without threatening games studios or requiring that capitalism collapses first, what are methods you would use to fix these dumb multiplayer games
because unfortunately i think these guys want skins and progression systems now bleayyeaakkck
i think we gotta trick em into thinking they’ve got skins. my idea is that you get to keep your skins but only until you die, and then it turns into a puff of greasy smoke and you go back to looking like your friend Leonard dressed in lazertag gear. make 'em spend in-game currencies that aren’t tied to real world dollars and i think we have essentially a Skins Methadone Clinic
what are your ideas on how we solve this disGUSTING state of multiplayer games
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I don’t think there’s a solution to game companies using behavioral psychology to influence player behavior under capitalis. Maybe if china or the eu were to ban mtx outright or something. But it’s profitable, reliable, and cheap to implement. They’d be putting cocaine and heroine in baby formula if they thought they could get away with it.
i am indulging in the fantasy that we could just walk in and sneakily fix the games, maybe after midnight if we can get the security codes and the assistance of a few very based coders + we sneak around the lazer grids
I don’t think you compete against gambling and constantly being X units from Y prize. You don’t make a good relationship by finding a way to make higher highs than an abusive relationship. You don’t stop drinking by having even crazier nights out with a different substance. It’s a hypnotic psychology-based money milking machine. I don’t think you win by fixing the box.
There are a lot of charmed games out there (a lot of them single player). When I think of good multiplayer, I think of limitless creativity. Your Warcraft 3, Minecraft, Mario Maker, Runescape. Give me a 3D Zelda dungeon maker and watch it print money.
hexbear party bans terraria: “progression in games is basically alcoholism”
edit: sorry I’m just joking about a kinda purposely bad faith reading of your comment
I almost typed that message making my example games plural for exactly that game lol. It would have been “one of your minecrafts.” And yeah, calling a battle pass progression would have me yelling “MR BORELLI!” at you
just replace ranked with elo across the board. if you want to progress get better
i have no idea how electric light orchestra is supposed to help but fine i’ll try anytihng at this stage
I mean it’s not a bad thing inherently, it’s just being done badly. If you played Modern Warfare 2 (as in the original, NOT the remake), unlocking all the little banners and the weapons and the perks and stuff was fun and engaging and not like, predating on players.
ok we might have to trick the trickers into doing a progression system when they’re trying to do a fake-out progression system
Quake wars had the right of it. You have in-match progression, not meta progression. Go on a massive spree? You unlock cool new thing until match ends. The dopamine ladder has no limit because you reset every time you load in, but it’s a fair field because even the seasoned vet starts at rung 1 at the match start.
Never got to play the Wolfenstein one, heard good things.
Under communism, every game will have the checklist system from Kirby Air Ride
(the internationale intensifies)
a tangentially related thing that sucks is games being made to do well as an esports product because that’s such a big market now. and on the flip side games that people would love to play not getting made because they’re not considered esports viable (the people yearn for arena shooters). looking at you deadlock…
This killed overwatch. The comp scene hated everything that made it fun and ow2 is league light in terms of toxicity as a result.
dealdock would be awesome if it had much, much, much better readability. and funnier characters. and jus like 9 characters instead of 115
I’m hearing it’s pretty fun, personally I just hate mobas too much to ever get anything out of it:( I want a new high skill movement shooter without the trappings of modern hero based games.
Skins are fine just have them be locked behind achievements, leveling up and fun in game challenges if you’re feeling daring.
That’s how Monster Hunter does it, there’s even stuff like rare color shifting rainbow dye you can unlock by beating endgame challenges
As much as I love GenU and Rise for their transmog systems, a part of me still misses the old days of clownsuiting for optimal stats. Fucking around with the armor set finder trying to get a good balance of skills I want but that also look pretty good together.
Every time a game comes out with a 2000s-era unlock system (ie unlock stuff just by playing) it’s greeted as a huge breath of fresh air, but those games are pretty few and far between these days because of course if you’re not selling battlepasses at this point you’re leaving money on the table.
I think that a game like that could be a panacea to the industry, but the problem is it has to somehow strike the perfect balance of quality and memeability to become a runaway hit, and there’s no way to predict which games will manage to do that.
Mind naming any? I have massive nostalgia for that era.
Monster Hunter
Armored Core 6, and for that matter all of the Fromsoft Soulslikes
No Man’s Sky
uhh The two recent Zeldas, although they also do amiibo integration
For that matter Super Mario Oddysey
And the Pokemon series, although character customization peaked in Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon back in 2017
Palworld although I’m not clear if that game’s outfits are unlocked or if they’re all available at the start
I’m trying to think of something along the lines of Halo 3 but I’m coming up short.
All those games are great, not what I thought you were getting at, but great nonetheless.
Never played SMO, might have to emulate it at some point.
I was just thinking, “games with unlockable cosmetics that you don’t have to pay real money for”
I remember playing Halo 3 online for the first time and just having my mind blown by the fact that you could gain XP in a multiplayer shooter. But that’s an RPG thing!!!
Minor correction, that was not added until Reach.
Halo 3 did have an XP system but it barely did anything. XP gained you rank that went from Private to Grand Marshal or whatever and it basically just showed how much you’d been playing the game. That was separate from the playlist-specific skill ranks that went from 1-50 IIRC. Halo 3’s customisation unlocks were almost entirely tied to achievements
Reach took those systems and made them much more involved and grindy while also adding way more cosmetic unlockables. I played Halo 3 purely because I thought it was fun but in Reach I spent hours in that stupid Gruntpocalypse Firefight playlist to grind for credits and XP for a specific helmet I wanted
many such instances. one of my best friends was stuck on that reach trough and enjoyed it Very Much
they were also stuck on whichever mass effect had multiplayer skins and i couldnt remember which side of the “good | bad” pipe that was on
It was surprisingly good.
I don’t want to grind for points or pay real money. I just want to play dress up dolly with my space man.I don’t want to grind for points or pay real money. I just want to place dress up dolly with my space man.
this is one of the classical genders up there with “man” and “wo-man”
“rpg elements”
