Comment on The curse of ‘Disco Elysium’, the greatest RPG ever made

rozodru@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

• ameancow@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  If you read a lot of books, it’s absolutely one of the best interactive reading experiences ever made. If you’re not into reading and you don’t have a brain adapted to creating worlds from text you’re going to feel like only some kind snob likes it or it’s pretentious and people only like it for the politics or something.

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  • bathing_in_bismuth@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    Why don’t you read a PDF transcript of it then? I mean, all the visuals just mean you don’t have a brain adapted to creating worlds from text… I mean, why need a game if you can a) go to page 713 b) go to page 23 c) go to page 412

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    • ameancow@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Because the player choices and interaction and evolution are what drives the shape of the experience you have, the game wouldn’t work as a novel, and a novel alone couldn’t explore the depth of the world-building and characterization, so it’s an almost perfect harmony between the two genres, and if you don’t like the tone, setting or concept, that’s fine, but understand what it is so you know why you don’t like it.

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      • bathing_in_bismuth@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        All you describe could just play all out in my head. You haven’t read a lot of good novels if you need all this audiovisual support to paint a world with such depth in your head.

        You really need a brain adapted to creating novel universes from text. If you don’t like reading novels I get why you need all the help such games offer to handwalk your imagination along the script. If that’s the case, reading novels is just not your cup of tea. That’s fine, I get it. But I don’t get why you wouldn’t just read an PDF choose-your-own adventure.

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• Plantfoodclock@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I’m not entirely confident in my answer but I think my initial issue with Disco Elysium when I first tried to play it was because I expected the typical high action and quick cause-and-effect outcomes I’m used to in most RPGs. At least IMO, most RPG choices in games usually end up with a relatively clear outcome, whereas DE felt more gradual. Similarly, DE is more detective than action, which might sometimes benefit from gradual clues all coming together.

  Not to say anyone is wrong for not liking this approach, it does take a bit of commitment to engage with it. But I think being willing to engage with it on its level might make the initial hump more bearable. I’ve honestly come to enjoy the slower approach of DE, but refreshing compared to everything else.

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• pishadoot@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Yeah, it wasn’t for me either. I really tried to give it a shot, gone back to it a couple times but I really just don’t get it.

  Great art/style? Definitely. But the gameplay itself is SO boring.

  I’m trying to play a game here, and the game part is lacking. RNG+ text? No thanks, not much to keep me.

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  • Samskara@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    It’s about the exploring the story, the mind of your character, and lots of political and philosophical themes. The deep psychological exploration of the human condition is absolutely unique and fascinating.

    Maybe you’re too young or otherwise not ready to engage with these themes.

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    • ameancow@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Nobody reads anymore, anything more than a paragraph of text gets skipped by most people under 25 I think. I mean it broadly too, online, in games, in classrooms, in work meetings… it’s massively infuriating to someone who grew up reading books and has a brain adapted to creating worlds from abstractions.

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    • pishadoot@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Definitely neither.

      I put down choose your own adventure stories a long time ago, and a digital one doesn’t hold me no matter how well it’s put together.

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  • ameancow@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    But the gameplay itself is SO boring.

    I don’t know why anyone is trying to pass it off as a “gameplay” experience, it’s literally an interactive novel that uses visual settings and reader choices to advance the plot in a thousand different ways.

    If you don’t like reading, if you don’t have a brain adapted to creating worlds from text, you won’t like it. If you sit down to “play a game” and wanna click-splat baddies or strategically manage your health potions as you horde massive piles of wealth and gain levels… you won’t like it. It has some of those elements but its to serve the purpose of advancing story, not engaging in gameplay.

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    • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Everyone is in here talking about reading… The Director’s Cut or whatever its called, has full voice narration of everything. And it’s really good.

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      • ameancow@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

        Oh yes, the voice narration was what made it go from great to fantastic, but it’s still at that point an “audio book” for all the unwashed masses in here, so it’s semantic and pointless to try to convince people who rather delight in the nuance and depth of JRPG’s where you grind killing slimes for 94 hours that it’s not supposed to be that kind of game.

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    • pishadoot@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Yeah, I read a couple books a month. Not interested in playing one disguised as a video game. They serve different purposes.

      Reading goes at my pace which is way, way faster than a game. Story-based games are way too slow and not nearly rich enough to replace a book.

      Cool if people like it, obviously there’s something there that clicks with people. But I think it’s boring AF.

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• Ardyssian@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Same - Planescape Torment is my personal greatest RPG ever made

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  • Decoy321@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    A true fellow of culture

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    • LunarLoony@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      eekum bokum

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