Anti-Soul

[Oyster Sauce]

Blizzard removing ammo as a resource for hunters in WoW

[rusty_shackleford]

Blizzard removing ammo as a resource for hunters in WoW

Runescape 3 effectively did the same thing with arrows/runes as active abilities don't use them and you auto attack like 3 times a minute. Very silly and lame.

The mere act of having to do something mundane, even if it's not difficult and doesn't take much time, helps immerse you in the world.

[TKVNC]

Fast travel instead of diagetic travel.

[J1M]

Balance over fun system interactions.

Examples:
-rogues as damage dealers
-abilities acting differently in PVP
-aoe damage caps
-every encounter/dungeon feeling the same due to enemy distribution homogeneity

[Oyster Sauce]

WoW used to have unique abilities for priests of each race. Now it does not!

[rusty_shackleford]

WoW used to have unique abilities for priests of each race. Now it does not!

The complete removal of the importance of race in RPGs sucks, literally just cosmetics in every game now.

[Manny V]

WoW used to have unique abilities for priests of each race. Now it does not!

The desire to play a voodoo juju Troll Shadow Priest with a unique hex and shadow-ward spell vs the desire to play in the best expansion (Wrath)

[rusty_shackleford]

WoW used to have unique abilities for priests of each race. Now it does not!

The desire to play a voodoo juju Troll Shadow Priest with a unique hex and shadow-ward spell vs the desire to play in the best expansion

But you can accomplish both by playing a Troll shadow priest in TBC?

[Magick]

Blizzard removing ammo as a resource for hunters in WoW

And elemental damage types.

[Kolgrim]

Unreal engine 5.

[Bhaalspawn Jr]

Mobile games

[Oyster Sauce]

Games that let you pseudo-import saves by going through a checklist of decisions are anti-soul. One reason is that it's ugly and gamey, another is that the player shouldn't know exactly which choices are going to have far-reaching ramifications. Also, none of the games that let you do this have ever had as much carry-over as ME1->ME2. Sad!

[Oyster Sauce]

Games that let you pseudo-import saves by going through a checklist of decisions are anti-soul. One reason is that it's ugly and gamey, another is that the player shouldn't know exactly which choices are going to have far-reaching ramifications. Also, none of the games that let you do this have ever had as much carry-over as ME1->ME2. Sad!

I'm actually of the opinion that you shouldn't be able to start an importable sequel without having a prior save file at all. Play it right.

[TKVNC]

Games that let you pseudo-import saves by going through a checklist of decisions are anti-soul. One reason is that it's ugly and gamey, another is that the player shouldn't know exactly which choices are going to have far-reaching ramifications. Also, none of the games that let you do this have ever had as much carry-over as ME1->ME2. Sad!

TW3 is a good example of this. It plays like a job interview. It is terrible.

[ThulsaDoomer]

Balance over fun system interactions.

Examples:
-rogues as damage dealers
-abilities acting differently in PVP
-aoe damage caps
-every encounter/dungeon feeling the same due to enemy distribution homogeneity

This was one of the reasons RTS died, among other very poor choices. C&C Red Alert 2 was not balanced well, yet it was fun to play. Sometime later RTS started this new wave of strict balancing to cater to e-sports, destroying the fun of the imbalanced factions and units with predictable meta and usually breaking the flow of the game until the next balance patch ****** something else up.

[Vlajdimir Ermenović]

japan and korea

[Tangerine]

Balance over fun system interactions.

Examples:
-rogues as damage dealers
-abilities acting differently in PVP
-aoe damage caps
-every encounter/dungeon feeling the same due to enemy distribution homogeneity

This was one of the reasons RTS died, among other very poor choices. C&C Red Alert 2 was not balanced well, yet it was fun to play. Sometime later RTS started this new wave of strict balancing to cater to e-sports, destroying the fun of the imbalanced factions and units with predictable meta and usually breaking the flow of the game until the next balance patch ****** something else up.

The last fun RTS was C&C Generals: Zero Hour.

[J1M]

Games that let you pseudo-import saves by going through a checklist of decisions are anti-soul. One reason is that it's ugly and gamey, another is that the player shouldn't know exactly which choices are going to have far-reaching ramifications. Also, none of the games that let you do this have ever had as much carry-over as ME1->ME2. Sad!

I'm actually of the opinion that you shouldn't be able to start an importable sequel without having a prior save file at all. Play it right.

Assume you are a major publisher. Assume you are about to release the sequel to a AAA franchise. The game features choices that carry over. The development team has pushed back on allowing someone to play without importing a save. Do you bundle the first game with the sequel release? Have the title screen for the sequel link to storefronts to purchase the original? Tell players to pound sand? Subtly encourage players to share saves with each other?

[Oyster Sauce]

Games that let you pseudo-import saves by going through a checklist of decisions are anti-soul. One reason is that it's ugly and gamey, another is that the player shouldn't know exactly which choices are going to have far-reaching ramifications. Also, none of the games that let you do this have ever had as much carry-over as ME1->ME2. Sad!

I'm actually of the opinion that you shouldn't be able to start an importable sequel without having a prior save file at all. Play it right.

Assume you are a major publisher. Assume you are about to release the sequel to a AAA franchise. The game features choices that carry over. The development team has pushed back on allowing someone to play without importing a save. Do you bundle the first game with the sequel release? Have the title screen for the sequel link to storefronts to purchase the original? Tell players to pound sand? Subtly encourage players to share saves with each other?

not my problem

[rusty_shackleford]

If you import a save into Wizardry 8 it has a much different story for a large part of the game, you don't even start in the same area

[J1M]

I'm actually of the opinion that you shouldn't be able to start an importable sequel without having a prior save file at all. Play it right.

Assume you are a major publisher. Assume you are about to release the sequel to a AAA franchise. The game features choices that carry over. The development team has pushed back on allowing someone to play without importing a save. Do you bundle the first game with the sequel release? Have the title screen for the sequel link to storefronts to purchase the original? Tell players to pound sand? Subtly encourage players to share saves with each other?

not my problem

I was asking for your opinion.

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm fine with a default save, but I don't like the trend of 'customizing' or creating an import. It's stupid, if you want a custom playthru you go play the prior game

[J1M]

I'm fine with a default save, but I don't like the trend of 'customizing' or creating an import. It's stupid, if you want a custom playthru you go play the prior game

Did you dislike what was done in Mass Effect 2 and KOTOR 2, as a "memory test" that let the player set a few big choices without importing a save? I feel like this was the lesser of two evils when it came to Revan's gender either being set by the player or 'wrong' for the whole sequel.

I assume the extensive import creation functionality arose from games taking too long to make. Perhaps now one could assume cloud saves (even assume that the company making the sequel already has a copy of your save), but there was a time when the saves would have been local and it would have been normal for players to completely replace their computer between releases.

► Show Spoiler

Who are we kidding, the import creation is because the sequel appeared on different console hardware.

[rusty_shackleford]

I'm fine with a default save, but I don't like the trend of 'customizing' or creating an import. It's stupid, if you want a custom playthru you go play the prior game

Did you dislike what was done in Mass Effect 2 and KOTOR 2, as a "memory test" that let the player set a few big choices without importing a save? I feel like this was the lesser of two evils when it came to Revan's gender either being set by the player or 'wrong' for the whole sequel.

I assume the extensive import creation functionality arose from games taking too long to make. Perhaps now one could assume cloud saves (even assume that the company making the sequel already has a copy of your save), but there was a time when the saves would have been local and it would have been normal for players to completely replace their computer between releases.

It should just be a default set by the developer, if you want it customized you should be importing a save.
If they wanted to add more choices that weren't saved, they can go back and add a small DLC to the first game

[The_Mask]

Anything that involves the presence of Joshua Sawyer.

[Norfleet]

I'm actually of the opinion that you shouldn't be able to start an importable sequel without having a prior save file at all. Play it right.

Come now, that is not how modern gaming works. If you force people to actually have a real save, you will annoy those who have long since lost their original saves, while solving nothing because someone will shortly make a site hosting a save for every conceivable permutation that the downloader will be able to pick from a dropdown menu form exactly like you were trying to avoid.

[Oyster Sauce]

I'm actually of the opinion that you shouldn't be able to start an importable sequel without having a prior save file at all. Play it right.

Come now, that is not how modern gaming works. If you force people to actually have a real save, you will annoy those who have long since lost their original saves, while solving nothing because someone will shortly make a site hosting a save for every conceivable permutation that the downloader will be able to pick from a dropdown menu form exactly like you were trying to avoid.

Not my problem

[Havitner]

I could write an article on the importance of things that aren't important. I should. I'd need to collect references…

When playing a rogue in WoW: gathering ingredients, brewing poisons, and applying them to your weapons. If I understand things correctly, the process has now been replaced by 'click a button to decide which poison-themed debuff effect your weapons cause until you change to a different one by pressing a different button'.

Requiring ammunition for ranged weapons, and featuring quivers that you could buy/craft that could store more ammo stacks than normal bags. Now all ranged weapons have infinite ammo.

Having to carry things like Flint and Tinder, and Thieves' Tools to use various abilities.

Having to journey back to a major city to visit your class trainer to learn new spells and abilities when you hit the required level. Now you just get them automatically on levelup.

See also this comment:
https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysided ... nt-1064636

[Norfleet]

Fast travel instead of diagetic travel.

Yeah, but on the other hand, fast travel is sort of necessary if you want a character to travel anywhere farther than he could get on his own two feet in about 5-10 minutes.

Maybe as a compromise, you get a fast travel map which works like the plane-map travel in an Indiana Jones movie, where you're obliged to sit through quietly because if you keep trying to mash buttons to skip it, you'll first receive a stern warning from a flight attendant to stop causing a disturbance, and if you keep mashing, TSA agents will cuff you and drag you off the plane?

[J1M]

Fast travel instead of diagetic travel.

Yeah, but on the other hand, fast travel is sort of necessary if you want a character to travel anywhere farther than he could get on his own two feet in about 5-10 minutes.

Maybe as a compromise, you get a fast travel map which works like the plane-map travel in an Indiana Jones movie, where you're obliged to sit through quietly because if you keep trying to mash buttons to skip it, you'll first receive a stern warning from a flight attendant to stop causing a disturbance, and if you keep mashing, TSA agents will cuff you and drag you off the plane?

Is the goal to trick people into thinking that they aren't playing a game? Via an extra-long loading screen?

Mass Effect masked loading times with long elevator rides for console. People complained about it a lot.