Off Topic Discussion Megathread

[Theodric]

Since I haven't posted anything I've taken on my phone for a while, here's one I took the other day:

[SturmChurro]

No matter how much I complain about CMs, moderation, monetization, quality.. if I like a game I always put more money into it. I have a problem.

[Kolsykol]

I really wish there was some RPG like Pillars of Eternity and Pathfinder Kingmaker that wasn't so '' generic '' for a lack of a better term.
I am so exhausted by '' realistic '' medieval art direction <_<, it's the same with DnD I feel like if I've seen a Wizard or a Rogue I've seen them all.
It feels so restrictive and bland.
It also goes for non-RPG's too set in these medieval settings, they're so brown and grey, desaturated and everything is so bland or even straight up ugly.
And anything that's '' cool '' is just edgy skull helmets or black hoods with some extra belts and leather.

Only one I can think of is Divinity but I never really liked the style of that game either, just something about it didn't work for me.
I'd love a game like that but with a more JRPG, Korean or Chinese art direction.
I feel like they make way more appealing designs where I actually want to get it and it looks distinct, while in most of these other RPG's it's just '' here you go, a brown stitched together leather vest and a google copy pasted dirty and extremely basic breastplate ''.
Wow... Thanks.
Or heck even Guild Wars 2 art direction in a RPG like that.

There's some exceptions ofc, I still rly like the Ordinator Dunmer design from Morrowind.
But for the most part it feels so basic and bland and like there's no personality behind it, as if you look like a generic NPC guard or enemy not like the protagonist.
Maybe at the start it can make sense but when you're super wealthy and strong, is it really that much to ask to get gear that looks like your character actually custom-made it and likes to express themselves?

But yeah, I have a love hate relationship with these games.
It feels like the gear is designed to be '' neutral '' to a fault, it's okay if some of it doesn't suit some peoples tastes...
I'd rather take ten gear sets where I love one of them, hate three of them and am just indifferent to six of them.
Rather than just being meh about all of them.

To a large degree I think it's laziness and wanting to save time and costs.
Creating your own shit is costly and time-consuming so it's easier to just copy paste that generic '' pseudo-historical '' DnD and Tolkien look, only usually it ends up being an inferior copy.
Easier to just slap a chainmail or gambison on someone than to actually get creative.
Maybe I am just getting old and have played games for way too long but holy hell I can't sympathize at all with peoples enthusiasm for it I am so bored out of my mind with it.

It's especially sad when the writing and the world they've built is really great, but then the actual gear design is so extremely boring.

[TheMightyMollusk]

I miss the days when games could just be fun, rather than super-serious stoic-with-a-dark-secret protags facing super-grim and gritty horrors on a generic real-is-brown backdrop.

[Kolsykol]

I miss the days when games could just be fun, rather than super-serious stoic-with-a-dark-secret protags facing super-grim and gritty horrors on a generic real-is-brown backdrop.

Yeah I don't mind super serious games either, I just feel like there's way too much of it.
I also think that people give it too much credit by default, if something is dark and involves suffering and graphic violence it often gets viewed as '' deep and mature '' quite easily.
It especially bothers me a little with '' realistic '' stuff too that tries to be inspired by history, people back in the day didn't run around in black leather gear lol people wore very colorful clothes.
People also did bathe quite often and make an effort to take care of themselves, you wouldn't survive very long if you didn't.

I just want some more variety and also I don't want '' cool '' to just entirely revolve around super edginess or how bulky and angry a character is.
And I don't think that all of Western medieval styled fantasy basically needs to be like the Witcher or DnD.
Japanese devs manage to do all kinds of stuff at the same time I fail to see why Western devs couldn't too.
Publishers like Capcom alone has significantly more variety in their catalogue, it's pretty crazy just how diverse in styles it is they have it all.

Most of the exceptions I can think of in the West too are old titles that have been around for over a decade or even longer.
I guess that I'll give WoW some credit for it even if I think the newer designs look too much like generic store skins in a F2P game, but if WoW was created today I don't believe it'd go for that artstyle at least not under a big publisher.
And WoW also takes itself WAY too seriously when it's completely unjustified, it honestly makes the poor writing harder to sit through because of how humorless and dry it is.

Edit: I know it's cheesy as hell, but I kinda loved the main theme to Dragons Dogma lol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZNbabKjKpA

It took me so by surprise, and it just immediately kinda added a slew of character to the game.
I think that going with a theme like this in a game like that shows a lot of confidence in the game they created.
I think most devs are afraid of that tho and want to really really show to you how very serious and artsy their game is, they want to hold your hand through the whole thing and don't trust you.
Dragons Dogma was just like '' here have some cheesy rock music ''.

[Caurcas]

Morrowind is still the game with the best realized setting. It has a unique look, great art direction, takes its cultures, faiths, and philosophy seriously and throughly fleshed it out.

[Kolsykol]

Morrowind is still the game with the best realized setting. It has a unique look, great art direction, takes its cultures, faiths, and philosophy seriously and throughly fleshed it out.

I dunno why but Vivec is really cool to me, the cities also felt more unique than in Oblivion and Skyrim ( also uh, the guards weren't literally copy paste in all cities ).
I like the three dimensionality to it too.

ESO has a really great world too, I don't like the gameplay and I think that basically all of the gear design is just really bland tho ( even the store skins look like trash o_o ).
But I can't fault the world at all, it's really really good.

[Caurcas]

I dunno why but Vivec is really cool to me, the cities also felt more unique than in Oblivion and Skyrim ( also uh, the guards weren't literally copy paste in all cities ).
I like the three dimensionality to it too.

ESO has a really great world too, I don't like the gameplay and I think that basically all of the gear design is just really bland tho ( even the store skins look like trash o_o ).
But I can't fault the world at all, it's really really good.

The Dunmer theology and the 3 "good" Daedra are probably my most enjoyed fictional cultural/belief system outside of maybe Tolkien.

[Kaoru_Nagisa]

I did the invasions for Varre's questline, and on my first one, the host and his partner both looked at me and shot me with the Frenzy Eye Lasers. I didn't have a chance lol.

When I invaded for the questline to get that mark for easy access to the rune farm bird cliff, I tended to just wait for the Host to find me, no weapons out, and when they approach I drop a bar of soap and step back and do the fetal position emote.

Sometimes they just kill me instantly with Rivers of Blood or w/e the new OP flavor of the week build is.

Sometimes, though, I see the visible confusion as they approach, pick up my soap, and just stand there like they're trying to process what just happened. I imagine me immediately bolting for the nearest high place to fling myself from only adds to the confusion, lmao.

It's good fun. I hate invading, but I at least try to make it a funny encounter when I do.

[Padudu]

So I went to check back on PSO2: NG the other day, the game I quit for XIV. Man, I know we say FF is dying a lot of the times, but at least we don't have this:



Yup, that is gacha. Yup, that is "buy gacha for a chance to increase the chest slider". And this is a bonus item that you get for whaling a crapton of the gacha.

Oh Sega, how far you've fallen once again, unsurprisingly of course lol.