Can you Judge an MMO in just 1 hour? [MMOPINION]

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1 hour.
60 minutes.
Not enough time to finisn an MMO, BUT...
More than enough time to decide if an MMO is high quality, low quality, or worth any more of your time.
Here are 10 objective things to look for when playing a new MMO to decide if it's a good game.
1: Does it work?
2: Can I change the Resolution?
3: Can I change the Keybinds?
4: Graphical consistency and style
5: Sound and Audio Design
6: Voice Acting
7: The Tutorial
8: Physical objects having Physics
9: U.I. Quality and Scaling
10: Variations within the Game Style
Many thanks to my Patrons and Twitch subs who make my content possible.
The marvel Symphonic Universe: • The Marvel Symphonic U...

[@riotangel4701]

The first hour of a game should simply make the player go, "I want more of this."

[@harko2441]

That's not true for a favorite game of mine for the first few hours I thought the game was ok and it wasn't going to be that great but in the end I just thought it was great

[@gryphon8023]

That’s how world of Warcraft damn near ruined my life.

[@Surokkh]

For me, these were: DMC 3, 4 & 5; Guild Wars 2; Hades (didn't get up for 2 freaking days after I sat down to play it); Dishonored; Shadow of Mordor; Dying Light. This was all useless information to you but hey🙈♥️

[@GrayFoxHound9]

Metal gear rising 5 minutes in

[@mafiousbj]

It is supposed to be the most curated part of every game, maybe together with the ending of single player games, so yeah, it should push you to want more

[@animorph17]

Something very important to keep in mind is the distinction between "I had fun with this game" and "This game is actually good" because those aren't the same thing.

[@Yuzuki1337]

While true fun should still be the most determining factor, because you will quit a game eventually if it isn't fun for you. Now what that fun looks like changes from person to person so different strokes for different folks. :)

[@riel7387]

Yep, i've played WoW and i'm sure the game has good quality stuff in it. But it's not fun for me like at all, i played it for like 10 hours because i paid for it otherwise i would have dropped it in the first hour. Especially When there's stuff like Base PSO2 around. New Genesis got a lot of problems atm with server issues but the game is also really fun for me.

[@frischifrisch6860]

Strangely, this is often not easy to convey. I have seen some people drifting in stupid discussions just because they told they had (more) fun with Dark Souls 2 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@riel7387]

@@frischifrisch6860 Dark Souls 2 has some flaws but it's nothing that ruins the game, people overreact sometimes and they always want to play an 10/10 masterpiece game all the time. Dark Souls 2 is a good game, not great like the first dark souls but still an good game especially compared to the shovelware souls likes that exist out there. It also was better than dark souls 1 in some aspects, like dual wielding being a thing and twin blades that were so fucking cool but they removed it in ds3 for some weird fucking reason. The only flaws i can think of that are the ones that don't make the game Great too is the bosses being quantity over quality, sometimes i was thinking: "Bruh this is just a normal encounter in a closed room"

[@mikemikemikemikemikemeup]

Having fun and thinking a game is good are both subjective. They are tide together. If someone thinks a game is good but you think it is trash then you are both right. I don't know if you mean to say that a game being good can be objective but that's how your comment came off to me. There are no objective facts when it comes to liking or thinking a game is good. Some of the things in games that you might think make a game bad someone else may think are great parts of the game. And just because the majority opinion of a game is negative that doesn't mean the game is objectively bad either because what people want in games changes over time, by age, baste on country/states, and even your political/moral/religious views can influence your opinion. I see a lot of review channels trying to definitively state that the things that they don't like in a game makes it a bad game. When in reality it just makes it a bad game in there opinion. Just look at Asian country's. The types of games that are most popular there are often trashed by western reviews (JRPGs and Asian MMOs). But that's because the things in those games are not made for a western audience in mind most of the time. All entertainment is subjective and I wish people could see that.

[@BloodPatternBlue]

As a game designer if your game takes 100 hours to get fun, then your game is bad. Your game needs to communicate to your players what it is, what to expect, and what's fun about it as soon as possible. That's part of designing a good game. Portal has you start with spatial puzzles and a funny yet sterile narrator. Mario starts with platforming, enemies, and powerups. Metal Gear starts with epic cutscenes, combat, and stealth sequences. If you've failed to capture the player and show them what's fun about your game in the first hour then you have no business expecting anyone to play further.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

You get it. You design games so you have to get it. Most mmo players demand the 100 hour gameplay marker because they're invested in the game and want the review to be too.

[@seb4sti4n666]

He didn't say, all type of game, he choose to talk about an MMO, a type of game that have two parts, the leveling phase and the end game... So this guys say that in 1h he can actually tell you if the total game will be fun just by doing 1 phase of the game. Yes he can know if the leveling phase is fun, he can tell you if the quality of the game is ok, but MMO are not just leveling your character, at some point you gonna have to play what they call the end game, some game just put all effort in the end game because this is what you gonna do most, and this guys say that without doing it he can tell you what a game it's.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

@@seb4sti4n666 i can tell you if it will be high quality, based on the first hour.

[@BloodPatternBlue]

@@seb4sti4n666 it simply does not matter whether or not the endgame of an MMORPG is good or not if the first hour is so much of a chore that nobody wants to play through it. Think of it like a book. You need to grab your audience in the very first chapter. It doesn't matter how good your sudden plot twist partway through is. It doesn't matter how great the rest of the book is. If you cannot capture an audience early on then your game is bad at being a game.

[@seb4sti4n666]

@@BloodPatternBlue Not completely true. Take a game I really know about. Path of Exile. The game do not explain himself very good at the start, you have slow skill and it's really boring to play... But the game become way more fun when you start to get faster attack. Lets say you only play one hour of PoE! You gonna find this game very bad, graphic not so good, visual effect boring, slow... Because the start of the game is bad, but it become better the longer you play. Also the game got a lots of Wiki outside of it and a great community, but for someone who review it in 1 hour, this is a dog shit game. But for me who play more then 4000hours in it, it's a masterpiece that beat Diablo 3 easy.

[@icelandia4]

I love the fact that I can easily tell the timeline of any of Josh's videos' releases by just taking a glance at the patreon supporter list. You know it's older if you can still make out the names in it.

[@dora3743]

Right? It’s so small and innocent. From before he said lol to the algorithm!

[@kennethern1232]

He had footage of Defiance. Sad doo rag.

[@hipno12]

On point as always. I played at least 30 of different mmo's and I know what to look for. Usually just hour or two lets me decide if its worth it.

[@NateTheScot]

For the bad ones, not even that. For the good ones, still probably not even that. I remember my very first hit on an enemy in world of Warcraft hearing the noise of the bow creak, the rawr of the tiger as it aggro'd and the incredible atmosphere in teldrassil with the ambience and music that are still some of my favourite zones (rip tree). I was utterly hooked the moment u saw those first numbers pop up at the start of vanilla. You could just feel the polish that had gone into the combat and atmosphere, even if the servers were shitting bricks as more and more players joined wow, and there were plenty of weird bugs early on. The actual UI and core mechanics and classes and art style etc. Were all incredible. It's a massive shame wow changed how the numbers popped up... Using classicfloatingtext made it better but the game itself got so shite I couldn't bring myself to play it anymore in recent years... I was tempted by classic but they changed so much shit despite claiming they wouldn't and I also really didn't want to do that grind again at 60 then 70. Been there done that got my Hunter's tier 3 and tier 6 I cba doing it all over again but with a much more toxic community and with blizz changing things still for better or worse lol.

[@Furzkampfbomber]

This is true not just for MMOs, but for SP games as well. After the intro/tutorial of Fallout 4, for instance, I knew for sure that I was dealing with a great FPS, but also with a _really_ terrible Fallout game.

[@NerevarineKing]

The opening for LOTRO lets you know immediately it has good writing/story content.

[@penguinguyx]

There was a food critic at a local paper that revealed their process in an article. They would visit the restaurant 3x and order generally varied from the menu. One review in particular that I remember was comparing 2x similar restaurants and they said the food was slightly better in one but the ambiance was slightly better in the other, but that the differences were such that overall experience/enjoyment was equal. Just thought that was interesting considering your analogy.

[@7DragonEyes7]

You can't have an opinion because you didn't talk to every human in the world.

[@Bandoolero]

In Thrawn Ascendancy there is a race that acts exactly this way xD

[@eyoshinthemaximum]

@Quentin Styger same

[@7DragonEyes7]

@Ken Ne thanks I do love 7s

[@Tory-JJ]

xd

[@naufalr.9521]

@@7DragonEyes7 7 months

[@Draconicrose]

I like that this list could be applied to basically any game, not just mmos.

[@rosalindcormier4384]

@@thebeezkneez7559And not even just visual media, media in general.

[@loreseekerprophecies]

@@rosalindcormier4384 And not just media, everything that humans can like or disilike.

[@curabletoxin]

​@pyrophoric and not just everything humans like or dislike....oh wait I think that is it😂

[@RazzleTheRed1]

The design of most mmos completely baffles me, I get that they want to have fun end game activities to keep long term players invested. The issue comes from having to play for hundreds of hours to even get to the fun part. If the game doesn't get fun until I've played for that long why wouldn't I just go play a game that's fun right away and doesn't waste my time?

[@rosalindcormier4384]

Bingo that’s the whole point of the video. If a game isn’t good at getting you invested quickly then it’s not good at doing what it’s supposed to.

[@travisrobbins797]

Once you have a thousand hours into a game, then you've no doubt become emotionally attached to it, and can no longer make an unbiased assessment.

[@Damaniel3]

See Old School Runescape as an example. Most high praise of it comes from people with either nostalgia or high play times (or generally both), but it does little to make a case for itself for new players, either by an objective or subjective standard. Runescape 3, while still being a game with clunky, dated mechanics, it at least attempts to make a case for itself up front, with a reasonable basic tutorial, consistent (though unnecessarily complex) UI, graphical consistency, and relevant music and sound design. I've tried playing both, but I can't see the case for committing to OSRS as someone who never touched Runescape in any way before 2019.

[@LordRobaZe]

@@Damaniel3 thats a bad example

[@Syngrafer]

I have around 5000 hours in World of Warcraft and I want to see it crash and burn. (I see your point.)

[@dommguard]

By that logic, you can't judge a book if you only just opened it...

[@dommguard]

@@Syngrafer Wanting that is just dumb. Why do you want all the frontline devs to have a bad time? Their life depends on the game. Also, those are rookie numbers...

[@oscines2170]

You know I don’t even like MMOs but it’s fun to listen to you talk about what’s passionate to you

[@rosalindcormier4384]

Same

[@blakeking1125]

This is something my friend says all the time. We'll buy a game, play it for two hours, and when I say I'm gonna return it cause I'm not enjoying it he goes "but we've barely played it." This lead to arguments like "Yes, but I'm not enjoying it, and if we keep playing it I'm stuck with it." Or "How long do I have to not have fun before it counts then?"

[@minty9245]

Sounds like I’m simping but you’ve become my favorite MMO reviewer without a doubt.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Hooray! Took me a while to find my style but I'm happy we got here. I hope we can keep this channel rolling :D

[@garr_bear_gummy8811]

@@JoshStrifeHayes please don’t stop these are addicting to watch!

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

@@garr_bear_gummy8811 aiming for 2 vids a week and a stream on saturday, glad you're enjoying the stuff :)

[@cashnelson2306]

"simping" is such a weird dumb word and I'll never understand how the internet comes up with so many words to denigrate being nice to people. You're allowed to like things, I promise

[@eirik874]

Its funny i had this conversation earlier today. And there is so many defenitions to simping i feel like at this point saying hello to a woman is borderline simping 🤣🤣

[@Nick-sx8yg]

On reading title: 'What, 1 hour? Who is this guy?' On hearing accent: 'Ah, a professional.'

[@Pixiwish]

I literally lol’d reading this. Thanks :)

[@riotangel4701]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jaTMYnyYn7V0oa8

[@chocobro3198]

Great video. A couple of days ago I was just talking to a friend about how much it ruins immersion and the grounded feeling of a world inside an MMORPG when I can just phase through stuff. And I have a love-hate for those games that have insane jumping. It's so much fun, but at the same time, it also makes my character feel disconnected from the world it's in.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Its fun, thats true, but immediate 'fun' at the cost of immersion or game integritt means it isnt sustainable

[@rayzhang7591]

A great mmo needs an attractive beginning part, an enjoyable journey to the end game, and an amazing end game.

[@UnYeetWorks]

On topic of voice acting: SWTOR, hands down, has my vote for the best MMORPG on that. About 98% of quests is fully voice acted, including your own responses. Conversations are just fun to have.

[@monalisa-bs4zs]

Look at the voice acting cast for eso.

[@monalisa-bs4zs]

Look at the voice acting cast for eso.

[@Jordonzo]

yep, while i didn't stick with the game and eventually ended up with FFXIV as "my" mmo i was really impressed by the small amount of sith inquisitor questline i did.

[@lanceolingerharu5439]

This is like the whole thing that happens in anime. Where people yell at other about making their mind up about an anime with in the first 2 episodes. But generally speaking that's enough of a watch to understand what kind of anime it is and if it's going to be something you'll like. Even if this isn't always 100% true. Exceptions exist.

[@spiderganon]

I tend to stick with the 3 episodes rule. But I won't go any further if it doesn't grab me.

[@GeorgeNoX]

My general rule of thumb regarding MMORPG's is if the game doesn't manage to capture me within 10 hours then its not worth playing. I will give every game 10 hours, unless its so bad that i can't even get through the first hour that is

[@riotangel4701]

A good MMORPG will go, "what... I've already played ten hours??"

[@Kathdath]

Agreed. I don't even have to be complety enamoured, but I need to at least not be feeling 'meh' or bored to give any game more than a day.

[@brandonlink7091]

Too many people can't separate quality from fun in their minds I've had a ton of fun in objectively bad games. I've played several very quality games that I quit bc I got no enjoyment from them. It's OK to enjoy a bad game, but recognizing its weaknesses is important, especially if you want to see it improve and grow

[@riotangel4701]

Case in point: *Dead by Daylight*

[@NaoyaYami]

@@riotangel4701 People had fun in Fallout 76 from day one. No one sane will say it's objectively good game. Also, it goes for other media too: I enjoy anime and light novels that usually considered to be crap, simply because they get that one or two things I care about the most, right. Besides, there are movies that are good just because of how bad they are (like the legendary "The Room").

[@andromidius]

@@NaoyaYami This is a good point. I had a lot of fun playing Fallout 76 - because I played with friends. Even though we were often complaining about aspects of the game we continued because of each other - and there are good aspects to it. But the fact its got so many poorly conceived 'MMO-like' design choices really hurts it. It should have been a co-op experience with an open world mass player option for 'end game' with some genuine PvP or team based features. Instead its a weird mongrel where seeing other players is mostly just annoying - people shooting at you for no good reason, nukes going off nearly constantly, entire areas devoid of enemies because they're being farmed... Which frustrates me. Because there's a good game hiding in that mess. It shouldn't be an MMO, simple as.

[@signisot5264]

@@NaoyaYami People had fun with fnaf: security breach! Was it made well? .... *Thinks about the mods that released within hours, the out-of-bounds tricks found in minutes, the number of glitches and AI workarounds that people created quickly* No. No it was not. It was not ready for release but people still enjoyed it, it just won't hold up long-term

[@TheWhiteagle99]

Ho yea, i bought Horizon zero on pc 1 or 2 years ago everybody was saying it's incredible, after 2 or 3 hours in the opening I was so fucking bored with the gameplay

[@propersteb7787]

I'm glad I've stumbled upon your channel. I have a feeling you're going to become big. You have really well thought out videos and ideas. This satisfies my need for "mmorpg content" and since I'm now in my 30s, I really appreciate the more mature & analytical perspective. Great content - keep it up! edit: OSRS for life

[@OreoSammich]

Your description of a bad restaurant are the telltale signs of the best food stops in America.

[@Sweet_Reverb]

When it comes to Chinese food or Pizza here in the states, I want to see faded pictures of stock food in the windows, sticky floors, smells like grease and sweat, the person behind the counter screams "WHAT YOU WANT." in broken English, if it's a Pizza Place, I want futbol to be so loud on the TV I can't hear him screaming at me from behind the counter That's how you know it's good. If it's serving either of those and the place is clean and quiet, I'm gonna have my doubts stepping in.

[@ukyoize]

Yeah. If place has a dude that just stands near the enterance then it's probably selling overpriced bland food

[@vohbovohborian28]

Ah I still remember that moment 16 years ago when I first entered Stormwind and then that epic music started playing.

[@MoreIrrelevantTwaddle]

Same, but for me it was Ashenvale. It gave me chills and made me feel like I was in a mystical area. Music makes a game!

[@DalmarWolf]

I think it's muuch easier to figure out if a game is bad quickly. But if it's great might take longer. You could probably find out if the game is good / fine / okay for sure as well.

[@swiftpinion]

What a fantastic list of comprehensive points, I've been playing MMO games for nearly two decades and trying to judge them as I go. I'll be using this list from now on for certain.

[@TheBrokensaintvxvx]

I just stumbled across your channel about an hour ago and you speak so much truth about mmos, that I feel it in my heart. Thanks for being an honest reviewer, and not someone who's more concerned about his sponsorships.

[@neveridle]

Time stamps (timestamps) : 00:00 Introduction and clarification. 10:32 1: Does it work? 11:25 2: Can I change the Resolution? 12:07 3: Can I change the Keybinds? 13:18 4: Graphical consistency and style 16:54 5: Sound and Audio Design 19:07 6: Voice Acting 22:52 7: The Tutorial 24:58 8: Physical objects having Physics 26:36 9: U.I. Quality and Scaling 28:23 10: Variations within the Game Style 30:06 Wrapping it up

[@picblick]

8:07 the idea to have to suffer for 10+ hours of agony to get to "the good bit" has always been very foreign for me. To stay with the restaurant example: you just have to eat the 5 litres of hot mayonnaise and crab juice before we give you the steak, but trust me, it's worth it.I cannot tell you why, you have to experience the mayonnaise.

[@hydriumetern7808]

"It gets good later" is just another way of saying "Yea, the majority of the game is bad but this one part isn't"

[@aikidodude05]

the problem is with mmos leveling is a thing so there are times that you dont have the full picture because your not leveled. if your level 15 and the max is level 100 its not fair to go im not having fun with my class all i do is spam 2 buttons, dude your 15 of course you dont have every ability thats just the nature of RPGS.

[@eztak.]

@@aikidodude05 if the game is good you are going to have fun on lower levels, if you are not having fun on the lower levels, the game is not good

[@aikidodude05]

@@eztak. going use ff14 here as and example is the story good ehh reborn is decent but the dlcs are amazing is black mage a fun class ehh its kinda clunky for 1-59 at level 60 though you get fire 4 and suddenly all the clunk falls away the class makes sense you can fluidly form a rotation and you and if you had been paying attention on grinded up you fully understand how and when you should be using your ablility's you cannot get to level 60 quickly though you have to put up with those first 59 levels which are a chore.

[@mikefarmer137]

This is true but you have to remember that the average player will stick around for about 1-2 hours. If your game doesn't draw in new players, your player base dies along with the game. It has to be good even at lower levels.

[@aikidodude05]

@@mikefarmer137 ok but lets be honest here the reviews that push the it has to be perfect from the start because that what is being pushed they want something like darksouls/skyrim take your pick of super popular single player game. ie look at this single player game look how fun it is doesn't spend time teaching you it spends it all on the story which is just not the reason people play and mmo, yes mmo players want a story but if all you have is your main story line then once you finish it there is no reason to play.

[@J_A_Niss]

Asmon once said: "if you go to a restaurant and someone squats over your plate and you say 'hey, why are you gonna take a shit on my food?' they answer with 'how do you know it's shit if it didn't even come out yet?' " The moral is: *sometimes you don't need to taste it to know it's shit*

[@GamersOfficial101]

Josh, you deserve much more recognition, I hope you continue to grow and prosper. I've been binging your videos for like a week now:)

[@icehockeylover189]

You crushed it...I can't count how many times I've had arguments with people over other forms of media in regards to measuring objective quality. There are a staggering amount of people who don't seem to know what the term objective means, how an analysis can be conducted or a reasonable conclusion reached...and the majority of them seem to exist on Twitter lol

[@ScaryPhilosophy]

I know you have already made a video about Runes of Magic, but I still always have to think about the game whenever you do one of the "Worst MMO Ever" videos and also this video, because I think it is a good example of how a game can look like it has decent quality early on, (because it has) and become really poor quality later, just because the developers stopped caring and made much cheaper content in recent years than in the first few years of the game. The first continent has varied sprites and models, different music for different zones, very few bugs and decent storytelling. Then when you get to the later zones, there is no music, the monsters are just the same models as earlier monsters but with a different name, you can't play for an hour without encountering at least one bug... . I still love the game, but I think the initial gameplay is deceiving.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

You're right. The music, god the ambient music from the ystra highlanda was just beautiful.

[@Gnidel]

Add to that worse and worse monetization. They disabled buying item shop currency from other players, introduced gachas, even leveling zones relied more and more on upgraded equipment and each upgrade relied on item shop...

[@PhenomRom]

@@Gnidel wait they disabled buying diamonds from other players? I haven't played in many years, but that's surprising

[@Gnidel]

@@PhenomRom Yep. We still ended up buying them from other players using gifts. However it was not safe and prone to scams.

[@teosto1384]

"You can't judge a game before you've invested X amount of time on it" when put into a different perspective is your mother saying: "You will like broccoli if you eat it enough times". Maybe so, but why should you suffer through eating it multiple times when you can just eat something else equally healthy instead.

[@hydrogamer471]

that is a false equivalency

[@osuplaeyurreallygood]

@@hydrogamer471 No it really isn't LOL

[@riotangel4701]

It just admitting that the "first *** hours of the game is _bad_ "

[@Frostiedkdk]

@@hydrogamer471 Maybe it is false to you, we dont all look for the same thing... And reviewers are not looking for the same thing either... i bet your favorite movie have several bad reviews from reviewers that just did not like it because they are looking for other aspects.

[@barelyasurvivor1257]

@@Frostiedkdk I remember when Star Wars Episode 3 came out Critics roasted it, but I and all my friends loved it we stood in a loooong line, for hours and played board games on the sidewalk while we waited

[@studdly232]

Depending on the type of game i usually can tell by the 2nd hour or earlier if theres no cutscenes

[@40sUphillBothWays]

Nice topic. Nice breakdown. I admire your confident expression of critical thinking. Personally I either like a thing, or I do not like a thing.

[@agerwaen]

You put so many references to Fiesta that I am cannot wait to watch it! Btw. I love your worts mmo serie.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Oh the fiesta premier is tonight, god it was such a bad game. Glad you're enjoying the videos :D

[@ilyrana]

the music thing you mention is why i'm so hooked on some games. and keep going back to older games like gothic for example. the feeling it gives is very important

[@cattysplat]

Quality is an incredibly hard aspect to judge. There are so many comparisons, expectations, demands and fans that can all skew an unbiased opinion. Also who's opinion is right? There are so many different types of people that want different things out of their experience. Not to mention how their current emotional feelings can effect their judgements. However I personally find that a good judgement to have is what you personally enjoy. This is why I think trying things out yourself is the most important test of quality, it bypasses other people's depictions and gets to what aspects matter personally to you. I try to judge something on it's own merits, since you can have fun in bad games and bored in good games. Some game do take longer than an hour to get a better judgement for since sometimes there is beauty to be found behind the ugly. Playing with other people can also shape and transform an experience too, since MMOs can produce random social elements if you seek out others to play with, I know many people just play for the socialising, with the game just being a medium to be around other people with. With many of these MMOs their time in the sun has gone, so that social aspect has died and much of that part of the game has gone with it.

[@ddd-op5wy]

Your block of text is not spaced, and that makes it hard to read and overwhelming. Therefore I'm not reading it, because that is a sign of low quality.

[@ShinFahima]

I judge it based on whether you can walk or not. >.>; Hard to get immersed into an MMO if you can't even chill and just walk, to me!

[@dennisberg2474]

Love the video, perfectly helps me evaluate how I can increase the enjoyment of my free time

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Glad it helped Dennis :)

[@XraynPR]

"You don't need to watch an entire TV Show to know if it's good" Game of Thrones: *nervous sweating* "You can tell immediately Game of Thrones has good writing" Game of Thrones Season 8: *chuckles* I'm in danger

[@williamhououin]

You’re a freaking genius Josh, seriously

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

I'm jusy a guy who plays games. :)

[@D34DF0X17]

games can be very good learning tools , if only more game devs understood this...

[@marclinden5612]

Every time he talks about key binding in all the videos I've seen he mentions strafe and I chuckle to myself because "hehe john strafe hayes"

[@sethmichel6138]

that pun should not have been good, but it was, and for that I curse you to end every sentence with a pun

[@dmckenna]

Bang on the money as usual, Josh! Seeing your comments about the importance of music/sound design here I wondered if you have ever thought about doing a vid on your favourite tracks from MMOs.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Runes of magic has an incredibly good soundtrack

[@hugmonger]

Josh: What happens when a developer just adds music to a place without any care... well then you get this! Smashcut to An Ad: Finding stuff to do with your kids is hard

[@50bottlesofpinklemonade]

This made me realize how i found my new favorite game, guardian tales, from a simple seconds long video, which only showed the game's menu UI. You could obviously tell the devs put a lot of effort in the game just from how pretty such a minor thing looked

[@themoagoddess1820]

15:15 wow, you've mentioned having a car as a mount in a fantasy rpg before, but I didn't expect it to be in a game I ever heard of let alone played. smh

[@BlueSparxLPs]

Makes me wonder how perception of these things may vary by in-game area, too. Like if you start in a fantasy zone, but a later zone is technologically advanced and has cars because of lore reasons, it makes sense to have a car as a mount; BUT, seeing a player with that mount driving around in that first zone would look pretty awkward especially if you're not yet aware of those later zones, lol.

[@Spearra]

@@BlueSparxLPs Especially that weird flamingo disco mount thing.

[@celotharobar]

"Does A and D turn or strafe?" is a silly issue IMO :D That bit, at least, is absolutely preferential, though the ability to rebind to user spec (and the ability to do so) is objectively important, you're right there.

[@southrodney]

Lmao meanwhile in Tekken 7 we don’t even have a tutorial

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Kazuya, forward jump, spam O, spinning whirlwind kicks of death, win.

[@ironcastle100]

80% just hit random keys hahahah who needs tutorial for this

[@southrodney]

@Professional Chav You're greatly overestimating the Tekken playerbase... Josh's strat will easily take you to yellow ranks lmao.

[@CaptainSweatpants90]

What I will say is that you can only judge the parts you've actually seen. I've heard a lot of people claim that Retail WoW was "too easy" compared to the older expansions, after having leveled to max and done a few Normal difficulty dungeons. Now you can judge the dumbed down leveling process, the "first time dungeon experience", whatever you've seen is fair game, and you can even say "these parts of the experience are important to me, so I lost interest". But saying the game is easy because you beat it at the easiest difficulty setting is like riding a bike is easy when you've never taken the training wheels off.

[@valiumeplayslongplay2513]

It's important to try the game yourself. You can watch millions of videos about a game, but your best thing to do is just play the game. I've found that most MMORPG reviews will ruin the experience because I already lived the starting experience.

[@archvaldor]

The problem with this theory is that it assumes the designers don't frontload a lot of the best content to draw players in, knowing that by the time players reach a hollow endgame they already have their money.

[@kakalukio]

One remark about the music though. The audio "fitting" the enviroment is partially subjective. This is ironically noticeable in your example with Fiesta. Fiesta uses a style of music which used to be increadibly common in jrpg's on overworld areas, especially the starting bits. Upbeat generic nonsense at the start of the heroes journey. And yeah, it's not super inspired or original. But it is however perfectly serviceable for a friendly overworld/first area theme at the start of the heroes journey in a cutesy anime jrpg. Fyi, this is only refering to the actual song playing in the background, the soundmixing, the combat sounds etc. is still awefull in fiesta even in that one clip :p What's more important for sound design is if the music actually changes depending on the circumstances and enviroment. E.g. does the cutesy upbeat happy music continue when you go into a more dangerous area? Also, some of these aren't so much indications of quality as much as they are indications of budget. Various bad triple A games would easily pass this initial test while some good indie games would fail.

[@MisterRose90]

You’re absolutely correct. It’s similar to the phrase “past behavior predicts future performance.” Its not necessarily a hard and fast rule but it is generally true. If i built up a reputation for lying and that is what people know me for they are going to expect me to lie until i prove otherwise. Its human nature. Of your game has terrible voice acting it shows you don’t care enough to make your game as good as it could possibly be and you think “what else did they skimp on?”. It is what it is.

[@hipunpun]

Very insightfully, completely agree and enjoyed the video.

[@skyesfury8511]

22:15 If you want peas, then you must prepare for WAAAGH!!! Da boyz is eatin gud tonight dey iz!

[@undeadban8692]

Lol

[@obsidianagent]

I have tried applying what I was able to from this to Pokemon Games, because I KNOW I like playing around in late game Pokemon games, and because the community argues a LOT about the games. They are on console, so, for example, keybinding and resolution don't apply to these. But I realized that for 2 out of the 3 recent pokemon games, I only go through the first hour because I KNOW what late and end game look like! Damn... small wonder there is so much arguing here! When the franchise started, the first hour was perfectly fine, but today, there SHOULD be better first impression for new players, I now think the whole thing only works because literally everyone know what late game Pokemon is!

[@TheOrian34]

No key remapping is probably the primordial sin of games. Having an azerty keyboard is a nightmare when the games don't bother with remapping.

[@nat040496]

17:51 Oblivion too. It took me a long time to realize, but Oblivion's theme uses the same motifs as Morrowind and Skyrim's does, and ESO has since used that for all of their themes for all of their expansions.

[@egeergus8510]

I have been a fan of the genre since my childhood. Even though I didn't play any game more than 50-100 hours (maybe except WoW) I've always fascinated by the aspect of being a part of virtual world. I've just discovered your channel, and your videos help me enhance my experiences in MMO and better analyze the gaming experience overall. Thanks four your efforts!

[@NinjaClarinet]

Time Gating is another huge red flag I look for. Sometimes it isn't readily apparent at the beginning of a game, but anything designed to slow you down and eat Time for the sake of it tells me something. Either my time as a consumer is taken for granted, or there is a lack of content they are trying to stretch. Or that their income model requires as much engagement as possible from me and they are trying to find ways to force play time artificially.

[@ShmeengusDingus]

RuneScape and Elderscrolls Online have been the only mmos I’ve honestly enjoyed. Friendly community, interesting creatures, and amazing music

[@lukasrac861]

Another issue - games that feel amazing to play from the start, yet you are better off avoiding them, due to insidious/exploitative mechanics that only become apparent much later in the game (after you have already become attached to your character). Stuff like P2W elements, excessive grinding, excessive RNG, lack of content updates. You won't notice any of this stuff during your early hours of playing (the devs intentionally hide it from new players as they know it would drive them off). Games like Blade and Soul, Black Desert, Archeage are super fun from the start, with gorgeous graphics, fast paced action combat, great character customization. Yet its better to never play them at all, instead of wasting your time, getting attached to your character, and then hitting the P2W walls, RNG item enhancement walls, etc.

[@christopherjones7191]

It really is a wall though, you can blow through up to level 50 but then you see the experience bar to 60 and the enemies go from literally no challenge to one shotting you if your gear isn't the right number.

[@kingdavey90]

Genshin Impact

[@nicolasyuri5268]

war thunder and world of tanks also suffer from this problem. It starts really fun but then you're stuck on a Tier V vehicle for like a month unless you pay for a xp boost or some sort of Premium tank

[@aeravan]

I actually developed a way of spotting this problem within an hour: daily login rewards. if any online game has login rewards, something with the game is wrong. and in 9 out of 10 games the "wrong" comes in endgame, which means you can still have a good time for quite some time, but it's better not to get attached to the game too much

[@nicolasyuri5268]

@@aeravan I don't think daily login rewards are related with the game being bad necessarily. While true that a lot of pay to win games use this system, it's main purpose is to make you play everyday at least a bit so you create a habit. In some cases it helps like in mmo's with huge storylines and a lot of locations, this way you play more often and will have less chance of just coming back some months later without any idea where you stopped.

[@drafer100]

About key binding, I'll add that QUERTY is not the only one keyboard in the world. In France, where I live, we have AZERTY. Which means instead of WASD I use ZQSD. With WASD games, I can ONLY go backward and to the right....

[@splatsmash5003]

The best example of me entering a place and listening to something that absolutely DOESN'T MATCH THE ZONE but sure made the place a lot better overall was Coal Mines in the original Ragnarok Online, we used to go there to grind for elven ears and damn, that super catchy "dreamer's dream" song

[@duncanmacleod6274]

I would like to counter the restaurant analogy by pointing out that my favorite taco place looks like it has recently been bombed and the interior is dirty. Also I have a bunch of restaurants I only like now because I tried them more than once and either ordered something else that I ended up liking more or had worse than typical service in my first experience. This kind of brings me to a bigger point. I think games can be "good", ie. at least worth playing for the part of them that you like, without that being reflected in every part of their presentation from tutorial to endgame. Lots of people quit FFXIV early because the early quests are a slog and the early combat is simplified and still teaching you the basics, while the later ones and the endgame combat are much more interesting and build on them. Is this a flaw? Yes. Does that make it not a good game? No, and specifically it's better than the impression from the first hour of playing it would suggest. Yeah, it has some indicators of being a quality game in certain respects, but not the respects that someone who would end up liking the later game would need to know about. You can only judge whether or not it's a dumpster fire that's not worth trying 10 or 50 or 90 more hours.

[@ThatDjinn]

I think every review should have a quick summary of how long the reviewer played it and how much he achieved/what they focused on. That's what I do in every Steam review I write. Be it a review after 2 hours ending in a refund or after 200h+ - I'm trying to let potential reader know how much of the game I've experienced. It doesn't really matter if you play an MMO for 1h or 1000h - if you disclose it then all I care about is if you have something interesting or insightful to say about the game that you've experienced. Can you judge an MMO in 1h? Well, you certainly can judge that 1h of experience with an MMO and base your opinion on that, but that's still 1h of experience. All that matters is you disclosing how much of the game you actually played and then it's up to the reader to decide if this specific review is worthwhile or valuable to them. If you go to a movie that lasts 2h and leave after 1h then you can freely give your opinion on that 1st hour that you've experienced, but you are unable to judge the rest. And same as with a movie - if you didn't have fun after 1h and leave, then that can be a useful opinion in a review of any game, including MMOs.

[@Cindoreye]

There is a major difference between be able to tell quickly whether YOU will like a thing and whether the thing is objectively good (something nearly impossible to tell in entertainment). Playing an hour and deciding the game isn't for YOU is perfectly fine, but playing an hour and deciding it's objectively bad is not. I know how Josh reviews and his general tastes, from this I can make my own determination. This vid outlines a method and demonstrates the strengths and weakness of said method. Knowing it, allows the viewer to determine the value of the information presented. While it is impossible to tell someone that there opinion about entertainment is wrong, understanding where that opinion comes from is what gives it value to an audience. Josh has a review style. From his reviews, I can learn about the introduction, player training, and general feel, but I know, unless it is one of the games he extensively plays, he will not be informing me of the endgame. This is all valuable information, but it does leave open the possibility that that weak opening is worth the slog for certain players, if the end game is good enough. If that is your aim, most of Josh's reviews won't be very helpful. I'd be willing to wait in line much longer from quality food than I would for fast food.

[@ethanrivers4057]

That first few minutes made me think of my recent trip to olive garden. The misses and I basically have a "no pasta outside the house" rule because it's always bad and I consider myself a shrimp expert since I've been eating shrimp for ages. Recently we went to olive garden and, although we've never been before, we broke out pasta rule for misses and I ordered the shrimp for myself. Conclusion, we will be back to olive garden because on those 2 plates everything was so good, our opinion is formed that the restaurant is good. Might not be great (my opinion is that it IS great) to the general public but it's good enough for us to want to return.

[@DiscountViscount]

I was going to say some stuff like "sometimes a game has bad cover art, or they neglected to update their launcher (since they prefer to focus on the game's content), and more counterexamples to illustrate that making early assumptions or going with your gut can often lead you to leave an amazing restaurant because of its bad decor and miss out on its amazing food. However, at the end of the day, it's rare that a quality game made by smart people would have too many seemingly bad early indicators. And when put into practice, judging too early means jumping to conclusions because it has an ugly launcher or the after barely playing for 10 minutes, not because you "failed" to give it 100 hours to improve, or even 10. Really, the video is a good wakeup call for those of us who might think it's normal to settle for less.

[@blizzart9191]

Saying you have to play a game for 100 hours to judge it, is like saying you have to listen to a musician for many hours to judge his musical level... It's just a bold and utterly false statement by slow brained people without any sense of creativity. If you're just a little bit higher iqed than the average and have some kind of knowledge and/ or experience in mentioned fields, you will be 100% able to rationally filter out good stuff from bad stuff extremly fast. The more knowledge and experience you have while judging, the faster it will even be( e.g. a pro pianist teacher will guess your level accurately even before you start playing, by just looking at your hand position and stiffness, sitting positioning and overall" aura"). I think that statement also comes from people who are just felt into the trap of" cost sunk fallacy " and want to defend their own virtual" identity" instead of just admitting the truth. Pathetic and delusional, like most of society nowadays... so who wonders? Have a nice day anyways ;) Edit: WoW, I wrote this comment before watching the video and I´m surprised, how close we even were with our comparisons. That´s vibe, man :D

[@zbz5505]

Several years ago, I only saw few seconds of a game because someone played it on stream while waiting for matches of a different game and those seconds made it into the highlight video. He wasn't even playing in that clip he was just talking while the game was on screen but something about it just captured me. It's called Ys VIII and after all these years it's still my favorite game. So, yeah, screw hours I only needed pretty artstyle to get intrigued.

[@hannahisapalindrome44]

If the game doesn't grab me within the first 15-30 mins I'll dip. I ain't got time to wait for it to get better.

[@Rattlecat]

God I love your videos. You understand quality game design. An hour is truly all you need, maybe 2-3 (if the first hour doesn't drive you off). I've put thousands of hours and years into WoW, but when I first started, all I had to go on was how the game played. At the time, it sucked for me. I played maybe 30 minutes and didn't touch it for 6 months, when I gained an interest in reading the WoW novels and got hooked. I was dissuaded by the tutorial windows popping up at seemingly random, and at the time, they didn't really explain what you were supposed to do to move camera or use spells, let alone figure out what all the other buttons were. Coupled with the slow level gain and rather lengthy quest descriptions, it just didn't pull me in. They improved much later and I actually don't feel like I'm swatting mosquitos out of the way anymore when I start a new char where the tut is on by default.

[@treehousegames7903]

It takes 1000 hours to experience everything in a game. It takes 1 hour to decide if you want to experience it.

[@JohnSmith-ox3gy]

You can judge a quality of a pizzeria by a single item. Pizza margherita.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

Nice and simple, and the basics matter.

[@nyaggardly]

pizza margherita is the hardest and most complex pizza to make, I kid you not. juding a restaurant for their ability to make a good pizza margherita is like judging a professional tekken player for his ability to do perfect movement: they simply cannot, especially in tournament matches and under pressure.

[@nigerianprince7379]

Damn now you got me feeling really nostalgic about runescape. Might have to give it another go.

[@grimvisionz91]

You cannot judge this motel until you have stayed 2 nights in EVERY ROOM, had every housekeeper clean your room and ate everything from the breakfast buffet. If not your opinion is IINVALID

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

That is a brilliant explanation.

[@ratheonhudson3311]

When I was young I did not understand the atomical nature of H20, I didn't understand what "laminar flow" was, I couldn't even spell "plumbing". But still... Within a few seconds of randomly splashing around... I enjoyed it. I enjoyed drinking it. I enjoyed cold water, but when it was too cold I sneezed and cried for mummy. That's within 15 minutes of interaction with water as an inexperienced toddler.

[@leoardulnuan]

Okay, you summed up why I dislike and or VERY picky with games and often give it up within the first 10 hours. Thank you. I'll be checking out your other stuff now.

[@Nawrly17]

This has made me realize why I seem like the MMOs that I do. WoW, GW2, ESO. They are all high quality and it is obvious from the beginning.

[@F14thunderhawk]

to be fair though, i think the claim that 1 hour is all you need is still off. not that you cant judge if the game is worthwhile fast, but all the MMO tutorials i can think of are longer then an hour, and that includes WoW's new Exile's Reach zone.

[@KaDaJxClonE]

Sad that the wait time for dungeons in ESO is insane unless you play the healer or tank. If I'm not playing a tank it could take a half hour just to get into a dungeon.

[@PrimetimeD]

Thank you for this video! So spot on. The "it gets good later" argument is lame when applied to several genres of entertainment.

[@CaDragon]

A friend shared a rule of thumb from the health inspection department. The cleanliness of a restaurant's bathroom is almost invariably the same cleanliness of the kitchen. If the bathroom is abhorrent, the kitchen is also rancid. If the bathroom is well-kept, the kitchen is clean and neat.

[@oluftheexplorer9476]

Speaking of going out of bounds, there is one that is actually fun in WoW. Going through Stratholme, all the way to the northern most point of the map, west of Quel'thalas, and there are some night elf ruins which seems to be used by devs as a placeholder area for certain things, like Ner'zhul's darkness when he summons the Dark Star. But that said, end-game is pointless and worthles which makes nearly all MMO's bad by default, because it's current for X amount of time, and then it's effectively useless and irrelevant, and it's not even fun grinding during its uptime due to RNG on top of RNG. The leveling process in WoW used to be fun, until they streamlined it and made it too fast to even get a feel of the zones and story in each given zone. The single worst thing game devs can ever do is spit in the face of t he playerbase. Blizzard did this, and how they survived it is beyond me. If it was any other game company they would be shutting down within the month.

[@MCC17011]

Former WoW player for more than a decade, the linear progression you are talking about is awful and was the worst part of even the best times. Legion was great because everyone was running all content all the time, nothing was really ever obsolete unless you were just chasing that gear carrot. I migrated to Warframe and they have tons of linear progression which has been amazing. Granted it has other issues, when the grind in a FTP game(Warframe) is more reasonable than in a paid MMO with a sub you know something is skewed.

[@oluftheexplorer9476]

@@MCC17011 I played Warframe for a while but it just got really tedious to me... like a mobile game. Good game though.

[@BrianLafferty-vj6gd]

If people say you haven’t spent enough time to know, they aren’t saying it’s a flawed thought process… they are saying: I HAVE and you’re wrong BECAUSE you didn’t spend enough time. Still, highly analytical breakdown and logically seems legit, but sounds like a developer judging a game and not a player/fan.

[@TheTingcat]

If your new players don't play past an hour, then it's ridiculous to expect them to spend money, let alone want to play longer. If a customer can judge whether something is worth their time in an hour, a reviewer who knows what they're looking at sure as hell can too. Josh is giving games so much leeway by playing for 8 hours.

[@mystgirlone2166]

Yes. Like I can tell a good book by one page. Merlin Ahrenadel explains this succinctly. If you can't make the player fall in love with your game in beginner phase, you will not hold them in mid- and endgame.

[@chriwehl7173]

Thing about some games on steam not working is: Some games have been put on steam with active support but the studios have ceased to exist or stopped supporting the game for one reason or another. And then comes the thing: Steam has some years ago required games to change their systems to stay on the platform. This has mainly influenced offline games, but to a degree kneecapped online games too.

[@blakenelson4158]

your missing something really important. how well it dose its chosen type of play style. for example if your a first person shooter and its hard to aim its bad. if it tab targeting and the attack types are not clear as to what they do that is bad.

[@Spearra]

To add on to this, if it is a action based system, are the attacks clean. Do they flow? The attacks/abilities, do they "talk" to each other in an interesting way or can be used creatively and not just have 10 skills laying on the hotbar being useless or overly situational because they don't flow, they don't "talk well" with the rest of the player's abilities.

[@imclueless9875]

Imma say this before i continue to watch : You god damn right i can within an hour! The game should more than hook you within that time , hell within even 5 hours at max. If you dont leave with the feeling of "I GOTTA GO BACK AND DO A,B,C,D" . The game should show you some of the highlights as fast as possible with showing you some of the mechanics and having it easy and smooth while than giving you the harder elements later down the road.

[@Mr.Reality]

Couldn't agree more with the restaurant example.

[@DemonicAkumi]

Funny how the "tutorial is the bad bit" my most memorable piece of let's say Guild Wars 2 that every so often I want to come back to play it is Queensdale. And every beginning area is practically the tutorial area.

[@Shadowlurkering]

1 hour is fine, if you can't get into a game in that amount of time then it's not for you.

[@zin2828]

Problem is... That only works on some games MMOs are usually fun on the endgame content, so reaching endgame in 1 hour would be impossible Many RPGs also have a slow start, for example : Trails in the Sky, where you need at least 10 HOURS for the story to pick up the pace So yeah, if you don't like the game in 1 hour playtime, doesn't mean that you don't like the game as a whole

[@KineticOwl]

@@zin2828 but why would I waste my time on a game that only gets good if I spend one thousand hours of tedium to get to the actually good part? Games kinda need to be fun from beginning to end to be good and for that matter, worth my limited time. I'm not an immortal machine who has all the time in the world to enjoy every video game that exists.

[@zin2828]

@@KineticOwl it depends on your goal of the game If you are seeking the thrill of gameplay and combat from it, then yes, you should review the first few hours, if you don't like the base gameplay, you ain't liking it later on But if you're playing for the story, you should at least play quite a few of it before dropping it, story can change unlike gameplay, and some people crave the story more than gameplay (like me)

[@msc8382]

@@zin2828 That suggests that the game failed to show the appeal of the end game in the beginning. If you have a game whose appeal is not clear within an hour, that says something about how the game is setup. If I wanted to spend hundreds of hours to figure out the intended end goal/result , I might as well start an engineering job. Besides, can you consider how tedious it is to have to spend months (if you have a job, you don't have much time to play in one setting) just to see what the appeal of the game is? Don't know about you, but that's like trying to sweep the block clean from snow. While certainly doable, it'll probably require help from a lot of other people to make feasible. Last time I checked, most people don't make end-game friends when they started the game within the first hours.

[@zin2828]

@@msc8382 when i said that "you should play for quite a bit first" I was refering to a story based game, not an MMO To judge an MMO is very hard, since the main attraction of MMOs are usually very different, some want the community, some want the gameplay, some want the graphics, etc. I'm sorry about that "you should play for a bit first" Part, I might be a bit wrong on my wording, all I'm saying in that comment is that, not all game can be judged in 1 hour. that is all, thank you.

[@chaselofundist8727]

Honestly most people I know have about an hour a day to Game so I think an hour is perfect amount of time to get introduced and decide if you like it

[@etherraichu]

I remember in Wrath of the Lich King, you couldn't get into certain areas controlled by the other faction in Dalaran.. or you werent supposed to be able to. I found a way. I used a flying mount to get into just the right positoin before it automatically dismounted me, then used another item to slow my fall, and moved in just the right way that I could slip in through the door narrowly missing the barrier that teleports you away from it. That was not at all easy to do, I had to try for a while. After hassling the alliance NPCs for a few minutes I left. and then reported it to the devs. they fixed it in the next minor update.

[@pberci93]

While your points are might valid, there are exceptions, where core mechanics are tied to a substantial level of progression. And I don't mean endgame content, but the actual selling point of the game. This in itself is obviously a flaw, as keeping the advertised content from new players is marketing suicide, but still can make reviews look superficial to experienced players. For example two games I know you reviewed: - Allods Online: it's a massively flawed WoW clone, core systems got revamped multiple times, driving away the small community it had and turned massively into pay-to-win. But, the thing that drew me in was the astral ships. The endgame content of the game, where players got the chance to build and fly around gigantic flying ships. But getting the ship required an almost maximum level character (well, the original max level). That's like 20-30 hours of gaming if I remember correctly. Jokes on me, I solo leveled there then realized I need a party of at least 3 to fly that thing around. Still, the things that set apart Allods Online from literally anything are the ships. (That's why the developers tried to create a World of Warships-like game in their setting, using said ships, too bad they could not gather a large enough player base, because it was fun.) - Riders of Icarus: while it was extremely comical with the question mark texts, the review could not get to the part, that the mounts are the selling point of the game. That's why it's only a Tera clone in aesthetics. It's more than just "well, you can ride everything", but the first hours are filled with content that's unlike the rest of the game. Of course it's absurdly ridiculous, that the selling point of a game is end content, but still...

[@thebard7021]

Thank you for bringing up a lot of these prints. My friends and I have developed our own system over the years, which has been dubbed the "Level 20 or equivalent" test. We as a group basically play a game till we're sorta of experienced with it, but out of the newbie zones. We've found that one can usually get a good idea if you're going to like said game about by then.

[@victorklep5261]

This is very accurate. Once you leave the starting zones the game should have given you a good feel of what it's all about. As an example, guild wars 2 does this pretty well. The tutorial gives a big world-boss like battle. Every starting zone has a good balance of renown hearts (quests) with simple kill objectives and more complex objectives (like honoring a rabbit spirit by dodging hungry rabbits trying to steal your food. Weird but really funny!). Every starting zone also has a couple of event-chains, at least 1 meta event, and a world boss. Then the personal story at level 10 also gives you a good idea of what it's about, all before leaving the first zone and all things that show you some of the best parts of guild wars 2, at least pre-expansions.

[@austint8263]

I don't know why people have to rely on someone else telling them if a game is good/bad/worth playing. I judge for myself. If I like it I continue playing it. If not, it's time to move on.

[@JoshStrifeHayes]

For the same reason you felt the need to comment. People like sharing opinions.

[@Esvald]

For non f2p games it's worth it. Sure I can download SWTOR or Aura Kingdom anytime but I'd rather not waste my money buying a game I might dislike. Props to every game that has a free trial period like FFXIV.

[@kukki2107]

Yeah.. there are people who just don't like video games in general and say every video game sucks in just 10 minutes of playing. And then there are people like Josh, who are actuak intellectual people who game and know if a game is shit or not the first 10 minutes.