Lilura on Reddit RPG Games

[Segata]

https://lilura1.blogspot.com/2024/01/Re ... makes.html

Reddit RPG Games and RPG Game Remakes

Reddit RPG Games

The problem with cRPG fans is that many of them have devolved into RPG Gamers: they run after everything that's new instead of playing, mastering and modding what is historically best and inexhaustible.

They are like those flies that buzz from one new novel to the other, yet have never read the classics.

Thus do they lack reference points, historical context and good taste.

The natural habitat of such specimens is RPG Game subreddits. It is there that they swarm in order to refer to:

computer games as video games or vidya
cRPGs as RPG Games
and RPGs as TTRPGs


It is there that they greet each other as casual gamers and celebrate their communal lack of gaming pedigree and aptitude. Their upvote-driven behaviors include:

Posting low-effort, recycled memes instead of commentary (over and over again).
Posting tiled tier-lists of their fave games instead of commentary (repeatedly).
Posting links to Fandom wikis and YouTube vids to "prove their points."
Posting tired old promotional artwork (pretending it is largely unknown).
Posting a photo of an old game box (pretending that it was found in the basement or attic after 20 years).
Repeating the top comment in the hope that their copied comment will also get upvoted (pathetic)
High-fiving each other for save-scumming (which is cheating).
High-fiving each other for playing a remaster over an original; a sequel before an original.


By "instead of commentary", I mean "instead of saying something original, interesting or insightful." But since they have nothing to say they post someone else's meme or make a tiled tier list on a generic tier-making site.

Almost everything they post is tailored to tap into the "upvote" of an anonymous majority (as if upvote tallies are an indication of one's credibility).

Before playing a game RPG Gamers want to know everything about it in advance. In this way they can avoid experiencing the game for themselves. They ask their "communities" (subreddits) if this build would be ok, if that class would be ok, if it's ok to do this or that, and so on.

Oh, and let's not forget: "Is such and such viable?"
And the invariable response: "Absolutely!" (a cringe-worthy exclamation that died off in the 90s.)

Truth be told, it is pathetic. Just play the game, experience it for yourself, come to your own conclusions.

But they don't have the patience to work games out for themselves. Games are to be "beaten" in the shortest time-frame possible, employing as little thought as possible. Then move on to the next game, rinse repeat. To them games are just products to be consumed: the more they can plow through the better off they will be.

They wouldn't even bother playing the game in the first place if they couldn't get a bit of social media attention for doing so (an "upvote", a "like").

The unwarranted attention makes them exceedingly vocal and opinionated for a week or so. Enough time to spread their highly contagious ignorance of the game over reddit like a plague. Then: lose interest and consume next product.

RPG Gamers advertise new games and ignore older ones like they never existed: they refer to Baldur's Gate 3 as Baldur's Gate and Oblivion With Guns as Fallout.

They even advertise discounts despite the fact that current gen games are a dime a dozen. It isn't like paying £45 in 1989 for the latest combat flight simulator, but they act like it is.

RPG Gamers play games because they go on sale. But one day they may realize that just because something's cheap, doesn't make it good value.

With attention spans akin to lightning bolts, they bounce off dozens of two-dollar cRPGs in their backlog, which makes them excited: so much so, that they need to tell everyone about their massive backlogs; how many games they "own" (but none of which they play) on their precious digital distribution platform.

RPG Game Remakes / Remasters by Hack-Devs

Due to these frivolous consumers and their flippancy, subpar developers make a mint by churning out one cheap knock-off after the other, or by tastelessly remastering the classics to match casual "sensibilities".

On a daily basis, it is RPG Gamers that clamor for remasters of classic games: they want all classic games replaced with grotesque distortions that match their uncultivated, swine-like palates.


Of course these noble remasterers never tire of telling gullible consumers how they have kept the classic game relevant by turning it into a service that is regularly updated for the benefit of all (always-on internet, constant patching).

Thus, are they heralded as heroes for their expertise in what amounts to blood-sucking. They are not only admired and thanked for all their "hard work and dedication", but are even credited with bringing the games back from the dead when in actual fact the games were still selling well before the remasterer came along to "improve" them.

If an old classic isn't popular or requires some actual work to "improve", it won't be remastered. And that means 8 bit games from the 1980s have largely been spared.

What gets remasters are your API era games that already play well, look good and have maintained playerbases that can be tapped for profit; you know, the games that don't need to be remastered; the games you can wrap pixel-removing shaders around to make them appear as soulless, plasticized garbage that came out in 2024.

Amusingly, remasters go on sale on such a frequent basis that "sale" almost loses its meaning.

But of course the "sales" give hack-developers more opportunities to make "announcements" on social media. As do the incremental "updates" that fix bugs that were not in the original games to begin with (the remasterer injected novel bugs into an old game).

The object of such spam is of course to replace the original classic with their distorted caricature; to apportion themselves credit for the classic game; to make money off an old game: nostalgia cashgrabs that leech off the classics. [1]

And when the hype of the remaster dies down the hack-dev often drops support in order to soil the next classic, leaving the community to pick up the pieces.

Remastered games often divide classic game communities between those who play the original and those who play the remaster, but the remaster can never replace the original because the original is historically significant and authentic, unlike the remaster which is not even footnote-worthy yet is often pushed to front and center by mainstream commentary. A joke when it comes to computer games, Wikipedia mentions remasters in the first paragraph of its articles.

And the remaster not only causes confusion in communities ("Which version are you talking about?"), but also causes the original to be unfairly criticized by ignorant, pig-headed newcomers. [2]

Then, as often happens in human endeavors, the wild-eyed hack comes along to snatch a piece of the pie. In the name of the quick buck the hack cares not for the endeavor, the creative process or genre legacy, but only of shortcuts, leeching and leveling down to the lowest common denominator.


[1]

Hack-devs that frequently post micro-updates on public forums, yet do not contribute to community discussion, are also shameless spammers. Many of the spammers also loiter in forums in an attempt to control the narrative or reception of their remake. Because their remake cannot speak for itself. It is not good enough. Because it is a remake. Thus, they stoop to generating noise through spam. And their go-to? Reddit.

[2]

For example, ignoramuses will complain that a game made in the 1990s does not have widescreen support even though widescreen displays were not found in the 1990s outside of graphics workstations, which set one back 20,000 big ones in the 1990s.

They complain about "black borders" when black borders don't exist, only resolutions and aspect ratios do. The game doesn't have black borders, they are simply running the game wrongly, aka User Error.

To them, hack-devs are towering geniuses for merely making games widescreen -- because installing a widescreen mod that came out 15 years ago is beyond the capabilities of casuals, most of whom are of console-stock: just seeing a DOS prompt is enough to make them recoil in horror.

But in the time it took the hack-dev to fix all the bugs and add achievements, story-mode, widescreen support and blurry post-processing shaders, the original developer had coded an entire game from the ground up -- 20 years prior.

The original developer is King, the original game is King.

But the remake?

Not even footnote-worthy.

cf. Criticism of Computer Game Journalism.

[Emphyrio]

who?.

[Segata]

who?.

The biggest authority in cRPGs. The most veteran of them all. You're just mad a woman can be the best in her field.

[Shillitron]

who?.

The biggest authority in cRPGs. The most veteran of them all. You're just mad a woman can be the best in her field.

[Hauberk]

qui?

Another Codex luminary.

[Tweed]

Xie's not wrong though.

[asf]

jesus

[Goth-Girl-Supremacy]

So she basically just **** on you all.

lol

[Vergil]

Not reading all that especially not from a woman.

[rusty_shackleford]

Not reading all that especially not from a woman.

It's a ******.
I'm still not reading it.

[Element]

I don't mind Lilura, a colourful personality, but the opinions he/she expresses are at times so weird that I don't disregard her being a woman from Hong Kong as fiction.

[Vergil]

Not reading all that especially not from a woman.

It's a ******.
I'm still not reading it.

The only ways ****** tend to pass as women is in that they're completely ********.

[rusty_shackleford]

I don't mind Lilura, a colourful personality, but the opinions he/she expresses are at times so weird that I don't disregard her being a woman from Hong Kong as fiction.

his website exists solely for ad revenue, every post is full of SEO optimized terms

[Lich]

It's probably not a ******, the post-menopausal butthurt is strongly recognizable.

[Gastrick]

High-fiving each other for save-scumming (which is cheating).
High-fiving each other for playing a remaster over an original; a sequel before an original.

Before playing a game RPG Gamers want to know everything about it in advance. In this way they can avoid experiencing the game for themselves.

She is right on this part.

[rusty_shackleford]

High-fiving each other for save-scumming (which is cheating).
High-fiving each other for playing a remaster over an original; a sequel before an original.

Before playing a game RPG Gamers want to know everything about it in advance. In this way they can avoid experiencing the game for themselves.

She is right on this part.

but fallout is a sequel to wasteland and he never played wasteland because he hates games made before IE trash

[Gastrick]

High-fiving each other for save-scumming (which is cheating).
High-fiving each other for playing a remaster over an original; a sequel before an original.

Before playing a game RPG Gamers want to know everything about it in advance. In this way they can avoid experiencing the game for themselves.

She is right on this part.

but fallout is a sequel to wasteland and he never played wasteland because he hates games made before IE trash

Fallout was inspired by it, but they're really different in many ways, like tone, visual style, gameplay, world-differences, etc.

[rusty_shackleford]

She is right on this part.

but fallout is a sequel to wasteland and he never played wasteland because he hates games made before IE trash

Fallout was inspired by it, but they're really different in many ways, like tone, visual style, gameplay, world-differences, etc.

He was clearly responding to people who played BG3 and not the earlier BG games. BG3 is further away from BG2 than Fallout is from Wasteland. His inability to see the fact that he's just arguing with a younger form of himself is funny tho.

[Gastrick]

but fallout is a sequel to wasteland and he never played wasteland because he hates games made before IE trash

Fallout was inspired by it, but they're really different in many ways, like tone, visual style, gameplay, world-differences, etc.

He was clearly responding to people who played BG3 and not the earlier BG games. BG3 is further away from BG2 than Fallout is from Wasteland. His inability to see the fact that he's just arguing with a younger form of himself is funny tho.

Maybe, but his point his still holds true even if he doesn't follow it, that it's better to play the original over a remaster, and to play the first game first, and then the sequels later. That "modernizing" and "streamlining" them, or giving some valueless graphical improvements only makes them worse over the pure original version.

[rusty_shackleford]

Fallout was inspired by it, but they're really different in many ways, like tone, visual style, gameplay, world-differences, etc.

He was clearly responding to people who played BG3 and not the earlier BG games. BG3 is further away from BG2 than Fallout is from Wasteland. His inability to see the fact that he's just arguing with a younger form of himself is funny tho.

Maybe, but his point his still holds true even if he doesn't follow it, that it's better to play the original over a remaster, and to play the first game first, and then the sequels later. That "modernizing" and "streamlining" them, or giving some valueless graphical improvements only makes them worse over the pure original version.

I do agree that kotor is better than kotor 2.

[Gastrick]

He was clearly responding to people who played BG3 and not the earlier BG games. BG3 is further away from BG2 than Fallout is from Wasteland. His inability to see the fact that he's just arguing with a younger form of himself is funny tho.

Maybe, but his point his still holds true even if he doesn't follow it, that it's better to play the original over a remaster, and to play the first game first, and then the sequels later. That "modernizing" and "streamlining" them, or giving some valueless graphical improvements only makes them worse over the pure original version.

I do agree that kotor is better than kotor 2.

Where did you get this, playing a series in the release order doesn't imply the games go best to worst as well.

[rusty_shackleford]

Maybe, but his point his still holds true even if he doesn't follow it, that it's better to play the original over a remaster, and to play the first game first, and then the sequels later. That "modernizing" and "streamlining" them, or giving some valueless graphical improvements only makes them worse over the pure original version.

I do agree that kotor is better than kotor 2.

Where did you get this, playing a series in the release order doesn't imply the games go best to worst as well.

Just that people are usually recommended to skip the first(better) game.

[Lich]

She got filtered by Darklands. The self-proclaimed "veteran" status is unjustified.

[rusty_shackleford]

She got filtered by Darklands. The self-proclaimed "veteran" status is unjustified.

He doesn't play any game before ~1997. Like I posted before, he's just arguing with an imagined younger version of himself.

[Lich]

The typical content of Lilura's blog posts can be summarized as:

• complaints about minor technical problems

• disparaging groups of people the blog owner perceives as plebeian

• bragging about blog owner's expertise in CRPGs

• how a game ranks in blog owner's CRPGs chart

Which are similar to the commonly observable characteristics of highly upvoted reddit posts on games.

[rusty_shackleford]

The typical content of Lilura's blog posts can be summarized as:

• complaints about minor technical problems

• disparaging groups of people the blog owner perceives as plebeian

• bragging about blog owner's expertise in CRPGs

• how a game ranks in blog owner's CRPGs chart

Which are similar to the commonly observable characteristics of highly upvoted reddit posts on games.

You forgot to add "SEO keyword spam"

[Tweed]

She got filtered by Darklands. The self-proclaimed "veteran" status is unjustified.

That's one thing I don't get is how people can proclaim to love classics and turn their noses up at stuff like Darklands and Wasteland.

And even RPGs that don't contain the word "land".

[Roguey]

his website exists solely for ad revenue, every post is full of SEO optimized terms

There are 0 ads on her site. She makes no money from it. It's purely an autistic obsession with getting a lot of traffic.

but fallout is a sequel to wasteland and he never played wasteland because he hates games made before IE trash

I played Wasteland. It's not worth it. Additionally, according to Tim Cain, most of the people on the Fallout team had also never played Wasteland. It was really just serendipity that Interplay had made a post-apocalyptic RPG many years earlier when the new kids got their own idea for making one.

[rusty_shackleford]

his website exists solely for ad revenue, every post is full of SEO optimized terms

There are 0 ads on her site. She makes no money from it. It's purely an autistic obsession with getting a lot of traffic.

but fallout is a sequel to wasteland and he never played wasteland because he hates games made before IE trash

I played Wasteland. It's not worth it. Additionally, according to Tim Cain, most of the people on the Fallout team had also never played Wasteland. It was really just serendipity that Interplay had made a post-apocalyptic RPG many years earlier when the new kids got their own idea for making one.

[Goth-Girl-Supremacy]

It's a ******.

Just as worthless as the grifting ****** here.