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Video Games Are Boring

gamesindustry.biz

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Re: Video Games Are Boring

#241

Post by bazzargh »

soyiuz wrote: post #237

Did anybody else find the font distracting? The little connecting thing between "st" is too ostentatious, particularly when the site does not respect other typographical conventions, like the difference between n- and m- dashes. (See, for example, the parenthetical statement in the second sentence. It should use the m- rather than the n- dash usually reserved for hyphenated words.) Edit: On second viewing, the issue…

I was going to reply, you don't seem to be seeing the font that's on the page. The font they're using is a renamed copy of Baskerville eText, and it doesn't have an 'st' ligature. It does have 'ff' and 'fi', you can see a sample here: http://myfonts.us/td-JZwQMI

The css for the page enables ligatures however, and falls back to the browser's own serif; so you were probably seeing the ligatures from your own default font. I'm guessing Adobe Caslon Pro, because it's widely available and has a very distinct loop ligature for 'st'. http://myfonts.us/td-C4VrUX

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#242

Post by montecarl »

marcus_holmes wrote: post #210
emp_zealoth wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Simple - don't buy AAA (apart from very few select titles) because 99% of those is rehashed garbage and cliches Buy gamess from small studios, made by a few people or even one guy, usually a lot of them are in Steam Early Access (yes, it is risky, some of them get abandoned or just never improve much) For me this is like a reneissance in gaming. Have a look at Factorio, Starbound, Rimworld, Banished, Pillars of Etern…

I've been playing XCom2 a lot recently, and it occurred to me that I was caring waaay too much about my soldiers. Then it occurred to me that actually the part of the game I was enjoying most was looking after my soldiers. I have a sniper that never hits anything, ever, and I've started having little pep talk with her before each mission, trying to get her to buck her game up and be a useful member of the team. Shoot…

I spent a lot of time playing the original XCOM on both playstation and PC. This is what made the game amazing. I would name the soldiers after friends, family members, and famous people that I admired. When one would get injured or killed I really cared. It also made approach the tactical part of the game with much caution. I would get really nervous when taking on some of the more dangerous missions. However, once I would get one of my soldiers fully trained and ranked up it was totally worth it!

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#243

Post by filereaper »

dvtv75 wrote: post #213
arkitaip wrote: post #8

This captures a lot of what I've been feeling lately. I can't stand most games, they just make me anxious and I will quit playing them after a few hours or even minutes. Too much stress and surface experiences has had me looking in the other direction. Take, for example, GTA 5. I've probably spent more hours riding cars and bikes in GTA5's beautiful countryside and outback than playing actual missions. Just hours and…

This is what I came here to say. I only have Vice City, nowhere near as visually spectacular, but I get myself a car and just drive around with the radio on. It's the same for Assassin's Creed through to IV, I often just go for a walk and look at the scenery, immerse myself in a time and place that's long gone. Often enough, the missions get in the way.

I do the same in GTA V. I think its feeling of freedom and escapism is why games like No Man's Sky were appealing.

I used to clock hundreds of hours on Flight Sim 98, not necessarily learning how to fly (though that was fun too) but going to various cities in Flight Sim, checking them out in Encarta and doubling back to Flight Sim again.

Now that I'm older and financially capable of visiting these places, its pretty surreal. I hope the new AR/VR movement brings about these kind of experiences.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#244

Post by notgood »

5ilv3r wrote: post #198

My wife loves portal and portal 2 because you get to explore and not get shot at without walking into it with early warning. For 90% of the game, you can just drop the controller, come back the next day, and everything will be just how you left it. No pressure.

Coincidentally that's the kind of games I usually dislike, life is dull by itself; I need rush and adrenaline because that's the kind of thing my real life is missing.

But I liked portal 2, I actually finished it all in one single session, but it was because the story is thrilling, every puzzle different enough from the previous and makes me think, not because I could drop the controller and forget about it.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#245

Post by filereaper »

mastazi wrote: post #236
arkitaip wrote: post #8

This captures a lot of what I've been feeling lately. I can't stand most games, they just make me anxious and I will quit playing them after a few hours or even minutes. Too much stress and surface experiences has had me looking in the other direction. Take, for example, GTA 5. I've probably spent more hours riding cars and bikes in GTA5's beautiful countryside and outback than playing actual missions. Just hours and…

> I've probably spent more hours riding cars and bikes in GTA5's beautiful countryside and outback than playing actual missions. Sounds like you would enjoy Euro Truck Simulator 2 or American Truck Simulator. Yes you still have a mission (taking a trailer from point A to point B) but you can choose from a long list of "jobs" that will take you to many different cities, and you even have the option to free roam.

Heh, spent hundreds of hours on Flight Simulator doing just this, reading up on Encarta about beautiful cities, and then paying a 'virtual' visit in Flight Sim.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#246

Post by danpampelon »

trobertson wrote: post #163
falcolas wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sandbox style of game is your ticket to bliss then. Wandering through London in Assassin's Creed Unity. Climbing mountains in Skyrim. Traversing the landscape with a grapple/parachute in Just Cause. Plundering the high seas in Assassin's Creed Black Flag. Exploring Mordor in Shadows of Mordor. Driving through the city and countryside in Need for Speed. Flying the endless black in Elite Dangerous. There are freque…

It's funny that every single game you mentioned is a "theme park" open world game, and exactly zero of them are "sandbox" open world games.

If you insist on that "sandbox" definition, Creation Kit awaits ;p

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#247

Post by jarjoura »

The most engrossing game I've played is The Last of Us on the PlayStation. Wow, it was literally the only time in my life that I stayed up into the early hours to get as far I could. So much depth and nuance in every chapter to build out a universe that definitely showed it took Naughty Dog years to develop.

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#248

Post by filereaper »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #201
COGlory wrote: post #38

I mostly disagree with this article. There's very few nonviolent games I've played that I enjoy. I guess you could say I'm the average consumer, but there are certain trends in industries that are predominant, because that's what people want. I think all media generally has its worth defined by how it is a conduit of unrealistic experience. For instance, the biggest blockbuster movies usually contain unrealistic scen…

>This whole portrayal of video games (and other media) as "art" will never take off outside of technological hipster circles Nonsense. Games that try to do more than entertain, that actually try to use the medium to express a message, much in the way an art film might, are generally well recieved by the press and gamers alike for mixing up the formula and trying new things. For examples, look at games like Spec Ops:…

Highly recommend Spec Ops: The Line, its usually on Steam for cheap and works on Linux!

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#249

Post by mastazi »

filereaper wrote: post #245
mastazi wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've probably spent more hours riding cars and bikes in GTA5's beautiful countryside and outback than playing actual missions. Sounds like you would enjoy Euro Truck Simulator 2 or American Truck Simulator. Yes you still have a mission (taking a trailer from point A to point B) but you can choose from a long list of "jobs" that will take you to many different cities, and you even have the option to free roam.

Heh, spent hundreds of hours on Flight Simulator doing just this, reading up on Encarta about beautiful cities, and then paying a 'virtual' visit in Flight Sim.

Yes, simulators are strangely compelling despite being seemingly "boring" at first sight.

If you are interested in the genre, you can follow Squirrel on Youtube, I especially like his "trucking diaries" but there are flight sim videos as well: https://www.youtube.com/user/DaSquirrelsNuts

Re: Video Games Are Boring

#250

Post by __david__ »

jplayer01 wrote: post #128
0xcde4c3db wrote: post #31

> She didn't like that there is a snake that can kill you. It's not that it is too hard, it's that she is deeply uninterested in being attacked in a game. I think this hints at a big part of the problem. When we frame something as a game, we tend to evoke the concepts of winning and losing. The most brutal and obvious (lazy?) way of implementing that is to turn it into "kill or be killed". And that brutal, obvious, v…

20 years of gaming here and honestly, the industry needs to get over its fetishization of violence and it's reliance on it as a crutch. Games can be so much more than mainstream gaming has allowed them to become.

No, it really doesn't. Games sell like gangbusters as they are now. That doesn't mean there isn't room for non-violent games, and if you can come up with one that that's really fun to play you'll make a mint. Until then, don't decry an entire industry because you don't see the appeal.
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