Unpopular Opinions about Video Games

[Mega Black]

You're talking about DS1? Because none of this describes DS1.

The Souls games in general, sans 2 mostly. They don't have shit controls or are outright unfair.

 

[Sugriva]

Demons and Dark Souls are both excellent action RPGs, 2 is shit for obvious reasons and 3 was so unbearably boring and nonsensical I still half-consider it their weakest game yet.

I think saying the games have shit controls or 'cheap' difficulty is a bit of exaggeration. There are only a few moments in the various games I would consider outright unfair, with most of the strenuous difficulty encountered in my first run of each game came from lack of skill or knowledge of the game mechanics.

One of the things that drives me nuts about Dark Souls 3 is how it introduces tons of new and crazy shit then every plotline fizzles out in favor of more light/dark shit that was already old hat by the end of 1.

Really awesome how in 3 they introduce The Deep, which hinted at being maybe a connection to Bloodborne, and then it just goes nowhere.

 

[Judge Dredd]

It amazes me that people think [Bioshock is] some brutal takedown of Objectivism

I barely know objectivism. I read the first third of Atlas Shrugged, listened to an abridged version of the galt speech, and know the general ideas the story presents.

But even I'm stunned by how people who hate the ideology, and even some of it's adherents, completely miss the basic idea of what it's about. eg. Galt is said to take rich people, but in the book people of all walks of life go missing, from train drivers to business owners. We see a lot of business owners and industrialists disappear because the story is about the owners of a railway company and a steel mill.

In the case of Bioshock, Ryan completely abandons his entire world view because some con man annoys him slightly. Or more likely, he was never an objectivist because the writers didn't know what objectivism was.

Fair, that is true, most of my game design knowledge comes from shitty YouTube videos and gaming Bibles/design docs. Orthogonal design is something I first heard in GMTKs doom video.

I've got some bad news for you (and I guess the thread tax). 99% of those game design channels are complete bullshit that try to sound smart and technical. If Extra Credits hadn't made that "playing World War 2 games makes you a nazi" video, they'd still be cited by indie "devs" who only talk about game design, but never actually make anything.

 

[God of Nothing]

objectivism

apparently no one does, even when she laid it out

The concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute

Saving others, looking out for yourself, being productive, and believing certain things are set in stone.

One would say this is egoism, but I wouldn't put heroic as an egoist quality. Your own happiness as the moral purpose of your life can mean many things. I once watched a video that said Rand was advocating for everyone to be a spoiled brat in a college ethics class and knew they were obviously misconstruing it. As usual, midwits can't understand nuance.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

I barely know objectivism

apparently no one does, even when she laid it out

From what Ive read about objectivism in Jack kirbys Mr A and some randian theory, it seems like the basic principle is that the autonomy and free will of a person should be utilized to maximize their positive output and minimize their negative output to create an objectively better society. In other words every person must make their best efforts in work, perform objectively morally good actions constantly to ensure the best society can be produced. It's not a bad theory especially considering Nietzsche preached something similar with the ubermensch theory. Both of them also gave an idea of complete freedom being a life free from distraction, idling and negative output which is attractive for motivated people. In bioshocks case rapture was designed as a society for such kind of people, the randian supermen capable of massive talent and production, to achieve their potential without the corruption and interruption of average society, which eventually fell to the hypocrisies of Andrew Ryan and exploitation of corrupt parties like Frank fontaine.

I've got some bad news for you (and I guess the thread tax). 99% of those game design channels are complete bullshit that try to sound smart and technical. If Extra Credits hadn't made that "playing World War 2 games makes you a nazi" video, they'd still be cited by indie "devs" who only talk about game design, but never actually make anything.

I don't watch them anymore, they've run their course. People like snoman gaming and gmtk had their good informative video days back in 2016 17. Extra credits was never good, it was always about agitprop like average gaming journalism.

 

[Ughubughughughughughghlug]

I barely know objectivism. I read the first third of Atlas Shrugged, listened to an abridged version of the galt speech, and know the general ideas the story presents.

But even I'm stunned by how people who hate the ideology, and even some of it's adherents, completely miss the basic idea of what it's about. eg. Galt is said to take rich people, but in the book people of all walks of life go missing, from train drivers to business owners. We see a lot of business owners and industrialists disappear because the story is about the owners of a railway company and a steel mill.

In the case of Bioshock, Ryan completely abandons his entire world view because some con man annoys him slightly. Or more likely, he was never an objectivist because the writers didn't know what objectivism was.



I've got some bad news for you (and I guess the thread tax). 99% of those game design channels are complete bullshit that try to sound smart and technical. If Extra Credits hadn't made that "playing World War 2 games makes you a nazi" video, they'd still be cited by indie "devs" who only talk about game design, but never actually make anything.

To be fair, what ultimately lead to the Rapture Civil War was Ryan forcing through a bailout for his rail company when it went under, and he did it because he was facing potential financial ruination. That's one part of it that's clever, Bioshock suggests that when push comes to shove the benevolent market dictators - the "self-made men" - will put their own survival about their principles. It's an aspect of Bioshock's story that I like.

I read Atlas Shrugged in high school; that's my reference for Objectivism. It's basically super-libertarianism where the gimmick is that selfishness is considered outright good. In some sense you can pedantically argue that all altruism is self-interested. The meaningful contribution of Objectivism, I think, was that it encouraged people to appreciate that selfish materialism is a powerful motivation for works of good (or, altruism for works of evil). It's the same idea as Adam Smith, but honed in on and given shock value.

I was slamming Bioshock a bit, but there really is some very thought-provoking in it. I just don't see it as being a successful critique of Objectivism, it's more like it just plays with it. Think about philosophy while you shoot your way through a typical video game. If anything that would probably make it more attractive to wannabe intellectuals, made a million times worse when Infinite set its crosshairs on American exceptionalism. I said somewhere else around here, We Happy Few is IMO a much more clever dystopian game but you don't see people sucking its dick.

This speech gives me chills, it's quote-it-in-the-books material:

*This is one of the things I find retarded about Space Libertarianism. In space (or, in Bioshock, under the sea), you have an environment where there's extremely high risk and everything has to work properly all of the time or you all die. it's the exact environment that would most favor totalitarianism and collectivism. The only take on this that pleased me was The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, where the Moon is a company town that monopolistically supplies utilities and Earth imports and monopsonistically buys goods for export, but otherwise leaves people to their own devices in their shitty Moon hovels.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

I said somewhere else around here, We Happy Few is IMO a much more clever dystopian game but you don't see people sucking its dick.

Im playing Deus Ex for the first time and I actually think its one of the most intelligent dystopian pieces of media in history. Its really up there with 1984 and I think a lot of commies who are claiming it as speaking for them are doing big self reports and being stupid cause its something which caters to everybody's sensibilities wrt the sociopolitical aspects, not just extreme leftism as so many people claim.

If anything that would probably make it more attractive to wannabe intellectuals, made a million times worse when Infinite set its crosshairs on American exceptionalism.

Infinite was about American exceptionalism being built upon a foundation of the original sins of slavery, exploitation, racism all that. I dont think it was purely about American exceptionalism in that really positive way that Bioshock 1 was. Bioshock 1 portrayed Andrew Ryan as an aspirational but flawed figure who was ultimately not the villain compared to powerhungry Frank Fontaine while Infinite depicted pretty much everything in Columbia and Comstock as very evil, in an evangelical redneck kind of way.

That's one part of it that's clever, Bioshock suggests that when push comes to shove the benevolent market dictators - the "self-made men" - will put their own survival about their principles. It's an aspect of Bioshock's story that I like.

Its not really clever, its the basic flaw of every single ideology out there. Some are worse than others in their effects and outcome but every ideology in the end, when push comes to shove, have to abandon their basic principles to ensure they can maintain their hegemony. You can do the same critique of libertarianism Bioshock did with communism, with nazism, with liberalism, with anything frankly cause in an extreme enough situation its never going to be a conflict of ideologies, its always going to be a free for all with the strongest man wins situation.

The meaningful contribution of Objectivism, I think, was that it encouraged people to appreciate that selfish materialism is a powerful motivation for works of good (or, altruism for works of evil). It's the same idea as Adam Smith, but honed in on and given shock value.

I look at it similar to Nietzsches Ubermensch theory, not really about materialism as a motivation but more as a guideline for actualizing potential. Trying to get rid of all flaws in an attempt to make something great and larger than life by making small positive efforts constantly and consistently and achieving things just for the sake of it, so your contribution to humanity can be something substantial.

 

[God of Nothing]

Im playing Deus Ex for the first time and I actually think its one of the most intelligent dystopian pieces of media in history.

Yup. A shame its gameplay is janky as hell

 

[Inafune Fanfiction]

I've got some bad news for you (and I guess the thread tax). 99% of those game design channels are complete bullshit that try to sound smart and technical. If Extra Credits hadn't made that "playing World War 2 games makes you a nazi" video, they'd still be cited by indie "devs" who only talk about game design, but never actually make anything.

“JUST DOWNLOAD IT OFF THE INTERNET BRO!” followed by doomer retardation and demoralization propaganda is all these faggots ever make.

Shilling a discord and a patreon at the end as if they aren’t trying to waste at least an hour of your time.


@Georgio Cocklord
Glownigger, Bioshock Infinite was about debt slavery, not racism.

Fuck off with inserting contemporary hysteria into decade old games.

 

[Georgio Cocklord]

Yup. A shame its gameplay is janky as hell

I actually like the gameplay, it reminds me of a limited version of mgsv which is one of my favourite games of all time. It has a bit of late 90s fps jank like bad crouching, side view being fucked around corners, bad climbing and shitty key assignments but I'm kinda used to that jank so the other stuff is really good, especially the freeform gameplay and the menu interfaces. By RPG standards it's not a great game cause the levelling and customisation are pretty limited but by immersive sim sandbox standards it's pretty fucking good, less complex than system shock 2 but more fun than it and probably the best immersive sim out there, pretty amazing to think that it was made in 99.

@Georgio Cocklord
Glownigger, Bioshock Infinite was about debt slavery, not racism.

Fuck off with inserting contemporary hysteria into decade old games.

No I'm pretty sure it was, not the modern white people bad racism but more of a Wolfenstein TNO type situation "What if the racist evangelical rednecks of 1860s created a utopian society for themselves" type. Comstock is literally a random evangelical who convinced people to follow him like a religious figure while he set up Columbia. It's more accurate to say it's a game about cultism I would say.

 

[Articles and Nudes]

Mick Gordon is an over rated musician.

 

[The Foxtrot]

Mick Gordon is an over rated musician.

The soundtracks for DOOM 2016 and DOOM Eternal each have one memorable track, and that's "Rip & Tear" and "The Only Thing They Fear Is You". Everything else is just unintelligible noise, and even the two tracks mentioned previously fall into that territory of being electronic noise more than music.

Much as I will happily rag on the original DOOM and DOOM II, I can't deny they both actually had a memorable soundtrack.

 

[Calandrino]

The soundtracks for DOOM 2016 and DOOM Eternal each have one memorable track, and that's "Rip & Tear" and "The Only Thing They Fear Is You". Everything else is just unintelligible noise, and even the two tracks mentioned previously fall into that territory of being electronic noise more than music.

Much as I will happily rag on the original DOOM and DOOM II, I can't deny they both actually had a memorable soundtrack.

ima let you finish but Doom 64 had the best soundtrack of all time

 

[The Foxtrot]

ima let you finish but Doom 64 had the best soundtrack of all time

False. That would be Halo 3.

 

[Articles and Nudes]

The soundtracks for DOOM 2016 and DOOM Eternal each have one memorable track, and that's "Rip & Tear" and "The Only Thing They Fear Is You". Everything else is just unintelligible noise, and even the two tracks mentioned previously fall into that territory of being electronic noise more than music. Much as I will happily rag on the original DOOM and DOOM II, I can't deny they both actually had a memorable soundtrack.

Ayup. He did Wolfenstein and everyone ever remembers Ransacked.

 

[Mr Processor]

Its not really clever, its the basic flaw of every single ideology out there. Some are worse than others in their effects and outcome but every ideology in the end, when push comes to shove, have to abandon their basic principles to ensure they can maintain their hegemony. You can do the same critique of libertarianism Bioshock did with communism, with nazism, with liberalism, with anything frankly cause in an extreme enough situation its never going to be a conflict of ideologies, its always going to be a free for all with the strongest man wins situation.

Actually they did that in Bioshock 2, where the enemies were Utopian Socialists as opposed to pseudo-Objectivists. I actually think Bioshock 2 is an underrated game.

 

[Spasticus Autisticus]

Dave the Diver is gook trash. Everyone calls it "relaxing", "chill", "play at your own pace". I don't know what the fuck game they were playing but it's not the one I played. It's an annoying QTE-filled grindfest that constantly forces you into unwanted unskippable cutscenes and takes you out of the flow of what you wanted, which is probably by design because the core of the game is very sparse. The restaurant side game is just Root Beer Tapper combined with Farmville. The combat controls are janky as fuck, the hitboxes make absolutely no sense and the boss fights are difficult for the sake of being difficult. The minigames are dumb as fuck. Oh wow, a memory card game. Neat, a seahorse racing game where you just mash the space bar. A rhythm minigame that takes place in an otaku's wet dream about his waifu, so cool. I legitimately do not understand why this is anything above a Mixed rating on Steam, much less "Overwhelmingly Positive". Gamers really are just niggercattle I suppose.

 

[Asian tech support]

I actually think Bioshock 2 is an underrated game.

In contrast to the first, the only area Bioshock 2 suffered was its level design and even then, it's easy to forget how lame some of the levels in the first were, especially after Fort Frolic. Does anyone remember Hephaestus or Apollo Square at all?

 

[Blue Miaplacidus]

After everyone telling me to play Disco Elysium, that it's "the best RPG they've played in a long" time, I pirated it. It blows. I deleted it after ~2 hours. It started off kind of interesting and got a couple genuine laughs out of me "I want to have fuck with you", but it very quickly became a boring chore full of pretentious dialog that was literally putting me to sleep. I have no idea how anyone could say this is a great game and especially not the "greatest of all time". I guess if you're a post grad english lit faggot it would be interesting, I just found it to be the exact opposite of everything I look forward to in playing a game.

 

[The Ugly One]

made a million times worse when Infinite set its crosshairs on American exceptionalism

The woke revolution sapped the ability of anyone left-of-center to say anything thought-provoking, because their only idea now is, "what if I told you that white men are bad?"