Raids (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Tuesday, May 07, 2013, 09:12 (4009 days ago) @ kapowaz
edited by Cody Miller, Tuesday, May 07, 2013, 09:31

So; back to Bungie. Why would they want people to hit up YouTube to learn how to play the game? I am mystified, and more than a little concerned. A console game with an unstated prerequisite that players go learn how to play it via fan-submitted videos feels like a massive cop-out to me. In a way it's not a million miles from how games used to require tutorials, but these were eventually incorporated into the early stages of gameplay. I can only hope we're being premature in our fears. If there were any form of dialog between Bungie design and players here then they could probably put these fears to rest, but Bungie are pretty secretive about this stuff (and I don't suppose there's much point asking a serious question in the mailsack). We'll just have to wait and see.

In the Portal 2 strategy guide, in the beginning I specifically state that this is a game you should try to finish on your own, as it's a puzzle game and most of the fun is figuring out the puzzles. I actually got a few questions about that, but it was left in. And lo and behold, lots of people are saying that's right.

http://www.strategyguidereviews.com/2011/05/portal-2-strategy-guide-review/

"One thing I really appreciated were the warnings/suggestions at the beginning of the single-player and co-op chapters, where it strongly urged players to only use the guide when they were stuck. I can’t recall any guide saying that, not even the original Portal strategy guide. Granted, the reason why people buy a strategy guide is for assistance, but it’s nice that the writers asked users to try to work out the puzzles on your own, because really, you won’t get the beauty of the game without trying on your own."

By all accounts, this reviewer is a casual player, and even she understands the importance of actually playing the game an undertaking the challenges yourself.

Over the years WoW has been made more player-friendly, which offends the self-important, self-described ‘hardcore’ crowd, but the majority are unquestionably better off. As much as the improvements have helped, however, one big problem remained the lack of ‘discoverability’ of raid encounters. A lot of players (mostly the hardcore ones) enjoyed the discovery process, but for the overwhelming majority, when fights had complicated mechanics they would rather go look up the solutions offered on sites like tankspot.com than work it out for themselves. The ultimate result is that most players bypass this part of the game because they consider it too punishing, unentertaining or otherwise not fun.

Simple solution:

Difficulty levels.