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[Geth Supremacy]

The talk about gaming and its "difficulty" lately has be so curious I cannot stand it.  I would never make fun of someone just because they aren't good at a video game (unless its MP and you are on my team...then you are the bane of my existence and all that is evil in the world joke)...I mean in the grand scheme of things...how important is it how good you were/are at that Dragon Age or Mass Effect game?

 

Anyways like I said its eating me up how someone can play ME or DA on easy and die.  I really need to see how it happens as I cannot piece it together in my head aside from....you didn't level your guy up?  You refuse to get constitution?  You stand in the open and shoot?  You try to steal items constantly while battles happen? I just don't know....but i need to I really do.  It's confusing to me and theres nothing I can do about it.

 

I was wondering if any of these gamers would be interested in making a video of them playing?  Many here may want to offer a few pointers on how you could improve or better ways to set things up?  I wouldn't troll anyone or anything, I'm just intensely curious as to how this happens.

 

It seems many here take my posts negative.  This post is not negative it is genuine curiosity with some humor be it good or bad mixed in.  Nothing more, nothing less.  I'm not trying to talk down to people.

[Allan Schumacher]

This thread frustrates me -- people bought a party based, tactical combat game but they can't be bothered to actually employ tactics?

 

I'm frustrated because I represent the opposite extreme -- I only play on Nightmare, so I simply cannot wrap my head around people struggling on Easy/Normal; even though I've read every explanation in this thread...

 

The story alone isn't strong enough to carry this franchise on its shoulders -- it's the masterful combat plus the respectable story that separates Dragon Age from the other games sitting on the shelf.

 

I wish I could come to all of your homes for just 15 minutes -- I'd show you how this series works; then you could all enjoy the smug sense of self-satisfaction that comes from beating these games even when everything is stacked against you...oh yea and there's a story too.

 

It's okay for different people to want different things out of games, however.

 

For myself even Baldur's Gate 2 I preferred the game's narrative over its gameplay mechanics.  As such when something like Pillars of Eternity was announced, I was much more excited at something in the vein of Planescape: Torment (a game with poor combat gameplay) compared to something like Icewind Dale (which I consider the polar opposite)

[Allan Schumacher]

i was already worried about the difficult of the game after they announced how we won't regen health like we did before, and you'll have to gauge if you should keep questing/exploring the area or return back to skyhold. and that will be a factor in the game. this difficulty thing makes it sound like they are trying to make the game super hard.

 

In case it wasn't already mentioned, you won't need to return all the way back to Skyhold.  The Inquisition sets up camps throughout (driven by the player founding them) and you can heal and restock your potions there.  It's not really meant to be ultra punitive as say, Dark Souls, but it is looking to provide a degree of reward for playing well, as well as progression mechanics (improving your potions, in terms of effect and quantity).  It also feeds into gating content areas ("I barely won that fight, this area may be more than I am ready for at this time).

 

The most important thing for me though, is that as a gamer I appreciate that not every combat needs to be crafted in a way to wipe out the entire party.  With health regen a fight that doesn't threaten to wipe the party is fundamentally not an interesting fight mechanically.  If, however, there's a degree of attrition it means that even if the fight doesn't threaten to outright kill you, it still has some effect.  As a gamer I tend to prefer stuff like this.  It means that that desperate man you find that feels backed into a corner isn't done purely as a narrative thing but also a mechanical thing.  There's a minor reward for giving the fight some thought rather than just sleepwalking through it.

[Allan Schumacher]

Most def. I feel that for games like Planescape their goal was to create that huge detailed universe and just give passable combat etc. to make it a video game.

 

That being said, I think it's a false dichotomy to say you can't have both a great narrative AND good gameplay mechanics.

 

They aren't mutually exclusive, no.  But it depends on the level of focus on the team and there are advantages to focusing your efforts on particular things.  Doing more isn't impossible, but tends to come with increased costs and potential conflicts (i.e. combat systems that may have inadvertent knock on effects on narrative systems and vice versa.  These may not be readily apparent until the systems are in place, as well).

 

So as with all things, it's a risk.  That said, a game that focuses on say, narrative, isn't even guaranteed to have a good narrative either.  Yes I'd love my games to have great everything that appeals to me perfectly, but certain aspects are more important to me than others.

[Allan Schumacher]

I'll take the game dev's word for it, hah. Yeah, it's certainly true that you can't achieve everything you want(a basic analogy being a deadline at college/uni), sometimes you gotta cut it down. That's why I was so drawn into the whole 'crowd funded' kickstarter thing at first - the idea that devs got funding from fans and had all the time in the world to just perfect their game sounded so good to me.

 

Well, as an easy to understand example assume narratively level design and writers made a cool plot point when they spot the player.  Combat design wanted to add stealth mechanics in because that was fun for combat.  But now you can skip the narrative segment since the player may never be spotted!  Whoops!  If it's recognized later in development, it's a more expensive fix.

 

Kickstarter is interesting because it grants opportunities for ideas that may be considered "too risky" in the realm of AAA.  Though it is important to note that they don't have all the time in the world.  The money isn't limitless by any means.

 

 

Wasteland 2 came out this week and while I haven't actually progressed that far in the story, the gameplay is really really fun and I've heard the story picks up later into the game.

Wasteland 2 is a very fun game and I'm enjoying it immensely.

[Allan Schumacher]

Witcher 2 had (to me) the best final boss fight. You did not have to do it. Need more fights like that.

 

This is a thing in both Planescape: Torment as well as Fallout (1 and 2 and FONV. I don't know about Fallout 3).  I actually prefer the non-combat resolutions to those games by a lot.  A lot a lot.

[Allan Schumacher]

Hang on a sec, this thread went on for four pages after this post and NO ONE posted a "badass" meme in reply to this post?

 

BSN, I am disappoint.

 

I'm not

[Allan Schumacher]

There is a group function.  It's actually a pretty good idea for people interested in dabbling in the MP for some mindless fun but aren't too worried about min-maxing and other assorted things like that

[Allan Schumacher]

to be fair just cause someone plays one easy doesn't mean they are not any good at the game, most of the time its cause they want to enjoy the story and not have to worry about every single battle in the game

 

I'm much more likely to play DAI than the other two games after release in large part because the game is so huge and I've only played a smidge of the overall content, but I have played the combat stuff *a lot* haha.

 

So it's possible that I play the game on Casual even (I normally play games on Normal).