Things That Bother You About Gaming

[Mustang]

I have quite the rant coming for the fighting game community. I've been in quite a fowl mood for the past, we'll say week. Some of it is for sure bullshit I'm seeing at work (so that could be adding just a hair more fuel), but the majority is from the FGC. I'm going to sound hypocritical because of my last post, but hear me out.

To start this off, the vibes within the FGC is toxic. There's no other way to put it. It's straight up toxic. I'm going to skip to yesterday, just watching some streamer stream Phasmophobia. More or less, I had no idea she was familiar with fighting games let alone Tekken 7. She said she used to play back in the day but stopped because of how toxic the FGC is. This is an outsider talking about how toxic the FGC is and she don't even know half of it. Now my thing is, if she's saying that what are other communities saying about the FGC? In my mind Call of Duty is perhaps the most toxic community that exist, but I don't know that. I don't know what the WoW, LoL, DoTA communities are like. I only know what the FGC is like and it's mentally draining.

Pros/Hardcore players that stream, you'd be surprised how many of them I actually enjoy going to. I used to have a long list of players that I would watch play fighting games and that list has dwindled due to either they're giving off bad vibes or their chat is full of shit. At this very moment I am subbed to 3 people and that's because they have good vibes, their chat is cool, and they actually enjoy playing whatever game they're playing. I saw a V-Tuber just enjoy playing a Hazama mirror match in BBCF and you can hear it in her voice that she was having fun.

While the streamer is having a match or decides to open up a discussion, chat is going on about something irrelevant. I saw a little something today. Streamer decides to promote Phantom Breakers (no idea what it is) and I see in his chat, "does it have panty shots" and you can probably already guess my reaction. Classic forehead slap. I don't have the energy I once had to get in these little back and forths anymore. It's a waste of my time. Thundercat said some silly shit the other day talking about "grassroots".

Grassroots, UltrachenTV is something I still listen to but I've lost a lot of respect for James Chen. I won't go into details about why, but he's one of these old heads that's clamouring grassroots and actually know what it was like back then, at least on the west coast. Midwest/East coast. You don't want that smoke. "Grassroots" is literally bringing the streets to the arcade and I'll say it again. You don't want that smoke. Hell, some of these people complaining now about Punk too arrogant and whatnot is all the more reason why the FGC wouldn't/couldn't handle "grassroots". So for someone like James to say I miss the days of rivalries, I get it, but "trashtalk" can't be kept within the game. That's just not who we are. You get in my face I'ma put you on your ass. That's just what it is.

And then the FGC being so divided the way it is as well. No matter how you slice it, while the FGC accepts Smashers now, it'll never be included. Then you have your Street Fighter crowd, Mortal Kombat crowd, Marvel crowd, Guilty Gear crowd, anime/air-dasher crowd, so on and so forth. Each crowd shits on the other. Get this. Each crowd shits on the old and new. Meaning, lets take Guilty Gear Strive since there's so much noise going on here. Old heads (+R) have no problem with Strive. New blood, no problem with Strive. The hate is coming from those that love Xrd (they're oldies, but not like your old heads) and I understand why they're not feeling Strive, but go back and play Xrd. They don't want to do that which because there's no roll-back netcode. Which brings us to the next problem. Go back to USF4. EVERYONE complained about the netcode but we still played knowing what we were getting ourselves into. There are ways to bypass a lot of online hiccups if you have Parsec. Don't even want to take that option. So what do you do? Sit there and bitch about the new game. Okay I see you. Street Fighter 5 same way. People want to bitch about nothing and can go back and play the old game. It's still there. But no lets shit on the new game. This is all USA btw.

Roll-back netcode has become another problem. People are getting in their own way to enjoy games now. I get it. Dev's are in the hot seat right now because of the pandemic. This idea, though, of no rollback no buy is going to kill the FGC. If I'm a dev, I wouldn't do shit for this ungrateful community. All this community do is complain. No rollback no buy. This character too strong. Nerf. The next character is too strong, NERF. It's like a never ending cycle. People claim they want a "perfectly" balanced game. Do yourself a favor and name 1 perfectly balanced game and see where it's at. There's never been a game with perfect balance. And if you claim you want perfect balance go slap yourself. Understand why people always claim that 3rd Strike is the best. Understand why people claim that Marvel vs Capcom 2 is the best. Understand why Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 is still going strong right now. It's not because of balance. It's because of the BULLSHIT THAT'S IN THE GAME. So yeah people claiming they want balance can go count something.

I love fighting games. But I cannot stand the community right now. There's so much going on right now that I hate (and I still haven't addressed some issues because it's too much going on). If you were to ask me why I still support fighting games I wouldn't be able to give you an answer.

[Mustang]

Hmm.. Somebody's gonna have to enlighten me about all this bad workplace complaints I've been hearing about at these videogame companies.

The 2 main things I've been hearing about is sexual misconduct and crunch. Sexual misconduct. Alright cool. You got me on that one. If no one is saying anything about it, yeah, bad company. But "crunch"? What the hell am I missing here? Depending on what industry you're in, I would think just about every company has a "crunch" period where they have to meet deadline. I work in the Auto industry. Our "crunch" time is November-December-ish, depending on how many battery packs we have left to build/get out. Majority of the time we're ahead so no issue. But if there is a time when we have to meet deadline, we, as in the "workers/employees" choose to do so or not. If we have a holiday vacation coming up, we will crank it up a bit, do OT if need be. But we have that kind of relationship with our Supervisor.

If your Supervisor is full of shit. Get out. It's as simple as that. Granted, people got different situations, I get it, but to bitch about companies during "crunch" time, yeah, I need to be enlightened because as far as I'm concerned, you're not doing anything life threatening, and yes we all need breaks. I bring this up because I'm listening to this podcast (Unlocked) and they brought up something about whoever the dev's or Ori is has 2 assholes (yet the company as a whole is catching heat for 2 people. I don't understand) causing something that someone spoke out about. I don't know, but this conversation they were having just triggered me. Whatever's happening at that company could be legit, but I've been hearing Easy Allies, MinnMax, IGN talk about "crunch" so much lately that they are catching my smoke at the moment.

I don't mean to sound unsympathetic or anything like that, it's just when I compare making videogames to making cars/batteries, and crunch time, yeah, that's hard for me.

So, somebody. Let me know what's happening?

[Mustang]

March huh.

Since that last post of mine, I've probably given up on Easy Allies. I still listen to Frame Trap, but as a collective, yeah I've cut back. With Ben leaving I just don't have anything in common with the rest of them, but I'll get back to them in a bit. I've listened to more Minnmax, pick up on listening to Kinda Funny Games, and some of the podcasts from IGN.

That being said, Kinda Funny Games seemed like a fun group to get behind so I went back and listened to some of their older episodes of their podcasts. I haven't checked out their X-box version yet. Mostly the playstation focused one and the general topics one. Anyway, Metal Gear Solid 5 was one of the focal points of one episode and Tim Gettys (might be somebody else now that I'm thinking about it) and I think Greg Miller's love for the game (series) is pretty much my thoughts and they had some great things to say. I will tell you that MGS5 is a 10/10 game that has a lackluster story for a MGS game. Bouncing back to Easy Allies for a moment I remember them and just people in general saying something along the same lines but kind of dogging the game. Like the story is the end all be all. Bounce back to now, I'm like the things this group at KFG is saying is legit.

That being said, Dr. Ensatsu-Ken, I owe an apology to you good sir. I found myself going down a similar boat and wanted an open world Devil May Cry. Not everything has to be open world and I recall you being the one saying that (Might've been Dr. Insomiac and Foggle agreeing with you on that as well. Hats off to y'all good people). I think the thing was, at that time I wanted more for the game instead of just trying to enjoy it for what it was. Yes and no, I still want more from Devil May Cry. I can probably give you an essay on how I'm picturing DMC going forward. Coming off of Nioh, God of War and Breath of the Wild going into DMC5 just wasn't fair (finally got around to playing and sticking with it). I got a lot to say about character action vs souls/borne-like too (I got a lot built up from these podcasts since my little break from everything)

So going back to Metal Gear Solid 5. 10/10 gameplay right. IMO, Kojima put us on a playground and said have fun. Obviously things happened between Kojima and Konami. You see it when it comes to the story. Alright, cool. So here's my problem. Why do we replay games again? Sure you have your games that may have a phenomenal story and you want to experience it again, but lets say we then insert games like Super Mario Bros. Hell, let's bring in the Ninja Gaiden's and Devil May Cries. Are we really replaying these games again and again for story (I brought those in for no purpose  )? For now I just want to keep it strictly for games like Mario and such. I get it, it's your thing. Do you and go off. But when it comes to folks like EA (It may seem like I'm taking shots, but they're the last ones I heard say it, and I really just mean people in general), it almost comes off as if we're dogging the shit out games that have a lackluster or incomplete story (lets say the story is a 6-7/10 and its incomplete) to tear it down to build another one up when at the end of the day it all comes back down to gameplay, no? Need I bring up Last of Us? Do I need to bring up Souls/Borne (I'll give you the world and discovery, but gameplay..... No sir. Over Nioh? Nope). Like I said, I get it. It's all popularity in the end. We have our preferences, and I'm just venting a little here, but man, listening to some of these podcasts and hearing people do rankings. Love the discussions but to hear no pushback irks me. And I think that's kind of why I'm digging Kinda Funny Games at the moment. Yeah, they're clowns but I hear pushback and thoughtful discussions. IGN podcasts are lacking the pushback so they may end up getting dropped. EA, oh man, little bit of this, little bit of that. I wish nothing but the best for them though.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I think that there's room for both types of games. I like Nioh and Elden Ring for what they are, with a lot of the depth coming from your choice of build and weapon and armor stats and perks rather than just the combat (though Nioh excels there as well). That said, I love how games like DMC can focus exclusively on great combat and be nearly unmatched in that regard, and also not have me stop playing every 5 minutes to readjust my character's gear and abilities.

Like, I'm definitely going to play Wo Long, but a part of me laments that this has essentially replaced any real chance of us ever getting a new, proper Ninja Gaiden game.

[Mustang]

Right and that's sort of my point. I've been neglecting DMC5 for God knows how long because of wanting something that the game's not even known for to begin with and ignoring what's actually there which is its great combat. It's crazy when you're at work listening to gaming podcasts all day hearing them discussing their favorites or what they consider the "greatest" only to find out that you've (me) been saying the same hypocritical shit that these podcasters are saying when you clearly disagree with them. The joys of reminiscing and finding my old posts  .

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I do in fact believe that The Last of Us Part 1 is perhaps the most pointless remake that I have ever seen come out of the industry....ever. The fact that all of these funds and development time were allocated to what is essentially a minor overall enhancement of the already remastered PS4 version as opposed to literally anything else that Naughty Dog could remaster or add new content to is quite frankly absurd to me.

I mean, aside from redoing the graphics from the ground up with full 4K support (which I'm not saying isn't a lot of work, but again, why even bother), the game still only runs at 60 FPS (which remastered already did anyways) despite current hardware being capable of 120 FPS. It also apparently doesn't even really try to fix or improve anything that the original game was criticized for, such as the mostly underwhelming and at times laughably broken enemy AI.

For a developer that likes to tout it's artistic integrity in an increasingly corporate and commercialized landscape within the gaming industry, these guys sure do know how to milk the fuck out of something.

[Mustang]

If you only knew how many times my eyes rolled from the day it was announced up to its release, every time Huber brought up Last of Us and tried to convince the audience that it wasn't cash grab. I wholeheartedly agree with you that this remake for Last of Us was pointless.

I was always split on Naughty Dog as a hole, but kind of fell off with Uncharted 4. But even then I'd like to think they made tons of money off their 2 main series alone so they couldn't be hurting for more. So the thought of them remaking Last of Us is just irksome. I probably would've accepted an Uncharted 1 remake or even a Last of Us 3 (I would've rolled my eyes, but I'd accept it) but if I'm being honest I would've prefer to see Naughty Dog try to make an attempt at a new IP.

I would assume they're capable of it but with them going for a cash grab I'm not so sure they have that creativity in them to go for something new.

[Daxdiv]

I heard they added an accessibility options into the game, but even then, making people pay $70 for an accessibility option sounds pretty dumb. I'm for games having accessibility options, but paying $70+ for one doesn't sound all that accessible to me, especially on a console that I can't just go to a store & easily buy. Also, they removed the multiplayer as well, so you're basically paying more for less. The Last of Us Part 1 remaster is even dumber when you can easily just play the remaster from the PS4 era on your PS5. Make a console that has direct backwards compatibility with your previous generation, remake a game that's already been remade for said console cause... WHY NOT?

[Dr. Insomniac]

Dick move, Platinum.

[Mustang]

Wow, that's crazy. I don't know if she's up there with the Jennifer Hale's and Laura Bailey's but only $4000? That's not even a slap. That's more like spitting on someone.

These companies are getting crazy when it comes to voice actors/actresses. I let it slide with David Hayter and Kojima. I saw the interview with TC Carson about not getting contacted for Kratos and that had me questioning things a bit. And now this. Sony already has a big head as does the rest of them, but I don't know. V/A's might need to start striking again or something. 2D games can get away with none voice acting for sure. But those who love those oh so precious stories in games need voice acting for the 3D variety. Probably not all but right now, considering that people (I'll say game journalists for now) just love to have story driven games be the end all be all for GOATY and what not.

Shady stuff indeed.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So I recently watched this vlog by Raeng: https://youtu.be/3jEPJ_MuTyg

It it something that I have been feeling for a while now, and Mustang and myself even had a short little conversation about it not that long ago. Recently, I have been replaying Ninja Gaiden Black, and it still astounds me how mechanically rich this game is and how much it still holds up today. Modern games like the new God of War or Insomniac's Spider-Man have gotten praised for their combat mechanics yet they have their own set of issues that tend to get glazed over unless you are playing on the harder difficulties (which most game journalists don't do), and they tend to be really shallow and lack layers to their combat other than superficial aspects to their combos (which is not the same thing as having real depth). There is a dying, and nearly lost art, to traditional action games that focused more on a shorter but tighter experience that emphasized improving your skills and encouraging replayability to really master the game, rather than RNG gear stats and character builds replacing many of those aspects. Some would argue that the modern day ARPGs are the natural evolution of traditional action games, but I have to disagree. While the Souls series and other imitators like it have certainly taken influence from those kinds of games, they are entirely their own beast.

I love Nioh, and I really like what I played of Wo-Long, but those are NOT replacements for or successors to the Ninja Gaiden games by any means. At the end of the day, no matter how skilled you are at Nioh (and it does definitely have a lot of skill at play in the game, to be fair), you still need at least a somewhat decent character build relative to the level of the enemies in order to not have to be wailing at something for minutes on end before you can deplete it's health bar. While there are aspects of upgrading your character in the Ninja Gaiden or DMC games, among various others, a no-upgrade run of either of those would still be entirely feasible simply through skill alone (though still very hard in their own right). I do really miss the fast-paced style of action where you master the core and advanced mechanics of a game and go at a break-neck pace through it's levels and challenges and bosses. Regardless of how great Nioh's combat is, or show engaging a game like Dark Souls or Elden Ring can be, I am always stopping every few minutes to peruse my inventory and equip myself with the best items for a given scenario. There is a definite enjoyment and charm to be experienced with that sort of gameplay, but it's a stark contrast with something that is more purely focused on engaging combat and environment traversal, and that's why I'm always hoping in the back of my mind that we can eventually get a Ninja Gaiden 4, or DMC 6, or even some original new IPs in this genre. Unfortunately, I think that gaming culture as a whole has mostly left this style in the dust. At best, games can do decently well by today's standards like with DMC 5 selling 3+ million copies, but to big corporate giants those numbers are below insufficient. Modern games are more about needless bloat and microtransactions or other pay models that can keep making developers money, as opposed to a finite but completely fulfilling package that you get as your final product from the day that the game goes on sale.

Dick move, Platinum.

It really sucks to hear this, especially since it's one of the few developers that still makes traditional action games, a genre which I love dearly but has almost all but died out in favor of the Souls-like Action RPGs of today. I'm not going to boycott the game only because I don't think it's the individual developers that have any say in this matter but rather the people of higher up corporate positions that make these kinds of bone-headed decisions. I also don't think that's the way to show these people how ridiculous their treatment of voice actors or various other people in this industry is, as they just tend to drop an IP if it underperforms rather financially rather than (god-forbid) actually pay anyone fair wages. What really needs to be done is people actively need to make their voices heard that this shit is not OK to a point where the company at large cannot ignore how bad it will make their public image look. Or, if we are going to go the boycott route, then it has to be for all of their products going forward, but again, I don't think that this is always the best way as it will hurt the developers as well since companies tend to lay off a lot of lower-level staff first to compensate for losses.

Personally, even though they hold no sort of union to my knowledge being freelance contract workers, I think that acts like this should give these companies a collective bad-reputation with voice actors. Thus, it might be better for any potential VAs to utterly refuse to work with these companies on any projects going forward unless there is a guarantee of, at the very minimum of expectations, fair wages being offered for projects based on experience, talent, and overall value rather than just paying them the lowest amount possible because they can. Companies like this will have to buckle if they literally can't get anyone to do the job unless they actually treat them fairly. Unfortunately, as great as that would be, it's a lost easier said than done (otherwise it already would have been done).

On that note, though, as much of a right as Helena has to being outraged at Platinum and Nintendo, I don't think that she should be directing any of that ire towards Jennifer Hale.

[talonmalon333]

So, I do in fact believe that The Last of Us Part 1 is perhaps the most pointless remake that I have ever seen come out of the industry....ever. The fact that all of these funds and development time were allocated to what is essentially a minor overall enhancement of the already remastered PS4 version as opposed to literally anything else that Naughty Dog could remaster or add new content to is quite frankly absurd to me.

I mean, aside from redoing the graphics from the ground up with full 4K support (which I'm not saying isn't a lot of work, but again, why even bother), the game still only runs at 60 FPS (which remastered already did anyways) despite current hardware being capable of 120 FPS. It also apparently doesn't even really try to fix or improve anything that the original game was criticized for, such as the mostly underwhelming and at times laughably broken enemy AI.

For a developer that likes to tout it's artistic integrity in an increasingly corporate and commercialized landscape within the gaming industry, these guys sure do know how to milk the fuck out of something.

If you only knew how many times my eyes rolled from the day it was announced up to its release, every time Huber brought up Last of Us and tried to convince the audience that it wasn't cash grab. I wholeheartedly agree with you that this remake for Last of Us was pointless.

I was always split on Naughty Dog as a hole, but kind of fell off with Uncharted 4. But even then I'd like to think they made tons of money off their 2 main series alone so they couldn't be hurting for more. So the thought of them remaking Last of Us is just irksome. I probably would've accepted an Uncharted 1 remake or even a Last of Us 3 (I would've rolled my eyes, but I'd accept it) but if I'm being honest I would've prefer to see Naughty Dog try to make an attempt at a new IP.

I would assume they're capable of it but with them going for a cash grab I'm not so sure they have that creativity in them to go for something new.

I agree with you guys. As someone who liked both Last of Us games, I couldn't even pretend to be interested in this remake. To me, it feels like they don't know what to do with the series after Part II wrapped up the storyline, but that they know the series is still a money maker. So without any real ideas, they just went back and recycled the first game with not only a remake, but a live action series (or is it a movie? I actually don't know).

It kind of makes me wonder if they will remake Part II in a few years, but then what will they do with The Last of Us?

[Mustang]

I have a rant about action games incoming (it's sort of similar to the conversation me and Dr. Ensatsu-ken previously had. Reading your post about Ninja Gaiden triggered it. It's pretty much where I stand on action games at the moment), but my thoughts and words keep going all over the place. Once I get all of it down, ooh boy, it's coming.

But for this Helena situation. Turns out she lied. I'm going to leave it alone, but before I do, my bad Platinum for doubting you. I stayed away from the bulk of it as well cause I wanted all of it to end peacefully, I didn't watch all of her original video, but apparently she got a hate mob sent after Jennifer Hale? I assumed she (Helena) just wanted people to boycott, but that's on me for assuming in the first place. If that's true, uh, Helena deserves the wrath that she's getting or going to get because Jennifer had nothing to do with it.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I have a rant about action games incoming (it's sort of similar to the conversation me and Dr. Ensatsu-ken previously had. Reading your post about Ninja Gaiden triggered it. It's pretty much where I stand on action games at the moment), but my thoughts and words keep going all over the place. Once I get all of it down, ooh boy, it's coming.

But for this Helena situation. Turns out she lied. I'm going to leave it alone, but before I do, my bad Platinum for doubting you. I stayed away from the bulk of it as well cause I wanted all of it to end peacefully, I didn't watch all of her original video, but apparently she got a hate mob sent after Jennifer Hale? I assumed she (Helena) just wanted people to boycott, but that's on me for assuming in the first place. If that's true, uh, Helena deserves the wrath that she's getting or going to get because Jennifer had nothing to do with it.

I stand by my thoughts on how VA's in general, among many other people in the industry, deserve better treatment. I also pointed put that no matter the reason, it was wrong for her to antagonize Jennifer Hale over this. That said, the new info coming out makes it clear that she wasn't forthcoming with Platinum's exact terms for her and that they weren't as low as she said. It's fair if she still wanted to negotiate for something higher that she feels she deserved, but it's wrong to flat out lie to or mislead fans about the situation to strike back at the company for not giving her what she wanted.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, my bad for jumping the gun early there.