Unpopular Opinions: The Thread

[TheoAllen]

On paper RPG, hit chance means to create an unexpected narrative due to hit/miss. Combat would be the least of my focus. In Video games, hit chance is mostly not fun.

I don't care about realism.

 

[AphoticAmaranth]

I wonder…for those who don’t like variance in damage, how do you feel about not seeing the damage numbers and actual HP values?

It depends on the game. Personally, I often find it rather frustrating, especially if the enemy/boss is a damage sponge which takes forever to kill and I have no idea if they're gonna die within the next minute or the next hour. Some games do manage to pull this off well enough, though. As with everything else, it's all about execution.

Do you just play? Or are you a number cruncher who will do whatever they can to try to figure out the DPS (Damage Per Second) and such?

If it's turn based and requires strategy, maybe. Common example would be in the Fire Emblem games; while it does show a preview of the expected damage output before committing to an attack, there's no such preview for when your opponent would attack you on their turn. So yeah, sometimes I might do some quick math to decide if it would be safe for me to put my guy in enemy range to try and bait them out, but nothing too complicated. Basically a calculated risk I guess?

And I will end on that thought with another unpopular opinion.

If I get the impression that combat just boils down to math…I stop enjoying playing. I want to remain blissfully ignorant of the math. Because…MATH!

Doesn't like, every good turn based combat system boil down to math, though? Besides, even without directly including variance, there can still be some variance in the form of critical hits, misses, passive procs, and so on...

 

[ZombieKidzRule]

@RCXGaming I apologize if any of my posts have come across as I expect others to conform to my personal preferences and I’m sorry if you have found my expression of personal preferences in games to be aggravating. That certainly wasn’t my intent.

I realize that I am the outlier in certain opinions, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy or even appreciate games that are outside of those preferences.

I fully understand that realism isn’t for everyone. In my previous post, I was simply trying to offer a rationalization of why randomness or variance may exist and may be logical. In no way was I intending to try to persuade anyone that my opinion is correct.

Clearly my post offended you and again, that is unfortunate and I apologize. Kind of why this thread is the unpopular opinion thread.

@AphoticAmaranth I also realize that all games of this type come down to math and numbers. Which is why I worded that statement, perhaps poorly, that if I notice that is what is happening, it is no longer enjoyable.

I have played plenty of games where the math and numbers has never crossed my mind.

Regardless, again, I usually try very hard not to word my posts as fact, when it is opinion, or as criticisms of others’ choices rather than my own gaming preferences.

For any instance where that has happened, I apologize and I will try to be more cautious of my wording in the future.

Kindest regards and happy game developing!

 

[RCXGaming]

@RCXGaming I apologize if any of my posts have come across as I expect others to conform to my personal preferences and I’m sorry if you have found my expression of personal preferences in games to be aggravating. That certainly wasn’t my intent.

I realize that I am the outlier in certain opinions, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy or even appreciate games that are outside of those preferences.

I fully understand that realism isn’t for everyone. In my previous post, I was simply trying to offer a rationalization of why randomness or variance may exist and may be logical. In no way was I intending to try to persuade anyone that my opinion is correct.

Clearly my post offended you and again, that is unfortunate and I apologize. Kind of why this thread is the unpopular opinion thread.

@AphoticAmaranth I also realize that all games of this type come down to math and numbers. Which is why I worded that statement, perhaps poorly, that if I notice that is what is happening, it is no longer enjoyable.

I have played plenty of games where the math and numbers has never crossed my mind.

Regardless, again, I usually try very hard not to word my posts as fact, when it is opinion, or as criticisms of others’ choices rather than my own gaming preferences.

For any instance where that has happened, I apologize and I will try to be more cautious of my wording in the future.

Kindest regards and happy game developing!

Shucks, I'm not offended. I can't get angry at you, cause you're one of the coolest and nicest people on the forum.

I'm always overly articulate when it comes to sharing counterpoints to make sure they're strong enough to stand on their own. If anything I was hoping you would understand my point even if you didn't agree, and to help you see the other side of things.

 

[Kanori24]

Okay I got one. While I believe that a good emotional story is of high value, some games are just over the top depressing and dark. I remember playing through The Last of Us with my room mate, and dang, that game was just misery-inflicting. I was so glad when we finished it. Great gameplay, tho. It's just one example of games I've played or tried that seemed like they had but one goal to depress me.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

It actually can really diminish the impact of a story as well. There’s a very good reason why examples of story pacing resemble rolling hills instead of a linear path.

If you have a setting where only 100% terrible things happen to every body and everything keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse…who wants to save it? You’ve given no time to showcase anything to idealize. If you only show the world at its worst, the most valid option might me “yeah, just let the asteroid hit.”

Same goes for showcasing any interpersonal relationship. A large part of what makes bad relationships so traumatic is because it’s highly unlikely that person is always terrible; they can actually be pretty great at times!

 

[Andronius]

Oh gosh, I have SO MANY! Don't know where to start... So off the top of my head, I'd say:

Loved the TLoTR books, liked the movies (and even some video games), but HATED Amazon's Rings of Power. Changing Tolkien in any way is like when they painted clothes over the nudes in the Sistine Chapel 'cause some deemed them "too naked" LoL.

Loved The Witcher books, also the comics and videogames, but HATED Netflix's Witcher series with a PASSION. To me, Netflix's Witcher is just like the famous "restoration" of that 19th century masterpiece Ecce Homo into a hideous hellspawn (thus dubbed "worst art 'restoration' of all time").

[ https://www.britannica.com/list/5-art-restorations-gone-wrong ]

I think Henry Cavill is actually the secret identity of the real Superman, he's just not interested in saving humanity, especially after he was bullied away from The Witcher and, well, Superman.

I didn't love but didn't dislike the Harry Potter books; I find the movies entertaining, and Hogwarts Legacy doesn't seem like a crap game to me, but a title with some very respectable things (for example, the work of concept artists, char designers, animators and vfx, music, voice acting, etc.).

MMORPGs scare me, and depress me, especially those with cute fluffy mobs, or those where you have to kill tons of wildlife. What's more, I hate it when RPGs have cute monsters, like fully rabbits, smiling slimes and the like. Also hate when in videogames or anime monsters/mobs are animals, like a giant turtle (why!? ), or anthropomorphic enemies with cute faces of wolves, cats, deer, horses, etc. No!

Conversely, love games and anime in which animals, wildlife in general, are Not grinding mobs, but rare encounters, and in which monsters are either humans, really scary humanoid abominations, truly demonic monsters, so there's a reason to fight them, 'cause they're really gross evil creatures, idk, like demented ghouls, sadistic goblins (GoblinSlayer did them right) that pose an actual threat.

Oh, I also think that eating cats and dogs and dolphins and anything with capacity for feelings and empathy besides moral and physical suffering is beyond vile.

 

[RCXGaming]

MMORPGs scare me, and depress me, especially those with cute fluffy mobs, or those where you have to kill tons of wildlife. What's more, I hate it when RPGs have cute monsters, like fully rabbits, smiling slimes and the like. Also hate when in videogames or anime monsters/mobs are animals, like a giant turtle (why!? ), or anthropomorphic enemies with cute faces of wolves, cats, deer, horses, etc. No!

Conversely, love games and anime in which animals, wildlife in general, are Not grinding mobs, but rare encounters, and in which monsters are either humans, really scary humanoid abominations, truly demonic monsters, so there's a reason to fight them, 'cause they're really gross evil creatures, idk, like demented ghouls, sadistic goblins (GoblinSlayer did them right) that pose an actual threat.

I very much agree with this on a few levels.

#1: A bestiary that is just wildlife or cutesy creatures for most of it is just boring design, even if the creator goes out of their way to make "elemental" variants to make the game harder or something(?)

#2: It raises a lot of bizarre, uncomfortable questions, especially if you fight them a lot even without needing to grind. @alice_gristle played a few games like this and after bringing it up I was like about it too.

It's why for my games the monsters are explicitly unsettling or supernatural, like uncannily humanoid slime people or birdmen with petrifying eyes, etc. If anything I have missions planned where you have to save wildlife from being hurt by these guys, as the world topside is closer to our own as opposed to a typical RPG setting.

Dig deep enough though and it just gets worse and worse.

 

[alice_gristle]

@Andronius @RCXGaming I appreciate more people noticin' this! Altho, fighting and killing monstrous monsters isn't void of problems either, but Imma leave that topic for another day, I got limoncello to bottle

 

[Willibab]

Arthas did the right thing in the Culling of Stratholme.

 

[BubblegumPatty]

I don't know how unpopular of an opinion it is but I gotta get it off my chest: I really didn't like Miitopia.
It's charming, fills the rare "insert your friends/blorbos into a game" niche, and (at least in the switch port) has excellent customization.... but the gameplay is so mind-numbingly simplistic I just let the game play itself.

 

[Ms Littlefish]

There have been a lot of people dispelling the myths, but I think this is actually still pretty unpopular…but anyway…corsetry is not any more uncomfortable than today’s support garments, you can move and breathe just fine if you’re buying authentically-made items and wearing it like people throughout history actually would have worn it.

In fact…it’s way more versatile. Get a little bigger? Unlace. Get a little smaller? Lace more. Don’t need a new one. Our clothing used to have tie closures too. You could adjust the size to whatever you were on a given day. No need for “fat pants.”

Signed, just attended a ren fen wedding, lol

 

[CineadH]

I think the Sonic franchise is often unfairly criticised. (Is this unpopular?)

 

[Ms Littlefish]

I definitely don’t think all the modern games are as bad as barked online…but 2006 absolutely is that bad. “His World” is kind of a banger, tho.

 

[FrigidGaze]

I'll definitely agree with 'His World' being a banger. The Sonic games might vary INCREDIBLY in quality between each game, but the Sonic sound team almost always knocks it out of the park.

Let's just ignore the baffling soundtrack that the Sonic DS made by Bioware had. Because, uh...yeah... I still can't fathom how some of those tracks came about, haha.

 

[CineadH]

Actually you should try Sonic P-06 it's a fan remake of the 2006 game that basically.. finished the game, and it's a lot of fun. And yeah, the music is always to die for

 

[TRIDIUM]

I HATE this terrible program. I forget what it's called...something about RPG's...but what's worse is the community, I mean wow!

(Just kidding! Yuk yuk yuk)

 

[TheoAllen]

Yeah RPG Maker 95 was a terrible program. You cant run it on the modern os. The community is worse because it doesnt exists.

 

[TRIDIUM]

RPG Maker is no good for make game. 0/10 stars. Too much water. Makes you feel like a developer.

 

[FirestormNeos]

I unironically enjoy it when a singleplayer game with a singular player character has you pick a class at the beginning which determines several of the character's core abilities. Mass Effect Trilogy (and to a lesser extent, a handful of Kingdom Hearts games) my beloved. Letting you change classes mid-game is convenient if you went and picked a sh*tter, but ideally I want the intended playstyle to be "play through the entire game using just the one class" in that situation (think FF14 in that regard, where you can level every class, but it's also completely reasonable to only play and level one class for the entirety of your experience).