StaceyPowers

Alas, not my platform (PS3), but thanks for calling it to my attention. It's definitely on my list of games to try!

Have you ever been the target of bullying in an MMO? If so, how did you deal with it? Also, if you are open to admitting it, have you ever been a bully in an MMO? If so, do you have anything to share from those experiences? When I was a teen, I played an MMO quite extensively. During that time, I was at the receiving end of a lot of bullying, but I also was at times (however unintentionally) a bully myself. I grew up being bullied in school for being the “nerd,” and in the MMO, the same skills which were scorned IRL were useful. So naturally I teamed up with other angry nerd kids in the game, and we did our best to rule the roost. I expect this is common in gaming.

We've been discussing whether or not all games should have an "easy" mode on this thread. Separately, I wanted to ask those of you who have been participating in that discussion another question. What games have you played which you feel have done a particularly good job handling the structuring of difficulty modes or levels? @UleTheVee @DylanC @The Blackangel @LadyDay @killamch89 @Executor Akamia @skyfire @kingpotato (I hope I didn't miss anyone, but I probably did)

@kingpotato Lol, that's great. @skyfire Like side quests, or like totally different activities from what you usually do in the game?

What do you mean? (can you please rephrase?)

This reminds me of an old DOS game which I played as a kid which I thought handled difficulty in a great way. It was a puzzle game called Heaven and Earth. I think it had like ... thousands of puzzles in it in a number of innovative categories. They started out absurdly easy, and then gradually increased in difficulty in every category until they were ludicrously hard. I never did beat the game because you had to beat every puzzle to do it, but it never angered me because: 1-I could do the puzzles in literally any order I wished, at any time I wanted. 2-The learning curve was gradual and logical. 3-Rather than having to puzzle out what the puzzles actually were, they had clear tutorials, and most of them were designed to help improve particular skills (i.e. there was a whole set involving motor skills with mirror movement, where your mouse would behave as if it were flipped). Even though beating it would be quite challenging, I really felt like it offered something at every skill level. And this is coming from a person who usually detests puzzles in video games.

Actually, I wasn't thinking of multiplayer at all, since I also don't play online games. I mean accessibility features that would make the types of games you usually play easier. Like for example, when talking to an NPC in pretty much any game at all (i.e. Skyrim, Fallout, RDR, whatever), I usually miss whole portions of their dialogue because my brain is busy making connections or hasn't task-switched yet. I always wish that every game recorded all of this in a readable log format so I can just look up what I missed.

I never heard anyone mention open source in relation to this before. That's an interesting suggestion. Where do you think that might lead?

Rofl. Thank you. Yes. That's just it. I get confused about why video games and reality would be so easy to confuse, because context-wise, well, it seems unlikely that I will run into any Thalmor or Vigilants of Stendarr in town today who just need to die. @skyfire You're right I suspect about today's kids needing to rely on government aid and social support systems which currently do not even exist. Technically, the Millennial generation already has been pretty majorly screwed economically. Our parents didn't lay much of a groundwork for us to succeed in the world, so our generation's children are going to inherit an even shitter situation.

@LadyDay What is parchment craft? @The Blackangel I write too. Do you have any of your work online? For me, writing is the opposite. I am obsessed with control (because I feel I have so little of it) in most of my life, but with writing, I can release the tiller and just put down on the page what comes to me.

@LadyDay It's interesting you talk about time commitment. I too notice I rarely get invested in something from the moment I start it (one exception being TLOU, which has a particularly gripping first act). It's more like I play for a while, and then something grabs me, and it's like the game "comes to life" for me. But it doesn't seem to involve a particular amount of time--it's more the qualitative nature of the moment that matters. It can take a while to find it though!

@SpaceExplorer Thanks for the clarification, and for sharing that trailer ... that does look cool!

@killamch89 @xXInfectedXx I always just spray in the canned air. I notice it exerts enough pressure that a lot of dust blows back out of the ventilation.

Accessibility in video games has become a major topic of discussion over the past week thanks to the debate about difficulty modes spurred by the release of Sekiro. I think that the difficulty mode debate comprises a number of different topics, but it definitely does lend to discussions about accessibility features. A number of members have checked in on this thread I created for disabled gamers. So I thought I would create another thread on this topic. Whether you are disabled or not, what features would you like to see added to games and/or consoles and controls to provide more accessibility? @The Blackangel @LadyDay @killamch89 @kingpotato Tagging you because you replied on the other thread I linked. Here are some features that I might wish for: Full and permanent logging of discussions with characters (DA does well with this, other games do not). I often miss key snippets of dialogue in games because my brain is busy making connections and/or hasn't task-switched yet. Full mapping for controls for as many games as possible. Lightweight VR headsets. I love that I can propel my horse forward in RDR by clicking X repeatedly instead of holding the joystick forward. This is easier on my neck and shoulders. I'd love something like that for moving forward in other games. What would you like to see?

In games which contain other mini-games inside them, how much time do you typically spend playing them? I have to confess that I seem to spend about a quarter of the time I’m in RDR playing poker and liar’s dice.

@LadyDay Would love to hear you chime in on this topic!

The entire issue of distrust in gaming journalism is complicated by the fact that the nature of "journalism" online is itself ambiguous (who is a journalist? who is a blogger?), and we live in a time of extreme aggregation. I agree that we have a responsibility both to consumers and to others in the industry to try and maximize transparency.

@The Blackangel Do you have OCD? I do. The only thing it does to interfere with my gaming though is 1-cripple my executive function, and 2-give me a compulsive need to check every corner and every container in every room in every area of every game I play. If I suspect I might have missed a chest in some room half a dungeon back, I run all the way back half the time. I keep some obsessive lists as well, including lists of desired games, Netflix shows, etc. Though I'd say in my case, that is probably more of a desire not to forget about anything potentially awesome (because with poor executive function, I will) than a compulsive OCD-like need.

@SpaceExplorer There are definitely worse things than pricy cosmetics. I’d much rather that paid upgrades were aesthetic in nature. What really angers me is when people can pay for meaningful upgrades (i.e. better weapons). Re: player interaction … I probably didn’t get specific enough. I don’t really mean whether players ally up … I mean more like … do you know if they have actual conversations? I gather that in most MMOs these days, players will team up to accomplish objectives, but they don’t really bother to relate on a human level.

@killamch89 @UleTheVee @kingpotato I totally agree. Both the industry and the consumer base is at fault in this regard. I certainly don't hate the notion of DLCs in general ... I just hate them being used as an excuse to put out unfinished games.

I'm actually surprised by the percentage of people here who have mentioned a disability. It makes sense though. As you point out, games are probably more accessible to a lot of people with disabilities than other activities might be. I make jewelry, and I've noticed the same is true for crafting. Come to think of it, the disabled crafters I've met through jewelry-making are also into gaming.

I'm just playing my standard rotation right now, but the next game which is new to me that I'll play will be Bioshock 2.

The scrolly thing on my touchpad is always getting activated by mistake, and it isn't ergonomic, so I'm a mouse person.

I know that stories aren't everyone's cup of tea, as I've known people who just don't connect with them. It does make me wonder why they'd play TLOU in the first place being as that game is obviously very story/character-centered. I'm not irritated when people phrase their complaints with precision, i.e. "I didn't like TLOU because I am not into stories," but I get really irritated if it's just "TLOU isn't a good game." The latter is both vague and a false objective statement (It may not be a good game to them, but that does not make it a "bad" game objectively as it is phrased). Regardless, the same things draw me to a game as do you, and TLOU is--to me--bloody amazing as well :)

That's really helpful advice, especially since it builds off of what I've been figuring out. Thank you!