Demon's Souls
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
Y'know, just from reading all the idiotic things Atkinson has said, I'm half-tempted to send him an e-mail now and rub his own stupidity in his face from half a world away. Of course, I don't know how well that'd go over.
Good article. And if it was a joke, then I applaud you. I was well and truly had.
I can totally see the point of the fine line between challenging and just provoking frustration, and seriously, varying difficulty levels can't be that hard to put in to a game can they?
I can totally see the point of the fine line between challenging and just provoking frustration, and seriously, varying difficulty levels can't be that hard to put in to a game can they?
And now I get to email Michael Atkinson the entire Offended page from Encyclopedia Dramatica, good times.
Very good article Yahtzee, I always agreed that there is a fine line between a reasonable challenge and just making the game harder to purposely frustrate the player. I'm sorry to hear about all the douchebags that emailed you, some fanboys don't know when to sympathize with the reviewer.
Also that is a big bummer for Shattered Memories and the other Feb '10 releases.
Lastly, LOL at Michael Atkinson's email, he's probably going to get overspammed within the next few days.
Also that is a big bummer for Shattered Memories and the other Feb '10 releases.
Lastly, LOL at Michael Atkinson's email, he's probably going to get overspammed within the next few days.
ahaha, I am, in fact, quite proud of my letter:Yahtzee Croshaw said:
Subject: Legal Question on Acquiring Public-Affairs Permit
Greetings Mr. Atkinson,
I was wondering what the legal process would be for reserving a large area on public property in order to hold a community event. This year, the C.F.L.D.C will be hosting a rousing book-burning on the lawn of city hall. Coincidentally we will also be going through several works of world literature and drawing giant black Xes on anything that might make someone feel uncomfortable. We will then proceed to censor all other great works of cinema and video gaming and make sure that all incidences of violence, sex, or creativity are replaced by unicorns and rainbows. After all, how would children know about violence if we never TELL them? This is why times in the past pre-videogaming were so idyllic (Ah, to live again in the halcyon days of the dark ages, world wars, and near-nuclear annihilation!) This has clearly been shown to drastically reduce all manner of violent crime and deviant behavior in society (please ignore all those fancy "Scientists" and "Statisticians" in their ivory towers whose libertine "Scientific Methods" of study have found no such link whatsoever and claimed the media is merely scapegoating as a way of avoiding any analysis of serious sociological issues.) I applaud your continued resistance against public opinion and the concept of free speech. It is good to see that someone at least cares about the messages we pass on to our children
Sincerely,
- Walter A. Silveira
Chairman of the C.F.L.D.C (Censorship and Fascist Luddite Douchebags Committee)
P.S. Don't you just LOVE the game Yahtzee?
I think there's something major here - the difference between being hard, and wasting the player's time. This is actually something I've written about recently: Test Skills, Not Patience: Challenge, Punishment, and Learning [http://www.pixelpoppers.com/2009/11/test-skills-not-patience-challenge.html]
The way I see it, the fun hard part is 'challenge' and the time-wastey part is 'punishment.' They are distinct and where we get into trouble is when people just lump them together as 'difficulty.' Yahtzee's IWBTG example is a perfect illustration of high challenge with low punishment - fun - compared against Demon's Souls high challenge with high punishment - frustrating.
And as long as I'm plugging my own blog, I'll mention that I also wrote recently about the accessibility issue and the importance of having an "easy" mode: In Praise of Easy: Lowering the Barrier to Entry [http://www.pixelpoppers.com/2009/11/in-praise-of-easy-lowering-barrier-to.html]
The way I see it, the fun hard part is 'challenge' and the time-wastey part is 'punishment.' They are distinct and where we get into trouble is when people just lump them together as 'difficulty.' Yahtzee's IWBTG example is a perfect illustration of high challenge with low punishment - fun - compared against Demon's Souls high challenge with high punishment - frustrating.
And as long as I'm plugging my own blog, I'll mention that I also wrote recently about the accessibility issue and the importance of having an "easy" mode: In Praise of Easy: Lowering the Barrier to Entry [http://www.pixelpoppers.com/2009/11/in-praise-of-easy-lowering-barrier-to.html]
I can't wait to see how Atkinson responds to this one...probably by trying to run Yahtzee out of Australia.
Stop FUCKING complaining about the link not working! If it's not working - it will work! Your not the first one to notice and not the first one to say ''WTF? ME kant reeed teh artikle!''.
Sound's like the only problem to the game is that it does not have any checkpoints. Well, then sound's like there's no problem at all with the game. You don't have enough time to play the game, we do.
Sound's like the only problem to the game is that it does not have any checkpoints. Well, then sound's like there's no problem at all with the game. You don't have enough time to play the game, we do.
Boo Hoo, you had time constraints. Other reviewers, who had the same time constraints that you did, like the game and got pretty far into it. I am not going to complain about the difficulty as well because you are right: the game punishes your being stupid.
Here is the thing. Being a reviewer you have the freedom to choose which games you play. Your bias towards jrpgs is pretty well known and that alone tells me you should have passed on this game and play something else. There could have been other games that you might have reviewed that you would have enjoyed a lot more than this one. You did not have to play the game. But you gave into peer pressure and you hate your self for it.
Here is the thing. Being a reviewer you have the freedom to choose which games you play. Your bias towards jrpgs is pretty well known and that alone tells me you should have passed on this game and play something else. There could have been other games that you might have reviewed that you would have enjoyed a lot more than this one. You did not have to play the game. But you gave into peer pressure and you hate your self for it.
I know Yatzhee publishing Atkinson email presents a good temptation to use it, I just want you to try to be polite. After all, if there is something a zealot like Atkinson doesn't need is further "proof" that gamers are an inmature, childish, vocal bunch of people.
I want only 2 things from demons soul. The option to make traps not 1shot you all the time for anything that one shots me pisses me off because I don't even have a chance to fight it. The other thing is an option to tell the saving feature to fuck off because it's always saving and is the most likely cause of my ps3 hdd needing to be reformatted.