The Gamer Generation Gap

[turbolegs]

This is hilarious. I needed this today. Thanks

[Jrecee]

I took it to mean that he thinks that only straight white Christian men should have jobs. If there's any left after that, then let other demographics have at it.

That's correct. Please discuss.

[The Last Horseman]

I agree with his first point, and that has always made me mad.


The rest is crap. He says he agrees with his kids on this stuff, and that makes him a horrible parent and a giant ass himself. I play games a lot of the time for story. IMO, a game is good whether or not it has a story. I prefer when story is told in game, as done ala Portal. However I commonly play games like Red Dead Redemption, which has a bunch of cutscenes for a game of that type. (Skinning anyone?) I have friends that have been cutscene skippers and that haven't cared for story since the beginning, and haven't read in games ever. And you know what? That pisses me off. They come to my house, play a game, and then ask me what to do after skipping 30 seconds of text. Really?

/endrant

[elmagicochrisg]

"Wait, why am I killing 50 snakes, again?" "Just kill the fucking snakes, asshole."

[Hobie-wan]

However, one problem with auto maps is the recent prevelence of the map marker for every objective. It makes sense sometimes. The location of a town is well known so it makes sense that the NPC was able to mark it on your map. But the location of a piece of loot out in the wilderness? It's especially egregious when the market points to a living creature and the marker moves over time. It removes all sense of exploration and discovery and instead gives you "go to the point on your map, then do stuff". I think this is a bad thing. If I need to hunt down a rampaging baloth I'm ok with you telling me "he was last sighted in the vicinity of the giant stone statue" and marking that on my map. But then it should be up to me to find this creature once I get there.

I agree here. For instance Infamous would let you know you were near a shard, but that's about it. I spent a few days tracking down the last 5 shards. It was a bit maddening, but at the same time it was awesome when I finally got them all.

[MrEco]

I think if someone wants to engage themselves in the plot of a game then they should be willing to sit through a few minutes of cutscenes. It's not exactly a difficult task, I mean there's no interaction whatsoever. Whats the big deal?

I think you accidentally hit the nail on the head with that last bit. The lack of interaction is the big deal. I paid between $30 and $60 for the interaction, but to get the most out of the game I'm expected to spend several minutes not interacting? That's time I wanted to spend on interactivity and could have spent on interactivity, and now it's been wasted on something else. If I wanted to not interact, I'd pause the game and leave, or I would have chosen a different entertainment medium altogether, right? I think that's a trend that needs fixing.

Now, if a developer can't think of any way to incorporate a story without supplementing (interrupting) the main game experience with cut scenes, so be it. But in that case, the game shouldn't rely on the assumption that the player will watch them. Personally, I probably will watch the cut scenes. However, if someone else wants to skip them and get on with the game, they should be able to do that without it hampering their ability to enjoy and complete the game.

In my day you read the manual, and if you didn't you'd miss out on some cool tricks. When I make a game I create an entire package for the player to experience. If they skip out on some of that package then I think it's ok for them to have a reduced enjoyment of the rest.

I have to sort of say the same thing as MrPopo here. Regardless of which part of the game you're buying it for you're still paying for the whole package.

For example, I would buy a Devil May Cry game for it's combat system and all the cool features therein. Though every game in the series also has platforming and puzzle elements to it's gameplay and as such I would be paying for those as well. The cutscenes in any game are the same deal. When you buy a game that has cutscenes I think you should either watch them or not complain when you don't get whats going on because you skipped them. If you intentionally don't experience a piece of content that you were intended to experience then I think it's completely appropriate for you to have less fun.

[Michi]

As a teacher, I can tell you that a lot of my students do not want to read in class anymore. If I assign even a handful of textbook pages to be read as homework, I'll have maybe three students in a class who actually read it......

And I would have been one of the three.....

[flamepanther]

If someone wants to pick the tomatoes out of the hamburger they paid for, they certainly paid for "the whole package" including the tomatoes. We can shake our heads if we want to because they're good tomatoes and we would have eaten them. We can argue pointlessly about whether the burger is better with or without tomatoes. What we (or the cook) should not do is punish him for picking out the tomatoes. It doesn't do anyone a bit of good to play "Soup Nazi" and try to either force him to eat the tomatoes or deny him the food he paid for.

[MrPopo]

If someone wants to pick the tomatoes out of the hamburger they paid for, they certainly paid for "the whole package" including the tomatoes. We can shake our heads if we want to because they're good tomatoes and we would have eaten them. We can argue pointlessly about whether the burger is better with or without tomatoes. What we (or the cook) should not do is punish him for picking out the tomatoes. It doesn't do anyone a bit of good to play "Soup Nazi" and try to either force him to eat the tomatoes or deny him the food he paid for.

Your analogy breaks down a bit. I'm going to change it a bit to something that I can relate to more (because vegetables are horrible). Let's say you had a boston cream donut. You can remove the custard feeling before you eat it because you don't like having something cold and gooey when you have a donut, but you can't then complain that you don't get that custard flavor.

[o.pwuaioc]

5. Dying

I like saves. I think all games should have them. But equally I think all games should be tough. We don't rely on quarters, so there's no reason to start a whole game over after a few deaths and a few continues, but over-saving is a bit of a spoiler, and if a game is too easy, I don't enjoy them: I get bored too easily. I want a challenge, and can appreciate a challenge. I take a taoist approach: a game should be neither too hard nor too easy, but just right. It should have saves, but not too many.

4. Grinding

I see no problem with grinding so long as it has some other purpose besides getting stronger. I don't need every fight to be a boss fight, I like just wandering around killing, but I'd rather it be more than that. It's hard to do, but I think more games should aim for it, rather than cut out grinding altogether, or have grinding just to stretch out gameplay.

3. Excessive reading

I agree with the kids. If I wanted to read a shit ton of text, I'd read a book. I do like to read just enough to figure out what to do, but I don't care about your sob story. I want to play. Even if that means grinding.

2. Excessive cut scenes

A few are cool, but lately they've been overkill. I've yet to see really well-done acting in a game, and honestly I'd rather save them for special spots rather than go through an "interactive movie".

1. Cheating/Breaking the Game

Whatever floats your boat. I only would consider "cheating" if I thought a game was stupidly hard. Gradius III cheat codes? I'm ok with that. Vice City god mode? Pointless. Maybe fun for a while, but pointless in gameplay.

I also hate being walked through a game. Not that I don't appreciate linearity, but I don't want a message popping up every time I need to do something. It's one reason why I stopped playing Metroid Fusion soon after I started. I hate being told my objective every five seconds. Give me some freedom in playing games. If I couldn't figure out what to do next, I'd consult a walkthrough.