J1M
Arcane
- Joined
- May 14, 2008
- Messages
- 14,630
There is nothing I hate more about modern game design than "choose your own difficulty", which is exactly what you are talking about when you hand the player something like a turn timer or a set of weapons of different objective quality levels. Rather than playing an interesting, well-designed challenge, the player is asked to try multiple difficulty levels in the hope of finding one that is fun.
Essentially, designers are abdicating their responsibility for properly balancing a game to the player.
Game too easy because you are using that good weapon you found? Maybe you should save it and use a weaker one! Would you like to invest a limited resource here? We won't tell you what it does! Do you want the stress of time pressure? Don't worry, I haven't provided any indication as to how much buffer room was added! Done our limited selection of content? Turn up the difficulty level and do it again!
I know it is a pillar of RPGs, but the treadmill of incremental power increases is stupid. I would much rather see character growth in the form of different, but not strictly better, options. For example, different elemental damage types with interesting situational usage.
Essentially, designers are abdicating their responsibility for properly balancing a game to the player.
Game too easy because you are using that good weapon you found? Maybe you should save it and use a weaker one! Would you like to invest a limited resource here? We won't tell you what it does! Do you want the stress of time pressure? Don't worry, I haven't provided any indication as to how much buffer room was added! Done our limited selection of content? Turn up the difficulty level and do it again!
I know it is a pillar of RPGs, but the treadmill of incremental power increases is stupid. I would much rather see character growth in the form of different, but not strictly better, options. For example, different elemental damage types with interesting situational usage.