Octopus Overlords

works

And now we can pick apart your gaming history.

74.2 hours on Deluxe Hentai Battles? Really?

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed May 13, 2020 6:00 pm And now we can pick apart your gaming history.

74.2 hours on Deluxe Hentai Battles? Really?

Honestly, the most embarrassing thing is that my most played game is...Tera. And even that has less than 100 hours.

I haven't done any of my big time sink MMO's (FF XIV, ESO, GW2, Neverwinter) through Steam.

What's up with Hetz at Steam level 172? It's like most of us aren't even trying.

I'm definitely not even trying.

I don’t even know what one does to gain levels. Nor do I much care.

Card sets and Steam events, mostly.

Playing an oldie. Hard Truck Apocalypse. Having a blast, although I'm apparently stuck in a main quest mission where I'm supposed to follow a bandit truck back to their hideout. I'm really not sure what I'm doing wrong though as I insta-fail the mission for no apparent reason. I'll be closely following them and then the game will tell me the bandit escaped. Unless I'm supposed to fail. It's now telling me to report back to the mayor of the town that gave me the quest.

Epic charges taxes for a totally digital purchase. Damn. I remember the days when a online site didn't charge taxes unless they had a warehouse in your state never mind an all digital item.

Had two major realizations as I've tried playing through Pillars of Eternity 2 this weekend:

1. Back in the day, I used to really love exploring cities in CRPG's. Getting to new places full of people to talk with and things to do was very exciting. Now, whenever I get to a huge city where everyone I talk to has a new sidequest and my journal suddenly explodes from 3 to 26 quests, my eyes just glaze over and my interest in the game disappears. Having a big to-do list just isn't nearly as enjoyable for me anymore, which is a disappointing realization.

2. I have zero interest in anything that has to do with seafaring or pirates. I don't find sailing, naval combat, or general pirat-ey things interesting or enjoyable at all.

I share #1. Used to be great. But that first town you come to in the first POE made me quit. I looked forward to getting there then I had to walk all people, people talked and talked and talked, I got a lot of quests....and deleted the game lol.

Oh man, yeah, I agree. In my early teens JRPGs were like crack... in my later teens it was CRPGs. The more NPCs the better! I'd initiate conversation multiple times until I was sure I'd explored every branch and heard every bit of world building. I loved their huge expansive worlds. But as an adult it just seems like work. Especially when the writing is uninspired. I think part of the problem is the more traditional games that stick to the, "new town: talk to everybody and collect quests before venturing back into the world" convention without any combat to break things up.

Even if you know you're not going to miss anything by not talking to everyone immediately, it feels inefficient. In JRPGs especially, there's the worry that a major event will occur, and some of those quests/conversations will be inaccessible later. In open world games à la TES, if you don't get the quest now, you might clear the dungeon/kill the mob first and miss out on the story/reward.

I think side quests made that effect worse for me. They break up the storytelling. You do the introduction to six different quests, then go do the rest of one, then part of the next, the rest of another. It's like reading the first three chapters if a half a dozen novels, then finishing them one by one after you've forgotten what's going on. It turns quests into checklists instead of stories. It isn't so bad when there are a couple of local issues to deal with, but when you get something that gives you piles of them spread all over the world, the whole game starts to suffer for it.

Skyrim is a great example. You can end up on so many quests that you have absolutely no clue what half of them are about or where you got them.

Yeah... if I put one of those games down for more than a few days, I just can't come back. So I don't usually even try anymore. Games that provide summaries of completed quests are awesome.

i've resorted to Hot Shots Golf 3 on the PS2. i don't know why.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 11:20 pm You do the introduction to six different quests, then go do the rest of one, then part of the next, the rest of another. It's like reading the first three chapters if a half a dozen novels, then finishing them one by one after you've forgotten what's going on.

This is a perfect summary of what happened for me with PoE 2 over this past weekend. After getting the 12th random quest with a lengthy exposition about why I alone could solve this urgent issue I knew nothing about 5 minutes ago, I simply stopped caring and uninstalled it. I can barely multi-task in real life, much less in a game.

Frustrating part is that the first zone was actually pretty good in this regard. There were a few quests and tasks (4 or 5) with very clear objectives. It kept me busy without being overwhelming, and was mixed up with traveling around the zone and fighting battles. I was hoping the rest of the game was going to follow suit, but it ended up vomiting quests all over me the moment I got to the main city, and I just zoned out.

One thing that would make a HUGE difference (for me, anyways) is if these games included any sort of quest marker for both quest givers and quest objectives. Letting me know at least the general direction I should head to find the objective or somehow indicating "this person has a quest for you" would go a long ways towards easing some of the frustration of a bazillion quests and an overly vague quest journal. I get that people don't like hand-holding in their games anymore, so make it an option you can toggle off or something.

I'm really afraid that Baldur's Gate 3 is going to fall down that same hole, as I had a similar issue with Divinity OS2 (same dev). OS2 was a little better about easing you into the quest overload (I got 15 hours in before getting crushed under it), but still got there.

hitbyambulance wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 1:56 am i've resorted to Hot Shots Golf 3 on the PS2. i don't know why.

Because it's awesome.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:35 am I'm really afraid that Baldur's Gate 3 is going to fall down that same hole

I'll definitely be surprised if it doesn't. BG2 is the game I most link to this kind of behavior. Chapter 2 was brutal. It became a major slog for me. I think the last time I played I just stopped talking to people until I'd completed some of the collected quests.

TheMix wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:40 am

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:35 am I'm really afraid that Baldur's Gate 3 is going to fall down that same hole

I'll definitely be surprised if it doesn't. BG2 is the game I most link to this kind of behavior. Chapter 2 was brutal. It became a major slog for me. I think the last time I played I just stopped talking to people until I'd completed some of the collected quests.

Agreed. My recent attempt at replaying BG2 on Switch met with the same quest overload fate in Chapter 2.

I used to have such a high tolerance for that sort of thing, and really enjoyed it. Wish that was still the case.

TheMix wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:40 am

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:35 am I'm really afraid that Baldur's Gate 3 is going to fall down that same hole

I'll definitely be surprised if it doesn't. BG2 is the game I most link to this kind of behavior. Chapter 2 was brutal. It became a major slog for me. I think the last time I played I just stopped talking to people until I'd completed some of the collected quests.

I've found that if I don't talk to people (in general for these kinds of games, not just BG2) and collect their quests, I simply don't do them because it's not usually worth my time to circle back around once I pass through an area.

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:35 am

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 11:20 pm You do the introduction to six different quests, then go do the rest of one, then part of the next, the rest of another. It's like reading the first three chapters if a half a dozen novels, then finishing them one by one after you've forgotten what's going on.

This is a perfect summary of what happened for me with PoE 2 over this past weekend. After getting the 12th random quest with a lengthy exposition about why I alone could solve this urgent issue I knew nothing about 5 minutes ago, I simply stopped caring and uninstalled it. I can barely multi-task in real life, much less in a game.

It's why I've crashed and burned three times in Witcher 3, despite the excellent side-quest storytelling. And the kids and I are going for a 100% run in Borderlands 3 which does the same thing.

Surprisingly, I haven't really had this problem in Outer Worlds. I got half a dozen quests, but most of the side quests were of the "If you happen to pass by [Planet], pass along my message. I'll pay you." They're rarely described as urgent, and they're designed so that all you get loaded up on is leads. They don't really dump the story on you until you arrive for that specific quest. Plus, they don't usually overlap quests. You don't often accidentally do part of Quest H while on the way to Quest A. Each quest is, generally, a separate location and a separate journey.

I finally managed to get LOTRO to work again. I'm being much more selective in which quests I accept. If it's any color of dark blue, light blue, or green (all below level), I don't accept it unless I know I'm going right through the area. If the quest asks me to kill x number of critters, I pass. This has allowed me to level up quicker than I used to. It also means I'm leaving almost all deeds (kill x number of baddies in the area) undone. This may come back to haunt me at really high levels. I don't care because the game seems more fun now and less of a grind.

Now if I could just stop collecting every ore and wood node....

Was in beta and off and on returns to LOTRO. I really only enjoyed two things in that game..fishing...especially in the Shire....and playing music. Dust in the Wind with a lute was a big crowd getter in the early days.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 10:14 am

Skinypupy wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:35 am

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Sun May 17, 2020 11:20 pm You do the introduction to six different quests, then go do the rest of one, then part of the next, the rest of another. It's like reading the first three chapters if a half a dozen novels, then finishing them one by one after you've forgotten what's going on.

This is a perfect summary of what happened for me with PoE 2 over this past weekend. After getting the 12th random quest with a lengthy exposition about why I alone could solve this urgent issue I knew nothing about 5 minutes ago, I simply stopped caring and uninstalled it. I can barely multi-task in real life, much less in a game.

It's why I've crashed and burned three times in Witcher 3, despite the excellent side-quest storytelling. And the kids and I are going for a 100% run in Borderlands 3 which does the same thing.

Surprisingly, I haven't really had this problem in Outer Worlds. I got half a dozen quests, but most of the side quests were of the "If you happen to pass by [Planet], pass along my message. I'll pay you." They're rarely described as urgent, and they're designed so that all you get loaded up on is leads. They don't really dump the story on you until you arrive for that specific quest. Plus, they don't usually overlap quests. You don't often accidentally do part of Quest H while on the way to Quest A. Each quest is, generally, a separate location and a separate journey.

I thought Outer Worlds did a pretty good job setting up some self-contained questlines for each zone. Those were pretty interesting. The larger main story was a muddy mess though. I distinctly remember having a NPC conversation 2/3 of the way through the game. He started blathering on about the different corporations all vying for control (the crux of the overarching main quest) and all I could think was "I could not possibly care less about any of this."

By the time I got about halfway through the game, I had no idea why I was going to all these different places, and couldn't have told you a single thing regarding what the main plotline was actually about. It was just a bunch of jibberish with names, places, and companies that didn't mean anything because the way that told the story was so badly fragmented and so poorly told.

Daehawk wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 7:58 pm

About damned time. People have been asking for that forever. Or just for a gold pack, as they've yet to release an all-in-one Mass Effect, and while the base game can be cheap, the DLC is never on sale.

Please, please, PLEASE change the fucking ending of Mass Effect 3!

JCC wrote: ↑Mon May 18, 2020 9:37 pm Please, please, PLEASE change the fucking ending of Mass Effect 3!

Theres a mod for that. Certain deaths are avoided so to say if you have done a good job helping other races and getting them to join. I actually finally liked the ending.

Its called the Happy Ending MOD...yes I know what that usually means.

https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffect3/mods/66/?

of course the very next day after agonizing over it for four weeks and i finally purchase two Neo·Geo Mini gamepads, they go on sale for half off.

Check the refund/price match policy.

Lame players 101:
Guy turns corner with his pistol out and dies to a enemy team of 3 players. "Man that team sucks" while laying there before they knife him.

Monster Train looks like it could be a fun rogue-like deckbuilder. Released today, seems to be getting pretty good reviews so far.

This isn't a Developers issue. There are a number of good developers out there that turn out great, moddable content. This is more an evolution of the Marketing departments becoming ravenous beasts that have tasted the blood of the gamers and found it to be sweet.

People have screamed and howled at each step into this abyss, but enough people supported it to continue to lower the bar.

It's more complicated than that. Look back at old computer game ads. In '95 or so, the typical price of a new PC game was ~$50. Now it is $60. Anything else that cost $50 in 1995 would cost ~85$ now. Games have barely gone up (about a decade ago they made the jump from $50 to $60) The fact is that the the $60 price tag is pretty much locked in. It doesn't budge. People simply won't pay more. And yet while we still pay the same, developers are paying more to create those games. Salaries have gone up. Rent has gone up. Overhead has gone up. And, peripherally, the cost of living has gone up - devs have to make more than they did 25 years ago or they can't survive. Of course, some costs been markedly reduced - there is no physical printing, there is no shipping, there is no warehousing. But Steam is still taking a huge cut, so that advantage is somewhat offset. Maybe Epic can change that. We'll see.

Anyway, $60 games is like a company charging you 1990s prices with 2020s expenses. They will sink if they don't make more than that, and they can't charge more as the price is locked in. So they have to monetize. They do it, or they don't make games anymore. There have been some terrible attempts. In-game advertising, which was hated and went away. Online passes, which were hated and went away. Blind loot boxes with in-game effects which is hated and is teetering. But DLC is fair. You can see what you're getting before you get it. They value has been determined (Oblivion's horse armor was the first time I saw paid DLC for PC, and they guessed way, way wrong at what it was worth.) And season passes, if you know the company and trust their content, are a good deal. Or, if the stuff is already released.

And as to the meme:

1) There was DLC back then. It came on disks and was called 'expansion packs.' Starcraft was $50, but the story ended in Brood War, which was $20. Half-Life had Blue Shift and Opposing Force. Morrowind had Tribunal and Bloodmoon. It was standard then, just like it's standard now.

2) Their examples suck. For at least two of those - Rainbow Six and Destiny - the season pass isn't about content. They're online-only games, and the season passes are the equivalent of subscribing to an MMO for extra benefits. Rainbow Six has never had a paid expansion. Ever. Destiny 2 has, but again - Destiny 2 is an MMO that you can play for free, and offers benefits for subscribing. I don't really know anything about BF5.

BH didn't even mention the steep and often discounts on games nowadays compared top back then as well. It started with PC but even console games are discounted pretty quickly. Except first run Nintendo games, WTF Nintendo! You should throw your shade on them. Gaming has never had a higher bang for buck ration then now.

I haven't noticed a reduction in games with mods, either. Most of the games I play have some to significant mod support. That seems to be independent of whether or not they release expansion packs.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed May 27, 2020 11:26 amIt's more complicated than that. Look back at old computer game ads. In '95 or so, the typical price of a new PC game was ~$50. Now it is $60. Anything else that cost $50 in 1995 would cost ~85$ now. Games have barely gone up (about a decade ago they made the jump from $50 to $60) The fact is that the the $60 price tag is pretty much locked in. It doesn't budge.

I've always assumed the shift from physical copies with fat color manuals, boxes, discs, cloth maps, etc. to digital delivery aimed at a FAR larger audience more than made up for the lack of ramped-up sale prices.

I miss when games were fake.

I mean... I miss how different they felt from the real world when developers struggled to actualize their visions with the relatively crude tools they had at the time. Obviously, there are huge retro and indie scenes, and even many of today's big budget titles are heavily stylized. But I miss getting lost in a simple 16-bit pixel art RPG. I miss the limits of synthesized music. I miss really investing my time in something when I wasn't flooded with endless entertainment alternatives.