patrick.net

LOL! I do like computer games. Ordered the new Sony virtual reality headset, getting ready to nest in starved of Vit D and slobbering down pineal inhibiting GMO's as I mass murder my way through endless battles.

Computer games are incredibly beautiful and mysterious. They also have some lessons and exotic mythologies in spite of themselves aka the Assassin's Creed series.

I tried and worked my way mostly through 'Bloodborne', which was a grueling punishment. It's a series of games (Souls series) designed to mind fuck and torture and it succeeds. I should never have started that one.

Ceffer says

I tried and worked my way mostly through 'Bloodborne', which was a grueling punishment. It's a series of games (Souls series) designed to mind fuck and torture and it succeeds. I should never have started that one

There's a distinct difference between something like World of Warcraft and those Souls games. MMO games like WoW are designed from the ground up to try and consume your life. The new free to play games go as far as hiring economists and psychologists to understand how to make their games even more addictive. The games I grew up with demanded you get better to succeed and feel satisified. These predatory games demand you just spend more time and more money.

That said, I grew up playing games and I really wish I hadn't sometimes. I could have learned valuable skills in that time but alas.

Witcher 3, where you have to go with your gut and don't see the results for a while in most cases.

Chances are the military age male tied up and left for the ghouls by refugees is there for a reason.

Chances are the noble court will find no evidence to convict one of their own, so let the peasants lynch the fucker.

Classic Goody Two Shoes solutions are often sub-optimal.

Ceffer says

I tried and worked my way mostly through 'Bloodborne', which was a grueling punishment. It's a series of games (Souls series) designed to mind fuck and torture and it succeeds. I should never have started that one.

It's when games became a CHORE, I lost all interest. They should be 15 minute to 2 hour distractions.

https://www.playretrogames.com/3541-metal-slug

You may have to click the window twice, some weird bug.

Try that. Shift enters quarters, Enter starts the game, arrow keys are control, z, x, c, and d are fire buttons.

I used to be able to beat that game without dying once. It's precisely like the arcade. A pizza place used to have a cabinet, and for 25 cents, I could kill 1/2 hour as I waited for my pizza.

I don't understand why people like GRUELING games. You finally win, so what? And when you're playing other players, unless it's at least somewhat co-operative, it's just ends up being who has the best AI connected to the system and that happens all the time.

richwicks says

I don't understand why people like GRUELING games. You finally win, so what?

Those games aren't meant to appeal to wide audiences. They're meant to appeal to long time video game players. I prefer "grueling" games over most others precisely because there's absolutely no challenge to most single player games now. Even a game like The Witcher 3 is an absolute joke on the hardest difficulty because the core gameplay design is still meant for wide appeal. To me, there's even less of a point to play if the win is handed to you.

Sure, you can play Good King Wenceslas on the piano no problem, why bother learning to play the Hammerklavier by Beethoven?

richwicks says

Ceffer says

I tried and worked my way mostly through 'Bloodborne', which was a grueling punishment. It's a series of games (Souls series) designed to mind fuck and torture and it succeeds. I should never have started that one.

It's when games became a CHORE, I lost all interest. They should be 15 minute to 2 hour distractions.

https://www.playretrogames.com/3541-metal-slug

You may have to click the window twice, some weird bug.

Try that. Shift enters quarters, Enter starts the game, arrow keys are control, z, x, c, and d are fire buttons.

I used to be able to beat that game without dying once. It's precisely like the arcade. A pizza place used to have a cabinet, and for 25 cents, I could kill 1/2 hour as I waited for my pizza.

I don't understand...

Agreed, I pretty much stopped playing games post retro area. The occasional doom gorefest with office mates over the network was a small exception, but that was almost 20 years ago as well. C64 and Amiga had the best games. Paradroid, the castles of Dr creep, Zac mc kraken, kickoff 1/2, the bard's tale, etc. etc.

DhammaStep says

Those games aren't meant to appeal to wide audiences. They're meant to appeal to long time video game players. I prefer "grueling" games over most others precisely because there's absolutely no challenge to most single player games now. Even a game like The Witcher 3 is an absolute joke on the hardest difficulty because the core gameplay design is still meant for wide appeal. To me, there's even less of a point to play if the win is handed to you.

Oh, that's a current feature. Games are LONG, not hard today.

If you want a hard game, play an old game. Most kids could NEVER finish Super Mario Brothers, or Jumpman, or Impossible Mission - here:

https://impossible-mission.krissz.hu/

Try to finish that.

DhammaStep says

Sure, you can play Good King Wenceslas on the piano no problem, why bother learning to play the Hammerklavier by Beethoven?

I worked on two XBox projects, I would never play a modern game today. It's just, boring. It's too long. It takes WEEKS to finish a fucking game now.

I'm at the point that if somebody says "you really have to watch this film!!!", I read the plot synopsis generally, and if that's interesting, MAYBE I'll watch the film. I have lost complete interest in fantasy.

I remember as a kid I wanted to explore every inch of a computer universe, find everything, today, well, I can look that up on youtube and do it in 1/10th the time. More interesting games than video games at my age. I like to know what is "really going on". I like to see how people are controlled and manipulated. I like to see how my government lies, how our news media lies. I like to catch them in the act of lying. That's my entertainment now.

@richwicks

You went from not understanding why people like grueling games, getting a personal perspective from someone that has played many grueling games old and new, to "I have completely lost interest in fantasy." You should have said that from the beginning so I wouldn't waste my time trying to explain an alternative perspective to you.

I love 'Dead Space' and 'Deus Ex' and a few of their successors. The original 'Dead Space' has been updated with new, astounding graphics, but I don't know if I want to play through it again. The Wolfenstein series are pretty good, but also touch on the bizarre, which is cool. In one, the hero has his head cut off by the snarling Nazi villains, and his allies have to grab the head in time to graft it on to a super warrior body before it expires.

I have played most of the Tomb Raiders, and many of the Assassin's Creed, and many of the Far Cry series.

I think the most addictive has been 'Sniper Elite 4', which for some reason I can't figure I just couldn't put it down. It has strange graphics that show in anatomic detail how the bullets shatter brains, bones and bodies. I'm ashamed of myself.

I just finished Horizon Zero West, in all of its wokeness glory. Still a beautiful game, and not that easy as you go along (I am not a die hard gamer, just do it for fun and puzzles, it's more diverting than crossward puzzles).

DhammaStep says

richwicks

You went from not understanding why people like grueling games, getting a personal perspective from someone that has played many grueling games old and new, to "I have completely lost interest in fantasy." You should have said that from the beginning so I wouldn't waste my time trying to explain an alternative perspective to you.

Well perhaps you're right.

I will still SOMETIMES play a game, when I want to kill 15 minutes, but the last time I played a modern game was 15 years ago - some zombie game in a mall. I spent like a week playing it, and I finally was like "why am I doing this?" It's just endless.

I can't possibly commit several days to a game at all anymore.

Probably the last (semi) modern game I played for any length of time was Rayman-2 on a PS-1 emulator. That took a day or two to win.

Impossible Mission took me a week to complete as a KID. I'm a lot better at learning as an adult than as a kid though.

Grew up in the golden age of video games. Atari 2600, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Double Dragon, Street Fighter II.

I never had the console systems in the 80's. Instead I had the Commodore computers: C64 and later the Amiga 500. Zork, Summer Games, Turrican II. I mostly played RPGs like the Ultimas, Wasteland, Bard's Tale, SSI AD&D Gold Box series. Those were long and grindy, a lot like today's games.

Karloff says

Grew up in the golden age of video games. Atari 2600, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Double Dragon, Street Fighter II.

I never had the console systems in the 80's. Instead I had the Commodore computers: C64 and later the Amiga 500. Zork, Summer Games, Turrican II. I mostly played RPGs like the Ultimas, Wasteland, Bard's Tale, SSI AD&D Gold Box series. Those were long and grindy, a lot like today's games.

Bards Tale, Turrican and Giana Sisters were outstanding games. The soundtrack to Turrican 1/2 is one of the best ever made. Chris Huelsbeck is a fucking sound genius.

https://youtu.be/Sqfh-WomsM0
https://youtu.be/Mafip6Am99c

DhammaStep says

That said, I grew up playing games and I really wish I hadn't sometimes. I could have learned valuable skills in that time but alas.

I missed the entire NES/Playstation 1&2 decade and a half because I was gigging in cover bands up to 4 times a week, in addition to holding down a regular job. That was definitely more fun and more profitable than gaming.

Y'all have lost an Eighth.