Bored Now...

[@bandofbrothersu]

nearly had a panic attack reading that tilte haha really thought Tim was about to say he's bored of this channel now, signing out. love watching his vids.

[@FrostedSentry]

lol! Exactly what I thought when I saw the notification pop up. Phew! The sense of relief is real.

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

That title was a surprise to me as well because I had never gotten the impression so far that he was bored with what he was doing! Although he did say a few times that there's less fun to be had for him working on the games industry these days, like the Avoiding Burnout video. But bored? No! After listening I do understand his "boredom" though and several games have bored me out with similar issues.

[@omicronoverlord3533]

I've always liked how the Fallout games have handled how your character gets introduced to the world and that includes New Vegas where you have amnesia. You might disagree with me on this, Tim, but here's why I think it worked really well. Your character has a mundane life and the game opens with you getting your brains scrambled. None of what you did in the past ever really mattered and your only motivation is revenge and rightfully so I think. That, to me, is how you nail amnesia. It's not about who you were but who you, the character, and you, the player are going to be.

[@noodledoodle9408]

+1 I like amnesia as a player backstory option and not as a writer's trick.@@omicronoverlord3533

[@pizzacunt]

hi everyone, this is tim. im bored of this shit now, bye lol

[@misterj8815]

One effective thing that hit me in Arcanum-often in towns you could ask about work. If you did so in Cumbria, the townsfolk would say "look around, Cumbria is dying! There isn't enough work for the citizens!" It was a bit of tell along with show, but it was in a brief conversation and a negative response to something that normally got a positive response so it stood out. Brief but effective.

[@wimbusbert1249]

Fallout 1 Harold is the ultimate lore dump character for me!! Strictly optional, and delivered in a way where you don't even realize you're learning.

[@tobykief2400]

Completely off topic but you liking my comment yesterday! Absolutely made my day!! Me and my coworkers got all fan girly about it!!❤❤❤

[@BasicWorldbuilder]

The power move of liking the comment about liking the comment. Tim you're a legend 😄

[@CainOnGames]

@BasicWorldbuilder I call it “mega-liking”.

[@sinisterdesign]

Totally with you on preferring "scoped problems"; they have so much more potential to drive interesting factional and character conflict. (By contrast, it doesn't serve anyone's interests to literally end the world.)

[@jakehobbs6821]

Wasteland 3 does this really well - the entire story premise is basically 'Secure our supply chain' which sounds dull as hell but ends up forcing you into faction conflicts that are really interesting with outcomes that aren't always obvious.

[@SzaraSzarancza]

Tell me you haven't played Arcanum, without telling me you haven't played Arcanum.

[@stuartmorley6894]

This is one of the many reasons I love Citizen Sleeper. The stakes are either personal or effect people you care about. Even at it's biggest scale you know you are probably going to change nothing outside of that scope. You don't solve anything perfectly, it's a constant compromise.

[@lord5619]

Tim spitting FACTS! I´m on the same boat...no amnesia anymore please, no "the bigger the better" open worlds, no boooring monologues "why did i became evil".

[@bluemooninthedaylight8073]

Indie horror games are the worst with the cliched "You were a bad person the whole time." It shows a lack of creativity, meaning, and writing chops.

[@Mayhzon]

What do you think of the idea of playing a psychopathic character (by the medical definition), but they're only as "evil" as they need be / you dictate? Their main motif of getting around being (rational) self-enrichment

[@heavenheathern]

I think that "saving the world" isn't just boring but also can be sometimes detrimental to the game design, instead of making difficult choices or having a specific argument to convince a character/faction to join you, it's just the most obvious argument "united we stand, divided we fall". Also, the stakes are so high that it's impossible to realise how much your character values everything in the world, especially if your game takes place only in a part of the world and the other parts of the world are barely described in the game

[@BlackJar72]

A smaller, more local problem also makes an evil path make a lot more sense. If a gang bandits / raiders / barbarians are threatening to overrun the town, joining the villains, climbing their ranks, and taking over works as an evil path. If the world or universe is going to be destroyed, even Evil Mac Evilman will need to do the good quest to save their own skin in most cases.

[@bluemooninthedaylight8073]

I think saving the world as a power fantasy is extremely dull; however, if it's a burden, curse, or painfully earned, it can be justified. The main character Aya in Parasite Eve is constantly haunted by a dead loved one and witnesses horrors along the way. Her saving the world feels earned by the end, and her powers during the game almost felt like a curse. She never asked for this. It doesn't hurt that she's a working girl in modern day New York. She's not some cocky teenager with a magical sword, but someone far more grounded, albeit with some '90s action hero moments.

[@Blueprint4Murder]

I think it is only a problem when they slap you in the face with it. Countless JRPGs do it really well where you struggle to survive and then you end up in a postion where you can save the world. Games like FF14 with its painfully bad writing hit you in the face with it from the start and then you have a world that doesn't acknowledge what the MSQ defines. Early in the game it says you are the savoir of everyone with each city celebrating you and then you go right back to being a delivery boy its just soo poorly done.

[@heavenheathern]

@@lrinfiI was thinking about Guild Wars 2 in this where the bickering of the orders kind of abruptly stops because of the argument, but yeah this is a thing too. For example I've been playing Dragon Age Origins recently and half of the main "gathering army" quests basically choosing one faction out of two, and the other has to be killed

[@heavenheathern]

@@Blueprint4MurderI haven't played JRPGs so I'm going to agree with you. Same with FF14 but I'm guessing it has the same issue as GW2 original storyline which has similar issues

[@dominikdalek]

Came here hoping to hear about sarcastic NPCs and I wasn't disappointed. :D

[@FerreusDeus]

I love how vested you are in player agency and the player having freedom. I heartfully agree with and love every syllable of this video.

[@TheBadRandolph]

A Buffy reference... I'd give two thumbs up if YT would let me

[@Spirit47373]

Just what I was going to comment.

[@sproggs]

Your channel is a wealth of gaming and programming knowledge. Thankful I found it!

[@brettabraham]

I learned real quick in my D&D games to not use "save the world" conflicts. It means that anyone that stands in the players' way has to be evil: there's no character decision where "Yeah let's destroy the whole world" makes sense. As soon as I switched to human-caused conflict (like a war between neighboring nations), I was able to create characters that made sense and were sympathetic on both sides of the conflict.

[@sperg0101]

I love watching these videos! I am not a game designer, programmer, or anything related. However, I often watch your videos and take good advice out of them in relation to my own interests. I'm an aspiring musical artist. It's interesting to see the similarities between one creative process and another

[@jpage505]

I don't make games and have little desire to, but as an avid gamer I absolutely love watching your videos and hearing about everything that goes into making the games that I do play. It gives me a much greater appreciation for what you guys do and makes the games more fun knowing how much thought and effort are actually put into them. Every gamer should watch your videos.. especially the ones who always complain.. very insightful. ❤Thank you!!

[@thetra00]

I love it when Villians do a monolog and the player can punch em while he is on it. Also the common used Traits can be used as a twist: Why do you save the world! - I don t Save the world I just want revenge because one of your minions broke my teddy!! Great Video!

[@KeiNovak]

Man, one of my fave videos from you so far. I'm so glad someone (especially someone with an extensive background in the industry) has said this.

[@MrLinkster7]

As if I couldn't love this channel more, now there are Buffy clips inserted. Amazing.

[@happygimly6061]

Tim I just want to say that you've been my favorite personality in gaming dev for a long time now. Going all the way back to Troika. These videos have really cemented in my mind exactly why you were. I wish more devs really strove for your devotion to player freedom and real choice. You mentioning how an RPG needs to react to the player really brought to mind Gabe talking about how he had an, in his words "narcissistic" urge for the gameworld to react to him and his actions, and how true that statement rung for me. When I play games I always want the world to feel alive and like it exists after I stop playing. I want to know my choices and actions affected the world and left a mark on the people living in it. It''s something incredibly unique to games and the games that do it are always the ones that feel special and important.

[@happygimly6061]

@@lrinfiAs I said those were Gabe's words not mine but it does touch on our need to feel the world respond to us in meaningful ways. That's what makes games such a unique artform. I'd also say that it isn't necessarily that the world validates you or lets you save it. Just that it responds to you. If you steal from a shop, maybe the shop goes out of business. If you feed a dog maybe it doesn't die and helps you in the future, maybe it goes feral and kills an important character. Who knows? It's just little things that show the world operates on choice and consequence. In Gabe's case it was just that when he shot the world the world should have decals showing he shot it.

[@RealKeithernet]

I love the slightly sarcastic, “Tim getting worked up”. Really funny, but also conveying very useful advice! 😂

[@theoroderick782]

It's a rant but makes sense😂😂

[@Cimlite]

Most things are written so that younger generations can have that "oh, wow, I've never seen this before" moment. For someone who's seen where many of the concepts originated though, it does indeed feel boring though. I agree. Story writing is the same thing as fashion or music though. Every design concept is just recycled every 20-40 years as a new generation becomes adults and haven't experienced it the previous time. I think we who saw the start of the games industry are especially spoiled in this regard, as we had so many _actual_ first experiences. Now we're at the time where things will just loop around again. Overall, this is just something we just have to accept as a fact of life. Everything old is new... to _someone_ anyway. 🤷‍♂️

[@ellagage1256]

The thing you mentioned about some combat feeling more like "following a rhythm" is probably why I enjoy style/spectacle fighter games like DMC and Bayonetta, or really any game that emphasizes stylish combat I'm given the room to experiment and find my own rhythm rather than being forced to follow the same one or two beats that the game is clearly designed around

[@koalabrownie]

Thank you for putting up a video every day.

[@neelot9842]

Okay, but Disco Elysium utilizes the amnesia trope really well. It's not just to get justification for all the lore dumps, but to become Raphaël Ambrosius Costeau, the superstar hobocop.

[@Netherfly]

I'd argue that Disco Elysium is more a subversion of that trope than a game that plays it straight. Yes, you've lost your memory -- but you also know exactly how that happened in the first place, which gives you a LOT of information on the kind of person you were -- or are. It's the difference between a blank slate and a slate that's only been partially erased, where you can kind of make out what used to be written in spots.

[@pieflies]

Obviously there will be instances of all these things that were good, otherwise they wouldn’t have become overused in the first place. It’s more of a list of things to be careful about using than absolutely never use them in any case.

[@rrrrthats4rs]

I made this comment awhile back and (I think, don't quote me) Tim commented something to every rule has exceptions or something. He seems to regard Disco Elysium pretty well

[@omerkeidar95]

I think the reason is it didn't feel like an excuse to bring the character up to speed at the same time as the player, which to me is the problem with amnesia in games. Rather, it was the low point in the characters arc, losing who you were and what you choose to become now IS the main question the game poses. Amnesia was just one part of that, along with the skill/personality system and all the interactions having that former identity looming over them.

[@evilFlipman]

Tim doesn’t review games, but I’ve always wanted to know his thoughts on Disco Elysium. The game does almost EVERYTHING Tim says you shouldn’t in an rpg, but it’s still an amazing game.

[@samuelbarrett5701]

I made a map in minecraft once with a story of its own. There are some oddities around the map to make the player wonder, but if you head west there you'd find an abandoned, old, destroyed castle and village. If one explored further they'd find a buried library with a few different books filled with lore and history of that kingdom and how the land came to be the way it was. It's totally optional to find, and for those that like to explore would find it pretty interesting.

[@christians4935]

This, of all things, actually made me replan my upcoming DnD campaign! Sometimes tropes are fun, but the point of a scoped problem(s) really stuck with me. Thanks, Tim!

[@Kazamezo1]

The fact that you have to do a 2 minute preamble so people don't take what you said out of context, or freak out in the comments is just sad.

[@estefencosta1835]

Biggest trope that annoys me these days is the sympathetic villain. All over movies and TV shows. No one can ever just be a remorseless psychopath or a delusional grandiose murder clown, they all have to be the way they are because someone stole their lunch money in the third grade or whatever. Whatever happened to plain nasty motivations like revenge or jealousy or just lust for power?

[@ninja3212]

This is why indie is such a thriving market. Innovation is the driving force behind a lot of indie games and it makes them stand out so much more than your average AAA game.

[@dropkickpherby6994]

Tim dropping the game design equivalent of T Pain's "Do something else!!"

[@chemsed]

"We got Dragon's Dogma! We got Dragon Quest! We got Dragon Age! We got Dragon Everybody!!! DO SOMETHING ELSE!!!"

[@Bintangwarrior]

Nailed it….the exact reasons I haven’t really played a game for 12 months & last game I was really excited about was 5-6 yrs ago. Been gaming for 45 yrs & looks like it’s coming to an end 😢

[@CrazyKosai]

I'm happy that Tim uses kilometers instead of miles.

[@roadblockk363]

I found that the reuse of Amnesia being a forgettable experience for you quite amusing

[@DarkBloodbane]

I have to agree with some of your points there Tim. I know how useful amnesia is in story telling but I wish I don't have to see it used again. I also not fond of merging multiple genres in hope of getting something new, it's not easy to do and it will end up messy or one genre overpowering the others. But that being said, it has to be understood that finding something new is tough and even if we did, developing it is not so easy.

[@BananaGatorProds]

That first point is probably my favorite. I love low to medium stakes stories. Something that is just an event happening in a world that will continue whether or not the quest is seen through to the end. Usually a journey of personal growth more than anything else.

[@richardgrayson432]

The king is back with his great and insightful thoughts. Love your videos

[@zumzoom6368]

Completely agree with all these points. I notice more of these things as I get older and more picky with my leisure time.

[@IanBoyte]

Not a big JRPG fan, Tim?

[@thatonedudejake]

Lol I don't think Tim likes some of my favorite games

[@kervernes5472]

J"RPG"

[@christopherr.561]

Love it. Fun getting to see you get worked up. Cool to see the passion.

[@moshmosh26]

Love the subtle nod to Hi Fi Rush at 9:36. What a gem of a game

[@DaRkPlUm]

Is that Hi Fi Rush he's talking about? I thought it was Crypt of the Necrodancer.

[@DanielFerreira-ez8qd]

​@@DaRkPlUm Great games either way, though I reckon hi-fi is probably closer to Tim's radar?

[@moshmosh26]

​@@DaRkPlUm Crypt isn't recent, it's from 2015

[@PointReflex]

Hm, this might be beyond stupid but: how about having those "cliche" characters spread around a game where you can exploit the shortcomings and boredom of those type of characters? I mean like roasting the "sarcastic one" for his "originality" or having the "telekinetic" girl been bullied into using that power for your own gain, or even better, having an "Evil Wizard" in one town where everyone fears him like it is the black plague, but once you reach his tower you realize that he actually is such a Lore Dump that his ramblings eat away the will of his victims without him realizing this. I know is a long shot, but during the video I was thinking about this type of characters being so outdated that everyone else in the game would feel more dynamic and alive, making that group into the empty carcasses they actually are.

[@Netherfly]

I cannot emphasize how much i agree with your first point enough. I am sick to death of saving the world. I can only imagine how much worse it is for you, since you've been playing games so much longer than I have. I don't understand why so many writers (regardless of medium) don't seem to understand that personal stakes are always more engaging than universal/existential stakes. Hell, one of my favorite games of all time begins with the protagonist looking for their missing father (who was on an airship that disappeared) before spirallng out into a larger story of conspiracies and villains oriented around... a succession dispute in small backwater kingdom. The villain wasn't some sneering demigod threatening to destroy anything... dude was just a boilerplate misogynist upset that a woman might inherit the throne instead of a man.

[@graxthal]

I don't think sarcastic NPCs inherently can't work and I don't think the issue is that they've been overdone. The issue is that the writers who gravitate most commonly to sarcastic characters use that as a crutch and write the most nauseatingly unoriginal and unfunny dialogue. They think that the sarcasm alone is some magical layer that turns all the lines to gold.

[@umartdagnir]

The first one is why I quite enjoyed the story in Cyberpunk 2077. You're solving your own problem. The world doesn't care whether you live or die. But while you're trying to do something for yourself, you're making an impact and becoming famous, and you also get to see subtle changes in the world that are a result of your actions.

[@BlackJar72]

Today Tim shreds the Divinity series... ...and on a similar note I'm tired of "puzzles" that amount to playing Where's Waldo with some needle in a haystack item without know what you're supposed to be looking for.

[@henseltbrumbleburg3752]

One of my biggest gripes with RPG's and something I think Obsidian does so well, is how much established back story they give the player. I loved in FNV that you were just a person put into a situation, like most of Obsidians games, they really understand that about RP.

[@Tails7212]

I just started playing Fallout 1 for the first time and I love it. I keep coming back to it over the newer ones.

[@hotflakestom]

Hahaha watching Tim get worked up and almost physically annoyed by these tropes is so funny. But he's soooo right!

[@cerisskies]

100 percent agree. Especially snarky or sarcastic charcaters. Moments of sarcasm add some humanity; constantly sarcastic... why would I bring that guy on my adventure?

[@BlueSquareInWhiteCircle]

Very refreshing take!! I was afraid "industry people" just enjoyed this kind of stuff and I was the only one going mental haywire about it

[@AlexMeksa]

"Top 10 things you loved from your favourite games and glued them together" This feels like so many games and why I bounce off of them so quick. They don't have a personal identity. They take things from other games or media and smash it in their game without totally understanding it. So we just get half understood poorly implemented boring regurgitation of ideas. I'm hoping to avoid such pitfalls with my own game by focusing on what's important to me specifically and my specific interests, while keeping it light hearted and goofy.

[@charliek5964]

Subverting tropes might make for an interesting future video. Or when to use tropes. Tropes stick around for a reason after all.

[@StavrosNikolaou]

Thank you very much for this list. It is actually preferable to reviews :) One question I have for you is: What do you consider great examples of choice and consequence (from both your games and others) and how do you hope this RPG element evolves in the future? Thank you again for these great videos! Have a great day :)

[@roadblockk363]

This man has seen the entire evolution line of game design. Cliché -> Trope -> Meta

[@wroughtp1002]

The amnesia part made me laugh. Becaus I remember watching Madnaloregaming make a review on STALKER, where he said "like most mid 2000s video games, you have amnesia." I had to pause and think on the games I played in/from that era and got the "oh god, he's right." moment. Soo, soo many games with amnesia.

[@JackWse]

Excuse my fantastic entrance It was in the moment for now is the TIME OF THE MONOLOGUE, YOU WILL SIT THROUGH THIS UNSKIPPABLE CUTSCENE!

[@kyoujinko]

As soon as Tim said one of his tropes, it immediately made me think of Starfield, and if you've played the game, your know which one.

[@SomethingCompass]

Thumbs up for Dark Willow.

[@Broski_Nation]

" I'm good looking but nobody understands me *waaah" lol, thats funny as hell! Not gonna lie Tim, if you made a game that roasts tropes of other " RPG"s I'd buy it brother!

[@jasonmoyer]

I hate how most choices in RPG's either have no consequences at all, or give you a choice that is so mechanically superior to the others that you'd never choose the others. My favorite choices in RPG's have pros and cons, so it doesn't feel like there's a best choice and I have to actually think about what I want to do.

[@Endrosz]

Uncle Tim started memeing! We are truly blessed today!

[@kattguldswe]

The saving world trope is just traditional storytelling, nothing wrong with that. Thing is, when the story doesn't somehow signal the utter hopelessness humanity has to face on a daily basis, that'll lead to the player not caring and even ask themselevs why even bother save this world? Example: this could be done by playing a game with amazing characters that you can see struggle against the state of the world and thus motivate the player to continue to fight evil or somehow be there to show and inspire them to fight against their nihilisitc way of thinking.

[@theoroderick782]

Omg is this the first time you feature a clip? It was a great timing for the content at hand😂😂 I think ur right about most of these, like the sarcastic npcs

[@theebulll]

I think we have to be better about defining genres. I think it hurts games sometimes. It's hard to manage expectations when the term 'RPG' means so many different things to so many people.

[@joebob2699]

I think this is an inherent problem with genres that probably can't be solved, unless you create a ton of subgenres, at which point the use of genre to describe something becomes useless because nobody knows or understands all the different labels. The genre debate happens everywhere, in books, movies, music etc

[@pedrofromrio645]

8:30 For me, what comes to mind in terms of “combat RPGs” are JRPGs like the Final Fantasy franchise. However, what works in favor for Final Fantasy is that, through the art style and presentation, the type of RPG is made clear from the get go. Final Fantasy 3 makes it clear from the beginning that it’s a linear combat focused RPG through its opening introduction. The problem with some other games is that the linear nature is obscured or hidden from the start. If an RPG is gonna be linear or combat focused, it’s fine unless that fact is obscured or the linear narrative is boring. You can still role play as a predesigned character in a prewritten story and enjoy it, but what that means is that the writing has to be *even* better than an open choice narrative. Linear narratives shouldn’t be an excuse for lazy writing. It means the writing has to be even better. 😊

[@cohanesian00]

+1 to the “Simon Says” style combat. Attack window, evade with I-frames, attack window, parry, attack window. Pretty much any AAA action RPG has this now, probably because of From games. There’s gotta be another way, designers.

[@lepersonnage371]

The concept i like the most is when you create a character, or have a character that starts out as nothing specific, but then you shape them how you want in the world you was put in, without the threat of something global or existence-threatening to happen, but with more human stories, more grounded problems, etc.

[@Netherfly]

Yup. I've always dreamt of a big, open-world sandbox RPG where you're free to do whatever, without any big Main Quest imposing itself on everything. I think The Witcher 3 came closest to that, with how you could just lose yourself in the mundane "job" of Witchery, which (I think) would've been more than enough, by itself, to make the game worth playing. The main plot, such as it was, such as I remember, was also pretty low-stakes, as I recall. Just an old man trying to find his daughter, and maybe help her out a bit once he does.

[@lepersonnage371]

@@Netherfly i had KCD in mind when i wrote this as well

[@savagecrow]

I think you're better at the 13 min mark -- when the "riled up" part starts to show the passion behind the words.

[@deama15]

Yeah it's similar for me, I've played so many games/rpgs over the many years, it can get really annoying seeing rehashes. But I think the worst part about it is if you go on the forums for said game to vent or give feedback at least, there's sometimes a good chunk of people that just chime in and give stupid explanations like "they gotta appeal to the casuals" or "every big rpg has to have romances!".

[@DaCashRap]

You're not old, Tim. You're just...better!

[@MatLinnett1]

Oh gods, thank you Tim! I get so miffed with MMOs and the unimaginative players who reduce the game to "rotations". Often, it creates a nasty feedback loop, where the players who play with rotations are the loudest voices, resulting in the game developer pandering to them and making the game even MORE rotation-based. It's completely irrational of me, but that Nineties/Noughties part of me wants to challenge them to a 1v1 in something like Quake and utterly destroy them because they can't cope with the unexpected. Then I remember I'm old and my reflexes aren't really up to competitive FPS games any more :D

[@memeslich]

would love you to comment on specific tabletop games and their mechanics 😢 The legend of lucky boy must continue!

[@CainOnGames]

I did talk about Tabletop RPG Influences: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mH_JZ2NnftR1psU

[@memeslich]

love when you talk about your time playing and running tabletop games, would love to hear you talk about running specific modules @@CainOnGames

[@wyattderp9719]

If game designers take this video to heart their games will be 100x better.

[@Nightwulf1269]

I love your view on needing to read books or other side information sources to solve puzzles or fulfill quests. 👍

[@andrewcross5918]

The issue I have with most evil playthroughs is that it tends to be petty / kill all the things type evil. I don't think I can remember many games where the evil path is one where you manipulate or simply bluff your companions through the game to turn on them at the end. KOTOR did it somewhat (although I cannot remember the details, must be 10 years or more since I last played it) and that was fun but a game where you can talk to the evil companions and have them work in the background so when your pc does the big 'I have been playing you all along' and you can take over as the leader of whatever region/land/area in the game, almost the Palpatine evil kind of thing. Sounds like ToEE (I had a disk copy ages ago, never go around to playing it) might do something like that which is cool but I find it so rare in games to have that kind of path where the evil feels more grounded.

[@Blueprint4Murder]

Riding my horse around for hours in ER was painful. I played countless JRPGs yea the Hero tropes can and should be laid out in ways that you fall into saving the world. A lot of JRPGs do it well, but then when you go to mmos most do it horribly the worse of which is FF14 where after a few quest every main city celebrates you as the great savior and then you go back to delivering tea and cookies to people. Raiding goes beyond wow it also exists in Ultima, EQ, wow, and more the reason it is as you describe is because of 3rd party programs have completely defined each battle. It wasn't always like that you use learn on the fly, or get a description from a player that had done it which is why we use to wipe for months learning. Now the 3rd party app guys are so efficient they practically just organize the shuffled mechanics. A lot of good points nice video.

[@Schwitzmaul]

i like ur way ofcommunikation. it a realy previsous language but it never dry and feels always natural

[@kusozako_]

what a great explanation..I also didn't like some of those types of things but I couldn't figure out why..what I really dislike the most is the yellow paint of shame, I'd love to hear what u think about it..I like the hand holding but only when it's really subtle, like breadcrumbs

[@210420rocky]

You really hit it on the head on these games Tim. No joke I wish people would listen to you lol

[@FluffySylveonBoi]

This title is so funny to me, because for many years whenever I am on social media and someone says "I'm bored" my reply is "Play Fallout" or "Play Fallout 2". I have a long history doing that and people sometimes say they don't have that game or that they aren't gamers, but in some cases they are interested.

[@lhfirex]

I don't really like "saving the world" either, although a lot of RPGs I like start with something simple that eventually grows into "saving the world" or at least "saving the region." But I've also seen a lot of "the world can't be saved" in games that gets annoying. That one feels like someone saying "I don't want to save the world, but I don't have any ideas of my own." I actually like the varying good/evil endings in Infernax. Although it feels like the "most good" and "most evil" endings in that game are actually better in terms of, the story goes further compared to the regular good/evil endings that have kind of a false ending. It's also got a fun "redemption" ending, although that one borderline requires following a guide. But anyway, Infernax's most good/most evil endings have you fight big final bosses (different ones) for different reasons, and they tie into the good/evil.

[@roselios2820]

by the way, i such hate modern systems of level up, and absolutely love arcanum system. she was a simple but super interesting. you saw a high level magic or high level technic branch, and you think "oh, damn I want it, I want disintegrated spell or mechanic spider, and you go right to it. but now every games give you a ton of useless spell, you look at all these and think ... "I bored now"))) I don't want any of this. This is biggest reason thy I dream about arcanum remake... for a start)

[@Drahmin05]

One of my favourite things about Asura's Wrath was the ability to interrupt boss monologues. "Press X to shut ____ up." It was great.

[@Reldonator]

Woah, been watching you a while and had no idea you worked on Temple of Elemental Evil. It has always fascinated me as a dnd game. So many great mechanics I havent seen since. Never finished due to the difficulty as a kid, but I mean to finish it someday

[@zhulikkulik]

Spreadsheet mentioned!! Let's go! 😅 i hate it too For amnesia - when my uncle was alive, i sometimes asked him about something and he tried his best to explain it to me. Or sometimes he'd ask me something and then explained it when i "failed the intellect roll" so to say. That's one possible way to introduce player and character to the world at the same time.

[@zhulikkulik]

Also at work we have this cool man who seems to know just about everything one can fit into head when it comes to... Eh... Society and world in general, i guess. It's very cool to get into an argument or conversation with him sometimes.

[@oninomiru]

I still don't understand why there are barely any RPGs that send you to a different kingdom to justify lack of knowledge of customs or general world knowledge. Or at least put you in a prologue where you play as a child to do some world building/introduction.

[@michaelhicks4196]

Tim- I heard this quote on a podcast about Saturday night live and thought of you. Jim Downey on political satire- “reward people for knowing stuff, but don’t punish them for not knowing stuff.” Seems like your take on lore.

[@nebeskisrb7765]

7:25 why did you have to call out the entire jRPG genre like that?

[@pnutz_2]

complexity for complexity's sake is one of those things where I both hate it and then play a whole bunch of games that are full of it. case in point - total war: attila. the western roman empire campaign of fighitng attila and 1-hour-plus end-turns from multiple small town battles in a row and "oh god who declared war on me *this* turn" made it one of my favourite total war campaigns of all time, but the town building mechanics were broken (oh, you upgraded your farms to fix the food problem? shame you don't have the sanitation for that, enjoy the endless plagues and public order debuffs, also Winter Is Coming so you still have a food problem) and you look up a steam guide with templates for making optimal towns that make tens of thousands more than whatever you thought was a good idea...

[@Esquarious]

The comparative simplicity of the Charlemagne expansion is one of the reasons I enjoyed it more than the base game.

[@pnutz_2]

@@Esquarious it was a direct preview of the total warhammer system and it really paid off

[@joshnelson125]

i tend to think that the collective memory of the target audience of a lot of games is of a lesser scope than that of my own life. i've had similar feelings to the ones you expressed: i've seen this mechanic or trope a dozen times and it no longer has any life in it. however, i wonder if the game makers figure that they don't need new ideas, but rather new customers. those now tired ideas hooked me for some time before they got old. when the newest generation comes of age and they encounter this or that trope it'll grab them just like i was initially grabbed. it's a slightly depressing thought, but i do wonder if the industry has left me behind in the sense that it's no longer all that interested in appealing to me. each year it seems fewer and fewer games come out that truly wow me and with development time increasing that trend probably wont abate soon. as someone a bit further along the path than i, any thoughts tim?

[@lucadeacha]

A really cool game that has many of the things you mentioned but it's done in a really fun way (at least to me) is kingdome come deliverance, pre named character, somewhat of a linear story, combat choreography. Still a good rpg I think.

[@PuppetMaster-Blade]

I'm an upcoming author(hopefully), and i have this same feeling when reading books with the same story lines over and over. All it does is make me want to keep writing my book and show these mortals something new 😅

[@besyuziki]

You are a treasure and you are so right.

[@SilverionX]

One of my pet peeves is a game is establishing an in world logic and then later breaking that logic for trivial reasons. Also when a game doesn't have in world logic at all, just constantly contradicting itself. It might be petty, but even the smallest things can sometimes break my immersion. I'm not saying it has to be realistic (but it certainly doesn't hurt), it just has to make sense within the game or it's gonna lessen my experience significantly.

[@OMentertainment]

New alignment: Chaotic Goth

[@kirbles2035]

I have a feeling he's talking about Hi-Fi Rush when he brings up the rhythm game. One of my favourite action games of the last 5 years. Could also be everhood but I haven't played that.

[@Maximilianus101]

A corollary to the "fake evil" trope that really irritates me is when a game claims to have multiple endings or quest paths but one of them is blatantly the "canon" option based on the amount of effort put into it, and the others exist on sufferance for the sake of having options.

[@liaminwales]

It's so fun to be Evil! It's oddly overlooked in games.

[@renaigh]

I wanna see Apocalypse settings where the Great Threat to existence is an Existential force of nature that everyone has to deal with on top of their personal and societal problems.

[@Litterbugtaylor]

We see what you did there.

[@TimvanderLeeuw]

The White Frost.

[@totonk793]

This one would probably be one of my favourite videos! :D

[@xyhmo]

Team ”guessed the reference from the title”, although I had the flaying in mind.