I don't think you're senile, you look like a distinguished gentleman with a very sharp mind and a bitchin' outfit (yes, I know that's not actually you). I was just mentioning what I saw as a tendency to not call these games what they are - which is casual, AAA action RPGs that are as streamlined and handholdy (and everything else the codex seems to hate) as any other AAA game, and that the fact that you can see some tits in the game shouldn't change that or cause people to think of it as something it isn't. I guess the DRM thing also influences opinions about it. Neither of those things really should, though.
Thanks for your honest opinion
CaptainBradbury.
I think that you managed to understand my view: basically as I am getting older I'm starting to find it more and more difficult to analize wether game X or game Y is better or worse because they allow to advance characters up to level 220 or perform 30+ combos with customisable spells.
Nope. What I really want is a game to amuse me and draw me in. To have a story that is so compelling that I want to finish it, so that I can know how it ends. And I also want to see something original.
It's maybe quite a "simpleton" view of gaming. But in these recent times that's more and more how I see things. If it's fun it's good.
I suspect that the "final nail in the coffin for me" was the recent
Pillars of Eternity review right here on the Codex. Hundreds and hundreds of posts were spent, filled with morons attacking each other over which was best:
Pillars of Eternity or
Dragon Age: Inquisition. Some people spent hours and hours debating wether one was the ultimate RPG ever, instead of spending their time playing their favorite game.
As for me the answer to the debate was quite simple: both are mediocre games. PoE is a Baldur's Gate game - only slightly better. And DA:I is a Dragon Age game - only slightly better. Both are fun games in their own way. But both never had the balls to get out of their safety zone.
Witcher 3 will probably be an average game too (with tits). But at least I acknowledge that CDP tried something different this time. Making it "open world". Nothing new in this day and age, of course. But at least they tried to innovate in a certain way. Have they failed? Well, if plenty of people manage to have fun with the game, then CDP did a good job.
When I first came to the Codex last year it was for 2 things:
a) be a Troll in my spare time.
b) get to know some news concerning upcoming CRPGs
I was shocked to see so many guys spending their days debating which had the best levelling system: Baldur's Gate 2 or Temple of Elemental Evil. I then realized that I could be a Troll. But there sure are Trolls living in deeper and more scary crypts than me.
It sort of reminds me of a little story: about 15 years ago me and some mates used to play Heroclix. Since we were all old Marvel fans we used the game to have fun, while at the same time making fun of the Marvel universe.
Now, in our merry little group we had a dude who was a rule freak. Me and the other guys just played the game to have some laughs and pass the time. Not "Mr. Rules", oh no. He wanted to play the game
by the book. Needless to say, sometimes we'd have to pause the game for almost 20 minutes because Mr. Rules wanted to discuss the rules and clarify them so that we wouldn't have to cheat the game. Of course, every time that the ambiguity of the rules benefited Mr. Rules he'd urge us to carry on playing and forget about it.
After a certain time we were having so much fun with the game, that one of the players turned the table and threatened to kick Mr. Rules teeth in.
And thus ended our once fun and finally constricted-by-rules adventures in the strategic world of Marvel.
...
Uh... What was I talking about? I forgot the point.