Ignorant naive newbie beginner questions about video games, sports, and other games

The Game Room
21

I’m not much of a gamer, but I thought I’d chime in on this. There was a great game several years ago called Portal. It was a first-person shooter, but your gun does not shoot bullets. By shooting at a wall, and then another wall, you create something of a wormhole which connects those two points. You can walk into one portal and come out the other. You’re a research subject in a testing facility being run by a rogue AI who regularly taunts you. The idea is to use the portals to pass through a series of test chambers, and eventually confront the AI, herself.

It was enough of a success to spawn a sequel, Portal 2. The mechanics are the same, but in a larger setting. You eventually find yourself exploring the abandoned facilities of the company that created the portal gun, from the heady, can-do days of the 1950s, through its long decline, all while listening to recorded messages from the founder, voiced by J.K. Simmons.

The puzzles were great, and the atmosphere was a mix of creepy and hysterical, and nothing to upset a pacifist. I hope they’re still available on Steam.

22

No worries there as they were developed by Valve, parent company of Steam. And, yes, landmark quality games.

23

Wow. You really are out of the loop. First Person Shooters are a minority, these days. I mean, they’re still around and VERY popular, but in terms of genres they are not the biggest sellers anymore.

My favourite genres tend not to have much combat in them, like puzzles, platformers, or a genre called Metroidvania, which are games where you complete quests or puzzles to unlock more of the map. Those can have enemies to defeat, but usually it’s not guns and deaths so much as magic flashy lights that capture or disable. There are also Adventures, where the idea is to interact with characters in an unfolding storyline; Survival, where you have to make fire, find food, and build a home; and then there are Walking Simulators, where you are plonked into a weird open world and are encouraged to just explore. And that’s just the few I like, there are hundreds of other variants.

24

There are many good things about Steam.

  • The client itself is free
  • There are loads of free games available
  • Some non-free games offer free demo versions
  • It has a good refund policy. If you buy a game and don’t want it for whatever reason you can get a full refund if you’ve played for less than 2 hours over the course of (I think) 2 weeks.
25

In addition to being able to re-sell a physical copy, the gaming companies also can’t just delete it, which has happened with a few purely-online purchases.

And what would stop you form reading reviews just because you prefer to buy a physical copy?

Indeed. At the pub a few nights ago, I mentioned I was playing this game where you’re a cat lost in a city, and you have to explore the city to find your way home, and the bartender joked that I’d have to narrow it down to which lost cat game I was playing.

26

My console game library is almost entirely physical for exactly this reason. I just don’t trust the modern download/streaming landscape. I want the thing physically in my hand so I know I own it. Too many download “purchases” are phrased as open-ended revocable licenses. I buy movies on disc for the same reason.

Of course, this becomes semi-irrelevant for major game publishers which ship broken games on disc and then push a giant “patch” on initial install to make the game playable. Sigh.

27

I can’t believe I forgot Portal. There are worse places to start than that one. It’s original, very funny, and the puzzles are great. One of the best of all time.

RIP Companion Cube.

28

and if you like jokey off the wall “shooting games” try vampire survivors … and see if you could find the vampire :rofl: :innocent:

29

While digital games getting removed can happen, it’s very much an edge case. I think I’ve had two games removed out of ~4k games: The Crew and Darkspore. Those were from Ubisoft and EA. I can’t think of a game on Steam (and not from Ubi/EA) that was straight up removed but I wouldn’t doubt that it’s happened once or twice… out of tens of thousands of titles. I want to say I’ve heard of it but it’s always been an issue of IP infringement from some tiny game or similar. Getting a game self-published on Steam is much easier than getting it published on console so there’s also fewer checks and sometimes there’s a late response. In any event, the fear of a game getting pulled isn’t something that affects my purchase decisions.

There’s also numerous games removed from sale on Steam but, if you own them, you can still download and play them. Cryostasis hasn’t been available to purchase for years but I can still download and play my copy.

There’s also numerous DRM free games for digital sale via GOG and Itch but I don’t pretend that’s what people are talking about since it’s predominately older and/or small indie titles.

30

I’d like to chime in here with two recommendations for non-violent games but I haven’t seen mentioned yet. Well not specific games, more like genres. With a few specific games I’d like to mention in each.

The first are cooking games! I think I may be mildly addicted to anything with a cooking theme. Cooking games can vary wildly in their actual moment to moment gameplay and mechanics with the only thing they have in common is the ultimate goal of preparing and serving food.

On one end of the spectrum you have hardcore business simulations like “Chef’s Life: A Restaurant Simulator”, where you play as a young chef and owner of a newly opened restaurant. You are responsible for every aspect of the restaurant from its set up and what type of furniture you have in it, to what dishes you put on the menu and how much they cost, to managing your ingredients and inventory each morning. If you want to cook something you better make sure you have it in your fridge or freezer. I was super impressed with the ambition in this game, but I have to admit when I got into actually playing it I bounced off of it because it was just too complex. I didn’t have the time or inclination to figure out every little system.

On the other end are are fast paced arcade games where reflexes and response time matters and cooking is really more just the theme. These can be a little more than quick pickup and play the titles like “Yum Yum Cookstar” which appears to be aimed at younger players, to fast-paced party games like “Cook, Serve, Delicious”, and one of my favorites “Overcooked” 1 and 2 which supports up to four players. There’s nothing like running around a chaotic kitchen with your friends dressed up as a cartoon raccoon in a chef’s outfit, trying to not get in each other’s way while coordinating on getting orders out on time.

The second genre I wanted to mention I’m not even exactly sure what to call it other than “weird simulation games about actual occupations.” These are definitely budget titles and most of them seem to come from the same developers. These run the gamut from being a car mechanic, building PC’s for clients and trying to make money, to running a gas station or a pawn shop. These are basically all business simulations, but what you’re doing from minutes to minute changes based on the actual job. One that I fell into for a little bit was called “House Flipper”. And yes it is exactly what you’re probably thinking right now. Those reality shows where people purchase old, broken down houses and then fix them up to resell? Yeah, that’s what you’re doing. It might sound boring on first blush, but I found when I got into it that it was incredibly relaxing and engaging. You go into a nasty looking broken down house, and then watch it come together into something that someone would be proud to live in. It’s a weirdly satisfying experience.

I’m pretty sure all these games are on steam. Most if not all should be on Xbox and Playstation as well.

31

I buy games at Gamestop because they’re cheaper used. I’ve probably saved hundreds since I started playing.
Unfortunately I can forsee a day where you can only buy digital. After all the recent stories of companies removing paid digital games from my computer I’m only going to be buying one at a time rather than stockpiling them.

32

In many cases, even if you do buy a physical box containing a physical disc from a gaming store, all that’s on the disc is a client program that downloads the actual game from the company’s cloud-based service. So “actually owning the game” is never really an option.

33

Very true. Just recently I wanted to play the Spyro remastered trilogy on my Switch, but I went to download it and I didn’t have enough space. Instead of deleting at least 15GB of data to fit the digital version of the game, I decided to use a physical cartridge that I also owned.

Turned out there was only 8GB of data on the cartridge and I still had to download the rest online. So all it did is make the download process quicker.

34

One of my favourite ever games is Subnautica, a survival game where you crash land on a mostly water-covered planet and must find food, restore your base, investigate what happened to the other survivors, avoid getting eaten by fishy monsters, and piece together what is going on. It’s a beautiful game, with a lot of scuba diving and submarine driving that is just endless fun.

Followed up with a sequel Below Zero which is a bit more involved and with character interactions, and is set in the polar regions. Apparently a third is on its way eventually, but that’s unconfirmed.

Another of my favourites is My Time At Portia and its sequel My Time at Sandrock, where you are a builder in a small town and have to do tasks for the townsfolk by gathering resources and assembling machines.

35

First off, I absolutely loathed Subnautica, gave up on Assassin’s Creed Origins after about fifteen minutes after dying constantly everywhere, gave up on Stardew Valley after about five minutes due to frustration at the constant grinding time pressure and not being able to refill the stupid watering can, haven’t been interested in first person shooters since Wolfenstein, enjoyed the modern-day parts of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag, think board games should have an option to enter your own die rolls, had this kind of experience with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and think Jim “Stephanie” Sterling is completely on the money nearly all the time but relies too much on running gags and grossouts (plus deep down I suspect his transgender/nonbinary thing is an act, but I’m not bringing it up on his channel), which by prevailing standards makes me a goddam alien, so if you don’t respect my opinions, I understand.

That said, I like helping people with simple stuff, and I don’t usually quibble about intentions, so here goes nothing! :grin:

Gamestop: I remember those heady days of the PSX, Dreamcast, and PS2, where I’d rummage through shelves for half and hour or more and walk out of there with that one hot game I had my eyes on or a fistful of clearance titles. No downloads back then. When the seventh generation (PS3/XBox 360/Wii) rolled around, being able to pick up used game for a great price and not having to pay full price online was a major boon. This was also the time Blockbuster Video and its game rentals were heading to the dustbin of history, making Gamestop even more important for players on a budget. In recent times preservation has become a big issue, and there’s been a real push to preserve physical media. Bottom line, having real, solid hardware in your hand is a big deal for a number of reasons. I’m not surprised at all Gamestop has survived this long.

Inadvertent purchases: It’s happened to me a few times, but usually due to not reading carefully rather than clicking the wrong button. The real (and very massive) problem is predatory practices like lootboxes, microtransactions, and season passes, which Jim Sterling has covered in depth. There’s also bullcrap like the purchasable quantities of consumables never matching the amount needed for a specific benefit so you always get too much or too little…

Dirtbag companies: Not all of them, but far more than there ever should have been (again, Jim Sterling’s covered this numerous times). Keep an eye out for unethical practices (crunch, mass layoffs, sexual harrassment, abuse, etc.), and never take a AAA executive at his or her word.

E-sports: Why the UFL? Why cornhole? Why chase tag? If enough people make it a thing, it’s a thing. Don’t tell me something as ridiculous as baseball became a “national pastime” for any reason other than a whole bunch of men wanted it to be.

Steam: Other members have already answered this better, but for me, it’s a great place to just look around and say “Wow, this really exists!”…and then get it, just like that. Haven’t had that kid-in-a-candy-store vibe since the early days of Blockbuster Video. And yes, that indie developers can go there and get the fruits of their labors without some parasitic AAA greedbag taking all the money and credit absolutely rocks.

Subscriptions: If you mean season passes, I don’t buy 'em; total ripoff. If you mean periodic payments required to play certain mobile device games…I don’t buy them, absolutely atrocious idea.

Art form: I consider certain elements, like background design and music design, artistic, but calling a game itself “art” is a bit iffy for me. If calling it art means that there’ll be more of an effort to preserve these games, though, I’m all for it.

What should everyone know about: Two words…Touhou Project. I cannot overstate how massive this has become. There’s a good chance that if you have any exposure whatsoever to doujin games, the eighth generation (PS4/XBox One/WiiU), Steam, or mobile device games, you will play a Touhou game, either the official games or any of a myriad of indie projects, spinoffs, and licenses. I mentioned LostWord before, didn’t I? :wink:

36

While eSports are definitely a “thing” and more power to 'em, it feels like their expected popularity never happened. At least in the US – I won’t speak for Asia. But, last I heard, a lot of teams lost sponsors, events had mediocre attendance, budget crunches, etc. I suppose that’s all related: Sparse paying attendance means less sponsorship means tighter budgets which means less promotion/payouts to boost attendance, organizations/teams shut down because no one wants to pay them enough to stay active, yadda yadda

I’m not saying that eSports are dying, much less dead, but compared to 3-5 years ago where people were predicting that we’d be talking about CS:GO and League of Legends teams the same way we talk about the NFL or NBA it’s more like it went from overhyped and over-speculated back into a niche sports category.

37

I think games are certainly a new art form. And like every other art form, there’s a lot of junk. But they have plot, graphics, sounds tracks… Sure they are art.

I recently bought a physical chip instead of downloading a game because it cost half as much, and i was going to be near a place that sold it anyway.

There are tons of games out there, but mostly i play Minecraft. :wink: I did enjoy Portal. And if you want a game with really gorgeous graphics and quirky virtual puzzles, give Goragoa a try. Or for a game with meh graphics but really awesome puzzles, try Baba is You.

38

I think that video games can be art, and even great art, but that not all of them are (and note that “not art” is not the same thing as “bad art”; some video games are also that). Nor is this something unique to a medium: A photograph can be good art, bad art, or not art at all, for instance, or a drawing.

On esports, I think that the biggest thing holding them back is that video gaming changes too quickly. If a kid grows up watching and playing football, and aspires to become a pro player, and eventually makes it big and plays for the NFL, the sport they’re playing will be basically the same as the sport they grew up with, and for that matter the same as the sport their parents and grandparents grew up with. On the other hand, if a kid grew up with Starcraft, and got really good at it, about the time they’d be hitting it big, Starcraft II comes out, and while being great at Starcraft will probably result in being pretty good at Starcraft II, it’s definitely not the same game. And more so, when the popular game moves on to some other RTS.

39

Seconding Subnautica but wanted to add it’s a very suspenseful game. I’d go so far as to call it survival horror. You’ve gotta go deep into the ocean with no idea what you’ll find, and there are some freaky undersea creatures waiting to bite you. I got pretty far into the game, but I never finished it because I got too scared of what I would find. There’s also usually some kind of oxygen or damage limit when you’re underwater and maybe this is just me, but games where you can drown have always freaked me out. The consequences aren’t even that bad; you lose some stuff and wake up in your pod. But it’s still a lot of suspense for me.

Still it’s astonishing the creators put together a completely believable underwater alien ecosystem and you build to a whole glossary cataloguing all the weird creatures you find. Building an underwater base camp is super fun.

Really it’s a great game.

40

There was a Planet Money episode recently on the boom and bust of esports. They suggested that sponsors found that streamers/Youtubers gave them a better bang for their advertising buck.