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It seems like this is a really effective way to make a game go viral: design the game so that it is impossible or very hard to beat without having to get your friend to buy it and play with you.
I think I'm going to stop buying games that do this, or at least give them a proper call-out when I see it. Destiny pulled this with the way they designed raids without having a matchmaking service. The Monster Hunter clones on the Vita did this with a couple bosses too. And now I'm seeing Monster Hunter: World do a lot of this. Last night I fought a boss in single player mode that felt rigged from the beginning. Despite this, I was kicking his ass and evading at all the right times. I had him limping on his last legs and kept hitting hard, but he wouldn't go down and the fight kept going for an oddly long time. He knocked me out a couple times in quick succession, then finally I got put in an unavoidable stun and he killed me in one shot. That really pissed me off.
After taking a few minutes to cool off, I remembered that before the fight, the game automatically tried to set me up with other players online. It hadn't done that before, and I turned it down. Now looking back, I can see how game was pushing me to rely on its co-op mode. No thank you, that's not what I was feeling at the time.
I don't want to have my play style constrained due to some asshole's corporate strategy; I play games to get away from everyday bullshit, not to succumb to it. I'm not saying that games shoudn't be tough, that's what difficulty settings are for. But games should be designed to provide entertainment rather than frustration, or at the very least refrain from manipulating users to constantly be spending money or telling your friends to.
I think I'm going to stop buying games that do this, or at least give them a proper call-out when I see it. Destiny pulled this with the way they designed raids without having a matchmaking service. The Monster Hunter clones on the Vita did this with a couple bosses too. And now I'm seeing Monster Hunter: World do a lot of this. Last night I fought a boss in single player mode that felt rigged from the beginning. Despite this, I was kicking his ass and evading at all the right times. I had him limping on his last legs and kept hitting hard, but he wouldn't go down and the fight kept going for an oddly long time. He knocked me out a couple times in quick succession, then finally I got put in an unavoidable stun and he killed me in one shot. That really pissed me off.
After taking a few minutes to cool off, I remembered that before the fight, the game automatically tried to set me up with other players online. It hadn't done that before, and I turned it down. Now looking back, I can see how game was pushing me to rely on its co-op mode. No thank you, that's not what I was feeling at the time.
I don't want to have my play style constrained due to some asshole's corporate strategy; I play games to get away from everyday bullshit, not to succumb to it. I'm not saying that games shoudn't be tough, that's what difficulty settings are for. But games should be designed to provide entertainment rather than frustration, or at the very least refrain from manipulating users to constantly be spending money or telling your friends to.