• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Can you just get to the damn point

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Currently my time is being shared between two AAA campaigns, ffxvi and starfield, this time being limited, I can only squeeze an hour or two luckily a night

If I'm lucky

Modern game design/pacing/story-telling has characters nattering on for minutes and minutes on end. it's always just pointless meaningless shit with side characters we are meant to Care about apparently.

Am I only one finding this pointless droning on by characters about menial shit ruining most modern games, the writing seems to be extremely superfluous and doesn't respect the players time whatsoever.

I am finding myself mashing the skip button as fast as I can in these games after a few hours.

EDIT: thanks to mods for getting this on the right side 👍
Yup.

Have you tried Hellblade? If you havent and have GP to test out a download, for sake of laughs give it a try. You'll throw your gamepad at the TV as the first hour of gaming is probably 30 minutes of unskippable cutscenes. I deleted the game after the hour. You can literally go to the kitchen, grab some food and come back. And the cut scene will still be going.

There's so much cutscenes and walking sim parts, someone even made a 2Hr video of it. As crazy as that sounds, you can watch most movies for shorter than that time.



As for your post, 100% true.

And some people wonder why the most popular games played are typically jump in and jump out MP games. Its not necessarily about amping up om MTX. I dont buy that shit. But I know I can have some fun in small time sessions. You can get your fill in half an hour of gaming not tied down to droning on or mandatory cutscenes, walking scenes and shit like that.

Some people hate MP gaming and that's fine. Not everyone wants to play competitive or coop games shooting people or scoring goals. But you got to admit, it's a lot easier to jump in and out of game sessions as each match might only be 10-15 minutes at a time.
 
Last edited:

BlackTron

Member
And some people wonder why the most popular games played are typically jump in and jump out MP games. You can get your fill in half an hour of gaming not tied down to droning on or mandatory cutscenes, walking scenes and shit like that.

Some people hate MP gaming and that's fine. Not everyone wants to play competitive or coop games shooting people or scoring goals. But you got to admit, it's a lot easier to jump in and out of game sessions as each match might only be 10-15 minutes at a time.

This is 100% me. Generally most of my modern gaming is multiplayer while most single player attention is on old games.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
I skip through Bethesda RPG dialog about as fast as humanly possible and always have.

They are still my favorite games lol
Me too. That first half hour tutorial is painful to get through too. Although they do their best to mask it with story.

But for all the general NPC dialog and shit, I mash through them asap going through all the combinations. If I miss or pick a wrong choice by accident leading to a bad decision so be it. I find Bethesda RPGs typically not very cause and effect like a Mass effect game. So you can just plow through all the dialogue choices to get all the lectured info and quests and move on.

The worst is store merchants. After the frist introduction NPC dialogue, all following interactions should go directly to Buy/Sell/Trade options. I dont want to hear about what a nice day it is for the 48th time needing to mash a button or two to get to buy and sell. Get to the point.
 
Last edited:

Fbh

Member
Most modern games are stretched out and bloated in every way, from Story/Writing to gameplay.

Because the average player has come to see length as value.

People complain about the bloat and pacing issues in a game like FFXVI but I can already hear the complaining and meltdowns if they had made it like 25 hours long (including sidequests) even though it would have been a much better game.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Most modern games are stretched out and bloated in every way, from Story/Writing to gameplay.

Because the average player has come to see length as value.

People complain about the bloat and pacing issues in a game like FFXVI but I can already hear the complaining and meltdowns if they had made it like 25 hours long (including sidequests) even though it would have been a much better game.
Yup. Every open world sequel is always seems bigger than the last. What they could do is condense the map, but make it more interactive. But the easier thing is to make it bigger and promote "Our game is 3.2x bigger than our last game".
 
This just reminded me of the recent Remnant 2. I swear some characters talk for 10 minutes straight.

And if you are playing co-op you just have to stand there and have no idea what the character talking to the NPC is selecting in response.
Remnant 2 is really fun and good but the characters legit feel like someone ordered a "random videogame character generator" software. And they keep talking.

There's Tough Badass Chick, Crazy Old Guy Who Says Lore Stuff, Mystical Dude and so on.

My favorite was that fucking big eye thing blabbering ON and ON and ON after the labyrinth cube boss. I was convinced it was parody at one point. Just endless random jargon.
 

FeralEcho

Member
This takes me to the new God of War games and how fucking boring i find them compared to the old ones,in the original trilogy you'd see Kratos battling mythological monsters in cutscenes or getting very important lore like how he got his ash skin etc.Everything had a purpose or impact....now in the new ones we see Kratos sighing and being tired in full on 5 min cutscenes where he does literally nothing,or we see him eat,or drink....I fucking hate this pretentious shit thats prevailant in current Sony cinematic games.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
yeah, i agree. i think what's changed is my own personal tolerance for it. truth to tell, it really doesn't seem to be all that bad in starfield (tho there's loads of back'n'forth running around at times). i'm just not all that invested in it for some reason...
Internet and Social Media fucked up our attention span. It is what it is.
 

Roberts

Member
How-to-sell-Survey-Slates-Starfield.jpg


When this guy starts saying anything my mind just tunes the fuck out
I love that guy. I don't know if a Russian is responsible for his writing or not, but he is a dead accurate/authentic portrayal of a old school Russian gangster who does a 180 in prison and starts talking like some sewer poet.
 
Currently my time is being shared between two AAA campaigns, ffxvi and starfield, this time being limited, I can only squeeze an hour or two luckily a night

If I'm lucky

Modern game design/pacing/story-telling has characters nattering on for minutes and minutes on end. it's always just pointless meaningless shit with side characters we are meant to Care about apparently.

Am I only one finding this pointless droning on by characters about menial shit ruining most modern games, the writing seems to be extremely superfluous and doesn't respect the players time whatsoever.

I am finding myself mashing the skip button as fast as I can in these games after a few hours.

EDIT: thanks to mods for getting this on the right side 👍

You chose two very lengthy rpgs and complain about the amount of story and dalogue in the game?

There are plenty fast pace, tight and focused games out there that suit your limitied gaming time.
Like a learned in any dark souls thread about difficulty (not every game is for everyone) maybe lentghy story heavy rpgs are not for you. A lot of people enjoy that kind of game. You dont need to force every game into your playstyle. Plenty of fish in the sea.
 
I am finding myself mashing the skip button as fast as I can in these games after a few hours.
LOL I feel you.
Imagine having a free 20-30 minutes out of work just to check newly arrived PSVR2 and GT7 for the first time both. And we have like 10 minute intro with two songs playing and second one 2 times while everything including UI is in 2D. Then all this talking and non skipping events ... Man it was absolute nightmare. I hated every second of non skipable cuscenes/dialogs.
 

Barakov

Member
Currently my time is being shared between two AAA campaigns, ffxvi and starfield, this time being limited, I can only squeeze an hour or two luckily a night

If I'm lucky

Modern game design/pacing/story-telling has characters nattering on for minutes and minutes on end. it's always just pointless meaningless shit with side characters we are meant to Care about apparently.

Am I only one finding this pointless droning on by characters about menial shit ruining most modern games, the writing seems to be extremely superfluous and doesn't respect the players time whatsoever.

I am finding myself mashing the skip button as fast as I can in these games after a few hours.

EDIT: thanks to mods for getting this on the right side 👍
Definitely agree. FFXVI was far too chatty for my liking. Starfield is better about it but still has a healthy amount of it. There was a time where a few companies and game auteurs needed an editor but now it seems like this is nearly industry wide now. Modern game sensibilities can't go the way of the dodo soon enough.
 

L*][*N*K

Banned
Currently my time is being shared between two AAA campaigns, ffxvi and starfield, this time being limited, I can only squeeze an hour or two luckily a night
I agree with you, but why are you playing two big games at once? why dont you just focus on one and play the other when you are done?
 

StueyDuck

Member
I agree with you, but why are you playing two big games at once? why dont you just focus on one and play the other when you are done?
I'm at the end of ffxvi and beginning of starfield. By this weekend I'll be done with xvi, my objective left is literally kill the final boss (not using names because I don't want to spoil for others)

Then I'll maybe move onto more starfield but I dunno if I can sit and click skip for hours on end every night and not get much done any longer. I think my starfield time has a few play sessions left. Unless something really big happens and sucks me in
 
Last edited:

supernova8

Banned
I thought World of Warcraft was good in this sense. The quests were relatively straightforward and made passing references to various characters in the lore. Even without playing the OG Warcraft games, it was pretty obvious that this faction doesn't like this faction - then you basically had the option to look up the details in your own time if you wanted to.
 

DGrayson

Mod Team and Bat Team
Staff Member
Agreed, FF XVI was pretty awful about this. Slow delivery, monotone VA, pauses after every line, and they just yap on and on about shit I don’t care about.

Bitch I’m already annoyed that you tasked me with finding 6 Chocobo turds or whatever. I don’t need some 10 paragraph explanation why you couldn’t go do it yourself.


 

Sethbacca

Member
Collect a thon is the most detrimental invention in gaming. Repeating the same areas to find obnoxiously hidden bananas, barrels (stars, crystals, giant rings, Feebas, arrrgggh!)
This is what we worried about when achievements were introduced way back when and it's what most of the gaming mags at the time said would happen. Companies turned achievement hunting into gameplay and it is the dumbest shit in existence.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Internet and Social Media fucked up our attention span. It is what it is.
Maybe that’s part of it but I think the biggest reason is simply because so much video game writing is boring and poorly directed.

Millions of people watched Game of Thrones, which had like 100 plot lines to follow and was mostly talking. Oppenheimer was a huge hit despite being 3 hours long and almost entirely just people talking.

So it seems to me even “dumb low-attention span” mainstream audiences are perfectly capable of tracking tons of dialog and storytelling, provided that it is competently written and directed.

Maybe the fault lies with trash tier video game writing, spoken by characters standing there like mannequins and delivered with a slow awkward cadence that flows nothing like a real conversation. Nobody would watch a movie or TV show like that.
 
Currently my time is being shared between two AAA campaigns, ffxvi and starfield, this time being limited, I can only squeeze an hour or two luckily a night

If I'm lucky

Modern game design/pacing/story-telling has characters nattering on for minutes and minutes on end. it's always just pointless meaningless shit with side characters we are meant to Care about apparently.

Am I only one finding this pointless droning on by characters about menial shit ruining most modern games, the writing seems to be extremely superfluous and doesn't respect the players time whatsoever.

I am finding myself mashing the skip button as fast as I can in these games after a few hours.

EDIT: thanks to mods for getting this on the right side 👍
Why even play them then? it’s Okay to wait and play these games, they don’t have to be played on release (FOMO) is real with you? It’s okay to wait till the weekend when/if you have more time.

You could just give up the hobby and do something else since you don’t like where it’s heading.
Play guitar/bass, rebuild a classic car, pick-up golf.

Instead gamers put themselves in these weird situations where they become passive aggressive towards a game a game company/developer.

I’m here to tell you that it is you and not the game. Pick something else to play in short bursts.
 

StueyDuck

Member
Why even play them then? it’s Okay to wait and play these games, they don’t have to be played on release (FOMO) is real with you? It’s okay to wait till the weekend when/if you have more time.

You could just give up the hobby and do something else since you don’t like where it’s heading.
Play guitar/bass, rebuild a classic car, pick-up golf.

Instead gamers put themselves in these weird situations where they become passive aggressive towards a game a game company/developer.

I’m here to tell you that it is you and not the game. Pick something else to play in short bursts.
Lol

Reading comprehension is bad on gaf...

Another "wElL dOnT plaY GamEs" response.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom