Death to Numbers

[DragoFireheart]

You pick armor by numbers? Why? I just pick what makes me look the pimpest.

 

[Azrael the cat]

There's nothing wrong with the guy's taste. It's just a pity that the absence of adventure games has led him to think that what he's after is a rpg.

 

[easychord]

I remember the childish joy of role playing as an infant where we were free of the tyranny of numbers and simply imagined that the we were shooting at each other with imaginary guns. It was shit, I got bored of it very quickly even when I was five years old. Another thing that is shit and boring is Kotaku.

 

[someone else]

Wow, this moron doesn't realise that PST without giving the numbers will be a total stinker. Changing wisdom of 18 to *xtremely wise* and 11 to *average* will dilute my reading experience. Half the fun of PST is to bring my thaco to a lower negative. I bet he likes to watch those stolen from FF7-like spell cutscenes instead of planning level-up point distributions to unlock circles and conversations.

Fuck off and play counterstrike. Oh wait, that game has numbers when you want to buy weapons. LOLOLOLOLLLO maybe he should play call of duty instead but he has to count bullets maybe ammo should be infinite. LOLLOLLOL

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

I don't get it. Maybe he want's games to be so easy that you don't need to know them, because even in other genres you got to worry about stuff like frame data, priority, damage per second, spawn percentages, ETA's and so on. And obviously he want's RPG's to be more like Halo, because other styles of combat need numbers... In fact character developement has numbers in it, so that has to go, too. So in fact he wants an easy third-person action game with dialogue choices.

I wonder how fighting games have retained their control style to this day, without faggots complaining "This is 2101! Why not just have one button hadokens and shit and let me fight?".

EDIT : Uh. What kind of boys play dress-up? I hope he means putting a helmet on and go play war.

 

[Dorf]

Where to begin.... I mean how do you role play without numbers? How do you track your progress in a game or the building up of your character without out some measurement system? I mean is he saying we should be using words like "Terrible, very bad, bad, not quite bad, ok, not quite good..." you get the drift instead of just using 0,1,2,3,4,5? How is that less, or more diffcult? Can we just use words for numbers instead of numbers? One, two, three... and so on?

The article is filled with all sorts of stupid and I cannot believe anyone can write that and then think objectively and not go back and re-read and not say to himself, "Wow, what total bullshit."

Seriously, he must have had a deadline and a serious amount of pot smoking the night before inspired this insipid drivel. When he sobers up he will not be able to deny is stupidity.

 

[janjetina]

This article sounds like one of my troll posts on Bioware message boards. Then again, so does the whole system of Dragon Age 2. They are really targeting people whose IQ is below average and who lack education at the elementary level, hence the animosity towards numbers (and to a lesser extent, towards reading). When dumbing down is concerned, sky is the limit.

 

[ortucis]

Where to begin.... I mean how do you role play without numbers? How do you track your progress in a game or the building up of your character without out some measurement system? I mean is he saying we should be using words like "Terrible, very bad, bad, not quite bad, ok, not quite good..." you get the drift instead of just using 0,1,2,3,4,5? How is that less, or more diffcult? Can we just use words for numbers instead of numbers? One, two, three... and so on?

Funny thing, BioWare came up with a solution in DA2. Numbers are replaced with stars. Have fun figuring out which one of the ten, 3-starred items, are the best.

 

[Jools]

2011 kotakufags cannot into numbers, it seems...

 

[Norfleet]

You pick armor by numbers? Why? I just pick what makes me look the pimpest.

But picking armor by the numbers *IS* how you wind up as a rainbow pimp.

 

[circ]

Where to begin.... I mean how do you role play without numbers? How do you track your progress in a game or the building up of your character without out some measurement system? I mean is he saying we should be using words like "Terrible, very bad, bad, not quite bad, ok, not quite good..." you get the drift instead of just using 0,1,2,3,4,5? How is that less, or more diffcult? Can we just use words for numbers instead of numbers? One, two, three... and so on?

Funny thing, BioWare came up with a solution in DA2. Numbers are replaced with stars. Have fun figuring out which one of the ten, 3-starred items, are the best.

Stars are easy. They're all stars so any will do. Because they're stars. Stars are big and shiny. Stars oooh. Twinkly twinkly stars. Ooooh. Look look.

KAWAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII DESU KA

 

[Andyman Messiah]

It's been ages since I saw a number in a rpg. What is the point of the article?

 

[ortucis]

Where to begin.... I mean how do you role play without numbers? How do you track your progress in a game or the building up of your character without out some measurement system? I mean is he saying we should be using words like "Terrible, very bad, bad, not quite bad, ok, not quite good..." you get the drift instead of just using 0,1,2,3,4,5? How is that less, or more diffcult? Can we just use words for numbers instead of numbers? One, two, three... and so on?

Funny thing, BioWare came up with a solution in DA2. Numbers are replaced with stars. Have fun figuring out which one of the ten, 3-starred items, are the best.

Stars are easy. They're all stars so any will do. Because they're stars. Stars are big and shiny. Stars oooh. Twinkly twinkly stars. Ooooh. Look look.

KAWAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII DESU KA

 

[Merkwürdigliebe]

Why so butthurt about them numbers. Was he buttraped with an abacus or something? Do the cool kids these days think that hindu-arabic numerals are so 1990?

I think he is talking about hiding numbers as a feedback from players, not from computers.

Fairly so, otherwise they would be impossible to code.
I don't see the point, though, unless somehow his brain freezes at the very sight of a number: oh god, an 11, what was I supposed to do again?"
To reiterate the general opinion hereabouts, I don't see the overwhelming numbers assaulting me from every direction in modern rpgs. Truth be told, I they're pretty timid in that respect.

So, yay for gaming journos and their new writing niche - strawman articles.

Obviously the fact that these unwashed peasants are able to use the PC machines in the first place is because the Indian numerals are to accessible, therefor we must start using roman numerals in all technological circumstances in order to drive them away from this glorious platform.

Roll thine IIIdVI for you strenght score.

 

[mondblut]

This one armour is a armour strength 5, but this other one is armour strength 6.

There might not be a big difference between them, but that little number is enough for even the dumbest person in the world to figure out which on is better.

And then it happens to be an AD&D game. Butthurt ensues :D

 

[Begriffenfeldt]

Funny thing, BioWare came up with a solution in DA2. Numbers are replaced with stars. Have fun figuring out which one of the ten, 3-starred items, are the best.

But question: If you have sword with star star star, then you have sword with star star, which is more kill? And what about sword with only star?

 

[The Gentleman Loser]

Hear, hear!

And what's with all these guns in shooting games?

And driving games... do they really need all those cars?



----

OK, joking aside... there was already a genre about storytelling and exploration that did not rely on stats.

The genre was called "Adventure Games".

That genre died.

 

[Deleted member 11480]

 

[The Gentleman Loser]

Really though... it's like people want "beat-'em-ups" and "shooters" to merge with "Adventure Games".

That's basically what most sandbox games are, i.e. Prototype, Just Cause, GTA, Assassin's Creed, etc.

That's fine I guess... but then to call that kind of game an RPG?

There is an "Action/Adventure" genre and an "RPG" genre for a reason.

 

[HanoverF]

Bros, why does this rpg have numbers, and not cover based shooting? Mass Effect2 got it right!

 

[zeitgeist]

Nothing surprising. People have been brainwashed by major corporations' "this action game/shooter/choose-your-own-adventure/dating sim/whatever is an RPG because we make RPGs so what else could it be" PR/marketing for so long that it's already perfectly natural for people who don't like RPGs at all to honestly think they are playing RPGs and that they love the genre. And when these "RPGs" become even less RPG-like, those people will be overjoyed that the "RPG developers" are catering to them - "hardcore RPG gamers".

 

[Black Cat]

KAWAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII DESU KA

Why are you asking us?

The genre was called "Adventure Games".

That genre died.

Actually that genre is far more alive than classical, Codex aproved, role playing games.

 

[The Gentleman Loser]

The genre was called "Adventure Games".

That genre died.

Actually that genre is far more alive than classical, Codex aproved, role playing games.

Yeah, I'll admit it's making a comeback with Telltale and a few other companies.

It really did die for a while though... maybe RPGs will do the same. Die and Resurge.

 

[circ]

Actually that genre is far more alive than classical, Codex aproved, role playing games.

Right. Cell shaded toddler games and iPod games are comparable to Day of the Tentacle and Beneath a Steel Sky.

 

[J_J_M]

What the hell constitutes for a RPG then if you take the numbers out? We already have a word for games like that, it's called adventure and action games. Developers seem to have an irresistable compulsion to call every popamole action game a RPG. Can't you just call it for what it is? What's the catch here?

My guess is the word "RPG" has become a marketing buzzword to make a game stand out from the rest of the dime a dozen honest button mashers. It has lost its meaning.