StaceyPowers

As we move toward the trailing end of the year, I am wondering what the best indie games are from 2019? Please share your recommendations.

What is the single most damaging abuse of a glitch or bug or exploit you ever saw in a game? The worst for me was in a MUD I played where I noticed that everything in the game cost an insane amount of gold. I could not wrap my head around it for a long time. Not all the quests or mobs in the game had been updated to drop more gold, either, so it could be difficult to buy things. Eventually, someone explained to me that massive inflation had taken place. And the entire reason for it was because some quest had glitched at some point in the past, and a player discovered he could basically get endless gold from it. So he abused the glitch to get an insane amount of money, and then it flooded out into the game economy before the admins could catch onto what had happened. As a result, the value of the in-game currency watered down to almost nothing. Does anyone else have any dramatic stories to share of this type of abuse?

@Alyxx posed the question of whether leveling services (i.e. paying another person to log into your account and grind for you) are cheating. I remember debates about that in the MUDs I used to play. I don’t personally think there is an obvious yes or no answer. It is certainly in the “spirit” of cheating—although technically, someone is still doing the work required—it just isn’t the same person who is doing everything else with the account. So I wouldn’t call it cheating the same way I would say abusing an exploit would be cheating, or hacking a game … but it’s cheating in the sense that the person themselves will always know they took a shortcut to level. Another one I thought was in a gray area was bribery. A lot of people in a game I played accused a rich guy of cheating by bribing other players with in-game currency. In my opinion, he was playing the game the way it was designed, particularly given that nobody else needed to take his bribes. But I could still see the “spirit of cheating” argument here, but if so, to me, the cheat was buying so much in-game currency to begin with using RL money. In a way, all “play to win” games seem like cheats to me for the wealthy. Kind of sucks, being as RL is already pay-to-win, which is exactly what I like to get away from when playing a game. What are your thoughts?

Seems like a gray area to me.

Has there ever been something in a video game that you initially found obnoxious, but later grew to like? For example, when I first started playing Dragon Age: Origins, I could not stand the character voice I had picked (I believe it is the one which is the “aggressive” female voice). The character was constantly shouting this tedious line in combat: “Let me get you a ladder so you can get off my back!” I was so peeved I almost went back and started over just to replace the voice, and was so confused when my friend told me she loves all the character voices. But I was able to tune it out after a while, and blessedly, the character stopped saying the line 40 times a minute after a while for whatever reason. Anyway, I got used to it, and now, I actually miss it sometimes =D And I still say “Let me get you a ladder” whenever someone is nagging me about something IRL. What stuff that once annoyed you in video games became something you liked?

@killamch89 and @Alyxx were talking here about how important character customization is to their experience of a game. I am wondering how important character customization is to everyone here, and what aspects of it you care about the most. I used to not care much about character customization. And if I have to live without it, I’m usually fine with that. But I definitely prefer a system which gives me as much control as possible. Mostly I like being able to make all kinds of little micro-adjustments to my character’s face and hair. I just like designing someone who will be pretty to look at over the course of the game. If I were playing a game where character customization was driven by microtransactions though, I probably wouldn’t bother with it. I’d just focus on playing the game and not worry about cosmetics. One thing I do really like is being able to choose my character’s voice, if the character is going to be talking at all. The more voice options there are, the better. If the voice actor’s delivery feels “off,” the entire character feels “off” to me, and harder to connect to.

In this thread, @Alyxx , @killamch89 and @skyfire were talking about monetizing character customization, and whether or not it is an acceptable idea. In terms of microtransactions, I sure don’t like the idea of having to pay for character customization, but I definitely know that I would far prefer cosmetic microtransactions rather than those which impact game play. There is nothing worse to me than pay-to-win. I was in a pay-to-win game once where a rich player pretty much “bought” the game in many respects. No one could stand up to him, because he was able to buy so many upgrades. What types of microtransactions are you okay with, if any? And which do you despise the most?

@kingpotato mentioned that a lot of developers these days are focusing on a retro look and feel to games. What is everyone’s feeling on retro style graphics and gameplay? Is it something you like? Something you dislike? I don’t have any games with retro style graphics, and it isn’t my preference, but I definitely don’t mind it.

@Alyxx was mentioning to me that nothing in BioShock Infinite made any sense to her. I'm a big fan of BioShock Infinite--it is my favorite game--but I can still see why someone might come away with that impression. I figure that must happen a lot with popular games. Can anyone else here think of a game that you played which was very well-received, but which just didn't make sense to you personally?

As many of you probably know by now, I only have a PS3. But I do plan to buy a PS5, which means I’ll be able to play PS4 games. Sometimes I see BioShock: The Collection with the remastered games go on sale for a good price. I was wondering who here has played the remasters as well as the originals, and how they compare? Is it worth it for me to grab this, keeping in mind I am a massive fan of the originals? @DylanC @skyfire Tagging you both since I know you're both fans of the series.

Okay then. Who trains your dogs?

Good call. I too would like to see this. There have been a few games where I was just fine with not making decisions. TLOU was a story about very clearly written characters, for example, and I wanted to know about their decisions, not replace them with mine. And BioShock Infinite to me would’ve made no sense philosophically if there’d been real player choice. I also did not mind Anders stealing the scene in Dragon Age II—because some things are out of one’s control. But I guess outside of specific contexts/justifications, I too would prefer player choice and real, world-altering consequences to be the norm as much as possible.

Great example, and it is super annoying when a franchise actually regresses in this regard. Enemies should not be unnaturally intelligent, but they should at least have competitive intelligence. That's so true. This is something I always laugh about when playing Skyrim. Combat is usually very mindless. "Turn in general direction of enemy. Start pushing buttons."

That's exactly what I meant. I think we're talking about the same thing. This is what I fear happening: -I am low on resources. -I decide to keep going. -The game autosaves on me. -I NEED a critical resource. -I have no manual saves, so I can't go back. I am stuck forever. If I am worried about that happening, that is precisely when I'll die on purpose or reload just so I can try again to get the resources before the game reaches the next checkpoint and screws me.

SPOILERS follow: On a replay of BioShock Infinite, I stumbled on something that confuses me. In the room on the zeppelin right before you go deal with Comstock, there is some artwork on the walls in panels that shows the journey Elizabeth and Booker have taken over the course of the game to reach that moment. I am not confused about why Comstock knows about those events—I know he was looking through tears at possible futures. My question is, why does he display beautiful artwork proudly of these events? Considering what’s about to happen to him, it’s utterly bizarre. All I can come up with is: 1-Maybe he thinks he will survive the encounter. 2-He’s tired, thinks he’ll win through Elizabeth, and doesn’t care if he survives the encounter. Or 3-He has a secret deathwish and welcomes his demise/failure. The last of those would be the most interesting possibility, though he really does seem to have put his all into killing Booker. Then again, a guy with major self-loathing issues and amazing mental compartmentalizing capabilities (consider his racism), I wouldn’t put it past . I mean, he’s literally created his own private hell in Columbia. Being as he wants to punish himself, maybe he also secretly wants to clear the debt. I thought this theory was outlandish until I just finished Burial at Sea Part 1, wherein there was at least one Comstock seeking redemption (and forgetfulness, yes--but via Sally, definitely self-improvement). Thoughts? @DylanC @skyfire

@killamch89 was mentioning that he feels like many games today don’t have enough meaningful and enjoyable content. For those of you who feel likewise, what types of content would you like to see incorporated more into today’s video games?

What are some examples?

Related to my thread where I asked what the appeal of RuneScape is, I noticed that there are a lot of RuneScape leveling services. This seems particularly odd to me—paying someone to grind for you in a game which appears to consist mainly of, well, grinding. But it did bring back memories of people who would pay someone to level them up in the MUDs I used to play. It made more sense to me there, because there was a LOT to do outside grinding, and it was usually seen as a chore to get out of the way so that you could get back to politics/commerce/PKing/socializing. But nobody really looked well upon it. In fact, in one game, if you died while away from the keyboard, you would gradually lose levels you had gained until you got back and typed in a word to return from the dead. If one managed to kill a character whose player had paid to level up while he or she was AFK, watching the levels drop for that person down to 0 was a thing to be very smug about. Does anyone here use leveling services? Have attitudes become more neutral/less negative toward them?

So, I have never played RuneScape before, but I was reading about it the other week. This game is HUGE, yet when I read descriptions of it, I can’t figure out what the appeal is. It sounds to essentially be nothing but grinding in a multiplayer environment. Is there something I am missing? If anyone here plays RuneScape, what drew you to it, and what keeps you playing?

Hahah, yeah. Mostly entertaining to me though, because it seems clear that GTA is a tongue-in-cheek satire, and thus a criticism on such real-life things, in an ironic way.

@Alyxx and @killamch89 and I were talking about POV in video games, and how some games conveniently let you switch back and forth between first and third person. I realize that this is a feature which I really wish that all video games had. I know that some games in third person couldn't get away with it without adding a lot more environment detail, and there may be other reasons it wouldn't make sense for other games. But for games where it would work, I wish it were a ubiquitous feature. Are there any features which you wish were added to all or most video games?

When I do something I regret in an RPG I almost never die and reload to fix it. I think I did it one time, but I can't remember what it was I found so unacceptable--oh wait. Yes I can. It was when I murdered Mr. House in New Vegas. Ironically, I wound up killing him anyway when I reloaded, because he didn't really give me a viable alternative even though I didn't want to do it. Usually when I make an RPG choice I regret, I live with the consequences, because I feel like it's a chance for me to learn from the mistake. Plus, I can look forward to doing it differently next time. Stuck in level geometry - do you mean like when you jump behind an object that there is no way to get back around again, so you're trapped? Oh man, I always worry about that in games that auto-save and don't allow me to create save points. Sometimes I'll also strategically die to go back to the last checkpoint, because I'm worried if I progress without the resources I'll be up a creek without a paddle.

Most satisfying word to spell in Scrabble?

What random question would you most like to be asked?

QUICK! You are looking at an imaginary inkblot. What do you see?