(no subject)
Games used to come with instruction manuals. Even in the days where games had 2 buttons. This system worked well from 8-bit to 16-bit games, but around 32-bit things started getting complicated enough to need in-game tutorials. And this too, was fine. Even though most of them treated you like this was your first game ever, it very likely COULD be so whatever. 32, 64, 128…this system, coupled with the instruction manuals, was all you needed to know how to play the game.
Then something went wrong. Instruction manuals became little more than inserts, and in-game tutorials began only covering the basics. I understand this is a world where even 90 year old women are blogging and googling their favorite news anchors, but it is making game-developers SUPER LAZY! The last 3 games I have played have forced me online to find out gameplay information. Square is block? Really? Why wasn't that explained in the 'How to Fight' tutorial? It didn't matter for the first half of the game, but when it becomes NECESSARY to block, it is bad game-design not to even have a WAY to see that blocking is an option.
The game I am playing now involves crafting. There was no tutorial, and the instruction manual only explained how to make a character and that is it. So here I am, needing to craft something with materials I don't know, using tools I don't understand, and I am being given options that have no explanations. I have a blank box and it says to select an item from my inventory. I have 2 choices after that of which of my tools I want to use to change those items into something else. This was all after trial and error even FINDING items I could use as materials. Once I got past that, I am suddenly being timed and I have 4 options of things I can do to the materials. There are colors flashing but no explanation as to their meaning or correlation to what I can do. So again, trial and error (failing and losing the materials which is BS) until I start to get the hang of things. Then I stop winning at all. Every attempt ends in failure.
So I give up and go online. There are tons of websites with all the information that should have been in the game in the first place, as well as important information like "Every time you craft, it decreases the chance of future successful attempts for x hours". Putting aside that being retarded, isn't the fact you can lose items in a game where money is SUPER tight reason enough to at least WARN the player about that?
With a controller in your hand there should NEVER be a time where you don't know all the information you need to play the game. Games should require skill and patience. Not research and luck. Even WoW in all its hand-holding silliness will sometimes stumble and ask you to 'bring x number of y item' without so much as a hint as to the location of said items. And again, if you have to look it up online, the game is fail.
Then something went wrong. Instruction manuals became little more than inserts, and in-game tutorials began only covering the basics. I understand this is a world where even 90 year old women are blogging and googling their favorite news anchors, but it is making game-developers SUPER LAZY! The last 3 games I have played have forced me online to find out gameplay information. Square is block? Really? Why wasn't that explained in the 'How to Fight' tutorial? It didn't matter for the first half of the game, but when it becomes NECESSARY to block, it is bad game-design not to even have a WAY to see that blocking is an option.
The game I am playing now involves crafting. There was no tutorial, and the instruction manual only explained how to make a character and that is it. So here I am, needing to craft something with materials I don't know, using tools I don't understand, and I am being given options that have no explanations. I have a blank box and it says to select an item from my inventory. I have 2 choices after that of which of my tools I want to use to change those items into something else. This was all after trial and error even FINDING items I could use as materials. Once I got past that, I am suddenly being timed and I have 4 options of things I can do to the materials. There are colors flashing but no explanation as to their meaning or correlation to what I can do. So again, trial and error (failing and losing the materials which is BS) until I start to get the hang of things. Then I stop winning at all. Every attempt ends in failure.
So I give up and go online. There are tons of websites with all the information that should have been in the game in the first place, as well as important information like "Every time you craft, it decreases the chance of future successful attempts for x hours". Putting aside that being retarded, isn't the fact you can lose items in a game where money is SUPER tight reason enough to at least WARN the player about that?
With a controller in your hand there should NEVER be a time where you don't know all the information you need to play the game. Games should require skill and patience. Not research and luck. Even WoW in all its hand-holding silliness will sometimes stumble and ask you to 'bring x number of y item' without so much as a hint as to the location of said items. And again, if you have to look it up online, the game is fail.