Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@CanisWolfred I'm not trying to suggest that reviewing the individual aspects is unimportant. I'm just saying that we forget to consider how each piece fits into the whole. For instance, let's say a game's music is great music, but this game is heavy on listening for enemies, and the loud music drowns out sound cues. The game is worse for that. As another example, let's say a 3D platformer has some camera angles that make for some great visual set-pieces, but make it hard to judge jumps. Once again, a game made worse by misplaced focus.

I'm not referring to the weird +/- thing that sites like IGN, Gamespot, etc. do. I'm saying that a lot of critics make reviews that roughly equate to an elongated version of that.

@MrMario02 I'm pretty sure I could counter both of those examples at least 9 times each. No one would let bad camera angles in 3D platformers slide, and I have noticed several reviews where bad sound mixing gets listed as a negative point. I don't know how to say this without being rude about it, but I'm not sure if you've ever actually read a review. Even IGN is decent enough to note a problem when they see it. They're not reviewing those individual parts as if they exist in a vacuum, they're just breaking down the different aspects into sections so it's easier for people to skim/digest.

Wait, are we talking about someone who got all of his stuff deleted, or are we dredging up ancient (by internet standards) history here?

I have no idea who you all are talking about, but I've got to say: this mysterious person sounds like a lot of people I've seen.

No seriously, are we talking about 1 guy, or 15?

Wait, can't we say his name? Is it Artwark? I always enjoyed his ramblings.

@YellowFighter hmmm i dont know if we are talking about the same person but this thread kinda died when that person left. Hahaha

Anyone else find it's disappointing that Neir Automata has seemingly been almost completely ignored due to the Zelda and Horizon hype? I mean I'm happy for Zelda and all but it Platinum's first open world game, and even on Sony sites it seems to be forgotten.

Not really. It was only gonna get serious attention from hardcore RPG fans, anyways.

I don't know why, but whenever I play Okami, I get reminded of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

I think people are still scared he might be still haunting/lurking this thread and may someday create another account just to damn SEGA to oblivion. Hehehe

@YellowFighter hmm I guess we aren't talking aboit the same person. The one I(and the others) are talking about basically and single handedly made this thread consistently in the top spots of the forum everyday. I honestly kinda miss him. :/

Artwark was way more annoying. Shinion was opinionated, and arguably passionate. I kinda miss him...sort of...okay, not really. But Artwark was just a troll, plain & simple. And every less troll we have on this website, the better. And like I tried to imply before, we've had plenty of trolls. Now lets move on, this is supposed to be about gaming opinions, not opinions of other users, especially ones that aren't here anymore to defend their image.

Fair point. In an effort to steer this away from "unpopular users" and back to games, let me present this:

I can't really get excited about the idea of procedurally generated... anything, really. I don't have anything drastically against it, and I don't wish doom upon any title, but I appear to have to weird barrier towards them.

I don't know whether I miss the romantic image of the designer carefully intricately crafting each level - carefully placing each trick and trap - whether I'm to attatched to the idea of knowing that every other player has been through the same experiences as me.

But when a game sells itself as having an 'infinite' number of levels or something, I just think, "I don't want an infinite number of levels! I want a finite number, and I want to beat them, and discover all there is so know about them. Or, most of it. I want to be able to look back on those levels and smile, knowing they're still there, not waiting to be replaced by whatever RNG deems should succeed them" I get slightly put off by the impossible void that these sorts of games can generate.

So yeah, I think I might be procedurally-generated-phobic. Today's Nindies thing got me thinking, as it's pretty in vogue for indie titles.

But perhaps I should get over that phobia by actually playing more of them, but there's a moan faithful to my current (perhaps naive) concerns.

@Maxz Huh. And here I was just gonna say that I slike procedurally generated stuff because it feels lazy - there's not as much thought or reason to them on multiple levels, and not just the exploration of the levels themselves, especially these days. It's like...at what point does having all of this stuff actually increase the how fun the game is? A lot of times it just seems like checking boxes to make them more popular, saying, "hey! we got everything those guys got! But THIS one has a rubber chicken in it!" Even the best ones are a whole lot of fluff, IMO. Now, fluff can be enjoyable from time to time, but it's not something I really intend to stick with. The F2P games can get away with that mind-set simply because they're free and are just "casting a wide net", so to speak. I don't understand how these guys keep thinking that can sell me 50 different versions of Minecraft while costing about the same as Minecraft. It might be harder to make a memorable game, but I tell ya, it sure as heck helps it to stand out from the crowd - like a tall peak standing over a sea of fluffy, vaporous, noxious fumes.

I'm likely in the minority with this opinion, but is anyone else annoyed by Let's Play channels? I don't mind no commentary channels, but...well, let me set the scenario:

Me: Oooh, someone posted an early access video of this game I've been interested in!

LPer does intro speech, exposition, etc.

Me: Mmm-hmm, okay, thanks for the info.

game starts, really cool voice acting is going on

Me: Interesting premise-sudden noise while talking is still going on

LPer (talking over sounds going on): ZOMG that scared me! Blah blah...

Me: What did that character say?!

Watches for a few more minutes before leaving video

Personally, channels like that annoy me. I don't mind if they talk in between bits like that or at the beginning/end of the video, but when a game has an interesting story, narration, acting, and/or music, I like being able to hear it.

I understand that many really like this audience interaction/LPer reactions, but half of the reactions to me don't even seem...well...genuine.

I agree with all of this, except I don't really understand the appeal of Let's Plays to begin with, so I can't say I'm a fan of uncommentated LP's either. The extent I might watch LP's are the comedic ones, such as Game Grumps or PBG's Choas Edition series, but even then, I gotta be pretty bored to get into those.

@Tyranexx @Nicolai I've seen the appeal of some of the Mario Maker ones, where you get to peek into the window of the people who might actually be trying your levels. And in competitive games or speed runs or whatever, there's obviously some appeal to watching something done really flipping well, and potentially some benefit for your own play. I used to play competitive Pokemon, and people would often narrate their own battles, which was interesting - especially if you were the opponent. There's some element of community or interactivity in all those games anyway, and watching people play them gives you some more insight into what they were thinking. I'm not sure if they count of proper LPs because they don't really progress through a game from start to finish. They're more just isolated events.

So I've watched some of them, but for single player games... I can't see much of the appeal. I completely agree with all of the original poster's irritations, and well, there doesn't seem much point. Either I'm watching g someone spoil the game for, or it's a game I'm not interested in enough to worry about spoilers (in which case, why am I watching deliberately watching footage of it), or I've already beaten it, in which case I'm probably done and dusted with the whole thing.

I suspect it's not so much about the games though, and the games providing stimulus for the Let's Player to (over)react to. You get to watch someone do something without them... having to get up and really do anything.

I guess gaming itself as also kinda lonelier that I used to be. Local multiplayer isn't as popular as it used to be, so if you want to feel like your playing games with someone, you have to do so from the audience. Or something.

Anyway, yeah, I agree (with the above stated exceptions).

@Maxz Agrees all around, and yeah, speedruns have a whole different appeal I'm really into. It's like the difference between watching a pianist play Liszt versus watching your friends do a piano sing-a-long to Journey that you can't join into. Speedrunning is a beautiful art, and I love watching top records, as well as listening to explanations of what's going on. It fascinates the heck out of me.

I can kinda see the appeal of Mario Maker LP's over other games, but it's still not for me.

I sometimes watch let's plays to get a sneak peak and see if I'm interested, but you have to be careful about what game you do this with. I watched the opening segment of undertale, and immediately regretted it, wishing I had experienced that cold.

Hahaha yess. With regards to SMM levels, some of them are so insanely hard that they have the same appeal as watching competitive gaming or speedruns. In fact, due to the world record feature, some of them actually ARE speedruns. And in other cases, it's a decent way of previewing some levels you might be interested in. And then there's just the egotistical joy of watching someone play your own level, which is particularly gratifying if you've spent a lot of time on it. I managed to get one of mine into the 'Special Collections' on the Bookmark site, so there've been a few videos of that scattered around YouTube as a result. I think I also made a Christmas level that got into a couple of videos, which was fun to watch. It's sort of like sending a letter out to sea in a bottle, then watching someone of the other side of the world read it.

Anyway, self-indulgent yabberings aside, everyone seems to have just about agreed with every complaint that's been posted in the last page or so. Which makes me doubt whether the opinions are all that unpopular. It's nice, but kind of ironic that the 'Unpopular Opinions' thread seems to be the quite haven of Nintendo Life where everyone agrees with each other and gets on splendidly.

So I'll try this; I'm (almost) completely cool with indies milking the 8-bit aesthetic as much as they are. The fundamentals of animating 8/16-bit are - I think - widely understood, and while it limits what your options, I think it's more likely to smooth over any rough flaws that might be crop up with a more ambitious, modern art style. I've seen a few indie titles that just look like games produced by larger studios, but noticeably rougher around the edges, which is really off-putting for me. 8/16-bit style games usually at least look deliberate.