Video Games- At least 2023 looks like a banger

[Secretary of Eumenes]

Not to DP, but this is a whole separate thought I think:

Like, to me, I never considered the puzzle-part of the videogame experience (this is what I MANY YEARS LATER learned is called the "gameplay loop") to be more than incidental to the rest of the artistic product. 

Like, KotOR has what every nerd I've ever known derides as various versions of "the worst character-player and computer-unit interaction mechanics in the history of binaries" 

And I don't even understand why you'd play that game if the "gameplay loop" to you is the parts where you're fighting the goons in-between magnificent spectacles of divergent storytelling opportunities, all of which were meticulously crafted to make YOU feel like YOU could express YOUR personality -or as nearly as possible, because like somebody else did write it- in a setting that was both Star Wars and completely novel and free of the character-motivations you may have been predisposed to in your youth. 

[briantw]

2 hours ago, BBB Jacelyn said:

Not to DP, but this is a whole separate thought I think:

Like, to me, I never considered the puzzle-part of the videogame experience (this is what I MANY YEARS LATER learned is called the "gameplay loop") to be more than incidental to the rest of the artistic product. 

Like, KotOR has what every nerd I've ever known derides as various versions of "the worst character-player and computer-unit interaction mechanics in the history of binaries" 

And I don't even understand why you'd play that game if the "gameplay loop" to you is the parts where you're fighting the goons in-between magnificent spectacles of divergent storytelling opportunities, all of which were meticulously crafted to make YOU feel like YOU could express YOUR personality -or as nearly as possible, because like somebody else did write it- in a setting that was both Star Wars and completely novel and free of the character-motivations you may have been predisposed to in your youth. 

It depends on the game.  Some games are the gameplay loop.  Like, if Slay the Spire weren't fun to play, what would be the point?  There is no real story there.  The visuals are nothing to write home about.  What makes the game good is the puzzle that is the card-based combat.  Figuring out your build through choices based on random chance.  Fighting the RNG and occasionally winning.

But other games are about the story, like KOTOR.  You can suffer through the mediocre gameplay because there's a story there worth telling in a universe many of us grew up with and love.  Hell, some games are just glorified visual novels.

Then there are games like Portal 2 that perfectly merge the two with brilliant gameplay and a compelling, funny narrative.

Edited January 11 by briantw

[RumHam]

3 hours ago, BBB Jacelyn said:

This is an interesting highlight in the different things different people expect to receive from different media 

 

It never once, since I was like eight or something, occurred to me to have any issue with, like, the gameplay parts of Halo (or for TLoU for that matter, but for simplicity's sake let's constrict to Halo because my comment here goes for both of them). Or Mass Effect and its dreaded Mako, for that matter

Like, I just never cared. I see bad. I pull trigger. I reload or reload depending on how the exchange went and try again or continue on as the situation merits. It always BOGGLED my BRAINZ whenever I'd be, like, playing co-op (especially on HIGHER DIFFICULTIES) and folks would skip the 30-60 second (very well written, animated, and vocally performed) cutscenes because they like physically couldn't wait another minute to send electrical signals through the nerves of their [R] index finger that somehow equated to fulfillment when that interaction coincided with certain expressions of digital reaction as catalogued and transmitted by their eyes

My older brother used to play the Final Fantasy games and jam on the A button to get past all that pesky dialogue. Most of the battles were also just pressing A with the occasional bit of healing. People are weird.