Ammokkx

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

I don't generally enjoy games from that genre or any genre that don't require skill

@PPQ Purple

But that's wrong. They do require skills, they're just different skills.

An RPG tests your ability to strategize on the fly given limited resources and a ton of information you need to keep track of, as well as needing to not push your luck. And there is an elment of mechanical prowess involved in hack-and-slashes, that being the mere fact you need to dash around and kite enemies 'cause if you stand in one place, you're going to get overwhelmed and die.

Chess doesn't challenge the same skills as something like Magic the Gathering does. Both require intimate knowledge about the game you're playing, but one is static and never changing while the other is continually evolving and requires you to adapt on the fly based on what you're given.

In another example, you wouldn't say Poker is a lesser game to, say, Shogi. Shogi has no elements of luck, while you can get dealt straight pairs all night in Poker. Yet both games are still very skill intensive, but with Poker it's knowledge about what your opponents have Vs. you, as well as being able to read a room.

It's fine if you don't like the appeal of these games, but saying they require no skill is... odd. They challenge a different set of skills than what you'd like them to, sure, but they still challenge skills. When I'm playing FFXIV, I'm not going to be able to do a level 80 dungeon with level 50 gear. That being said, you can clear any content with any class that does have appropriate gear, and the community that forms around doing Savage content isn't any less skilled because their characters need to have the appropriate stats first.

Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

I newer quite got the attraction of Diablo and that sort of game in general. I mean, it plays like an RTS only without the strategy part and like a fighting game only without the challenge.

@PPQ Purple

A fighting game challenges very different skills from a top-down action game. Fighting games, especially anime fighters, are some of the most raw skill intensive games when it comes down to executing button presses, on top of having to learn fundamentals like spacing. A game like Dota 2 has infinitely more in common with a fighting game than Diablo will ever have, because there is a similar sense of tactical awareness mixed in with mechanical skill required to play a game like this.

RTS is an equally fucky point of comparison when RTS games are notorious for turning into micromanaging nightmares on the highest level. Sure, it doesn't have to be starcraft II levels of bonkers micro, but watch TheViper play in AoEII and you'll see how he's just way better at pressing buttons compared to most any other player on top of knowing the game extremely well.

Diablo is best compared to the genre it's actually inside of, that being roleplaying games. Knowing how to build a character to make BIG NUMBER on top of not picking fights you can't win. Anything with even vague RPG elements will come down to, at least partially, number crunching on top of actual player skill. I've only dabbled in a bit of torchlight II myself, but there is something incredibly satisfying about mowing down a horde of enemies as you're slowly running out of resources and kiting them halfway across the map in the hope of you not biting the dust. This only gets more fun the harder the difficulty you put the game up to.

Getting more powerful through raw stats, or compensating your lack of stats by gitting gud, is part of the appeal. If you want games that are focused entirely on your mechanical prowess, well, you're obviously in the wrong genre. You can't just compare a hack-and-slash to a fighting game, that's madness.

Greetings! Candy Cane Service!

I think that's the first time I've been wished a happy holiday in the same breath as someone implying to dislike me.

I've got a good feeling I know who this is from, too. But eh, it's almost christmas, who gives a shit? Happy holidays to you, too, stranger. I don't really care how mine turn out, but try to have a good one, alright? Everyone deserves a bit of R&R. Except for [insert friend here]. He can go shove a tree up his spinal cord.

Secundi Lux

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Chie continued to writhe and struggle beneath the iron grip of her two would-be captors. The girl didn't have any time to think; merely kicking and screaming on instinct while her body felt electrified from the adrenaline pumping through her. "Let GO I said-!" she yelled in vain defiance.

"I've got our back! Is Chie still in trouble?"

"Selma!?" Chie blurted out in a panic at hearing her name being called. Then, a gunshot rang through her ear. A flash of light scraped by her face, and unbeknownst to her, it had hit one of her assaulters. "Eee-!" she gasped, her eyes widened from the sudden shock. For a moment Chie had stopped struggling, but then noticed the grip on her had weakened. With as much force as she could muster behind her pulling, somehow, Chie had managed to break free. She staggered back, fearfully looking back at whatever, or rather whoever, had attacked everyone and grabbed her.

They were tall and dressed head-to-toe in black, save for the ominous white mask. Or, at least, one of the two wore a mask. The other was clutching their face, shattered pieces of white at their feet. Though the shadows obscured their features, Chie could still tell that something was dripping onto the floor from between their fingers. Blood.

"A-Ah... aaah..." Chie whimpered, slowly pacing backwards. She didn't know what to do, or where to go. She couldn't take her eyes off her attackers in case they tried to grab her again and she also had nowhere to run. The exit was past them, Chie knew as much, so running for it wasn't an option. There was nothing to gain by running back, either. She and everyone else in this tunnel were stuck.

It was lucky, then, that Crystal dived in front of Chie and started scrapping with one of her assailants. "Get to the others," she'd growled back at her. Chie briefly glanced at Selma, Rivka and Wei, then back at Crystal.

"O-okay!" she replied and ran back towards the other three. Of course she was worried about Crystal, too, but with everything going so fast she hadn't the time to dwell on these things. Chie narrowly avoided Selma throwing another one of the masked men, letting out another small shriek, before crouching down next to captain Wei. The woman's gun lay only a short distance beside her and without thinking, Chie grabbed onto it with her right hand and then reached out to Wei with her other arm. "Please let me help you up!" Chie asked of her, trying to throw Wei's arm over her shoulder.

Secundi Lux

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Video Games: The General Discussion & Community Thread

On another topic what moment in a video game made you cry? For me it was pretty much all of Dragon Quest 11 the feelz were 4 reelz.

@Blackmist16

I can only remember crying once in a videogame and it was the end of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Darkness when I was, like, 11.

Why Is No One Joining My RP (General Advice Thread)

I'm normally not one to advocate for closing threads but, to repurpose Odin's post for a bit

Odin

really feels like this is where we're at right now.

Most of the insights were given in the first four pages and everything else has been Reborn fallout. I'd say this has well and truly ran its course because no amount of re-railing is going to get this into anywhere near a proper state, especially not when this thread was made in the wake of a status bar rant to begin with.

Why Is No One Joining My RP (General Advice Thread)

oh my god

Why Is No One Joining My RP (General Advice Thread)

I feel no one does listen to me and is against me for not being positive or even having a different experience. I disagree with your words Ammo at least here as I feel like I need to be on the defensive and guarded or lash out because i feel like no one understands me or even gets what i feel as i feel people are trying to invalidate what I experienced and feel.

@rebornfan320

This. Is. The. Same. Thing. You've. Said. Since. The. Start. Of. This. Thread.

Nobody, NOBODY invalidates what you feel. But we're telling you to stop using that as some kind of shield.

You are the proud owner of the single most posts in this thread (or at least a close second to Bango Bongo Banjo) and they ALL say the same thing.

No, actually, it's worse than that. When people tell you to use aesthetics, even just basic formatting touch-ups, you blow them off. When people say you need to think about your approach, you say you don't need to change at all. When you're told even staff on a different site had a problem with you, you blow them off as not understanding you... when, now, even a mod on this site felt the situation had escalated to the point they needed to give you a formal warning.

But you know the post that really grinds my gears? I have Autism, guys. Yeah, guess what? You're clearly high-functioning enough to have conversations with other people. You know who else has that strain?

Me. I have looping thought patterns and concentration problems as well as over-analyzing into the tiniest detail what people say and do.

Have you, in this entire thread, in my entire time on the forum, known me to use my different mental state to excuse my behaviour? No. Because unlike what you seem to exude, I have at least the bare minimum amount of maturity needed to see that fault is a two-way street. That for as much as I'd like to blame others, I am always, partially, to blame for everything that happens. Sometimes? Sometimes, it's even wholly to blame.

And you know what else, Reborn? Yes, you feel things. I feel things too. I feel anger, frustration, I want to lash out to those who have wronged me. Sometimes, I even do. It lends me some good catharsis if I'm fed up to high hell. But I am never, ever in the right for doing so. It is wrong to blame others for your shortcomings. It is wrong to superimpose what you feel onto another person.

You claim we do not understand you. This is by all measures and purposes false. We understand how you feel. In lesser or greater quantities, each one of us has gone through what you've gone through. In fact, here's a quote from my own little essay on your for your viewing pleasure:

Let me tell you, I was 13 at a time. 13 year old Ammokkx was on Tumblr, hosting an RP blog. Tumblr RPs are 1x1. I had a bunch of partners and, yes, I did get ghosted. It felt like I was being ignored. I tried so desperately hard to get people's attention but it seemed like nobody wanted to RP with me. At the time, I didn't understand why.

But in retrospect, I saw that I was insufferable to those around me. I powergame'd. My OC's were mary sues. I was a huge dick to people. I'm amazed I still have friends from that era at all, but the long and short is that I was very much the cause of my own downfall... in hindsight. I didn't see it at the time, and you do not seem to see it now. I understand how you feel, Reborn. Everyone understands how you feel. Feel free to not believe us if you like. But know this; It is because we know how you feel that we are giving this advice in the hope that those feelings push you to be better than you are. Even if many have given up hope to that end.

Ammokkx

This, right here, is me very blatantly telling you that I get it. That I have had the EXACT experience you describe, and yet you still dare claim I do not understand how you feel? Like i don't get "your side"?

No, Reborn. It is you who doesn't understand. I am sorry to say it, but you are downright delusional if you still refuse to recognize your own faults when so many people have pointed you to them.

TOP 10 GREATEST RP FAILURES NOT CLICKBAIT YOU WON’T BELIEVE THESE TRUE STORIES 😱😱😱

Hot damn this thread is tricky

I have mountains of RP failure stories to tell from the perspective of a player, a GM and of a co-GM

But so many of them involve drama on some level and while I do love me some dirty laundry, I at least make a token effort to not air it out.

I guess my most innocent example would be Re:Unison. A cool RP idea about people who use their super-powered partner to fight rogue monsters and each-other. I found early success, my players were cool, TREE WAS THERE, and generally it looked to be on the up and up.

So how did I fuck it up?

So my first mistake was not seeing the trees for the forest. I had a midgame, I had an endgame. The whole seven yards... except I conveniently forgot to plan out the starting line. You can really tell I was scrambling together an opening to get the characters settled at that point. Second, the scenario I had come up with was super restrictive. I, as a GM, was kicking myself because I felt like I was funneling my players in one specific direction which was no bueno. Third, there was some very clear instant regret over one of the characters I had accepted. Not going into detail on that one.

There was also the fact that it only took about a week 1,5 from me coming up with it out of the blue to me posting the thread itself. I rushed the production of Re:Unison way too hard, got too impatient. It's also at a time where I felt like I had to GM something to... prove my worth, I guess? There was also a bit of drama with a friend of mine who wanted to join, but who I wouldn't allow because it'd create drama with another player I already had. Issues upon issues compounded and eventually I decided to pull the plug on R:U before it ever got a chance to truly keep going.

I am still super sorry to all my players for that one, as the RP's downfall is 100% on me. It wouldn't shield me from fucking up my next GM attempt, but at the very least I didn't repeat the mistakes of R:U.

Nah, I just made a bunch of new ones instead :-)