LogFAQs > #967226914

Blightzkrieg posted...

As you get older I think you become less willing to put a lot of time into things that you aren't getting much out of. Because you have other shit to do.

This is a huge part of it. But I've been pointing out for years now that the other half of the problem is that the explosive growth of media means there's always far more out there than any single human can ever experience in a single lifetime. So it forces people to prioritize their time far more than they ever used to need to.

If I start playing a game and it doesn't wow me right from the start, I'm always aware on some level that there are far better games out there just waiting for me to find them. And movies and shows worth watching. And books worth reading. Music worth listening to. And Internet forums to shit-post on. Every second I waste not having fun is a second I could have spent doing something far more interesting or entertaining.

Games have to earn my attention now. Because if they don't, there is always something else competing for my time that I can happily switch off to.

And that's without even taking into account my willingness to go back and replay old games like Stardew Valley or Minecraft, which can eat dozens of hours on their own.



Blightzkrieg posted...

RDR2 is very slow and somewhat repetitive, I think it takes a certain kind of person to really get into it.

For me it wasn't even that, more that I kind of hated the narrative.

The first Red Dead Redemption won me over quickly by making me like John Marston, giving him an interesting quest, having him meet interesting and likeable characters, and the tragic ending hits harder because I actually cared about these people. It was a well-told story, even if it was ultimately an unavoidable tragedy (and a metaphor about the death of the Old West).

Conversely, RDR2 feels like they spent way too much time focused on aspects of the game (like the more simulation-style mechanics) I didn't give a shit about, and bolted it onto a story that was frustrating as fuck. I never really cared about Arthur. Most of the crew were either somewhat generic or outright annoying. Arthur was given the illusion of making choices, but I was never really given choices I wanted to make. And the story was spread out over a longer period, because the larger map and more busywork makes it harder to just steamroll through the plot.

And the TB element of the storyline pissed me off hugely, because I knew 5 seconds into that first scene exactly what was going to happen (and Arthur as a character absolutely should have known as well - it wasn't an unknown disease at the time), yet in a game where they pretend I get to make meaningful choices, I have absolutely no choice to do anything to prevent it. Even worse because, in the context of the scene, it should have been possible to either forgive the dude's debt or outright pay it yourself (because you're constantly being forced to raise money in other ways anyway).

It would have been more palatable to me if the infection scene had happened off-camera (where I had no control), or even if the scene in question had been even remotely subtle (so it could be argued that Arthur wouldn't have noticed until it was too late), but they basically chose the single most annoying way to hammer that bullshit home, and it drastically took me out of the story after that point.

Beyond that, the fact that the story as presented sort of ruins the implications of the backstory of RDR1 makes me hate it even more.

I probably could have plodded my way through slow and boring gameplay if I was super into the story, but instead I hated the story which made the slow and boring parts feel even more soul-crushing.

At a certain point, I basically had to step back and say "You know, I'm not enjoying this at all. Why am I playing it?" ...and that's the point where I stopped playing it. And never looked back.