Seeing discussions around Nioh, and previously on Crosscode.
For Nioh, and other loot heavy games like Diablo, Path of Exile, and Borderlands, tons and tons of RNG loot flooding my inventory is super annoying. Like, I know I can and should just trash/sell/break-down all non-rare items, but the constant pings and busywork of it all just stresses me out and makes me anxious.
Same think with rampant sidequests. Lots of openworld games do this, arguably most open world games. But Crosscode specifically was a game I liked the gameplay of a lot, but dropped because of constant sidequests.
And for both of these, I know its dumb on a certain level to just drop games for 'optional' mechanics. Like, the obvious thing to do in Crosscode was just skip sidequesting and focus on beating the game. But just, something about doing that, about not playing '''optimally''' or w/e I just hate. And since I play games to have fun and de-stress, I just stop playing those games instead, and have learned to just skip games that look cool, but have some of these 'features' that I know will stress me out and be a fun killer.
Is this relatable to anyone here?
Yeah I get it a bit. There's sort of an unspoken contract between the player and the game in regards to how the game ought to be played, etc. that's partially the fault of the game developer and partially the player's own ideas. The game spamming you with side quests feels like it's saying "you want to do these, they're important because you see them first-thing in the menu, etc. etc.". So when games emphasize or spam you with stuff like that or rare gear I get the same sort of anxious annoyance at it. Games that give you a completion percentage (especially when it's above 100%) and also the gold/silver/bronze trophy or 1/2/3 star ratings on missions too. I don't know who's satisfied with just getting the silver/2-star ratings it seems like people would either accept the bare minimum to progress or want the top-tier option as a point of excellence. Never seen a game actually utilize ratings like that effectively where you can decide your own goals outside of Zachtronics games where they give you multiple stats that you can choose to care about after each puzzle.
MMmmmm Zachtronics games :zizek-joy:
That's some good shit