all work and no play...

[ad hominem]

From a recent article over at gamerswithjobs.com:

Nearly every video game since "tank pong" has buried its best content behind layers of work. Unlike any other retail product I can think of, when you buy a video game, the chances that you will actually get what you paid for are infinitesimal. I can't think of a single game I've played where I am confident that I've seen every single level; unveiled every coveted secret; unlocked every whatsit and pretty and soundtrack left like kipple by the designers in the dark corners of the code.

I bought it. I want my game.

Anyone here agree with this guy? I just don't see this making a lot of sense; there's fluffer material but you gotta have something to play for. Often the earlier levels are set up to let you train for the later ones so you don't get your ass handed to you. I've seen cool quasi-implementations of this fast-forwarding (Chrono Trigger comes to mind), but what the hell? The Moby Dick analogy left me scratching my head a bit too; you can skip those chapers in Melville because he trails off into a treatise on whaling techniques for 300 pages...there's no exposition.

Anyway, curious to hear opinions.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

The guy is a fucking retard and deserves to die or at least to get fired.

The mentality he displays in his fuckwit article is exactly what lead to retarded game concepts like famous "You can join all guilds at one time" or fast-travel and the total lack of challenge in most modern games.

1) Childish desire for instant-"fun"
I don't say games should be work, but sometimes the work aspect can be part of the fun. Take strategy games for example. The "work", controlling your units at the front, at the same time taking care of your base, and making sure your reinforcements lines keep intact is certainly work and stress, but it is satisfying work which is fun.

Things like these are constantly eliminated in todays game in favour of the chocolate milk kiddies and retards like this guy. For them, fun means click-click boom-boom.
Or in the words of a famous (and by famous I mean retarded) Beth designer "It will take you straight to the fun"
This CAN be fun in certain genres like dumb serious same type fun shooters, but generally its a shitty concept.


2) Childish desire for "I want to have it all on my first playtrough!"
Again, Oblivion is a most prominent child of such retarded design concepts.
The idea of saying that it is a "rip-off" if you dont discover everything on your first playtrough or have to do something first in order to see it is dumbfuckiness beyond belief.
Choices and consequences is the magic word.
To take the guys example, if you choose to play a lawful char in Oblivion who never steals, you wont be able to discover the grey fox. live with it. Next time you play a thief and get this possiblity. that encourages repliability, roleplay, and makes tzhe world realistic.

P.S.: Oblivion is already awfuly dumbed down in this respect (see exampe of "i can join all guilds at the same time")
The fact that the guys still finds something to complain about oblivion in this respect, a game is the ultimate messias for all "I WANT MY CHOCOLATE MILK NOW" kiddies, shows what a complete and fucking moron he is.

Today gaming audience want to have served everything on the silver tablett, which leads to all the concequences we experience today.
Whats next? Someone saying games without godmode suck because its a rip off when he dies in the game and cant experience the rest of it without puting some effort in it?

Oh wait, thats basicly what the articles says...

Excuse me, I bought the game. I'd like to go directly to the pretty monster of death.

Excuse me, I bought the game, so I want all the ph47 l00t at once. Why the fucking game doesnt give me the possibiity to equip my level 1 char right from the start with the uber magik armor of fucking invincibility and the uber speshul bash0r sword +20? I mean, i payed for the fucking game!
Where is the fucking god mode button, i payed for the game!

I have no words to describe this mental absurdity...

 

[Twinfalls]

The guy is a fucking retard and deserves to die or at least to get fired.

Yes. This is Motherfucking Chocolate Milk syndrome epitomised. Christ almighty can we please send Roqua or Blackhart over there to fuck that prize retard in his lazy, stupid, burger-heavy ass til he's dead.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

The guy is a fucking retard and deserves to die or at least to get fired.

Yes. This is Motherfucking Chocolate Milk syndrome epitomised. Christ almighty can we please send Roqua or Blackhart over there to fuck that prize retard in the ass til he's dead.

Roqua, your country needs you

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

I remember all the discussions on using trainers and cheats in single player being okay because you bought the game and you should be able to play it how you like. Well, welcome to the logical continuation of that lame ass argument.

 

[HotSnack]

While I don't agree with the guy's examples, some games should be played with all the pieces as it were. If anything, I think a real killer is when devs decide to force their games that were designed for instant gratification, into a treadmill system in order to artificially extend the game's length. It would be like buying a chess computer game, but then realising you're not allowed rooks until you've cleared "conquest mode".

A real life example would be Guild Wars. It was advertised as a game where player skills mattered more than time played, and during the beta this was true. Players were able to select from a wide range of skills - all carefully balanced to have a use in the game. You could only bring a set amount of skills with you, so what this usually meant was that games were more often decided by your choice and usage of skills rather than levels.
Of course then came retail, and the people who had played the beta then had the pleasant surprise of finding out that a lot of the skills were locked out. More importantly, a lot of staple skills were locked until mid to late game, which meant some classes couldn't even play their role well for a lot of the game. Some skills that were vital to make a certain build work were placed in hellish death traps - even worse the skills were randomly spawned, which meant on average you would have to go over the same area 2-4 times just to obtain it.

Edited to clarify my point.

 

[Spazmo]

I think what the author is complaining about is stuff like unlockables in fighting games and so on. Like, you beat the game on ultra double penis difficulty with the shittiest character using only forward punches and it unlocks some other character in the special blue outfit. THAT sort of thing is fairly tedious.

 

[Imbecile]

Its pretty obvious that you shouldnt be able to do everything within a game - if you do it means that theres no meaningful choice and no challenge.

About the only time that I would agree with him is for multiplayer games like micromachines. Shit 1 player, but very entertaining multiplayer. You want all the cars and all the tracks available immediately without having to trawl through the wank single player game.

 

[odan]

I stopped reading after this (3rd paragraph) :
"When I buy a book, the only thing that stands in the way of completing it is the page count. And I know the page count going in. I can read the last chapter standing in the bookstore. If I find Chapter 56 too cumbersome, I can skip it entirely and move on to the better parts of Moby Dick (there are better parts, trust me)."

And this stuff appears on slashdot front page...

 

[Frau Bishop]

And this stuff appears on slashdot front page...

It was so dull that even the funny5s were boring.

 

[Zomg]

Bleah. His argument is so easy to make: an appeal to busy-ness and the triviality of game experiences. It's cheap and establishment. Although, the first responder on the thread takes an even easier counterargument. Maybe GWJ should just write a self-interacting program to make articles like that in the future.

It's funny, but I find competitive games to put me into the "Gah, I have to work to have fun?" frame of mind more than single player games. I played a lot of fighting games when I was younger, and it just became demoralizing to have to learn new systems constantly as they released more games and characters. It's not the learning that's annoying - you learn new things in the context of play - but just constantly re-obtaining competence. I have a friend that's always pestering me to learn billiards, but I can perceive the mountain of effort waiting behind that first step (and since it's a physical game, money) that I would end up having to put into it to compete in a fun way.