Patreon Q&A #5

Sandraincloud90 Asks
What kind of game genres do you not have much experience with but have wanted to try out? And what are some others that you think you'll just never see eye to eye with?

I can't really think of a genre or sub-genre I haven't experienced at this point, but there's definitely some I wish I had an appreciation for. Mainly Turn-Based Combat, so I could enjoy XCOM's gameplay. 

Of the genres I just don't seem eye to eye with though, I've long since accepted that I enjoy the idea of a looter much more than I actually do. I loathe random drops after killing bosses especially, because the accomplishment of killing the boss becomes secondary to the reward, essentially making it a slot-machine, but rather than pulling a lever, you tediously lay waste into them for 5-30 minutes. I do understand that many people play games as timekillers, I've done the same with Puzzle Quest & Rocket League, but these genres just go a bit too literal for me. 

They feel like I'm replacing one job with another.

Xulrik Asks
If I remember correctly, you prefer to play most games on Hard? Do you like the extra challenge or do you think the studios are doing a poor job of balancing their games?

Traditionally, I start games on Normal or one nudge above to judge what the balancing calls for. While I'm a fan of Arena shooters, there's no consistency on what Medium, Hard, or Nightmare is. For franchises like Halo, Call of Duty, DOOM, or Wolfenstein, I often start on hard mode merely because I'm familiar with the franchise, and understand those are the difficulties for offering a challenge, while not obstructing progress in the campaign.

Racing Games I always start on Hard Mode though, as that's the genre I've grown up with, and I often get annoyed when a game, arcade or sim, only offers three choices.

In-fact, in general I think three difficulties is rarely enough. There's plenty of cases where games I find too easy on Normal, but too unfair on Hard, without being able to scale things in between. I don't think it's because studios are bad at balancing, but just that they lack the time or manpower to thoroughly test everything.

Balancing is really hard, and often requires multiple people. Hugo Martin at ID Software recently mentioned how, after playing DOOM Eternal so much on Nightmare, he can't accurately judge the lower difficulties, and has to rely on other team-members to do that. There's two things I believe need to become much more of a standard though. Letting people know which difficulty the developer thinks best represents the game's intentions, and modifiers. Letting people adjust minor things that annoy them, and can literally be the difference between hating and loving a game.

Dakota DaCody Piner Asks
About to start my next Racyevick binge. How do you feel about people who binge your videos like a season of friends?

It's one of the best compliments I can get. There's days where I'll just sit down and binge creators because of their writing, narration, etc. To know there's viewers that treat my content the same way, is always awesome to hear. I try really hard to make the sort of content I'd wanna watch.

Antonio Francaviglia Asks
I'm curious to know if you think many survival games lack focus or direction? Eventually ending up as a unpolished mess of ideas and systems which can create an unsatisfying and frustrating experience.

I've noticed in most survival games, my pattern is the same. I quite enjoy the initial hours where you're learning everything, discovering enemies for the first time, how to craft, but upon realizing what the real gameplay loop is, I lose interest. I think that's because in a story-based game, you have a narrative to hold you over. In system driven experiences, the mechanics are dynamic enough to keep generating something new. Whereas in games based on crafting, I find whether you're building a wooden barricade, or the space-shuttle, gameplay is the same with the only difference being time investment.

However, I understand that Subnautica is a great game, so I'm very curious to try it. Despite everything I've said, I am open to trying out Survival Games, like MMOs and Looters. Because I learned years ago, all it can take is one really good piece of work, to augment your view on a whole genre.

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