People love incremental gear treadmills, though, because they've forgotten what real fun is like
The legacy of MMOs.
Wasn't it WoW where the dev employed psychologists to maximize the addictive nature, and they found that giving people small rewards for repetitive actions kept players coming back?
I think that's pretty much the entire post-iPhone video game industry that uses this kind of market psychology
More intense video game looting is a weird legacy of dungeons & dragons and it's actually super fucked up and clashes hard with a lot of narratives it shows up in.
Like the kind where you don't just get coins or energy spheres or a special power-up for killing dudes, but you're directly implied or shown to be taking stuff that dead guy was wearing or using. Bethesda's games make this aggressively explicit, where you can strip bodies down to their skivvies and leave a trail of underwear corpses in their wake (Obsidian was actually aware of this weirdness and changed the weight/value ratios of a lot of armors in Fallout NV to the point that many of them weren't worth taking, so that at the very least you wouldn't strip your enemies bare)
In reality taking stuff, especially clothes, off a dead body is a super gross process that you need to do with some degree of skill and emotional fortitude (which is why we have, y'know, people who do that for a living), at least if you're not dead inside.
But video game protagonists are regularly the kind of people who don't just wantonly murder (a dissonant behavior with the narrative that's often pointed out) but they strip motherfuckers down and loot everything that isn't nailed down and isn't explicitly told to them isn't stealing with some kind of consequence.
In games where the protagonist is, y'know, outright an emotionally deadened husk of a person who barely feels empathy and thinks nothing of rummaging around in the bloody pockets of people he just murdered, that's not that weird. Joel from The Last of Us, for example, don't give a fuck. Joel isn't... Joel isn't a good person.
The weird thing is in D&D nobody actually strips the bodies of everything you kill except for "that guy" in my experience, especially after the DM makes it clear that the armor won't fit you, it's probably damaged, it's really gross, and it takes like 15 minutes per body to do it and your party's just going to leave behind and you were killed by falling rocks
edit: I guess everyone goes through their bags and stuff, although you need to be a certain level of fucked up to be voluntarily tromping through the wilderness after lethal monsters anyway
More intense video game looting is a weird legacy of dungeons & dragons and it's actually super fucked up and clashes hard with a lot of narratives it shows up in.
Like the kind where you don't just get coins or energy spheres or a special power-up for killing dudes, but you're directly implied or shown to be taking stuff that dead guy was wearing or using. Bethesda's games make this aggressively explicit, where you can strip bodies down to their skivvies and leave a trail of underwear corpses in their wake (Obsidian was actually aware of this weirdness and changed the weight/value ratios of a lot of armors in Fallout NV to the point that many of them weren't worth taking, so that at the very least you wouldn't strip your enemies bare)
In reality taking stuff, especially clothes, off a dead body is a super gross process that you need to do with some degree of skill and emotional fortitude (which is why we have, y'know, people who do that for a living), at least if you're not dead inside.
But video game protagonists are regularly the kind of people who don't just wantonly murder (a dissonant behavior with the narrative that's often pointed out) but they strip motherfuckers down and loot everything that isn't nailed down and isn't explicitly told to them isn't stealing with some kind of consequence.
In games where the protagonist is, y'know, outright an emotionally deadened husk of a person who barely feels empathy and thinks nothing of rummaging around in the bloody pockets of people he just murdered, that's not that weird. Joel from The Last of Us, for example, don't give a fuck. Joel isn't... Joel isn't a good person.
But other games? It's fucking weird.
If you didn't have the foresight to be The Chosen One Protagonist in the first place your butt-ass naked corpse is frankly your own fault
If I don't cross the world stripping corpses bare what's even the point of the multiple nude mods that I meticulously researched, downloaded and installed?
The weird thing is in D&D nobody actually strips the bodies of everything you kill except for "that guy" in my experience, especially after the DM makes it clear that the armor won't fit you, it's probably damaged, it's really gross, and it takes like 15 minutes per body to do it and your party's just going to leave behind and you were killed by falling rocks
Right?
People did do this in shitty games of D&D where they simultaneously insisted on ekeing every penny out of every guy they killed... but not on being realistic about how they carried any of that shit.
Only "that guy" tried to do this shit with normal people, because it's fucking ghoulish and weird.
+1
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
The only time I don't like inventory management is when there's a time pressure involved. I thought I would have that with Dark Souls, but there's pleeeennnnnnnty of time for inventory management without being in danger. I'm experiencing it with PUBG though.
It becomes less of a problem when you learn the game's language in a shorthand manner. Most games I play with 'inventory management' as a thing, I end up learning enough that I know what's garbage and such, so the decision making happens on the fly. In PUBG as soon as I recognize thing by first sight, the management pressure will go away and it'll be less time spent of me reading things while possibly getting beaned in the head.
More intense video game looting is a weird legacy of dungeons & dragons and it's actually super fucked up and clashes hard with a lot of narratives it shows up in.
Like the kind where you don't just get coins or energy spheres or a special power-up for killing dudes, but you're directly implied or shown to be taking stuff that dead guy was wearing or using. Bethesda's games make this aggressively explicit, where you can strip bodies down to their skivvies and leave a trail of underwear corpses in their wake (Obsidian was actually aware of this weirdness and changed the weight/value ratios of a lot of armors in Fallout NV to the point that many of them weren't worth taking, so that at the very least you wouldn't strip your enemies bare)
In reality taking stuff, especially clothes, off a dead body is a super gross process that you need to do with some degree of skill and emotional fortitude (which is why we have, y'know, people who do that for a living), at least if you're not dead inside.
But video game protagonists are regularly the kind of people who don't just wantonly murder (a dissonant behavior with the narrative that's often pointed out) but they strip motherfuckers down and loot everything that isn't nailed down and isn't explicitly told to them isn't stealing with some kind of consequence.
In games where the protagonist is, y'know, outright an emotionally deadened husk of a person who barely feels empathy and thinks nothing of rummaging around in the bloody pockets of people he just murdered, that's not that weird. Joel from The Last of Us, for example, don't give a fuck. Joel isn't... Joel isn't a good person.
But other games? It's fucking weird.
I mean it's that or breaking people's pottery or just barging in their house and taking stuff out of their footlockers/heirloom treasure chests
More intense video game looting is a weird legacy of dungeons & dragons and it's actually super fucked up and clashes hard with a lot of narratives it shows up in.
Like the kind where you don't just get coins or energy spheres or a special power-up for killing dudes, but you're directly implied or shown to be taking stuff that dead guy was wearing or using. Bethesda's games make this aggressively explicit, where you can strip bodies down to their skivvies and leave a trail of underwear corpses in their wake (Obsidian was actually aware of this weirdness and changed the weight/value ratios of a lot of armors in Fallout NV to the point that many of them weren't worth taking, so that at the very least you wouldn't strip your enemies bare)
In reality taking stuff, especially clothes, off a dead body is a super gross process that you need to do with some degree of skill and emotional fortitude (which is why we have, y'know, people who do that for a living), at least if you're not dead inside.
But video game protagonists are regularly the kind of people who don't just wantonly murder (a dissonant behavior with the narrative that's often pointed out) but they strip motherfuckers down and loot everything that isn't nailed down and isn't explicitly told to them isn't stealing with some kind of consequence.
In games where the protagonist is, y'know, outright an emotionally deadened husk of a person who barely feels empathy and thinks nothing of rummaging around in the bloody pockets of people he just murdered, that's not that weird. Joel from The Last of Us, for example, don't give a fuck. Joel isn't... Joel isn't a good person.
But other games? It's fucking weird.
I mean it's that or breaking people's pottery or just barging in their house and taking stuff out of their footlockers/heirloom treasure chests
Or?
The Dragonborn will do all of that.
+2
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KageraImitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered Userregular
If those people didn’t want to be naked they shouldn’t have attacked me with a tire iron when I’m wielding a laser rifle.
in my current game I make my familiar rummage for valuables on dead people because it's gross and I don't care about my familiar's emotional well being
in my current game I make my familiar rummage for valuables on dead people because it's gross and I don't care about my familiar's emotional well being
The plight of the working class in a nutshell
+4
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DynagripBreak me a million heartsHoustonRegistered User, ClubPAregular
I like the idea that hey- this guy has a cool weapon or armor, and I beat him and I can take it now!
None of this, like, oh he died but we left his ancient relic blade of great power and skill just like...lying there
On the floor
It isn't even cursed!
And we left lol
But also video game loot systems are weird
But also mercilessly slaughtering your way across a digital narrative is also weird
tbh I am pretty much done with murder hobo open world RPGs
The last one I played was Mass Effect Andromeda and I was like "this game is fucking dumb. I feel dumb for doing this shit. The well-crafted narrative BioWare is trying here is ramming so fucking hard against their murder heavy open world gameplay, this isn't fun"
In a press release today, Marvel announced Create Your Own, a new platform that allows fans to create original comic strips using Marvel characters and stock background illustrations. The tagline is “Your Own Marvel Universe.”
Here are some highlights from the very long list of no-no’s:
“Content that could frighten or upset young children or the parents of young children.”
Prescription drugs or over-the-counter medication, vitamins, and dietary supplements.
Contraceptives
“Suggestive or revealing images,” including “bare midriffs”
“Sensationalism,” which is not defined but elucidated with the examples “killer bees, gossip, aliens, scandal, etc.”
“Obscenity, bad or offensive language” or “proxies for bad or offensive language.” E.g. no “X@#%!”
“Noises related to bodily functions.”
No politics, including “alternative lifestyle advocacies”
Death
“Misleading language”
“A copy or parody of current or past Marvel advertising creative”
Any “controversial topics,” including “social issues”
Double entendres
Any amusement parks that aren’t Disney amusement parks
Any movie studios that aren’t “affiliated with Marvel”
Guns
Like, it was pretty cool in Fallout 4 when some raiders attacked me and after I beat them I was like "oh this guy had a cool hat. I guess it's mine now."
but also i didnt like rip all their clothes off and carry them around to sell for caps because that's weird
The weird thing is in D&D nobody actually strips the bodies of everything you kill except for "that guy" in my experience, especially after the DM makes it clear that the armor won't fit you, it's probably damaged, it's really gross, and it takes like 15 minutes per body to do it and your party's just going to leave behind and you were killed by falling rocks
Right?
People did do this in shitty games of D&D where they simultaneously insisted on ekeing every penny out of every guy they killed... but not on being realistic about how they carried any of that shit.
Only "that guy" tried to do this shit with normal people, because it's fucking ghoulish and weird.
I remember one of the designers of D&D 5e said on twitter that he typically uses encumbrance rules sparingly because they can get in the way, but they're a DM tool to stop a player from throwing 50 dead bodies in their bag or hauling off an ancient altar or any other preposterous and time consuming things players want to do once they've finished up in battle
I like the idea that hey- this guy has a cool weapon or armor, and I beat him and I can take it now!
None of this, like, oh he died but we left his ancient relic blade of great power and skill just like...lying there
On the floor
It isn't even cursed!
And we left lol
But also video game loot systems are weird
But also mercilessly slaughtering your way across a digital narrative is also weird
tbh I am pretty much done with murder hobo open world RPGs
The last one I played was Mass Effect Andromeda and I was like "this game is fucking dumb. I feel dumb for doing this shit. The well-crafted narrative BioWare is trying here is ramming so fucking hard against their murder heavy open world gameplay, this isn't fun"
I'm not disagreeing with you. I really liked Horizon, but it got really weird when nearly every person you met outside the village was like RAR IM GONNA KILL YOU and I'm like
stahp
why
no
I didn't sign up to shoot arrows at dudes, I signed up to shoot arrows at robosaurs
I like the idea that hey- this guy has a cool weapon or armor, and I beat him and I can take it now!
None of this, like, oh he died but we left his ancient relic blade of great power and skill just like...lying there
On the floor
It isn't even cursed!
And we left lol
But also video game loot systems are weird
But also mercilessly slaughtering your way across a digital narrative is also weird
tbh I am pretty much done with murder hobo open world RPGs
The last one I played was Mass Effect Andromeda and I was like "this game is fucking dumb. I feel dumb for doing this shit. The well-crafted narrative BioWare is trying here is ramming so fucking hard against their murder heavy open world gameplay, this isn't fun"
An actually realistic non-bandits to bandits ratio would be a great creative restriction on all RPG makers. It would cut down on just throwing tons and tons of poorly justified intelligent enemies at you.
In a press release today, Marvel announced Create Your Own, a new platform that allows fans to create original comic strips using Marvel characters and stock background illustrations. The tagline is “Your Own Marvel Universe.”
Here are some highlights from the very long list of no-no’s:
“Content that could frighten or upset young children or the parents of young children.”
Prescription drugs or over-the-counter medication, vitamins, and dietary supplements.
Contraceptives
“Suggestive or revealing images,” including “bare midriffs”
“Sensationalism,” which is not defined but elucidated with the examples “killer bees, gossip, aliens, scandal, etc.”
“Obscenity, bad or offensive language” or “proxies for bad or offensive language.” E.g. no “X@#%!”
“Noises related to bodily functions.”
No politics, including “alternative lifestyle advocacies”
Death
“Misleading language”
“A copy or parody of current or past Marvel advertising creative”
Any “controversial topics,” including “social issues”
Double entendres
Any amusement parks that aren’t Disney amusement parks
Any movie studios that aren’t “affiliated with Marvel”
Guns
What is even the point.
Maybe they should have adhered to these rules before making Secret Empire
If I don't cross the world stripping corpses bare what's even the point of the multiple nude mods that I meticulously researched, downloaded and installed?
Real talk I have always been creeped out by the combination of obsessively detailed nude mods and games where the only instance you are likely to see anybody naked is when you loot their corpse
+2
Options
KageraImitating the worst people. Since 2004Registered Userregular
It’s a good thing NPCs can’t think. Because if they could they probably wouldn’t want to attack the dude in power armor with a pool cue. Then the game would force them to anyway and that would be bad.
I like the idea that hey- this guy has a cool weapon or armor, and I beat him and I can take it now!
None of this, like, oh he died but we left his ancient relic blade of great power and skill just like...lying there
On the floor
It isn't even cursed!
And we left lol
But also video game loot systems are weird
But also mercilessly slaughtering your way across a digital narrative is also weird
tbh I am pretty much done with murder hobo open world RPGs
The last one I played was Mass Effect Andromeda and I was like "this game is fucking dumb. I feel dumb for doing this shit. The well-crafted narrative BioWare is trying here is ramming so fucking hard against their murder heavy open world gameplay, this isn't fun"
I'm not disagreeing with you. I really liked Horizon, but it got really weird when nearly every person you met outside the village was like RAR IM GONNA KILL YOU and I'm like
stahp
why
no
I didn't sign up to shoot arrows at dudes, I signed up to shoot arrows at robosaurs
When you get the shield armor and 5 guys are tinking arrows harmlessly off of you, you think they'd reevaluate their life choices
it always seemed strange to me to take and equip the armour of an enemy you just killed with a huge axe, or assault rifle, or explosive. not just because the armour would clearly be ruined, and because it wouldn't fit, but because it would be full of blood and guts, and that's how you get the hep.
+1
Options
HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Like, it was pretty cool in Fallout 4 when some raiders attacked me and after I beat them I was like "oh this guy had a cool hat. I guess it's mine now."
but also i didnt like rip all their clothes off and carry them around to sell for caps because that's weird
Doing that kind of crap ruined my ability to play Oblivion. So many video games teach you to LOOT EVERYTHING and the Bethesda games don't do enough to teach you that, no, trying to do that is a terrible idea.
What they need to do is introduce a system where, once you leave an area to sell / store loot, then return for more, scavengers have come by or are still present even. That way you know to pick out the valuables rather than just spend an hour running back and forth.
Years ago I was in a really weird headspace where I couldn't play FPS games because the feel of using a gun to shoot human enemies was weird to me
Frankly, it still is. It's one of the reasons I stopped playing The Division.
And now it's starting to make me feel weird again, in things like Horizon and Fallout. I don't especially like using guns in particular on human enemies, but I'm feeling real weird even swording people.
I don't mind murderhoboing my way through aliens, robots, zombies, or non-human things but I get really uncomfortable really quickly when fighting explicitly human combatants.
Full disclosure in bethesda games I install a mod to remove weight restrictions first thing and loot absolutely everything in the game world
If you examine the reality of what happens when you quickloot a dozen people you just killed it's really horrifying for sure
but the entire game is so... gamey if that makes any sense that it doesn't actually bother me, I also take everything off the super mutants and dogs and robots so I can grind it all up into settlement materials
Posts
That reminds me, I think I'll play PoE this weekend.
How can you forget what you've never really known
Alt answer: its video game realism because life is a pointless incremental grind
Most games I play end up as inventory optimization simulators.
I blame Baldurs Gate I/II for this. And for min maxing. Which is essentially the same thing, but on the PC.
This yeah.
Diablo 3 more like real life than The Sims.
I think that's pretty much the entire post-iPhone video game industry that uses this kind of market psychology
More intense video game looting is a weird legacy of dungeons & dragons and it's actually super fucked up and clashes hard with a lot of narratives it shows up in.
Like the kind where you don't just get coins or energy spheres or a special power-up for killing dudes, but you're directly implied or shown to be taking stuff that dead guy was wearing or using. Bethesda's games make this aggressively explicit, where you can strip bodies down to their skivvies and leave a trail of underwear corpses in their wake (Obsidian was actually aware of this weirdness and changed the weight/value ratios of a lot of armors in Fallout NV to the point that many of them weren't worth taking, so that at the very least you wouldn't strip your enemies bare)
In reality taking stuff, especially clothes, off a dead body is a super gross process that you need to do with some degree of skill and emotional fortitude (which is why we have, y'know, people who do that for a living), at least if you're not dead inside.
But video game protagonists are regularly the kind of people who don't just wantonly murder (a dissonant behavior with the narrative that's often pointed out) but they strip motherfuckers down and loot everything that isn't nailed down and isn't explicitly told to them isn't stealing with some kind of consequence.
In games where the protagonist is, y'know, outright an emotionally deadened husk of a person who barely feels empathy and thinks nothing of rummaging around in the bloody pockets of people he just murdered, that's not that weird. Joel from The Last of Us, for example, don't give a fuck. Joel isn't... Joel isn't a good person.
But other games? It's fucking weird.
Horizon learned from complaints. The dlc gives you a skill to convert inventory into currency. Yeah, a flower can turn into metal shards.
But it let's you clear up room for more mods/resources pretty fast.
I'm pretty much in full pretty princess mode now. And if this game had vanity slots they'd probably keep me on even more.
edit: I guess everyone goes through their bags and stuff, although you need to be a certain level of fucked up to be voluntarily tromping through the wilderness after lethal monsters anyway
If you didn't have the foresight to be The Chosen One Protagonist in the first place your butt-ass naked corpse is frankly your own fault
Right?
People did do this in shitty games of D&D where they simultaneously insisted on ekeing every penny out of every guy they killed... but not on being realistic about how they carried any of that shit.
Only "that guy" tried to do this shit with normal people, because it's fucking ghoulish and weird.
It becomes less of a problem when you learn the game's language in a shorthand manner. Most games I play with 'inventory management' as a thing, I end up learning enough that I know what's garbage and such, so the decision making happens on the fly. In PUBG as soon as I recognize thing by first sight, the management pressure will go away and it'll be less time spent of me reading things while possibly getting beaned in the head.
I mean it's that or breaking people's pottery or just barging in their house and taking stuff out of their footlockers/heirloom treasure chests
Or?
The Dragonborn will do all of that.
None of this, like, oh he died but we left his ancient relic blade of great power and skill just like...lying there
On the floor
It isn't even cursed!
And we left lol
But also video game loot systems are weird
But also mercilessly slaughtering your way across a digital narrative is also weird
The plight of the working class in a nutshell
whoa, raid that shit
tbh I am pretty much done with murder hobo open world RPGs
The last one I played was Mass Effect Andromeda and I was like "this game is fucking dumb. I feel dumb for doing this shit. The well-crafted narrative BioWare is trying here is ramming so fucking hard against their murder heavy open world gameplay, this isn't fun"
but also i didnt like rip all their clothes off and carry them around to sell for caps because that's weird
I remember one of the designers of D&D 5e said on twitter that he typically uses encumbrance rules sparingly because they can get in the way, but they're a DM tool to stop a player from throwing 50 dead bodies in their bag or hauling off an ancient altar or any other preposterous and time consuming things players want to do once they've finished up in battle
I'm not disagreeing with you. I really liked Horizon, but it got really weird when nearly every person you met outside the village was like RAR IM GONNA KILL YOU and I'm like
stahp
why
no
I didn't sign up to shoot arrows at dudes, I signed up to shoot arrows at robosaurs
An actually realistic non-bandits to bandits ratio would be a great creative restriction on all RPG makers. It would cut down on just throwing tons and tons of poorly justified intelligent enemies at you.
Maybe they should have adhered to these rules before making Secret Empire
Real talk I have always been creeped out by the combination of obsessively detailed nude mods and games where the only instance you are likely to see anybody naked is when you loot their corpse
When you get the shield armor and 5 guys are tinking arrows harmlessly off of you, you think they'd reevaluate their life choices
What they need to do is introduce a system where, once you leave an area to sell / store loot, then return for more, scavengers have come by or are still present even. That way you know to pick out the valuables rather than just spend an hour running back and forth.
where are they all getting food from
Radroaches
Radroaches everywhere.
Frankly, it still is. It's one of the reasons I stopped playing The Division.
And now it's starting to make me feel weird again, in things like Horizon and Fallout. I don't especially like using guns in particular on human enemies, but I'm feeling real weird even swording people.
I don't mind murderhoboing my way through aliens, robots, zombies, or non-human things but I get really uncomfortable really quickly when fighting explicitly human combatants.
If you examine the reality of what happens when you quickloot a dozen people you just killed it's really horrifying for sure
but the entire game is so... gamey if that makes any sense that it doesn't actually bother me, I also take everything off the super mutants and dogs and robots so I can grind it all up into settlement materials