

Is a slot machine with a thousand incomprehensible buttons really more enticing than one with a single big pull lever? Is gambling still alluring if the gambler doesn't even understand what he stands to win?

A big part of getting people to waste their money on this crap is obfuscating how much they're spending. If you put $20 in your wallet, and there's 100 gold for a dollar, and 10 gold for a red gem, and you have to craft 5 gems to make a blue gem, and a skin is 100 blue gems, nobodies going to do the algebra to figure out how much real currency it is. Same thing with why Nintendo, Microsoft, and the others started their digital storefronts using points.

 

[Pissmaster]

In the latest MATI, Jersh mentioned a video essay he liked about the predatory monetization in Diablo Immortal. I got about five minutes in before I realized I'm not too smart to be victimized by modern micro-transactions - I'm too stupid.

It seems like you'd want your loot boxes and microtransactions to be as easy to possible to tempt every dummy with a wallet, but all the mechanics and various currencies and systems are so baffling that I can imagine even degenerate gamblers throwing up their hands and saying "oh, the hell with it!" and either quitting or simply playing the game like Diablos of yore.

Is a slot machine with a thousand incomprehensible buttons really more enticing than one with a single big pull lever? Is gambling still alluring if the gambler doesn't even understand what he stands to win?

I'd guess the idea is that you're supposed to get lulled into a pattern of just going for your credit card every time you hit a roadblock, which sounds like it was designed by a businessman that doesn't understand video games.

F2P games have a whole meta of figuring out how far you can get into the game without coughing up a dime. To get anyone to even start looking for that meta, the game itself has to be at least somewhat fun to someone out there, and if things get overcomplicated too quickly, there are countless alternatives that'll gladly take your cash. I understand that you don't need very many whales in order to turn huge profits, but competition is a very real thing, and you gotta figure out how you're gonna lure those whales into your spiderweb, and away from everyone else's. I can't imagine that overcomplication tactics would really work on anyone but the absolute most dedicated Diablo simps who also happen to be loaded.

Like, one of the biggest pieces of advice on running a restaurant is to not have an enormous menu. You don't wanna overwhelm your guests and scare them away. They're there for a lovely experience, and when they're at your restaurant, or playing your game, it's up to you to give them a lovely experience that will leave them happy and ready to come back for more. They chose you, your restaurant, your game, over countless other options, and they can just as easily jump to any one of those tomorrow, and a bad experience can permanently keep them away from your establishment for good.

So yeah, I'd guess overwhelming your playerbase isn't a good idea. Give them something simple like "pay a dollar and have a shot at winning the lustrous ultra-rare golden sword!" and lull them into the trance surrounding that,

 

[Calandrino]

Is a slot machine with a thousand incomprehensible buttons really more enticing than one with a single big pull lever? Is gambling still alluring if the gambler doesn't even understand what he stands to win?

Maybe? I'll confess I'm too dumb even for slot machines, I'm sure DI is far beyond my ken



I don't know what the hell any of those buttons do to your chances of winning. There's usually some verbiage on the machine to explain it, but it's really boring and has numbers in it. Playing with minimum bets on a slot machine has got to be less expensive than typical video game MTs, though. Even if you buy lotto scratch offs from a vending machine, you can't spend money faster than the machine can physically dispense them, and they'll actually pay off from time to time. So I don't think that comparing MTs to gambling is entirely fair. MTs are much worse.

Here's my pitch for a reality tv show: a Diablo Immortal player and a guy at a strip club compete to see who can spend money the fastest. I think strip club guy would probably die of alcohol poisoning just trying to keep up.

 

[7th Dweller of Da'at]

Twin Snakes is better than the original MGS.

Retard.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Marvel’s Ultimate Alliance was the best action role playing game for its time. It’s a shame that we can’t get that kind of game for Mortal Kombat.

 

[Pig Boss]

Retard.

I know

 

[The handsome tard]

Its okay to like Sonic Unleashed and to admit the hate was/is blown out of proportion

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Same thing with why Nintendo, Microsoft, and the others started their digital storefronts using points.

Iirc Microsoft, who was first out of the gate, did it that way because they were very cautious and really, really, really did not want regulators to see them as a bank of some sorts.

 

[DarkSydeHyde]

MGS: V wasn't that bad or cringe'y.

 

[The Last Stand]

Its okay to like Sonic Unleashed and to admit the hate was/is blown out of proportion

All versions should've had the hub world.

 

[Matt Damon]

MGS: V wasn't that bad or cringe'y.

Only in the sense that it was too incoherent to make me feel anything at all.

 

[McMitch]

Only in the sense that it was too incoherent to make me feel anything at all.

I still hold that the issues with the story were because the game was forced out half-baked, and it would have been more coherent if they weren’t forced to shoehorn in a conclusion. Whether or not the story would have been worth the time and money investment at that point is another question, but it would have been much easier to follow.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

The Nioh series and Bloodborne were the last series of games for the PS4 that made them the only reason to buy a PS4 in the first place. It’s insane how PS5 only has the Demon’s Souls remake and Elden Ring to fall back on, and yet their fanbase will still play it on the PC.

Spoiler

Though, it’s not that I, or anyone else, should be complaining about it.

 

[The handsome tard]

Time trials (be racing, bike, flying, whatever) as challenges, minigames, whatever, is a fucking stain on gaming that refuses to go away.
It ultimately comes to two things

Luck
And the physics engine

Because each game has different physics, sometimes greatly, sometimes just a little but even the latter is enough to have to force your brain to re-adapt.
And almost all the time they will put conveniently placed traffic to screw you over.

These things gaslight you into believing that you had a shot when the plan is just to do it so many times that eventually you adapt enough to the engine that you can predict what it will do and the AI decides not to throw bullshit on your way.

The only exception is when they arent an afterthought and is a straight up racing game, or a flying game, whatever. Then it feels reasonable because the game is built around these.

These things feel like gambling in a way and the house always wins.

 

[The Last Stand]

Time trials (be racing, bike, flying, whatever) as challenges, minigames, whatever, is a fucking stain on gaming that refuses to go away.
It ultimately comes to two things

Luck
And the physics engine

Because each game has different physics, sometimes greatly, sometimes just a little but even the latter is enough to have to force your brain to re-adapt.
And almost all the time they will put conveniently placed traffic to screw you over.

These things gaslight you into believing that you had a shot when the plan is just to do it so many times that eventually you adapt enough to the engine that you can predict what it will do and the AI decides not to throw bullshit on your way.

The only exception is when they arent an afterthought and is a straight up racing game, or a flying game, whatever. Then it feels reasonable because the game is built around these.

These things feel like gambling in a way and the house always wins.

Time trials are supposed to test your memorization and skill under a time limit. When you add randomness to them, they become less of an endurance test and more of a bout of frustration. Especially with a tight timeframe.

Infinitely spawning enemies are worse. Especially in a first person shooter.

 

[7th Dweller of Da'at]

I don't get the people who bitch about Fallout 2's humor or pop culture references. The references were never really that distracting to me, and I often didn't really notice them. I think the only one that stuck out to me especially was a Goodfellas line. Personally I liked that the game was a little more lively than Fallout 1, which was great but pretty depressing. It makes sense that the world would be a little more upbeat, it's been 80 fucking years, of course it's going to develop in that span of time.

 

[José Mourinho]

Time trials (be racing, bike, flying, whatever) as challenges, minigames, whatever, is a fucking stain on gaming that refuses to go away.
It ultimately comes to two things

Luck
And the physics engine

Because each game has different physics, sometimes greatly, sometimes just a little but even the latter is enough to have to force your brain to re-adapt.
And almost all the time they will put conveniently placed traffic to screw you over.

These things gaslight you into believing that you had a shot when the plan is just to do it so many times that eventually you adapt enough to the engine that you can predict what it will do and the AI decides not to throw bullshit on your way.

The only exception is when they arent an afterthought and is a straight up racing game, or a flying game, whatever. Then it feels reasonable because the game is built around these.

These things feel like gambling in a way and the house always wins.

I really hate the general combination between time-based results (or simpler words, do this task as fast as shit) and randomness which will affect how quick you would do your task, not just in racing games. It's not even challenging, it doesn't even challenge your skills, all you would do is just brute force so many times until you did it which isn't fun at all.

 

[The handsome tard]

I really hate the general combination between time-based results (or simpler words, do this task as fast as shit) and randomness which will affect how quick you would do your task, not just in racing games. It's not even challenging, it doesn't even challenge your skills, all you would do is just brute force so many times until you did it which isn't fun at all.

I dont know which is worse
When doing them add nothing to the gameplay or when they do.

Because with the former, what is the point of their existence besides random stuff to do? And with the latter, Im strong armed into doing stuff I dont like so I can play the game better.

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

Halo 3 sucks.

The story makes little to no sense. It really feels like they had an idea for settings and then strung together plot points for how to get there. The characters are written extraordinarily poorly, like bad fanfic from Halo 2; Truth is one of the biggest examples. Relatable, interesting and somewhat cunning in Halo 2, turned into "bad guy madman". Rather than explore anything about the Covenant or their inner workings, especially interesting as they had just split at the start, he's made as a voice of a moustache twirling villain. Him being relegated to taunting on a TV camera in-game is fucking silly. 343 is likewise ruined with his ""twist"". What the fuck did they do with the Gravemind/flood? Keyes is so unlikeable it hurts, with some of the most stomach-churning, eye-rolling dialogue ever put in a mainstream game.

Then Bungie decided to kill off characters haphazardly - dev commentary on it shows that they finished the story, realized there was no impact without death and so just killed off a bunch of random characters. It sure feels like it.

Gameplay is likewise shit compared to 1 and 2. The typical gameplay loops from 1 and 2, juggling shield and flesh damage, is nearly completely gone. Mixtures of brutes, grunts, jackals and flying insects never live up to the original formula with elites. Completely subjective but it never gelled with me, especially anything with 3's Flood. Holy fuck, those flood forms that can form stationary spine turrets are some of the most annoying damage sponging enemies I've ever faced.

Graphics is good, especially for 2007. The old FOV took away from that, and made it feel like you were looking down a tube at all times. The music is probably one of the best aspects of the game, Marty delivered. Can't comment on multiplayer since I only played it with the MCC years later.

The best thing to come out of Halo 3 is probably ODST, and half that game worked purely because it had some soul.

I was going to agree until you said ODST was good. ODST's problems come from having to use Halo 3 mechanics. The basic premise of the ODST as a unit is that they were paratroopers, but still baseline human. But because it's a Halo game, regenerating health is necessary, so they use the CoD health system instead. Also, regular marines see ODST as Spartans when they really shouldn't; they're just guys in black armor. It's not like they got shields or AI. It also seems like it should be a stealth game, but every flashback section is Halo action, which directly contradict stealth game play. Being able to lift turrets as a baseline human also broke my sense of immersion. Spartan II and Elites can do it because they're 7-8 feet tall and are really strong.

Still, ODST does deserve credit for influencing Halo: Reach. Noble team just seem like the refined version of ODST characters without that dumb romance subplot. Not that I think Noble team are all that characterized; they just feel like the more professional version of ODST's cast.

 

[The Last Stand]

They were often campy and ridiculous and for every good game like the first Max Payne or the 2005 Punisher game, you had garbage like 25 To Life or the 50 Cent games, but they had a simple charm to them in my humble opinion.

If 25 to Life had smoother aiming and a more coherent plot, it could've been a cult classic.

Halo 3 sucks.

The story makes little to no sense. It really feels like they had an idea for settings and then strung together plot points for how to get there. The characters are written extraordinarily poorly, like bad fanfic from Halo 2; Truth is one of the biggest examples. Relatable, interesting and somewhat cunning in Halo 2, turned into "bad guy madman". Rather than explore anything about the Covenant or their inner workings, especially interesting as they had just split at the start, he's made as a voice of a moustache twirling villain. Him being relegated to taunting on a TV camera in-game is fucking silly. 343 is likewise ruined with his ""twist"". What the fuck did they do with the Gravemind/flood? Keyes is so unlikeable it hurts, with some of the most stomach-churning, eye-rolling dialogue ever put in a mainstream game.

Then Bungie decided to kill off characters haphazardly - dev commentary on it shows that they finished the story, realized there was no impact without death and so just killed off a bunch of random characters. It sure feels like it.

Gameplay is likewise shit compared to 1 and 2. The typical gameplay loops from 1 and 2, juggling shield and flesh damage, is nearly completely gone. Mixtures of brutes, grunts, jackals and flying insects never live up to the original formula with elites. Completely subjective but it never gelled with me, especially anything with 3's Flood. Holy fuck, those flood forms that can form stationary spine turrets are some of the most annoying damage sponging enemies I've ever faced.

Graphics is good, especially for 2007. The old FOV took away from that, and made it feel like you were looking down a tube at all times. The music is probably one of the best aspects of the game, Marty delivered. Can't comment on multiplayer since I only played it with the MCC years later.

The best thing to come out of Halo 3 is probably ODST, and half that game worked purely because it had some soul.

The whole plot of Halo sucks. Aside from ODST and Reach.