Is it cheating if you learn to play better watching other gamers?

[grommet]

They are action games that focus on difficulty and learning from dying a lot. They frequently don't have difficulty settings. They expect the player to just keep trying until they master the mechanics and enemies. The name comes from a game called Demon Souls by FromSoftware.

Thank you so much for explaining. Now I understand the genre. I do not know if I can enjoy working that hard so slowly. I can see how some people would love it.

Is there a way to recognize a souls-like game?

 

[saturnv]

Thank you so much for explaining. Now I understand the genre. I do not know if I can enjoy working that hard so slowly. I can see how some people would love it.

Is there a way to recognize a souls-like game?

I am glad to help. That is a good question. For Lies of P, for example, I went to the wikipedia page for it and searched for "souls" and found that the developer made it to be in the genre. Another approach is googling "Lies of P difficulty settings" which brought up pages that mention that it is a souls-like and lacks difficulty settings. Also, marketing for games like this often mentions that it is a souls-like, so now that you know what that is, you can spot it.

 

[Jonn]

Heck, I love strategy games, but I avoided 4X games in particular for the longest time specifically because of that. They tend to be really interesting early on, but 100 turns in... out of a 500 turn playthrough... and you've effectively already won, the rest is just formalities. Really dull. Yet you still have a thousand zillion years yet to go. And every subsequent turn takes longer and longer...

'zactly.

I have been playing Hearts of Iron since it has come out, which is around 20-22 years for me, but I can't remember a single game that I finished to the bitter end.
I have played it off and on over all that time.

It is the way I like to play.
My money...
My choice.

 

[Jonn]

Lies of P in particular, farming for consumables... and then actually using them well once you have them... is important overall. This genre fully expects that you understand concepts like this going in (as these concepts are very common in games as a whole), and will not teach them to you (with very rare exceptions).

Elden Ring, despite what some people may think, is a very cerebral game.
The builds of your character are very important and depends on what boss you are fighting.
Finding intel on the bosses strengths and weaknesses via youtube/the-internet is vital, ime (in my Experience).
I still haven't fully explored all the mechanics of the game even after more than 2 years.

 

[Jonn]

A sample of my past Sim "cheats"....er uhhh......designs:

So, what are the property prices like there now?

 

[Jonn]

What I CANT help with is finding something with like a particularly good story or something. I dont really play a lot of story-heavy games since I have the attention span of a coked-out squirrel and too many cutscenes in a game will make me want to stab something, so I aint the one to ask if a story is what you're after.

"The last of us."
It isn't that easy, but it has an award-winning story-line.
One of my favorite games.
Pat 1 is better than Part 2, imo.

 

[Judge]

So, what are the property prices like there now?

I'll never know. I'm about to wipe out my Windows 10 SSD and turn it into a Linux OS.

I actually haven't had The Sims 3 on the drive for a long time....years.

 

[Jonn]

What is "souls-like" games?

One word...

Spoiler

Very, very, hard...
OK, 3 words.

 

[grommet]

One word...

Spoiler

Very, very, hard...
OK, 3 words.

Thank you. That is the opposite of what I want. I need to learn to be a good player first. The controls are new to me. I think I can still have fun if I can find the right games. I hope so because if I get a PS5 it is very expensive.

 

[Jonn]

That is the opposite of what I want. I need to learn to be a good player first.

I love Dark Souls, but I would never pretend that I'm particularly good at it. The Soulslike genre that Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and other FromSoftware games defined is typically built on the idea of difficulty, and any struggles with hand-eye coordination or response time can be punishing.

https://screenrant.com/steelrising-soulslike-game-too-easy-difficulty/

 

[thejuice]

Just so you're aware, with Lies of P: You picked a game in a genre (known as a "souls-like") that is meant to be very difficult even to long-time gamers. And punishing, these games generally pound you flat if you make even one mistake, and some of them like to do things like break your items or whatever as a punishment for defeat. It's a type of game that is 100% not meant for beginners to the hobby.

The genre (and most "expert level" games) assumes you already have mastery of the controller to begin with (as well as various gaming concepts) and will proceed as such from the very start. The further you go, the more technical mastery / speed / coordination it will require, and watching others play cant give you that element. They can teach you the tactics. But they cannot execute them for you.

Not to mention other things that the game may want. Lies of P in particular, farming for consumables... and then actually using them well once you have them... is important overall. This genre fully expects that you understand concepts like this going in (as these concepts are very common in games as a whole), and will not teach them to you (with very rare exceptions). Some of this can be understood by watching others play, but even then, most Youtubers will assume their audience knows these things too, and wont directly explain the fundamentals even as they execute them.

I'm pointing this out to you in order to give you more of an understanding so that you can save time. Butting your head against something designed for experienced players might not help you get better (while at the same time taking forever), wheras playing something that IS beginner friendly, and then coming back to this one later, can help a lot.




Yeah, this always gets me too.

As soon as the challenge disappears, which usually happens after power-creep and such, I just get bored. No difficulty, no fun, regardless of genre.

Heck, I love strategy games, but I avoided 4X games in particular for the longest time specifically because of that. They tend to be really interesting early on, but 100 turns in... out of a 500 turn playthrough... and you've effectively already won, the rest is just formalities. Really dull. Yet you still have a thousand zillion years yet to go. And every subsequent turn takes longer and longer...

Age of Wonders 4 is the first one I found that is more respecting of the player's time (max turn count by default is only 150, compared to the 500-600 standard that Civ uses, so the pacing is very drastically faster and there's constant things happening). A lot of games need more of that, just respecting the player's time better instead of trying to pad out that playtime. Would fix the slog in many cases. Well, better balance too.

Red Alert is the worst for that in skirmish mode especially. It's usually only the first 10 minutes where there is jeopardy when your fighting for resources and a bridgehead. Once youre established it's just a matter of fending off dribs and drabs of enemy and waiting for the ai to jam up their base!

 

[Misery]

I did not know this at all. I did not know there were different kinds of games.

There's more types of games than you could count. The only limit is the creativity of the developers. Like, strategy games for instance. Games you've played have you controlling one character... imagine commanding an entire army instead! Or maybe games that are so bloody strange that it's hard to figure out what they even are. It's anything the devs want to make. Just up to creativity.

I thought every game was the same, some looked better and that is what you paid for.

No, even with modern games, they're all wildly different. Including graphics.

But also, the idea that you need to pay silly amounts... or even buy new consoles... just to play modern games is generally not actually true.

You have a VR-capable computer. You already have what you need to run even the most advanced modern games. And most games (not all, but most) that come out on consoles will also hit PC. Horizon: Zero Dawn, for instance? Yep, it's on PC. It's on Steam.

Also, your controller? It can be used on your PC too. I actually have a PS4 or 5 controller somewhere, but I dont have a PS4 or PS5. I bought the controllers for the PC here (but now I use an Xbox controller instead). Consoles are, in essence, extremely limited PCs with a lot of arbitrary restrictions. That's seriously all they are. For instance, I cant use my Xbox controller on a Playstation console, because they're competing products, but I can use *any* controller on my PC here.

And as far as graphics go? Well... even that isnt really how that works. The way a game looks, these days, is mostly up to the developers. Often it's a matter of, well, just how they WANT it to look. Design tools have gotten so advanced that even I, by myself, could make something that looks super realistic in full 3D and such. But am I going to do that? No, because that's not the graphical style that I like. When I make something, it wont be hyper-realistic. I COULD do it that way. But I dont want to. It just aint my style, that's all. Similarly, just because a game LOOKS hyper-realistic doesnt actually mean it's any good. There are some games that look gorgeous... but they're actually broken and generally atrocious. Never judge a book by its cover.

Even with the RTX thing. That's honestly mostly just a buzzword, in terms of how games use it. Dont get me wrong, it's a real technology, it is impressive, and it requires a graphics card capable of doing it. But in most games, you seriously are not going to ACTUALLY notice a difference between it being turned on, and it being turned off. I'm running a mega-rig PC here that can handle anything (this thing is built to render fractals, which are WAY more demanding than any game), so I can have all the RTX I want in games that support it. Heck, I use RTX when making my fractal art (when I'm feeling patient enough). But for games that actually use it? Seriously I barely notice the difference between it being off and on. A lot of publishers plaster "HOLY PUDDING POPS THIS GAME USES RTX" onto the game just to get you to buy based on that buzzword.

I do not want consumables. I just want to pretend to be someone in a really neat looking place and have fights that can be hard but if I practice I can win.

Well, here's the thing about this: No matter what game you play, or what type of game it is, or whether it's for beginners or experts, you still will have to learn things about it. And those things arent necessarily what you might think they are. Like, the word "consumables" sorta sounds complex in a way, but what it actually just means is "item you can use". That's all it is. Got a health potion that you can use to heal up real fast, but the potion is gone after you drank it? That's a consumable. It's simply a convenient term, that's all.

If you play something like the other games listed here, like Horizons, you will absolutely still run into concepts like that. Any game is going to require you to learn and engage with the mechanics. Even if those mechanics are ultra-simple. Even something as incredibly primitive as, say, Space Invaders (which was made in the 70s), you still have to learn how it works. If you look at that game, it's like, stone-age stuff. It was created before color screens were a thing! It's older than I am! Look at it:

But as dead simple as it was, you still had to learn the mechanics. You had to learn that hey, your ship (that thing at the bottom there) can only move left and right, you can fire straight up, and the invaders will slowly move down towards you, and if they hit the bottom, you're dead. If they shoot you, you're dead. And those 4 lumpy things can block their shots, and block yours. You can learn all of these things just by watching (or by playing it for like, 2 minutes), but still, they are mechanics you have to learn.

But the hobby as a whole is spectacularly terrible at teaching newcomers anything. Like, with Horizon, I could talk about any given mechanic in there, and they are very simple to me, but might sound like gibberish to someone new to the hobby. It's not that the mechanics are brain-meltingly complicated... it's just that the new player simply isnt used to them, and the hobby isnt making it easy to get used to them.

If you think about it, VR... which you're familiar with... is the same way. YOU are used to it. *I* am used to it. But when I go and put the headset onto someone who has never used VR before? They tend to stand there with this weird blank expression, and dont know what to do with the control thingies. Often, they wont move AT ALL for awhile, because it's so overwhelming. And when they DO start moving, trouble can happen. I mean seriously, when I introduce someone to it, I literally stand right next to them the entire time, ready to grab them in case they are about to walk into a wall or something, and also so I can help them figure out how to use the control things and whatnot... otherwise, they WILL just stand there confused. Happens every time. They arent used to VR, they arent used to the "mechanics". So they have to learn, in order to use it. Even though, in reality, it's very simple. It's just not simple TO THEM yet. But it will be, if they just learn a bit.

That's how it is with gaming, too.


Sorry, that was long, but I could talk about this stuff all day.

 

[Misery]

Red Alert is the worst for that in skirmish mode especially. It's usually only the first 10 minutes where there is jeopardy when your fighting for resources and a bridgehead. Once youre established it's just a matter of fending off dribs and drabs of enemy and waiting for the ai to jam up their base!

Generally all RTS games are like that. In singleplayer, anyway.

Part of the reason why a lot of strategy games have this issue isnt even a matter of balance, or a matter of the AI being "too dumb". It's a matter of the devs trying to make the AI players behave like human players, rather than giving them things that AI in a video game can work with well.

There's a game called AI War, by Arcen games, which breaks that issue. It's an RTS (but you can pause and give orders, which is good because you often have like 80 separate battlefields that are all running at the same time), but there's no competitive mode... it's purely you VS the AI... but the difficulty never relents. The AI plays by different rules and even has entirely different units than you. So, it can do things you cant, but you can do things it cant. Instead of trying to mimic a human player like most strategy game AIs do, it was simply designed to play to the strengths of what the algorithms can do, making it drastically more effective. It's always fair, yet extremely devious. No matter how built up you think you are, or how far into the playthrough you are, it can and will find ways to take you down... and it will never cheat to do so. Not to mention that it allows them to do different concepts that a normal RTS game cant.

It's a BIG game, it's got a learning curve on par with Dwarf Fortress and playthroughs are VERY long and complicated, but holy heck is it brilliant. The only RTS I will actually play, since it involves an opponent that isnt dumber than a sack of hammers. I really wish more strategy game devs would try that sort of route instead of just "hey let's simulate a human player with this weird pile of algorithms that cant conceivably do that".

'zactly.

I have been playing Hearts of Iron since it has come out, which is around 20-22 years for me, but I can't remember a single game that I finished to the bitter end.
I have played it off and on over all that time.

It is the way I like to play.
My money...
My choice.

Not surprising. A single game of Hearts of Iron is loooooooooooooong.

A lot of players never finish playthroughs in grand strategy games like that one. I mean, just look at Crusader Kings or Stellaris... A 4X game feels like it takes like 5 minutes, compared to those.

 

[grommet]

There's more types of games than you could count. The only limit is the creativity of the developers. Like, strategy games for instance. Games you've played have you controlling one character... imagine commanding an entire army instead! Or maybe games that are so bloody strange that it's hard to figure out what they even are. It's anything the devs want to make. Just up to creativity.



No, even with modern games, they're all wildly different. Including graphics.

But also, the idea that you need to pay silly amounts... or even buy new consoles... just to play modern games is generally not actually true.

You have a VR-capable computer. You already have what you need to run even the most advanced modern games. And most games (not all, but most) that come out on consoles will also hit PC. Horizon: Zero Dawn, for instance? Yep, it's on PC. It's on Steam.

Also, your controller? It can be used on your PC too. I actually have a PS4 or 5 controller somewhere, but I dont have a PS4 or PS5. I bought the controllers for the PC here (but now I use an Xbox controller instead). Consoles are, in essence, extremely limited PCs with a lot of arbitrary restrictions. That's seriously all they are. For instance, I cant use my Xbox controller on a Playstation console, because they're competing products, but I can use *any* controller on my PC here.

And as far as graphics go? Well... even that isnt really how that works. The way a game looks, these days, is mostly up to the developers. Often it's a matter of, well, just how they WANT it to look. Design tools have gotten so advanced that even I, by myself, could make something that looks super realistic in full 3D and such. But am I going to do that? No, because that's not the graphical style that I like. When I make something, it wont be hyper-realistic. I COULD do it that way. But I dont want to. It just aint my style, that's all. Similarly, just because a game LOOKS hyper-realistic doesnt actually mean it's any good. There are some games that look gorgeous... but they're actually broken and generally atrocious. Never judge a book by its cover.

Even with the RTX thing. That's honestly mostly just a buzzword, in terms of how games use it. Dont get me wrong, it's a real technology, it is impressive, and it requires a graphics card capable of doing it. But in most games, you seriously are not going to ACTUALLY notice a difference between it being turned on, and it being turned off. I'm running a mega-rig PC here that can handle anything (this thing is built to render fractals, which are WAY more demanding than any game), so I can have all the RTX I want in games that support it. Heck, I use RTX when making my fractal art (when I'm feeling patient enough). But for games that actually use it? Seriously I barely notice the difference between it being off and on. A lot of publishers plaster "HOLY PUDDING POPS THIS GAME USES RTX" onto the game just to get you to buy based on that buzzword.



Well, here's the thing about this: No matter what game you play, or what type of game it is, or whether it's for beginners or experts, you still will have to learn things about it. And those things arent necessarily what you might think they are. Like, the word "consumables" sorta sounds complex in a way, but what it actually just means is "item you can use". That's all it is. Got a health potion that you can use to heal up real fast, but the potion is gone after you drank it? That's a consumable. It's simply a convenient term, that's all.

If you play something like the other games listed here, like Horizons, you will absolutely still run into concepts like that. Any game is going to require you to learn and engage with the mechanics. Even if those mechanics are ultra-simple. Even something as incredibly primitive as, say, Space Invaders (which was made in the 70s), you still have to learn how it works. If you look at that game, it's like, stone-age stuff. It was created before color screens were a thing! It's older than I am! Look at it:

View attachment 132332


But as dead simple as it was, you still had to learn the mechanics. You had to learn that hey, your ship (that thing at the bottom there) can only move left and right, you can fire straight up, and the invaders will slowly move down towards you, and if they hit the bottom, you're dead. If they shoot you, you're dead. And those 4 lumpy things can block their shots, and block yours. You can learn all of these things just by watching (or by playing it for like, 2 minutes), but still, they are mechanics you have to learn.

But the hobby as a whole is spectacularly terrible at teaching newcomers anything. Like, with Horizon, I could talk about any given mechanic in there, and they are very simple to me, but might sound like gibberish to someone new to the hobby. It's not that the mechanics are brain-meltingly complicated... it's just that the new player simply isnt used to them, and the hobby isnt making it easy to get used to them.

If you think about it, VR... which you're familiar with... is the same way. YOU are used to it. *I* am used to it. But when I go and put the headset onto someone who has never used VR before? They tend to stand there with this weird blank expression, and dont know what to do with the control thingies. Often, they wont move AT ALL for awhile, because it's so overwhelming. And when they DO start moving, trouble can happen. I mean seriously, when I introduce someone to it, I literally stand right next to them the entire time, ready to grab them in case they are about to walk into a wall or something, and also so I can help them figure out how to use the control things and whatnot... otherwise, they WILL just stand there confused. Happens every time. They arent used to VR, they arent used to the "mechanics". So they have to learn, in order to use it. Even though, in reality, it's very simple. It's just not simple TO THEM yet. But it will be, if they just learn a bit.

That's how it is with gaming, too.


Sorry, that was long, but I could talk about this stuff all day.

You are really funny

You were teaching me about marketing before. I try to remember but I think literally and I believe what advertisements tell me. I think you are right about RTX. I love the reflections but I have see YouTube videos when they show turning it on and off and I can't see difference most of the time. I do want the most realistic graphics though. I love looking at wet bricks, scuffed walls, everything that makes it look real.

I do not want to use a PC. It is hot, a lot of heat comes off it but my biggest problem is it is really hard to use. So complicated. I don't understand the messages that pop up. I get things that stop everything saying some process is trying to happen, I have no understanding of what it is saying but I have learned to click Cancel every time and then I can play. I don't understand directories, updates, which seem to be large and happen when I want to play. So hard. I just want to turn it on and play.

I can do that with the MacBook Pro but there are almost no games for it. Maybe five. But I can open a game and start playing in seconds, all ready to go and I can stop, close it and open it again later as easy as I console I am guessing. That is why I want a PS5. Also, I did not know computers came without monitors so after I bought my first PC and I was out of money I had to buy something cheap so I could use the computer. It is not nice. I want to enjoy the colors and graphics in games. My tv can do that with a PS5 I think. If I bought a better monitor I would still have to use the PC with all the problems I have with it. I am not good with technology though I think I have learned. I think I am happier with simple. So a console but I do not know what I am doing so it might be a mistake. I worry about that because it will be $500 just for the empty PS5, I would have no game even after all that money.


I waited until today, Amazon Prime Day for a discount on the PS5 but there is none. I do not know what I will do.

Thank you for all the very good information. I wish I could use my PC for gaming, I just get scared trying to figure it out.

I forgot to add, I cannot use my AirPods with my PC, they won't work. Maybe installing an internal Bluetooth but that is more money, so a consideration. That plus a new monitor is so much I wonder how if it were better than all the money for a PS5 console. I checked and I can use my AirPods with my television and there is some to do it with the PS5 but I need some attachment.

I have noticed if something is too much work I won't do it. I have a very nice Santoku Damascus kitchen knife and I keep it very sharp. But it is big and I worry about cutting myself, it rusting if I do not dry it completely, nervous when I wash it. So I use this little plastic handled Victorinox paring knife that is worn down. But super easy. So I reach for it. I do not like the hard PC though I appreciate it, it is very good.

Just opening Lies of P on the MacBook Pro is so easy I think a console would be that way so that is why I think I should get one.

 

[WhitewaterWoman]

You are really funny

You were teaching me about marketing before. I try to remember but I think literally and I believe what advertisements tell me. I think you are right about RTX. I love the reflections but I have see YouTube videos when they show turning it on and off and I can't see difference most of the time. I do want the most realistic graphics though. I love looking at wet bricks, scuffed walls, everything that makes it look real.

I do not want to use a PC. It is hot, a lot of heat comes off it but my biggest problem is it is really hard to use. So complicated. I don't understand the messages that pop up. I get things that stop everything saying some process is trying to happen, I have no understanding of what it is saying but I have learned to click Cancel every time and then I can play. I don't understand directories, updates, which seem to be large and happen when I want to play. So hard. I just want to turn it on and play.

I can do that with the MacBook Pro but there are almost no games for it. Maybe five. But I can open a game and start playing in seconds, all ready to go and I can stop, close it and open it again later as easy as I console I am guessing. That is why I want a PS5. Also, I did not know computers came without monitors so after I bought my first PC and I was out of money I had to buy something cheap so I could use the computer. It is not nice. I want to enjoy the colors and graphics in games. My tv can do that with a PS5 I think. If I bought a better monitor I would still have to use the PC with all the problems I have with it. I am not good with technology though I think I have learned. I think I am happier with simple. So a console but I do not know what I am doing so it might be a mistake. I worry about that because it will be $500 just for the empty PS5, I would have no game even after all that money.


I waited until today, Amazon Prime Day for a discount on the PS5 but there is none. I do not know what I will do.

Thank you for all the very good information. I wish I could use my PC for gaming, I just get scared trying to figure it out.

From the outside looking at you, all the things you have learned, difficult things, it seems out of character for you to be afraid of figuring something out. BUT, I get it. Every single time I am learning something new, I am certain I am too stupid or too slow to learn it. And I also have people telling me, look at all you have accomplished! But that doesn’t matter, does it? So, I’ll just say, I am sure you can learn it. It just may take a while. And if you choose to drop it an do something else, that is okay too.

 

[grommet]

From the outside looking at you, all the things you have learned, difficult things, it seems out of character for you to be afraid of figuring something out. BUT, I get it. Every single time I am learning something new, I am certain I am too stupid or too slow to learn it. And I also have people telling me, look at all you have accomplished! But that doesn’t matter, does it? So, I’ll just say, I am sure you can learn it. It just may take a while. And if you choose to drop it an do something else, that is okay too.

Thank you very much. You made me feel good.

 

[grommet]

There's more types of games than you could count. The only limit is the creativity of the developers. Like, strategy games for instance. Games you've played have you controlling one character... imagine commanding an entire army instead! Or maybe games that are so bloody strange that it's hard to figure out what they even are. It's anything the devs want to make. Just up to creativity.



No, even with modern games, they're all wildly different. Including graphics.

But also, the idea that you need to pay silly amounts... or even buy new consoles... just to play modern games is generally not actually true.

You have a VR-capable computer. You already have what you need to run even the most advanced modern games. And most games (not all, but most) that come out on consoles will also hit PC. Horizon: Zero Dawn, for instance? Yep, it's on PC. It's on Steam.

Also, your controller? It can be used on your PC too. I actually have a PS4 or 5 controller somewhere, but I dont have a PS4 or PS5. I bought the controllers for the PC here (but now I use an Xbox controller instead). Consoles are, in essence, extremely limited PCs with a lot of arbitrary restrictions. That's seriously all they are. For instance, I cant use my Xbox controller on a Playstation console, because they're competing products, but I can use *any* controller on my PC here.

And as far as graphics go? Well... even that isnt really how that works. The way a game looks, these days, is mostly up to the developers. Often it's a matter of, well, just how they WANT it to look. Design tools have gotten so advanced that even I, by myself, could make something that looks super realistic in full 3D and such. But am I going to do that? No, because that's not the graphical style that I like. When I make something, it wont be hyper-realistic. I COULD do it that way. But I dont want to. It just aint my style, that's all. Similarly, just because a game LOOKS hyper-realistic doesnt actually mean it's any good. There are some games that look gorgeous... but they're actually broken and generally atrocious. Never judge a book by its cover.

Even with the RTX thing. That's honestly mostly just a buzzword, in terms of how games use it. Dont get me wrong, it's a real technology, it is impressive, and it requires a graphics card capable of doing it. But in most games, you seriously are not going to ACTUALLY notice a difference between it being turned on, and it being turned off. I'm running a mega-rig PC here that can handle anything (this thing is built to render fractals, which are WAY more demanding than any game), so I can have all the RTX I want in games that support it. Heck, I use RTX when making my fractal art (when I'm feeling patient enough). But for games that actually use it? Seriously I barely notice the difference between it being off and on. A lot of publishers plaster "HOLY PUDDING POPS THIS GAME USES RTX" onto the game just to get you to buy based on that buzzword.



Well, here's the thing about this: No matter what game you play, or what type of game it is, or whether it's for beginners or experts, you still will have to learn things about it. And those things arent necessarily what you might think they are. Like, the word "consumables" sorta sounds complex in a way, but what it actually just means is "item you can use". That's all it is. Got a health potion that you can use to heal up real fast, but the potion is gone after you drank it? That's a consumable. It's simply a convenient term, that's all.

If you play something like the other games listed here, like Horizons, you will absolutely still run into concepts like that. Any game is going to require you to learn and engage with the mechanics. Even if those mechanics are ultra-simple. Even something as incredibly primitive as, say, Space Invaders (which was made in the 70s), you still have to learn how it works. If you look at that game, it's like, stone-age stuff. It was created before color screens were a thing! It's older than I am! Look at it:

View attachment 132332


But as dead simple as it was, you still had to learn the mechanics. You had to learn that hey, your ship (that thing at the bottom there) can only move left and right, you can fire straight up, and the invaders will slowly move down towards you, and if they hit the bottom, you're dead. If they shoot you, you're dead. And those 4 lumpy things can block their shots, and block yours. You can learn all of these things just by watching (or by playing it for like, 2 minutes), but still, they are mechanics you have to learn.

But the hobby as a whole is spectacularly terrible at teaching newcomers anything. Like, with Horizon, I could talk about any given mechanic in there, and they are very simple to me, but might sound like gibberish to someone new to the hobby. It's not that the mechanics are brain-meltingly complicated... it's just that the new player simply isnt used to them, and the hobby isnt making it easy to get used to them.

If you think about it, VR... which you're familiar with... is the same way. YOU are used to it. *I* am used to it. But when I go and put the headset onto someone who has never used VR before? They tend to stand there with this weird blank expression, and dont know what to do with the control thingies. Often, they wont move AT ALL for awhile, because it's so overwhelming. And when they DO start moving, trouble can happen. I mean seriously, when I introduce someone to it, I literally stand right next to them the entire time, ready to grab them in case they are about to walk into a wall or something, and also so I can help them figure out how to use the control things and whatnot... otherwise, they WILL just stand there confused. Happens every time. They arent used to VR, they arent used to the "mechanics". So they have to learn, in order to use it. Even though, in reality, it's very simple. It's just not simple TO THEM yet. But it will be, if they just learn a bit.

That's how it is with gaming, too.


Sorry, that was long, but I could talk about this stuff all day.

Would you tell me when I should buy something or wait for the newest version?

This is a problem for me. The PS5 Pro is coming in November but that is a long time. Sometimes people on YouTube say you do not need the new things. It always seems a bad time to get an iPhone because the new one will be better and I'll feel bad with my old one, which was the better phone they told me to get. It is so hard.

What do you think, how do you know when to not worry about what is coming and buy something now?

 

[Outdated]

What do you think, how do you know when to not worry about what is coming and buy something now?

All my life I have always bought second best. Let fools with too much money keep sponsoring the latest and greatest technology, I'll buy it 6 months later when it's half the price. I never did understand fashion.

 

[grommet]

All my life I have always bought second best. Let fools with too much money keep sponsoring the latest and greatest technology, I'll buy it 6 months later when it's half the price. I never did understand fashion.

Thank you very much. That helps me a lot.

 

[saturnv]

The PS5 seems powerful enough to me. It doesn't feel like the Switch where Nintendo's games are clearly hitting the limits of the hardware. I wouldn't personally wait to buy a PS5 Pro if it happens, but I might wait for it and get a discounted regular PS5.