Doki Doki Literature Club
I went in blind. I got through the first chapter and got so pissed off that there was no option to be a better friend to hopefully prevent the first negative event. It made me drop the game. Years later I learned about the game from an analytical video essay and I reposed that was probably the War Games style winning move.
The Finals
Another player spouted off unambiguously Nazi BS. I reported them. I doubled back to check. They hadn’t been removed after weeks. I don’t play a game that doesn’t even do the bare minimum of removing the open, unambiguous Nazis.
The Red Lantern/ Heavy Rain
These can be grouped. I have a rule which says ‘If I’m not making a choice of what to do in your game, I’m already not playing your game, I’m fighting your game to get the chance to play it, so if you can’t show me something damned quick to make me want to fight for it, it’s time to walk away.’ It pushed me away from Chicken Horse. It kicked me out of Heavy Rain too. The Red Lantern felt like it was mechanically sound but the connective tissue was not there. It’s good design to tell a player, ‘you can sacrifice resource A for a chance at resource B, or don’t. Your call.’ It’s terrible design to say to a player ‘Yes or no?’ with no details, no context clues, or even false context clues and the question actually being in reference to something extremely significant.
Ark
Way back when it was nearer the peak of its popularity, I tried it. I played for a bit. Learned about just how much grind it takes to make even a little crapshack, and how shitty the mechanical design is, and dropped it. Really, there have been many like that, dropped for just not being good/fun. Hell Let Loose was like that. Battle royale games are like that. Civ-likes that aren’t Civ are like that. All the intentional skinner box games are like that.
Doki Doki Literature Club I went in blind. I got through the first chapter and got so pissed off that there was no option to be a better friend to hopefully prevent the first negative event. It made me drop the game. Years later I learned about the game from an analytical video essay and I reposed that was probably the War Games style winning move.
The Finals
Another player spouted off unambiguously Nazi BS. I reported them. I doubled back to check. They hadn’t been removed after weeks. I don’t play a game that doesn’t even do the bare minimum of removing the open, unambiguous Nazis.
The Red Lantern/ Heavy Rain These can be grouped. I have a rule which says ‘If I’m not making a choice of what to do in your game, I’m already not playing your game, I’m fighting your game to get the chance to play it, so if you can’t show me something damned quick to make me want to fight for it, it’s time to walk away.’ It pushed me away from Chicken Horse. It kicked me out of Heavy Rain too. The Red Lantern felt like it was mechanically sound but the connective tissue was not there. It’s good design to tell a player, ‘you can sacrifice resource A for a chance at resource B, or don’t. Your call.’ It’s terrible design to say to a player ‘Yes or no?’ with no details, no context clues, or even false context clues and the question actually being in reference to something extremely significant.
Ark
Way back when it was nearer the peak of its popularity, I tried it. I played for a bit. Learned about just how much grind it takes to make even a little crapshack, and how shitty the mechanical design is, and dropped it. Really, there have been many like that, dropped for just not being good/fun. Hell Let Loose was like that. Battle royale games are like that. Civ-likes that aren’t Civ are like that. All the intentional skinner box games are like that.