The Dumbing Down of Modern Games

Asmongold Reacts to: The Oversimplification of Modern Games
by ‪@skeletahltv‬ • The Oversimplification...
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Channel Editors: CatDany & Daily Dose of Asmongold
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[@skeletahltv]

Thank you Asmon for watching the video and for the feedback! This means a lot as someone's who's watched your content over the years. My next 2 videos were already done before I saw you had seen this but rest assured I will keep improving as a creator!

[@McKillaboy]

[@mauer-laufer4638]

Points for the style, dude. That skull is killing it!

[@Lark88]

Keep up the good work! You're going places.

[@RikoRik33]

Please wear a crown so we can call you the Bone King.

[@Slothhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Video was well done man, good job

[@ZanarkandFFX]

Can we appreciate that Zack gives small content creators a chance by reacting to their videos? I love when he does that, that's actually a W

[@ots8238]

Is this what vtubing but western culture be like

[@everettgilchrist5937]

HUUUGE W, love Zack for giving these creators a chance at a larger audience it's incredible

[@kpsk8031]

He is the last celebrity who can endorse someone and it has a positive effect.

[@LuznoLindo]

Only for it to go back to obscurity in a day or two since people online have no attention span or memory.

[@Ozzystrayroo]

A Real Chad helped others rise up.

[@svarthofde2492]

There's a dude who made it to Diamond on the Starcraft 2 ladder and he has no arms below the elbow. Games being dumbed down and games being accessible are 2 very different things.

[@jug-eun]

Damn that's impressive, how'd you manage with all the controls?

[@McMTG]

@@jug-eun Not him. It was another guy.

[@Akhelium]

There's plenty of awesome achievements that disable people have done while being disabled. I.E.: A dude beat elden ring without hands, just using his mouth. Devs need to stop treating them like stupid or useless people and start giving them just what they need to have a decent experience, that's all.

[@svarthofde2492]

​@jug-eun Not me, bro. Kurirko402. You can look him up but I don't know if he streams anymore.

[@gemma_the_what]

That guys actually pretty good too I seen winter talk about him

[@JonathanFlexx]

I work in healthcare with people who have mental disabilities such as downs syndrome, cerebral palsy and things like that. Dragon Age: Veilguard talks to people, encourages them and explains things the same way that my colleagues and I do to our care recipients. Not even kidding. While this is important to help these people live their lives to their fullest and understand things and concepts, it's EXTREMELY degrading and patronizing to people with IQs over 70-80.

[@FishAnvil]

Open the 4th game in a series where having magic is the only way to use magic. Make a warrior with no magic, only martial prowess. All of my attacks are massive magical explosions, conjured weapons of light, and every weapon I hold becomes glowing. Yeah I don't think the writing is the only issue Dragon age fans have with this game.

[@nickjohnson410]

I graduated HS in 2005 with a bunch of people that could barely read and write... I graduated college in 2009 with a bunch of people that still could barely read and write. Talk about the games all you want but the REAL ISSUE is the dumbing down of the average human... Most people are really really REALLY stupid and can barely handle everyday life... That is the real problem.

[@MusicMyInspiration]

And nowadays LLM's add to this problem ... no need to think for yourself, just ask ...

[@violet-trash]

Universities are expremely difficult to fail now. It's no longer about meeting a standard, it just about paying huge amounts of money for three years.

[@johndoe-lp9my]

That's not an accident. People who cannot think critically are easier to control and exploit.

[@Ozzystrayroo]

​@@violet-trashand have enough attendance. I swear professor and teacher are getting punished if they fail their students these days eventhough the students in question did not put enough effort in their study and thus deserved to be failed.

[@First_Chapter]

That's sad. Going to sound like one of those "When I were a lad" types but... those leaving the sixth form many years ago would have a command of at least English and French and, in many cases, German and perhaps Russian given its value in the then ongoing Cold War; and have an understanding of classic Latin and Greek.

[@ShadowRulah]

The greatest proof that games journalists are useless is that they will never be the ones to point out these problems.

[@apophisstr6719]

Game journalists nowadays are basically just the speakperson for the games (hired by the game) they're reviewing, completely pointless unless you are a one brain cell fanboy of the series.

[@thesponge836]

Mortismal gaming is the worst for this

[@infinitygamer-un4qq]

Thats why black wukong the best out there

[@Raging103]

the cheats are in options for them

[@Flegado]

They're psyops

[@MerchGrows]

I need yellow paint on my controller to play these

[@venchergaming]

you need yellow paint on your console to show you the power button

[@Flarps-1]

If I find a new game too complex, I’ll delete it right away not because I’m a casual player, but because I feel like they’re trying to scam me by hiding a bad game behind a bunch of new mechanics.They rely on players thinking, “Oh, once I figure everything out, it’ll get better.” I just don’t trust that, and I’d rather wait a few months until the game gets plenty of reviews.

[@Ozzystrayroo]

When i saw Yellow paint on STALKER 2 i was groaning, then i found out that you can turn it off in the option. That is something that other dev should follow, make yellow paint optional (it's honestly an accessibility option) and not hard coded it in.

[@ErgoProxy12345]

i think that came from the increased textures of environments in games. It used to be easy to look at a flat unitextured wall and spot the only rock path to climb on it. Now it looks like you should be able to climb all over the wall because of the amount of bumps and rocks all over and the games need to find a way to tell the player "you can climb these ones, not those ones".

[@heyyomyman]

the infamous yellow paint

[@magicman9218]

i remember in Morrowind or Fallout 1+2 that you'd kill a random dude and then 100 hours later you find out that guy was part of an essential quest and now your character is boned.. no guardrails just like real life

[@c6q3a24]

Yes 100%. If you don't want to ruin quests you probably should not be a murder goblin. But you CAN be - and that makes all your choices more meaningful.

[@jamesmortimer6007]

In Morrowind, the game gave you a message to say you broke the main storyline by killing an essential NPC. It lets you do it, and gives you the choice to continue. That was a good system.

[@urekmazino6800]

Good times

[@maiqtheliar2]

Reminds me of this streamer who put this famously difficult game on the hardest difficulty, ignored the tutorial and directions even though he never played the series before, and rage quit after an hour. lol

[@ShaggyRogers1]

My biggest problem when it comes to dumbing down games is devs' answer to play testers getting "stuck" being to just have the player character verbalize what the answer is. Nothing is more frustrating than spending a few minutes figuring something out and then have the player character just state what to do right as you figure it out. It is even worse when your character just starts to state what the next thing to do is as soon as you walk into an area. Nothing like trying to explore and hearing "I should climb that ladder" 10 times.

[@BushBumperBaker]

Remnant 2's tutorial 😂😂😂 5 seconds after entering an area "that crate looks like the ticket" LMAO

[@sdbzfan1]

A fun example i heard from gears of war is they wanted players to see something but play testers kept missing it so they just decided screw it and now during a moment of walk and talk the camera is just focused on it for like a minute

[@ShaggyRogers1]

@@sdbzfan1 That's one of the biggest problems with environment and level design. People complain about the "yellow paint marks climbing", but at least that is relatively subtle. At least cues like that are a nonverbal nudge towards pointing the player to where they are supposed to be going.

[@Brostopheles-i2f]

My biggest problem is that the game was perfectly designed for kids (not just the difficulty but the Pixar-ness) and when you consider the subject matter showcased in the game it turns particularly malicious.

[@Sp33dyBeanz]

@@ShaggyRogers1 it doesnt seem that hard to make an open explorable immersive area AND also make it clear where to go next based on visuals and structures in the area. devs just suck lol

[@phemeloseotlolla]

To them it's not dumbing down, it's "reaching a wider audience". Which tells us that they think that people are generally stupid.

[@kaden-sd6vb]

And unfortunately they'd be right. People ARE stupid. In order to snag that "wider audience" you HAVE to dumb it down for the lowest common denominator, aka the majority.

[@kveller555]

I think it's more so a thing of appealing to the lowest common denominator. Everyone can put the square block in the square hole if they're told about it, but not everyone can figure it out on their own.

[@supercato9613]

Can't say they're that wrong. I've seen people playing Dead Space remake. The game tells you 4 times in the first chapter to shoot the limbs, but some people didn't get the hint.

[@ccvcharger]

Well, I mean, they wouldn’t be wrong to think that.

[@Glitch_in_the_Matrix]

They aren't wrong the average casual gamer has room temp IQ

[@JonSkulemowski1]

00:10 best start to a video ever. Totally accurate in every way.

[@Secret_Takodachi]

Seems like a reasonable fellow, let's hear him out 😂❤

[@lucasnebz4735]

People like to talk about how react channels eat up views for the original videos (and that's definitely true), but then there's situations like this

[@ShrimpOfDeath]

The "no quest markers" approach worked great for Morrowind. Large part of the fun in such games is exploration, so while you are trying to find that one cave, you can find and clear a bunch more. No fast travel (except striders and teleporters) also complemented this approach.

[@TheRationalist.]

Mark and recall brother. Though that was still only one place and you had to have already been there. It was an amazing game and no Bethesda game has even come close since.

[@Steel-101]

Honestly I prefer the quest markers. That way I can know what to avoid. It is infuriating when I’m just exploring but then bam I end up in a main story cutscene. I wanted to save it for later.

[@kyvan_unheist8584]

"Never played Stalker before, tries Stalker 2 on the hardest difficulty, doesnt try to learn its mechanics whatsoever and rage quits, saying the game isnt for me". Next video: GamInG dUmbEd doWn FoR ModErn auDienCe" Gee I wonder why. The irony is blinding me in the face 😂

[@vinniegret4841]

Well he quits and didnt asks for ruining the whole game jsut to appeal to him. So it works.

[@Houshalter]

And the game devs watch this and take notes. The next game will be dumbed down, and the cycle continues.

[@smithynoir9980]

​@@vinniegret4841 That's a good point. He accepted the game wasn't for him and moved on. That's how it should be. It's okay when games don't appeal to us, play something else. Imo, no game should ever appeal to near every gamer. It's barely touch on what anyone wants from it.

[@internetexplorer3596]

Good, if you can’t figure out a video game too bad. Pay more attention or do some research. Employ some problem solving skills like you would with anything else in life.

[@sadge0]

finally found this comment, had to scroll for a little too long

[@liondevelops]

The amount of handholding in God of War Ragnarok was atrocious. All I wanted was for the NPC's to SHUT UP!

[@damiar925]

I felt like they at least gave you a minute before they told you what to do. There was a lot of it though for sure.

[@bagyitaw]

and you will realize why they exist when you see asmon plays the game

[@thedesensitizedsympathizer5307]

You think that's bad? Play Mario and Luigi Dream Team. It will make GOW-R look like BTOW.

[@Box-O-Soldier]

You're on fire, Kratos! *IT'LL PASS.*

[@CutingTheEdge]

I gave up barely half way through the game. Completely agree with your point.

[@Draconisrex1]

The DUMBING DOWN and hiring of lesser talents to produce games is the real problem of DEI. Enough of that and you end up with things like Veilguard and, to a great extent, Starfield.

[@akusworld5117]

what about tomtom and quest helper in wow?

[@jububoobaroo67]

The average intelligence of society dropping correlates exactly with demographic change trends. Tldr race does real

[@jonpro9637]

​@jububoobaroo67 these normies don't want to hear anything about race realism no matter how accurate it is

[@semikolondev]

Let's not forget the amount of narcissist in the game industry who believe they all hardcore but 90% of gamers can't reach hardcore achievements on a lot of games... it's not dumbing down, it's just show how low level are gamers. It's a slap in the face for them but the reality most gamers aren't hardcore.

[@thefool8224]

they think that the only reason they failed was because people had alternatives. make no mistake, this is just a demo of what they are going to do

[@simplysolus8916]

I wouldn't say Genshin's Paimon is the reason things were dumbed down. Gaming has been doing that for a while, and before Paimon there where characters like Navi in Zelda shouting "Hey! Listen!" Quest markers with increasing levels of hand holding predate Genshin... even including auto-run to complete these objectives, having the game ultimately doing the quest for you.

[@tenkk_ch]

The paimon issue is definitely exaggerated. For story, I'd say in about 20-30 dialogues, 1 of them will be paimon repeating an info. For open world, paimon doesn't even help u with puzzles.. if asmon plays the game, he will definitely quit exploring because of the puzzles.

[@susiapriani6267]

There's no auto run in Genshin 😂

[@simplysolus8916]

@@susiapriani6267 Other games, prior to Genshin's release, did the auto-run.

[@mysticflow467]

bro do you know how many decades ago navi was created

[@NeoN-PeoN]

That fairy in Ocarina of Time started all of this. She would constantly yell at you "HEY! LISTEN!"

[@lukelaser5397]

The most annoying being in the game. I hate you Navi and I hope you never come back

[@SirSuro]

Was just scrolling down to see if anybody else thought about navi 😅

[@hectormejia5090]

​@@SirSuro that little fly was the forst thing i thought of lol

[@user-jw2it4qf2r]

Navi, at least, was optional most of the time. We didn't know how good we had it back then...

[@jamesmortimer6007]

Navi gets too much hate. The prompts are always optional, and if you do decide to listen, she only gives hints. It's not comparable to the hand-holding we're seeing in recent times.

[@Junk4u999]

One of the most patronizing thing I hate in video game design, is when the game constantly reminds you that you can lower the difficulty whenever you die. Like, I KNOW! I chose to play on the hardest difficulty because I wanted the challenge, and the only way to get better is to keep trying! Stop telling me: "dId YoU kNoW yOu CaN LoWeR tHe DiFfIcUlTy In ThE oPtIoNs MeNu?"

[@quercus3290]

as a kid I remember dealing with pirated Amiga games, zero manuals, barely understood how to run the actual amiga and yet somehow you still figured it out and had a great time, children need to deal with stuff like that.

[@77dris]

Hahah, same. Or I learned Lightwave 3D (Hollywood 3D program used on Titanic) on my on, years before KZbin existed.

[@jwp999999]

When we was kids half the game was getting them to work with zero instructions

[@AzogDefian]

True it builds character and technical skills

[@tonydwietwarze]

Yeah !!! Stuff was hard and it made it fun ;)

[@pepita2437]

Yeah, I remember playing pirated Tomb Raider games in the early 2000's. The funny thing was we had no manuals just like you, and no one knew English in my family. So we had to figure out evrything on ourselves. XD We still have an old save file on my uncle's old computer. We just simply couldn't figure out how to solve one of the levels, so after countless hours we just gave up. (Lara trapped in a sinking submarine) Fun times, I remember all of us sitting around the computer, one of use handling the control, brainstorming how to solve the puzzles/levels.

[@ExaltedwithFail]

Morrowind....best quest design. "Go out of town to the west, follow the road past 2 bridges then turn right over the bluffs to the cave, find the thiefs there"

[@cleverman383]

when you see two trees, turn left

[@Chrysamer77]

And you follow all directions, and find vampire base instead of your quest

[@kveller555]

​@@Chrysamer77I feel like people romanticize Morrowind's vague directions a lot, especially considering it's usually just "go to the cave on the west". It's all too easy to walk past your destination due to it facing the opposite way, or to get turned around because you got attacked by a bird on the way there for the 5th time. I personally like Kingdom Come: Deliverance's system. You get a sizable area marked on your map, still heavily encouraging you to follow specific NPC directions, but without leaving you clueless as to whether or not you're even in the correct forest to begin with.

[@ticktockbam]

​@@kveller555I feel like if a game has difficulty modes, this would be one way to implement difficulty into it: the harder the difficulty, the more vague the directions given to you in an open world game, for example, and the easier the difficulty, the more obvious the indications about directions to take to reach your objective.

[@AlexThePyroshark]

@@kveller555 I think the crux of it boils down to the Morrowind map iself being WAY too big for those to be practical, especially with how most caves and the like don't have different models for them. And I'm not going to go "old graphics bad," but the paths between cities and points of interest are made so damn long and cluttered with random geography that feels like it's there just for the sake of scale that sometimes what you look for escapes your attentiont. You literally miss the forest for the trees. The first example that comes to mind is that starting Redoran quest were you have to find a farm to the west on the "hilly" side of that part of the region to offer assistance, but there are like three crossroads on the way and your directions say to take a right on ONE of those. And even if you understand what "hills" they talk about and find the right direction, the farm itself can't be seen very well from the main road you're told to follow because of some elevated terrain and a wall of rocks that hides it from view. And the worst part is, I don't really mind it for its age, I've seen more infuriating things in some later video games, but the nostalgia googles of Morrowind exploration only work after a lot of trial and error and cheesing of spells/alchemy to help with movement AROUND the purely decorative parts of the map. For all the criticism we might give at Skyrim and Oblivion we can at least agree that those maps had some recognizable landmarks on their roads that make it easier to recognize an area, even without maps of fast travel.

[@Litepaw]

I hate this wider effect of being treated like a complete brainless toddler in general. We were doing much better societally when we idolized scientists instead of obsessing over hollywood, and presumed everyone had decent common sense. Which most people do, we're just currently very tribalized and infantilized by the media, and have written down even LAWS forcing to treat everyone else in society like low-iq morons just to potentially sometimes avoid socially awkward situations.. it's so exhausting.

[@adrianjamesgamboa5236]

Unfortunately, even the field of science have a lot of grifters and scammers. People were only able to idolize science because of the vast advancements it contributed in the recent 500 years, especially the industrial revolution. Science looked like magic back then, it can fulfill peoples' dreams and ward off all the worries away! Nowadays, there are a lot of things getting debunked from biases and grifts geting uncovered, passionate student scientists locked out of academia because of elitists that rewards connections, and the entire field of physics almost completely explored, where new discoveries are only made exclusively with supercomputer simulations with super ai, geniuses working in complex theories that even the irresponsible media can't fantasize, and extremely high expenses. The rest that can't contribute are miserable people justifying that their physics degrees are worth something. Science is not known as magic anymore, and people are desperately finding new magic to fulfill their wishes(a.i., robots, biotech, even art). My hot take would be that it would take another war to force them to realize they can do something useful themselves, reclaim the west's former glory, and not need to always rely on others like a toddler. After all, the west and the ussr became a superpower after knowing what their people can do, and knowing how to make things work to win wars. Nasa and space exploration was born as a result of german, ussr, and western scientists competing against each other, all of which are war hardened scientists themselves.

[@Zeusexxy]

It's not for players but journalists.

[@urbannoodles888]

This guy couldn't handle Stalker 2 not having outlines for enemies and is sitting here talking about the dumbing down of videogames. Brother you are the target audience.

[@ofrenic]

I watched Asmon play Stalker 2.. hes exactly the target audience of these assists.

[@BrandonDenny-we1rw]

Did you forget that he was legitimately one of the top WoW players. Him on stream and his real skill are two different things

[@John-core]

If you've never played a stalker game it's to be expected to find it difficult its not hard to understand

[@ofrenic]

@@BrandonDenny-we1rw that's what I'm saying. It's for new comers, people who skip dialogue or people not paying attention properly etc etc

[@omensoffate]

@@BrandonDenny-we1rwwow isn’t a hard game 😂

[@vinniegret4841]

@@BrandonDenny-we1rw MMOS require no execution and skill, but ONLY memory. Dumbed down and talantless Souls-likes too, i love From but not all of its clones wannabee. And ER combat also sucks compared to DS3.

[@violet-trash]

Thing I hate most is games that play themselves. Press the stick forward and the character will jump, crawl, dodge, climb ect all on their own. 'Interactive movies' used to be a joke. 💀

[@Ozzystrayroo]

I remember i was annoyed by this when i played RDR 2 too many commands were allocated to a single button when you use controller that it creates a lot unfortunate accident especially when riding horse

[@shodan2002]

In tomb raider on the ps1 you gotta grab the ledge and keep holding the button you gotta jump and grab everything yourself

[@SamM_Scot]

aka most modern Sony "games" that are trying so hard to be more like movies :-)

[@SpecShadow]

There was this old game called Dungeon Siege (2001?) - back then it was amazing to see game doing things without players input. But it make game boring in the long run...

[@Eneeki]

It is like they have turned games into alternative lifestyle romance novels. So sad.

[@redpanda416]

Because the "modern audience" they are aiming for can not understand complicated games.

[@dumbodum]

I think it's just about giving players more options to play the game. If you don't want to use them then don't use them. Adding these kinds of options to the game is really not that much work. For me personally I appreciate having the options to make games easier as I have a very mentally draining job, so after work I really don't have much energy left to deal with complicated stuff in games. It's not that I can't figure them out, it's just that I do not have the energy to do it.

[@Caydiem]

@@dumbodum Ever thought about just taking a nap and play a game when you're not about to fall over from exhaustion?

[@UncleBalthasarGelt]

The modern audience is people like Asmongold. Look at his Stalker 2 gameplay.

[@dumbodum]

@@Caydiem I do and that’s why I appreciate having the options to make games easier, isn’t that a good thing for everyone?

[@redpanda416]

@dumbodum you can simply play an easier game. There are games that you can turn off your brain and just to have fun with, I play them too. But I don't want them to do this to every game, some games are meant to be challenging.

[@UncleBalthasarGelt]

Reacting to this video after your Stalker 2 playthrough is quite ironic.

[@Furionic696]

Asmon wouldn't recognize Irony if it crawled up his chest and sat there waving at his stream like that cockroach did

[@ingiford175]

I remember back in the old games such as Ultima, they would say talk to so and so in the city of Yew, and if you can find the city, you would have to look around and talk to everyone to find that person, a couple of them were hidden in corners or in areas where you had forest with low vision and could not find them easily.

[@astrohgamingZero]

Acheron’s Call jumping to ledges dungeon. Hours spent heckling friends for falling to their deaths when they don’t time their jumps correctly. Spells didn’t auto-hit and you could dodge a lot of them.

[@cynon6]

A really good example is dustborn, you literally cannot fail the QuickTime events. At first it goes really fast making you think you gotta hit that button super fast, but if you leave it the dial goes slower and slower till it actually stops and waits for you to push the button

[@anenigma8378]

Exactly why ideologically driven games will always be terrible. They don't want you thinking about how to progress in the game; they only want you to think about the propaganda.

[@sierratangoandras]

LOL

[@nobody8717]

no fucking way. at that point, it's not a game, it's a test to see if you are a living being. a cat could beat that "game" just by randomly stepping on a keyboard/controller.

[@stevenyee1055]

@@anenigma8378 You just KNOW where their priorities are, the message over gameplay. In the 90's there use to be these cheesy bible based games.

[@elvenadohostil8607]

That is gross

[@kingrogers7740]

I feel you, my grandpa always said “Directions are just another man’s opinion”

[@OgamiItto70]

I'm gonna steal that. Thanks, Grandpa.

[@brainrich1358]

Holy shit, that is true. There are a bunch of ways to get somewhere but all that matters is you get there.

[@Entropy67]

Focus on the journey, the choices you make and the path you take is more important then the destination

[@michaelnazar9358]

.

[@Anon1370]

you find that out if you've ever been sent in the wrong directions :D

[@luenetikgamer6313]

I experienced this in Horizon Forbidden West. Every step I take makes Aloy or some random NPC give me useless tips. For example, if I want to explore the environment and turn away from the quest, she'll keep telling me I need to go to the quest location. Even for puzzles, she wouldn't shut up. There's a puzzle where she'll go, 'Maybe you should use the grapple hook' or 'Maybe we can blow up these barrels.' just shut it and let me play the game

[@MasterMind187b]

its the same in other games. in cod you have aim assist for example. or even in Forza, if you play online, the game didnt deactivate driving assists.

[@PeterDanielBerg]

thats why i played it (the first one) with other language audio

[@thothheartmaat2833]

i think you need to put it on exploration mode.. you have it on the game tells you what to do mode.. i was just playing jedi survivor and it has that mode too.. i was at a part where i wasnt doing the next thing because i was looking around for secrets and it asked me if i wanted a tip but if i had it in the easy goober mode it just would have told me what to do..

[@ticktockbam]

I remember playing Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary, and that game had almost no indications of what you had to do to go through the puzzles in order to reach the next area, and I cleared that game as a child. Game developers really think that gamers are stupid nowadays, or have the mentality that if a player doesn't finish their game because the puzzles or enemies are too hard, then they will lose a player and a possible next buyer when their next game comes out... but if that was the case then games like Dark Souls, Getting Over It, Only Up!, Jump King and many others wouldn't be as popular as they are.

[@jericho1-4]

@@ticktockbamIt's almost like specific Devs pushing a specific ideology understand that like minded people to them need said "gaming assistance" cause they lack reasonable intellect and intelligence. This issue isn't affecting all games universally, or to the extreme of DA-V implementation of it, again one needs to look at the ideological here as the most likely culprit for the how and why.

[@Rhythm162.]

bro can not be saying this after his horrendous stalker 2 gameplay

[@cellamuert]

13:30 thinking genshin started a friend-help system is lol

[@paulusapfel]

Yeah, that was such a crazy L take, but I agree with the rest.

[@TheMucusMan]

Hey, listen!

[@DekuMight45]

Alan Wake 2 essentially adding a Game Shark into the accessibility options is pretty insane.

[@Wikingpedia]

For all the people who are surprised at "gaming for blind people" @2:18. Last of us 2 has a "blind accessibility mode" that pings directions for character to move etc. I know a person who is completely blind who finished the game.

[@Tim_The_Tank]

I couldn’t imagine a game could be fun without having vision. Playing a game with your eyes closed takes the fun and thrill out of it.

[@Wikingpedia]

@@Tim_The_Tank He had the time of his life playing the game because he never had a chance to be in an interactive movie/story like that before.

[@williamdrum9899]

Probably because he didn't have to look at Abby

[@saint3106]

@@Tim_The_Tank"black and white movies are boring" energy.

[@davidmoak1219]

@@williamdrum9899 damn I haven't even played that game and this made me LOL so hard. This mirrors my sentiments for Pam from Stardew Valley. Pretty sure she's in the game 1) To give you bus rides to desert and 2) so you can poop on her lawn and put her in her place. I don't like the way she talks about Linus sometimes, the judgy hoe.

[@Malohta]

I've noticed that spell making on Elder Scrolls used to be complex and interesting and each Elder Scrolls game simplifies magic until they did away with it for Skyrim.

[@HallowedKhaos91]

You used to be able to make some ridiculously busted magic. I miss those days.

[@ofrenic]

​@@HallowedKhaos91 I always assumed it was because they couldn't balance spell making. It's a single player game. Let me do wack stuff if I want. Like acrobatics and stuff being removed sucked too. Let me jump higher damn it

[@sanchayande8081]

and then they added the lore that it's a lost knowledge and shit

[@greyngo]

@@ofrenic I agree that in a singleplayer game, it doesn't matter how overpowered you can get. But we have to blame the people playing those games too. So many people are unable to put "limits" on themselves, and just use the most broken things and then trash on the game for it being easy.

[@HallowedKhaos91]

@@ofrenic Exactly!

[@mightymicroworlds4566]

1:33 facts lmao

[@Papa_Ul]

Skeletahl and Doctor Disaster (@21:42) in one video? That's a double W for you.

[@CidLufaine]

The firs time I noticed this trend was when I played ME2. They took away almost all the skills you could put points into and left you with a handful of abilities you could pick and upgrade in ME2 and ME3. Your build was no longer unique or really something you could go in depth with to compliment your playstyle, all you did in future games was pick the ability you liked and put points into it.

[@Ozzystrayroo]

Bioware really took away a lot of RPG element from their game ironically after releasing their most succesfull RPG title (DA: O). EA is why we can't have nice things from Bioware

[@notKevinFeige]

What's M.E bro?

[@superblanco444]

@@notKevinFeigemass effect

[@diseabronx5075]

Fallout 1 was such a trip. Here’s a quest, bye.

[@Scott6794]

Right? I remember having a notebook with paper nearby so I could remember certain things.

[@1KevinPantoja]

​@@Scott6794I used to do that too, I don't remember the last game that made me need to write things down to continue playing, that's the level of dumbing down

[@WorldWalker128]

Lots of RPGs of the time were like that, and if you DIDN'T write stuff down and put the game down for a week and came back you'd then need to restart because you didn't remember what you were doing and most quest-giving NPCs wouldn't give you the info again, just say the equivalent of "Did you do what I asked yet?" At the time it annoyed me, but at the same time I'd rather have that than having NPCs harassing me about this or that mission.

[@c6q3a24]

@@1KevinPantoja Kerbal Space Program. I would spend hours just on mission planning.

[@coolestonions990]

I prefer we dont go back to fo1, fo3 & fo:nv is the perfect blend, just tell me the location & let me figure it out by myself.

[@Czejenesku]

Asmon, dumbed down games are for you. You prove this time and time again, recently with Stalker.

[@irboredlol]

Dynasty Warriors even more recently

[@kotrena]

Based

[@kotrena]

As much as Iike Asmon and his political takes, I was shocked how bad he turned out to be in games. Choose maximum difficulty in a game you have never played, skip all the tutorials because reading is for nerds, die a thousand times in the first minutes of gameplay, then quit What a genius strategy

[@Czejenesku]

@@kotrena And yet he is against casual games :D

[@ЕвгенийПершин-е1ь]

It feels like kids that learn cool word, but not meaning of it. Tryharders invent "trial of lightning" themselves, to achieve imaginary reward of "Valhalla" And here we have hand holded brainrot that tazes his nuts, because alternative is for nerds... Never receives reward - ragequits

[@buga125]

That's why I loved the journal quest mechanic that Gothic 2 had - you talk to NPCs and the journal gets updated with a summary containing only the info you got from the conversation. And then you figure it out. No markers, no nothing, just go into the world and do the quest.. somehow, because sometimes the npc is a stupid character and tells you almost nothing important or even a wrong information. This is peak quest difficulty design and I haven't seen anything better for the last 24 years. I don't know if it existed before, probably did, but Gothic 2 is my all-time favourite game so that's probably why it stuck with me

[@ErgoProxy12345]

a great way to do difficulty was Batman Arkham City, the Mr. Freeze fight. There was a set amount of ways to trap him and you couldnt use the same one twice. Increasing difficulty meant you had to do more of them, so it went from choosing which traps you were more at ease to needing to succeed at all the types of traps Batman could do.

[@thothheartmaat2833]

thats like horizon zero dawn on ultra hard.. you actually have to use the traps and environment to win or the robot dinosaurs will seriously kill you.. even on hard and very hard that game can be easy but ultra hard is something else, its like reality.. some of these games are just excessively too hard on harder modes tho like assassins creed the enemies are ridiculous even on medium..

[@Cheddar_Wizard]

Arkham Trilogy GOATED

[@sierratangoandras]

Watched a stream of the new VR Arkham Shadows, maaan, Batman keeps telling you what to do in every situation, it was so annoying 🤦🏻‍♂🤬

[@smithynoir9980]

​​@@thothheartmaat2833 Imo, those games suffer from really poorly implemented open world RPG mechanics. They thought that making a level 1 Soldier and a Level 45 (Skulled) Soldier look the same and even be present in similar areas was okay. Modern AC is so poorly designed like that. I remember playing Mirage for the first time, fighting some dudes that were my level (levels in AC are stupid to begin with) only to walk into a nearby temple and the guards, that look exactly the same, hit three times harder and take four times more hits. Only when I turned on the enemy levels on the HUD did it make any sense. AC is just poorly designed in terms of difficulty and levels.

[@Braxtonsport]

@@Cheddar_Wizarddon’t forget origins

[@thatoneguy4254]

Alot of us love the long form content, including the pausing. We watch here to hear your takes and commentary, please keep it up. I enjoy the longer videos because I can listen while doing things, without having to constantly switch videos. Truly a great channel Asmon.

[@SwankGodTenma]

I'm disabled and beating Lies of P was one of the best feelings I've ever had. I still need to get through Elden and Wukong when I have time

[@chickenburrito7861]

That's a great achievement, good work man. Not even some non-disabled gamers can do that. I wish you good luck and have fun.

[@leecameron9226]

Do you like rockstar

[@jaybrown8807]

I haven't played Wukong but you should do great in Elden Ring if you beat Lies of P. You get to play the base and DLC together for a first playthrough. I'm jealous 😂. Enjoy

[@ablindman3328]

Ghost of Tsushima, God of War, Elden Ring, are just some of the tough but worth it latests that should be held as standards.

[@HotFiya05]

You said it exactly right at 16:30. A lot of people, like myself for instance, have limited time to play games. We can't spend hours fighting the same boss or trudging through an area aimlessly. Games are like interactive stories to us, which is the audience of DAV. Not every game needs to be Soulslike.

[@Edwinschuur]

Then buy different games. When people have the time and enjoy reading literature books with over 800 pages, I imagine them hating it when they make the next story in the series and make it a 30 page comic. So it's accessible for everyone. When you don't have the time for 100 hour RPGs you play something else. I don't have time for that so I play either less games or I play something shorter. And calling everything that isn't an interactive story a Soulsgame is ridiculous. There is w hole lot of gray area between a Soulsgame and an interactive story. And if you are to lazy to learn game mechanics or dont have any time. Just watch a movie.

[@HotFiya05]

@@Edwinschuur "Then buy different games." That's all that needed saying. You play your type of games, we'll play ours. The remaining drivel was unnecessary.

[@justinmarkwilliams]

The quest to get a wider audience means they gotta make them for the lowest common denominatior. Hence why games have been dumbed down.

[@smithynoir9980]

Just another reason to remove any and all money eejits that thinks constant growth, more sales and a wider audience are a good thing.

[@Morfe02]

The big problem of new games is being a CINEMATIC experience meaning a walking simulator with "arenas" of gameplay And lets no forget Geoff and the industry wants their games to be adapt into Hollywood, the same Hollywood that is dying of new ideas Is like trying to pull a "TV series" in a videogame when actual new tv series are dying because they are trying to be the NEXT game of thrones Finally this idea is exactly as new videogames trying to be Star Wars, Marvel MCU and of course The Last of Us 2

[@Lampoluke]

What weirds me out is that MGS and sons managed to do plot in videogames with 100% success rate. You like plot? Please watch this 30 minutes cutscene directed by a giy who actually went to cinema school. You don't like plot? Skip the cutscene You like plot but not 30 minutes cutscenes? Well, the 30 minutes cutscene is broken into 6 or 7 5 minutes cutscenes, and you can skip them individually, you are not missing on the actual plot advancing if you chose to skip the history of the Soviet Union cutscene

[@ninakore]

Be wary if a videogame has already planned a cinematic universe, there's Hollywood investor money involved. Or they're begging for an investor to get interested.

[@Itsjwon]

Yes exactly this. If you want to play a game for the story, sure u can but u also can just watch a gameplay video. I feel like the only reason why they insist playing through the game with oversimplifications is because they want affirmation that they played the game. Fomo af

[@Morfe02]

@@Lampoluke yes but all the games of Kojima are cinematic not only because of the Story but because of the GAMEPLAY he did BOTH and hit Now games are the same fucking Story made by i.a. and the Gameplay is worst than older games

[@ghostrath]

I want to offer a new perspective here they are not about disabled people or caring about others , there made so reporters and the CEO can play the game.

[@handsomemug3342]

the best example for a game dev actually caring for the disabled players is valve, in steam you can attach almost any kind of controller and customize the buttons in anyway way you like

[@Serahpin]

11:20 "The square block goes in the square hole." As does the circle, the arch, the rectangle and the half moon. Everything goes in the square hole.

[@JayceeLoran]

The games industry wants that Young Sheldon money.

[@MortenRyberg]

Old games were simple and great.

[@NeoN-PeoN]

Old games had a much wider spread between simple and complicated. Fallout 1 and 2 are extremely complicated.

[@cattysplat]

Old games didn't give a f. You either got good or died trying.

[@exqziMOI]

Metro Exodus on hard mode you don't have hud crosshair, ammo is hard to find, meds are hard to find even air filters is hard to find you need to think about every interaction

[@TheNotoriousMrDee]

and let's not forget Diablo Hardcore characters.

[@justinpeterson5821]

1:56 yah not his strong suite

[@CataclysmDM]

I personally despise it when games treat me like I'm a dumbass.

[@DorantheLlama]

If you truly wanna blame someone, just blame DSP. That's who game devs rely on

[@thomasilves5392]

Digital signal processor?

[@SpecShadow]

@@thomasilves5392 DarkSydePhil - one the biggest lamers in gaming - playing vidyagaems in the worst way possible, blaming everything and everyone, but himself

[@RegularGillian]

​@@SpecShadowYeah, Sony in particular literally showed him as the example of the kind of player they design their games for

[@thomasilves5392]

@@SpecShadow So your average video game journalist?

[@henryjones4781]

it's the guy

[@Wadenbeisser24]

So thats where red skull went after he no longer had to care for the infinity gem :D

[@shuazi8803]

Having activateable cheats in game are something I enjoy as like a new game+ kind of thing. If they're available right off the bat, that takes a lot away from the game. Playing around with it after you've already beaten the game is just kind of fun to play around and not take the game as seriously since you don't have as much invested in trying to beat the game but still enjoy the game

[@cyanmage1]

same here, heck some games I'll play on easy mode with every advantage turned on just to see the story then come back on a second time on hard mode I find games way more enjoyable that way

[@Flesh_Wizard]

Or cheats being special things you can find in the world through great effort

[@TallulahSoie]

NG+ and unlockable stuff is the way. I had to stop replaying games after the PS4 came out. I mostly played RPGs. I do not have 100 hours to redo everything in an RPG a second time. At least with PS3 I could edit saves.

[@regenerate2768]

If you’re blind, how does the game go about explaining body type one and body type two? Always making it harder on the weak those twisted demons

[@HipnikDragomir]

I really appreciate that Asmongold humours the entirety of videos, including the intros and outros that have nothing to do with the core subject. Just giving people the platform to say what they will.

[@shieldphaser]

The root of this problem is really that it's the quick and easy solution in an industry that's all about overworking people. Putting a giant "GO HERE" arrow over the target is the fastest and most foolproof way of making sure the player follows the railroad. Ramping up damage and health is a lot faster for making things hard than spawning additional enemies or making them smarter. The fastest way to make sure nobody gets stuck on the puzzle is to just give them the answer. So on and so forth. It's all done by someone who's not paid enough to care, and who has a deadline to meet.

[@CallMeTeci]

Not Genshin/Paimon started the whole "NPC tells you what to do" thing. That existed before and was already one of the biggest criticisms of God of War 2018. I feel the whole thing came together with every game switching to mobile graphics and i honestly just think that this is the fault of wherever the developers had to learn their craft. Like they only learn to develop by checklists and learn this one artstyle that is currently haunting so many games.

[@AWonderingTraveIer]

I think one of the core issues of this is devs skimping out on combat Ai. Bad Ai can make a game a cakewalk or unreasonably difficult, sometimes the Ai is brain dead example like Star Wars outlaws where you can just hide for 2 seconds and they forget about you or games have the opposite where the second the Ai is alerted they have perfect aim and can see you through walls or they just spawn in an overwhelming amount of enemies to make up for difficulty it’s controversial but a good example of enemy Ai is helldivers 2, like if there’s an army shooting at you and you pop smoke they will continue suppression fire in that direction allowing you to run away or completely flank the enemy because they remember the last location but they can’t just see through walls, you have to be in their FOV for them to agro onto you and they have their own behaviors like at an outpost sometimes a single enemy will do little patrols to check the perimeter or you will see a patrol marching while chanting they feel alive when all the systems in place are functioning.

[@hmnanda]

Geez break up your sentences

[@AWonderingTraveIer]

@@hmnandamy bad I was rambling lol

[@williamwest9204]

Halo 2 is the ultimate example of that

[@AWonderingTraveIer]

@@williamwest9204I agree 100%

[@namelessone1641]

The "puzzles" in this game are just like the first "puzzle" made by that funny robot Wheatley in Portal 2.

[@tgburnes]

2:50 -- PLEASE do not take this out of context... PLEASE NO

[@Blakkrazor69]

As long as the difficulty slider can go up from the base game I'm all for them. I understand there are going to be people new to particular genre who might want a less soul-crushing experience than might otherwise be delivered which would put them off as future/paying customers. It's all about getting their game(s) sold to the broadest audience. Do you get mad about handicap access in parkinglots? If not then why get mad about handicap access in games?

[@JackieRobinson24]

This video has no views, I don’t know what to expect out if this at all

[@JellyJonesey]

8:15 and despite all that, their focus testing group still had people who couldn't find out what to do

[@Flegado]

Their focus testing group is either a bunch of 1 year olds or their game design team. Games need to be designed by programmers again they often have the pretense to imagine their playerbase a little smarter than they are which creates natural difficulty that's often way more intriguing.

[@MisterBiter]

I like how south park did the difficulty slider in STick of Truth.

[@TheAmericanZ]

I like the long form stuff, it soothes me as I work my demanding career and casually play video games, cheers 🍻

[@Knight-In-Green]

I actually likes AC: Odyssey for this very reason. The option to take on the open world with fewer guidelines - where you had to find and search and analyze - was so much better than just having markers tell you everything. Of course, you had your birdie to help you out, but it was still refreshing.

[@Ozzystrayroo]

It's a pretty decent game but not a good AC game. When they created odssey they should have named the series something else but an AC title...the same with Valhalla, and to some extend Blackflag.

[@caesarxi1303]

I remember playing it and still being upset by the huge amount of assistance and answers it continued to give me despite the fact that I had disabled it.

[@cattysplat]

This game already takes 100+ hours to finish with markers. Without it would likely be impossible. These massive open worlds are not designed for no markers.

[@Official_RetroMania]

I agree we are not evolving in terms of gameplay mechanics we are devolving.

[@johnnyflannigan136]

Elden ring ... ... Baldurs gate 3... Cyberpunk 2077

[@bigyoshi5170]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@johnnyflannigan136what did Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 do to you that you listed them with T-pose simulator 2077? Come on now, at least give Elden Ring and Baldur’s Gate 3 credit on being playable at release.

[@robertnomok9750]

@@johnnyflannigan136 Is this a joke? BG3 is dnd5 ala dumbed down dnd. It did nothing new its just a solasta with bigger budger. Divinity was better. ER is yet another souls but now ubisoftoficated.

[@VladTepes-SaviorofEurope-mw4uy]

Old 8-bit games require more gameplay mechanics than some of these.

[@Ozzystrayroo]

​@@robertnomok9750 i would say owlcat's Pathfinders are better in term of roleplay (due to Pathfinder 2e system > DnD 5e) and also the adventure module for both game allowed full level 20 progression. The studio homever does not have the budget of Larian and their game does not have the polish on the engine, graphic, musical score, voice acting, etc. Also worse combat system (their first game had no turn base system until several patch later and later they make it a toogleable mode between RTwP and TB) though they have polished their TB system a lot on their recent Rogue Tradee game. But the pathfinders game has more player agency in the course of story compared to BG 3 especially their second game where there is at least 6 path to finish the game. Not to mention pathfinder still retain its aligment system (God i hate 5e so much). I really wished for their next pathfinder game they would have a budget that could match larian's so that they could create much better representation of their game

[@Vanillasurfer]

We should start rating games with iQ: "Lets play a 60+ while we eat icecreams with the forehead."

[@TheZardark]

This is why I loved Wukong so much, it didn’t tell you a single thing what to do, where to go or what to use, you just had to figure it all out by yourself.

[@drakuro6618]

imagine if they're responsible to design a way to allow a person in a wheelchair to access a tall building. Now the normal solution is an elevator, but instead they just level the whole building to the ground.

[@PiterburgCowboy]

The dumbing down started 20 years ago

[@RegularGillian]

Pretty much, when San Andreas became the biggest game and was for the most part a GPS minimap tracking simulator with the waypoints, ruining open worlds forever.

[@JayPeeh455]

​@@RegularGilliansounds like a hater

[@williamwest9204]

Id argue around 2010.

[@smithynoir9980]

​@@RegularGillian To be fair, San Andreas had a lot of things in-game to do. GTA 3 and Vice City prior did the same thing with the Minimap, all the icons cluttering the map weren't there because the activities literally didn't exist in game. GTA has never been about solving puzzles either though, it's about having a shootout and running away from the cops. Has been since the start.

[@douglasseelye5073]

started with Final Fantasy 10 lol

[@Kat1kafka]

Taking out party members,yes,in veilguard, companions are not party members, their minions, or additional skill attacks. Taking away the ai tactics and options to control the party members and turning the gameplay into a complete hand holding moba gameplay was just insulting.

[@Scott6794]

I miss when games were so complicated that I inevitably had to read a guide to figure something out, simply because I felt I was wasting too much time.

[@thegoonbats]

Ocarina Of Time was one of the first where it was like... OK, bust out the player's guide 😂

[@Scott6794]

@thegoonbats yes! This is what I meant.

[@alexhensley-om3sh]

I like how you cover at least one topic a day that’s interesting and how it’s not always the same thing. I also like that it’s not 8-10 minutes usually so I’m not having to looking up a new video frequently at work.

[@mrbobert6312]

After playing Elden Ring you'll feel your brain start to slowly rot playing any other modern day open world game

[@TheBlue6orilla]

this game is "everyone gets a trophy even in you loose" incarnate.

[@codylawson1257]

I'm guessing you got a trophy in english XD

[@radicalindividual7774]

Friendly reminder. Golden Eye was made by a team of 9 White Dudes. Half of which had never coded before in their lives. One has a level joking about him being a Biology PhD. It's not a dumbing down of video games. It's a removal of the one competent group that made them.

[@OrphicPolytheist]

Dr Doak?

[@davidmoak1219]

Ahh yes, countless hours spent back in the 90s trying to 100% the game on 007 difficulty. That was back when we had AskJeeves and google didn't exist. I was still writing down all the moves I found for Mortal Kombat back then and exchanging them with the neighborhood kids. There was that and only one other way to actually learn the secret moves in mortal kombat. The other required begging your parents to spend money so you could call the Nintendo Power Hotline.

[@AkameGaKen]

you want to know the real reason i play games on story(easy) mode? its because im getting old and i dont have time to play games. if i can make it through a game faster on an easier difficulty and get the basic experience of the game im ok with that. most single player games i buy im usually playing for the stories. very few single player games i have time for pushing myself on hard mode. i already have games to play on hard mode. poe and poe2. games i can put in a few hours and stop playing because im playing for the gameplay and not the story. i used to play mmorpg alot for the same reason. the story is bonus content. the gameplay is the game. i play games for 2 reasons. either because i enjoy the story, or the gameplay. i hate games that fail in both catagories. i also hate games that draw either of these out just to make the game seem like it has more content.. (assassins creed)

[@KyoCujo]

definitely ain't running out of content anytime soon. Big ups to you for supporting a dude with sub 200 subs. I know you've done it before but its still needs to be recognized.

[@Abingdale]

I liked the Elden Ring ‘difficulty slider’. I’m not great at RPGs. I’m an old lady when it comes to games, but I love em. So, I just had to be a sorcerer and use a lot of bells. I just have to spec for an easier experience. 🤷‍♀️ it’s a difficulty slider that’s built into the class system, and it feels better to me. I’m not QUITE as blatantly admitting that I’m a Weenie Hut Jr.

[@fluffypinkpandas]

the problem to me isnt game simplification. look at Chess, "Go", Checkers, Battleship, Marbles, Jax, and Pong mf these games are simple as hell. The problem is presenting big-scope ideas like an open world, a progression system, fine tuned aiming mechanics and camera control, level requirements, and all that good shit- -and then simplify things that were meant to stand on their own complexity. It makes an experience seem self defeating. Like the devs werent sure of what they were making and then doubled down on the work; adding a mechanic, and then adding a feature that immediately unmakes that mechanic or makes it redundant. When you look at their systems it makes you wonder "Why have that custscene if you are gonna also make its skip key" "If thats the puzzle, why even add it?" "Why isnt that just a pickup" "I have to hold E for 3 seconds every time? Who is picking this shit up by accident?" "why is this gated on the tech tree if you just get it this easily anyway" "Why even have this tech tree" "Whats the point of levels if this type of weapon can be expected to have this dmg?" "did that number just say 200000 on hit and thats only a 10th of his health? why tho" "Wouldnt I have this by this point in the story anyway?" "Why do I need this thing when this other thing has the higher number?" and so on Its okay to say that this GAME IS FUCKING BAD THATS NOT A NITPICK

[@Lampoluke]

I like jrpgs, i like stealth games. I despised Ghost Recon Breakpoint because it was an hybrid of that and those mechanics did not blend toghether. Equipement with levels doesn't belong in a stealth game.

[@rorsie]

This might be semantics, but I think you did describe simplification exactly. The games you mentioned first (chess, Go, checkers) are simple in their foundations/mechanics. While of course these games can have depth, their mechanics, scope, and objectives are fairly simple from the get-go. I would classify simplification as the what you said in your second paragraph. Taking those larger ideas, systems, environments, and then simplifying them to a brain-numbing degree. Basically, I agree with you but I do think the problem lies in "game simplification" as in the process of taking larger/more complex systems and then dumbing them down.

[@fluffypinkpandas]

@@rorsie yeah and its so bad. “we are going to make a big open world but put nothing in it worth it being that big so that you crave using fast travel. and then putting a loading screen between you and the next zone anyway…”

[@fluffypinkpandas]

@@Lampoluke It is jusified to hate any ubisoft game where you can tell its inception was “well this one thing got good sales and this other thing did so what if we combine them and doulble our money” look at Division 1? 2? both. sucks from the top down. games like these and tolerance for them eroded peoples minds and taste. Any that get inspired from them end up becoming the developers of games that rob a generation of their joy and money. I want to tune friends out when they borderline manipulate me and emotionallyblackmail me into playing trashy ass MMOs that they were nostalgic for but were never good Then their method of defending them is saying that im bitchy and that “well other games you play do that too” as if shooting Mercies a thousand times and shooting “Alex” a thousand times gave me the same neurological chemical reaction. (it didnt. the feedback and feel is soooo different and ppl who cant tell the difference should NOT be voting with their wallets because THEY are why games feel trashy and samey now)

[@Metroiidd]

I'm not a asmon hater, but dude has no right to act like he can handle games without handholding. Every new game he tries, he plays like a game journalist newb, get's frustrated, and quits. In reality, I think asmon does enjoy theme-park experiences whether he wants to admit it or not.

[@dtkedtyjrtyj]

He _literally_ says so in this video.

[@lokinslawomir0793]

Worked out really well with Stalker 2 lol

[@masashikami3668]

It wasn't Genshin that started it and they didn't even do that, it's been around ever since before Genshin so what are you talking about? Plus Genshin was not exactly made for our audience and show respect to Paimon

[@bose5160]

Veilguard’s “puzzles” are basically just ‘not a robot’ tests from websites…

[@fattony75]

Stalker 2 is a great game but when I saw a ladder painted yellow I legit said out loud “ffs it’s a ladder I know I can climb that”

[@jackvancekirkland]

Ladders are often painted bright colors in real life...

[@kazuviking]

Modders will fix it in notime.

[@kilo1457]

There is a option to turn it off

[@SpecShadow]

the thing with ladder and other objects painted in yellow - game became too detailed and full of clutter/just, combined with people being blind/slow that need directions all the time. It may annoy people with better sight and whatnot, but that's the price devs will pay gladly, so others would not have problems.

[@gucciguy3408]

@@kilo1457 This. I am more worried that AI has barely moved in the last decade for gaming. As Stalker AI showcases that I can just barely jump out of the way or stand on a random object to avoid being attacked.

[@iamzid]

i like how ladders, ledges, and breakable objects are now always painted yellow. i just couldn't figure out which ladders are climbable or where i should be jumping to without obnoxious yellow paint smeared all over important intractable terrain.

[@c6q3a24]

Why is this not optional??? Let me turn it off and explore than damn world.

[@bmdshred77]

Asmongold tried a game that wasn’t dumbed down and he failed at it. Stalker 2

[@lowfade556]

cuz it's poo

[@MrTennessee-i1y]

stalker 2 is so easy. crappy movement but really easy after 1 hour and i have never played a stalker game before the newest one

[@fluffrier]

To be fair, a lot of the systems in STALKER series could be considered intentionally obtuse in order to stay true to the immersive sim genre.

[@sadge0]

it was dumbed down tho. But looks like it's never enough when it comes to people like Asmon

[@randomxgen6167]

The problem is that people somehow misconstrued the meaning of the word accessibility, shifting it from "allow people with disabilities to still play the game" to "bare minimum design so any child/journalist can play". It's the difference between building wheelchair ramps or elevators alongside stairs so people can access other floors of your building, and having a 1 floor building where you paint the words "door" and "push/pull to open" on every door.

[@spoofy110]

Personally, always liked DMC3's Heaven and Hell mode. You one shot everything but you are also one shot

[@dracokk4683]

The Elder Scrolls are an excellent example of dumbing down. Daggerfall > Morrowind > Oblivion > Skyrim. Every new game had less and less mechanics / skills / spells / quest complexity / lore complexity.