Friday 4 March 2022

It's OK just just not play it sometimes

 

Recently two games came out, Sifu and Elden Ring, that dragged the tired and very stupid difficulty debate all over my social media feeds once again and good lord is it tiresome.

First of all, for the people that bought either of these games and are complaining, allow me to point out that your attitude to games fucking sucks shit.  MOST of the people I've seen whining about the difficulty of either of these games have very similar along the lines of "I don't have time to learn how to play", "I don't want to have to put in that much effort to make progress" and it's an attitude I cannot comprehend even a little bit. A lot of people in current year seem to view video games as a "one and done" thing.  Like you buy the game, play the story one and ONLY one time and then move onto the next game.  People who enjoy Naughty Dog games are especially prone to this kind of behavior.  So when a game like Sifu or Elden Ring comes along that actually tries to roadblock you and actually has a decent amount of challenge behind it, they get mad and pissy because they might not finish it before next game du-jour comes out.

But games are expensive and the hardware you need to play it on is even more expensive so why is this your attitude to such an costly purchase?  Some games are a one and done thing, things like Uncharted, A Plague Tale, basically any cinematic first person shooter and the like.  But games like Elden Ring, Sifu, Cuphead and games like it are asking for a bit of a time investment.  They want you to replay them, to explore their nooks and crannies for all their content, to master their mechanics and get a true sense of satisfaction for beating them otherwise what's the point?  

But OK fine, I don't understand the mindset but it's there.  So then maybe you should just admit that these games are not for you instead of complaining about it on Twitter, stomping your feet and demanding easy modes and assist options.

Me personally, I'm a challenge oriented kinda guy, I like these kind of stupidly hard games where I have to bash my head off the wall until I get a win.  I like the kind of games that I can really sink a lot of time into to master the ins and outs of them.  I like games that can then, once "mastered" can then have insane personal challenges attatched to them like deathless or hitless runs and have that really mean something to other people who also enjoy that kind of thing.  What I hate though, are slow paced, challenge-less life-sim type games.  Things like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, The Sims.  Things about farming or decorating houses.  Some people find it relaxing, I think its time wasting dogshit

So do I go on social media and demand that The Sims gets a hard mode where my family have to fend off home invasions?  Do I demand that Animal Crossing insert combat events into the game where NPCs come and kill all my villagers and I have to constantly defend my island from invasion?  No of course I fucking don't, I just don't play those games

One thing you have to remember is that while the whole "video games are for everyone" thing is true, "not ALL games are for everyone" is also true.  If you like Cinematic games with selectable difficulty then go play those, if you like time-wasting-ass life sims that you get all cozy under a blanket with and you can decorate a little house, then fine, I hope you have a nice time.

But if you then go play Elden Ring or Sifu, get your ass kicked and demand that the developer start catering to you specifically just because YOU don't want to put the time in to learn how to do a dodge roll or practice some combos, then go fuck yourself with a cactus.

I know "missing out" is something that people worry about but if a game isn't for you, it just isn't for you, and that's OK

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