True Gaming Games with the best hardcore/survival/"alternate" difficulty modes? |
- Games with the best hardcore/survival/"alternate" difficulty modes?
- The World Health Organization's inclusion of a new disorder called 'gaming disorder' is unnecessary and potentially damaging.
- Why "mass warfare" always devolves into a zerg rush, and how to fix it.
- Are controllers doomed to their current button layout unless the big players collaborate on a new standard?
- I've noticed that games with the "difficult" reputation are often quite enjoyable for super casual gamers. Explanation?
- What do you think the "point" of tycoon games is?
Games with the best hardcore/survival/"alternate" difficulty modes? Posted: 03 Jan 2018 01:30 PM PST For me, I never REALLY got in to Fallout 4 until I played Survival mode. Not only did it make things much more difficult, but changed tons of gameplay elements as well (such as taking previously marginal items like antibiotics and making them essential to surviving) What other games have you played which include difficulty modes that make the game far more engaging, beyond just ramping up enemy damage/health and the "normal" hard mode changes? [link] [comments] |
Posted: 03 Jan 2018 10:53 AM PST You've probably seen, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has included a preliminary disorder known as 'gaming disorder' for their upcoming diagnostic manual. As expected, it's been met with a lot of criticism and ridicule. As gamers, our instinctive reaction is often to laugh off things that may potentially threaten our hobby, but I wanted to view the announcement through a less biased viewpoint (I also have a Psychology background, which helped). I decided to go through the classification of the disorder step-by-step while critiquing it. My thoughts are as follows:
I've expanded on these thoughts and examined the criteria in this video, if anyone's interested in having a look! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNB1TFizQ1o But I'm mostly interested in discussing it with everyone on here because I haven't really seen any constructive conversations about it.
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Why "mass warfare" always devolves into a zerg rush, and how to fix it. Posted: 02 Jan 2018 10:13 PM PST We hear the stories of video games of the dramatic turn-around, where creative tactics and teamwork enable a small group of players to turn back an otherwise overwhelming force and win the day. Yet in an age of so many "Mass warfare" video games, why are these stories so rare? For these examples, I'm going to consider any game of at least 40 on 40 to be a 'mass warfare' game. So let's look at some factors we can agree about how people behave in video games, and the considerations thereof.
These lead to a consistent pattern: A game that could be an incredible back and forth battle turns into a zerg rush. Let me use a few of the games from before as examples.
There is an exception to this of course, EVE online. What separates EVE online from the common 'mass warfare' game is that players have a stake in the outcome beyond a victory or defeat screen, where a battle for territory may impact their revenue for months to come. That gives them the reason to "stick it out and hope reinforcements arrive" in a losing battle, it gives them a reason to work together and use clever tactics. But EVE also requires a staggering amount of investment from the player, and penalizes loss, two things that earn it a very "niche" reputation. There are a few solutions I see, but each has their own drawbacks.
I'd be very eager to hear what ideas other folks have for how we can deal with the conflict between 'mass warfare' game principles, and human nature. [link] [comments] |
Posted: 02 Jan 2018 04:27 PM PST It took many console generations but controllers ended up being very standardized: 4 shoulder buttons, 4 face buttons, 2 middle buttons, 2 analog sticks and a D-pad. Every controller has those basic elements and so every game is designed around that button layout. You get companies trying different things like the Wii U gamepad or the PS4 touchpad but they almost always get completely ignored save for a few exclusives because they're not standardized. If you want to sell your game on multiple platforms then you can't cater to those specific controls other than maybe a nice extra. They can never be a core part of a game's design unless the game is exclusive to that console and controller. At this point, can this ever change? I think stuff like the Steam Controller or the back paddles or the Xbox Elite controller are really good ideas, but they're never gonna be fully integrated into games unless they become standard across all controllers. Is it impossible to see a big layout change being implemented at this point unless Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo collaborate on a new standard? [link] [comments] |
Posted: 03 Jan 2018 09:37 AM PST Recently, my wife has been playing through Ori and the Blind Forest, a game reputed to be quite punishing and often unforgiving. I hesitantly recommended it to her after she watched me the play and was enamored by the gorgeous artstyle. SHe is about as casual a gamer as you can get - 90% of her playing time is made up of easy time-killers like The Sims and Rollercoaster Tycoon. She also enjoys platformers like Mario and Donkey Kong, and old school games like Commander Keen and Pepsi Man (anybody remember that one?). So she starts playing Ori and to my surprise, she's actually even better at it than I am! She's just blazing through the game right now and loving it. She's also been playing Donkey Kong Country tropical freeze, another notoriously difficult game, and loving it as well while being really good at it. So it really got me thinking, how is someone who has no knowledge/interest of the gaming industry and gaming mechanics be so good at games that even "hardcore" gamers may find testing? Is it that "blank slate" mindset that helps her be good at it? She is going into these games with essentially no knowledge of their difficulty, reputation or quality, and simply based on artwork (in case of Ori) and childhood nostalgia (tropical freeze). So maybe this lack of expectation helps her tackle the game on its own terms and get immersed in the experience as opposed to "expecting" a difficult game and seeing it as simply a challenge to overcome? FWIW she's tried many AAA open-world games which are typically easy and hand-holdy and didn't really enjoy them because "there's too much talking and too much stuff on the maps". In fact, she doesn't care for stories and narrative in games at all - she just likes having an objective to complete. Kind of anecdotal but something I found interesting...also I'm jealous that she's better at these games than I am lol :p [link] [comments] |
What do you think the "point" of tycoon games is? Posted: 02 Jan 2018 10:50 PM PST |
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