A way Destiny excites me

by General Vagueness , The Vault of Sass, Saturday, March 16, 2013, 18:15 (4058 days ago) @ narcogen
edited by General Vagueness, Saturday, March 16, 2013, 18:40

Ha! Don't hold your breath. I'm betting Marty won't think that letting people ruin his mix is "bringing the feature set up to standards". I think it's a valid point of contention, but I also think that there's a certain laziness in not bothering to try and get something right and just leaving it up to the user to set everything.

There's no 'getting it right' when the player is in control of the game, unless you are the one playing. That's what I think you and he don't understand.

I played Marathon 1 without music. It's much better (IN MY OPINION) because it makes it creepier, and the music sucks. Miguel played with the music. That choice is up to us. Both of us had the best experience we could have had because we were given the choice.

I like this demonstration of the issue and your example.

The only problems I've ever had with Halo audio-- namely, some dialogue being inaudible because of a nearby explosion or other audio-- could not have been meaningfully addressed by static sliders, as solving that temporary and unpredictable problem would have ruined the mix for all other situations.

It's not about problems, it's about me wanting to mess with the sound.

Widen your scope man. You're not the center of the player verse. Vox / Music / SFX sliders are of use to people like:

1. Speedrunners

1. edge case

so? also they might not be as rare as you think

2. Machinema Makers

2. edge case

so? also they're not so much any more, you can just check YouTube to verify that

3. People with hearing disabilities

3. legitimate

Then they should do it.

4. Normal people who want louder / softer individual controls because of their individual setups

4. I can hear Marty say "fix your setup, not my mix"

I can't afford to change my setup, and as much as I respect Marty, I don't have to do what he says or what he wants or even agree with him, and I shouldn't have to get new stuff just to make sure a game sounds right.

5. Folks who don't like the music

5. Play another game? There are lots.

ah but Bungie wants me to play their game, don't they?

6. Tons of situations I can't even think of

6. Think harder.

OK, what about people that don't like music in games at all, or who, despite the best efforts of Marty & co., find a character's voice annoying, or who despite the best efforts of Joe Staten & co. find certain dialog annoying, or who just don't want to hear it for the fortieth time?

I always always always am adjusting sliders in games that do it right, because the defaults are never to my preference.

Aesthethic choices like this know no bounds, though. Where should you stop?

Maybe I like Elites, but not Jackals. Maybe a slider?

a slider for what?

The level Halo 2 is too green on my TV. Maybe the grass should be red? Make it a slider.

What are you talking about?

Somehow, movie theaters and producers of home video content have managed to get away with allowing end users only a single volume control. I'm at a loss to describe exactly why is it a game is that different.

They aren't different, those things should have these options too.