Randomly Mine #4

Alarming

I attended PAX 2014 and the most memorable game at the convention was definitely Halo 2 Anniversary multiplayer. Waiting in line and getting to experience Lockout all over again with gorgeous visuals, beefy sound-effects, and new dimensions was a real treat.

As a Halo 2 megafan, it easily won me over.

But there was a chink in the armor.

The line of people hadn’t been moving at an optimal rate, that’s because setting up the game took longer than the matches themselves. While employees silently did their job, everyone could see what was going on.

After of every match, the eight consoles had to be hard-reset, boot the game, host a match, and each console had to join the lobby at roughly the same time. In the event that any of these steps weren’t completed, the console has to be reset, and another attempt was made.

Preview builds are a commonly understood thing for the people who attend these events, and it was my third PAX; but this was just bizarre.

Speaking as someone with a brief stint in QA years after experiencing this, I still have no explanation for why it happened.

At the time though, I assumed it was just a problem with the build, and had so much fun playing, I forgave the wait time, and never thought about it again.

Months went by and I’m sitting down and watching a Halo Livestream with multiple Pro Players competing in a friendly expedition tournament to show off Halo 2 Anniversary.

I enjoyed the USA’s Televised 2006 Halo 2 MLG Season, and jumped at the chance to see familiar faces like Gandhi, Walshy, and T2 go against each other.

It was during this stream that alarms rang in my head, because in this stream – one taking place weeks before the MCC launched – I saw Pro Players being instructed to go through the exact same process I witnessed at PAX.

You know what I did, upon seeing this?

Nothing.

I got hyped. I pre-ordered the game. I installed it the minute it was available on Xbox Live. I threw $80 like Ricegum with a homeless dude.

And life has never been the same since.

Mass Effect 3 laid the coffin for my involvement in hype culture. MCC was what nailed it shut.

The moral of the story is this…

When you witness a problem first hand, don’t dismiss it. There’s a reason it’s not being shared by the press, or admitted openly by the developers and/or publishers.

Issues in early builds aren’t supposed to appear in the final product.

Doesn’t mean they can’t appear.

You’re Just Salty

I’ve seen comments from people who argue against those who oppose cosmetic lootboxes with “I bet you’re just salty you didn’t get what you want.” Typically, with Overwatch.

Speaking as someone who got the best legendary Zenyatta skin within the first week of playing…

No.

It’s just a crap system.

Good Game Smuggling Bad

There’s often a lack of consistency in games criticism. People despise Resident Evil 6’s lack of a basic pause feature, but Dark Souls is the Dark Souls of video-games. Mass Effect 3’s ending is akin to butt cancer, but MGS5’s unfinished conclusion that consists of replaying old missions? Game of the year all years!

But there’s often a commonality in titles with bad business or gameplay practices that are defended.

Usually they’re pretty good.

Overwatch isn’t a predictable, tired, cliché war shooter like Call of Duty. It was at launch, a fresh, vibrant, and strategic game, brimming with personality and charm. Which is likely why its loot-boxes that nine times out of ten give you useless crap no one wants is defended by the game’s fanbase.

Were this system to appear in a lesser game without the amount of acclaim Overwatch has, its faults would likely be fired into the sun, but simply by the virtue of the game being good, even its worst aspects are played off where they’d otherwise be criticized.

Rainbow Six Siege has much of this too. Battlefront II’s grind for heroes was undeniably appalling, but when Siege’s operators consist of 10+ characters that take 8-12 hours each to grind for, it makes you wonder why EA is the butt of every joke.

And it probably has to do with Siege being received very well, while was Battlefront underwhelming.

The quality of a game shouldn’t determine whether a particularly egregious aspect is acceptable. Battlefront II could’ve been the greatest FPS made by man, its treatment of consumers and systems is still atrocious, and to think that they may have been considered acceptable if Battlefront II was a better game concerns me.

Origin Is Worse Than Hitler

…Do I really need to explain more?

Appearances 

In Forza Motorsport, there’s an option to disable designs. By design, the game means custom paint jobs made by the community instead of default paint-jobs for each vehicle.

Many of these designs are pretty neat, but Sturgeon’s Law, ninety percent of everything is made by drugged up Bronies and Weeaboos.

I don’t believe that’s a direct quote.

So if you want to avoid these like someone who wants to retain their sanity, you change a setting in the options menu, and every vehicle looks like something that’d actually exist.

Why isn’t there something like this for shooters?

If female soldiers in WWII, Gingerbread Suits in Advanced Warfare, and Chinese New Year skins in Overwatch are enough for people to shit in rage, why not allow for an option that’d disable unwanted cosmetics and give the game a visual consistency that for many would be satisfactory? If you can do it with cars, I can’t imagine it’d be impossible with character models.

Wait, typing this I’ve already found an answer…

Now I’m sad.

Skins in shooters are made to showcase things other people want, which will have them either grinding or paying for.

The only difference, is no one has thought to do this with cars yet.

Wait.

This is going to happen next, isn’t it?