Incline Disco Elysium - The Final Cut - a hardboiled cop show isometric RPG

[Verylittlefishes]

normie bait,

Wait, who are the hipsters here again? I thought we had exclusive rights to “too mainstream”

As if RPGfags are not niche enough on their own.

 

[Puteo]

Perhaps this is off-topic to the wonderfully constructive and illuminating discourse occurring in this thread; but does anyone know if a release date has been set for the english version of the Discoverse novel?

 

[Verylittlefishes]

Perhaps this is off-topic to the wonderfully constructive and illuminating discourse occurring in this thread; but does anyone know if a release date has been set for the english version of the Discoverse novel?

Sometime in 2020

 

[toro]

Even China is involved in marketing Disco Elysium:

True. The Left cannot meme.

 

[Wunderbar]

the Discoverse novel?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/632470/Disco_Elysium/

 

[PorkyThePaladin]

It's amazing how in the age of Outer Turds, Fallout 76, Ass Effect: Prospermeda, Felinity: Original Meow, and Dullards of Eternity, a great gem like Disco Disco comes out, and some tards here refuse to acknowledge its obvious greatness.

 

[Atchodas]

It's amazing how in the age of Outer Turds, Fallout 76, Ass Effect: Prospermeda, Felinity: Original Meow, and Dullards of Eternity, a great gem like Disco Disco comes out, and some tards here refuse to acknowledge its obvious greatness.

Not sure what visual novel has to do with those games (most of them shit but still games)

 

[Darth Roxor]

More like stating an opinion.

what a ridiculous insinuation

You say it's "pretentious", but for a lot of people the theme and the writing is striking really close home. Mainly because they are during their own midlife crisis.

So, soccer dads

Then you make a claim that "soccer dads don't like anything other than read", which is exactly a reverse of what I heard and keep hearing still: that people don't like to read and readership keeps plummeting.

This is less of a point about their being super-glad to do a lot of reading, and more about the fact they get to skip all the "busywork" like combat, inventory tetris, paying attention to big numbers, etc. As I said, it's the same kind of audience that "really loves adventure games, except for the puzzles", which used to be the core target of all the Telltale Games interactive movies.

Then you make a claim that people like something they can't understand.

As if that was anything new. Or rather, it's a case of people's thinking that something is much more sophisticated just because they don't understand it.

And that "politicool content" even matters to people

Of course it does. "Woohoo, I can finally play out my deepest fantasies of being a raging [insert extreme political affiliation here] haha awesome". The major difference here though is that in DE the political content seems to be very tongue-in-cheek, as opposed to super-serious preaching you find in many other places. This in turn isn't all that different from idk people who say they can't wait to play a dark jedi in a Star Wars game.

If any one the above were true, then Tides of Numenera should've been a hit. It wasn't.

Negative. Numederpa was extremely anti-soccer dad with the slow-ass combat and inventory juggling. I also wouldn't call it particularly pretentious because it was so drab. Further, it lacked DE's gonzo journalism writing style and instead used generic_fantasy_crapola. And finally, it was not at all political, at least not overtly (out-of-character musings and observations about there being no white people a hundred million billion years into the future don't apply).

and most importantly, tton was just a completely uninspired, confused and lifeless piece of trash

 

[Lithium Flower]

I agree with Roxor. It seems intuitive to me that a combat-less game with a lot of humor and a topical narrative would have more mainstream appeal than, say, the majority of CRPG renaissance games (not to suggest that there is anything wrong with that.) I have no idea if this bears out empirically in terms of sales numbers but it seems like a reasonable suspicion.

Also, soccer dads pack mean bulges UwU

 

[Lacrymas]

The most popular mainstream titles are gameplay-heavy, though, it might not be good gameplay, but it's definitely not reading without doing anything.

 

[Trashos]

Come on, now, you guys really believe that DE ended up there because it was.... so great!? It does not matter if it is the greatest game ever made, that is not how you end up on Time's front cover.

 

[Trashos]

Inb4 the next 2 covers are Underrail Expeditions and an Arcanum retrospective.

 

[fantadomat]

This game is amazing,i haven't seen Darth Roxor talk that passionately about a game in a fucking long time. He even goes on arguing and saying retarded shit like a normal poster,it is amazing!

 

[Saduj]

Every mainstream RPG ever had tons of combat but a combat-free RPG is obviously the most mainstream thing evah!

Also, people who use the word “normie” unironically are not to be taken seriously.

 

[jebsmoker]

depends. some 'normies' don't comprehend certain internet niches the same way other people do

 

[Trashos]

You know who gets butthurt when someone says "normies"?

The normies.

 

[Oreshnik Missile]

DE gets praised by big outlets for the same reason darkie terrorists win Nobel Peace Prizes

 

[Lithium Flower]

The most popular mainstream titles are gameplay-heavy, though, it might not be good gameplay, but it's definitely not reading without doing anything.

Multiple demographics can be encompassed by the overton window of mainstream gaming. There is probably little to no overlap between COD players and mobile gamers, for instance, but both are much more popular genres than the hardcore CRPG niche this website was originally dedicated to.

Of course, something being more/less popular does not mean you should enjoy it more (although this ends up being true more often than we would want it to be.)

 

[Puteo]

It seems intuitive to me that a combat-less game with a lot of humor and a topical narrative would have more mainstream appeal than, say, the majority of CRPG renaissance games

You say that as though you think mainstream opinion has any sort of objective standard they follow.

The mainstream considers things to be good because they are told said things are good. Whether it's marketing, word-of-mouth, or reviewers, it doesn't matter. Trying to ascribe any other pattern to the madness is plain hubris.

The same people who play easy railroaded popamole like Halo and Gears of War will also play a challenging and frequently confusing game like Dark Souls; because they are told it is good. Just as those same people will go and play Disco, because they are told it is good.

The only conclusion to draw from that is such a franchise and genre is going to get much more funding and be much more commercially viable than it was previously.

 

[Prime Junta]

I’m a normie

 

[fantadomat]

I’m a normie

 

[Lithium Flower]

It seems intuitive to me that a combat-less game with a lot of humor and a topical narrative would have more mainstream appeal than, say, the majority of CRPG renaissance games

You say that as though you think mainstream opinion has any sort of objective standard they follow.

I did not. There is no objective standard to follow.

The mainstream considers things to be good because they are told said things are good. Whether it's marketing, word-of-mouth, or reviewers, it doesn't matter. Trying to ascribe any other pattern to the madness is plain hubris.

The same people who play easy railroaded popamole like Halo and Gears of War will also play a challenging and frequently confusing game like Dark Souls; because they are told it is good. Just as those same people will go and play Disco, because they are told it is good.

Your analysis requires data that I suspect neither of us have. So how does my heuristic require any more hubris than your own? Seems like it is about as valid as the unsubstantiated gut feeling I presented in the post you are replying to.

The only conclusion to draw from that is such a franchise and genre is going to get much more funding and be much more commercially viable than it was previously.

My only point is that I suspect in the same way that there is a popular demand for games that require a lot of comparatively low-skill action (let's say most mainstream action/fps games) there is probably a popular demand for action-less games (let's say walking sims and visual novels) that comes from an entirely different but rather sizable demographic which Roxor so elegantly identified as soccer dads with big bulgies UwU. It seems intuitive to me that DE has a set of characteristics that would satisfy the latter demand, and I would expect it to be more popular than our beloved Age of Underrails while not quite reaching the levels of popularity of Dragon Rims or Calls of Battles etc. Naturally, some basic sales data showing otherwise would readily prove me wrong.

Whether you think this reflects well or poorly on DE is entirely up to you.

 

[Lacrymas]

You say that as though you think mainstream opinion has any sort of objective standard they follow.

The mainstream considers things to be good because they are told said things are good. Whether it's marketing, word-of-mouth, or reviewers, it doesn't matter. Trying to ascribe any other pattern to the madness is plain hubris.

The same people who play easy railroaded popamole like Halo and Gears of War will also play a challenging and frequently confusing game like Dark Souls; because they are told it is good. Just as those same people will go and play Disco, because they are told it is good.

The only conclusion to draw from that is such a franchise and genre is going to get much more funding and be much more commercially viable than it was previously.

I can't help but sense something good in this. This can be controlled and it in turn can influence the genre preferences or at least which genres are popular to develop for. I'm curious if something will happen now that a "politically charged" and "well written" game like DE has received such praise and debatable adulation. I thought the same thing when D:OS1 and 2 were well received and it seems like we are almost swimming in (not very good) TB RPGs nowadays, we'll see if we'll drown in visual novels next.

 

[Citizen]

I’m a normie

Same. Codex normies unite

 

[Harthwain]

You say it's "pretentious", but for a lot of people the theme and the writing is striking really close home. Mainly because they are during their own midlife crisis.

So, soccer dads

Touche.

Then you make a claim that "soccer dads don't like anything other than read", which is exactly a reverse of what I heard and keep hearing still: that people don't like to read and readership keeps plummeting.

This is less of a point about their being super-glad to do a lot of reading, and more about the fact they get to skip all the "busywork" like combat, inventory tetris, paying attention to big numbers, etc. As I said, it's the same kind of audience that "really loves adventure games, except for the puzzles", which used to be the core target of all the Telltale Games interactive movies.

You may not be wrong in what you're saying here, but I am thinking there is more to it than that. After all, we aren't talking about 70% or 80% positive reviews (which is more or less the norm for universally liked titles). It's 96%. Almost literally everyone loves the game. Both the critics and the players alike. So it isn't simply about developers hitting some large segment of the population, but somehow managing to appeal to nearly everybody. And that's not easy to do, otherwise we'd have a lot of more games doing that and their developers swimming in money.

Then you make a claim that people like something they can't understand.

As if that was anything new. Or rather, it's a case of people's thinking that something is much more sophisticated just because they don't understand it.

What you're talking about sounds more like criticizing paintings in the art gallery. The usual reaction to "I don't understand it" is "This is stoooopid! Me angry! Game bad! BAD! Thumb down!".

And that "politicool content" even matters to people

Of course it does. "Woohoo, I can finally play out my deepest fantasies of being a raging [insert extreme political affiliation here] haha awesome". The major difference here though is that in DE the political content seems to be very tongue-in-cheek, as opposed to super-serious preaching you find in many other places. This in turn isn't all that different from idk people who say they can't wait to play a dark jedi in a Star Wars game.

You have a point here, although I'd rather attribute the same less to the inclusion of actual politicks in the game and more to the sheer hilarity of what you can do (which encompasses more than just politicks - literally everything that's crazy, over the top stuff you usually don't have in other games).

Negative. Numederpa was extremely anti-soccer dad with the slow-ass combat and inventory juggling. I also wouldn't call it particularly pretentious because it was so drab. Further, it lacked DE's gonzo journalism writing style and instead used generic_fantasy_crapola. And finally, it was not at all political, at least not overtly (out-of-character musings and observations about there being no white people a hundred million billion years into the future don't apply).

and most importantly, tton was just a completely uninspired, confused and lifeless piece of trash

I will call Numenera pretentious. No, more than that. It was a goddamn COLOSSUS of pretentiousness and I dare you to find a worthy challenger to even match that. Because writing billions of words only to pad your "developer stats" and be able to tell people how many pages you have is the epitome of pretentiousness.