Get Out of Your Comfort Zone for 2016

Neurotic Void Melody

Bound to escape
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Jul 15, 2013
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Watch Predestination, goddamm it! It is original enough to stay with you for a very long time. And it subverts any and all expectations you could gather from the box art or synopsis. As for games? Eh i dunno, don't trust me there, i prefer blandness over badness because it gives me an unoffensive moment to comprehend the complexities of my downward spiral of isolated insanity. Good thing i don't get paid to come up with fresh criticisms on a regular basis! ;)

Lastly, has anybody played Dogchild? It appeared on PSn a few days back, yet i cannot find even one English review of it. Only the 5 star rating on the dashboard which is about as reliable as gamestop ratings. It is a complete mystery to me. There are only vague screenshots, no trailer, no demo and a lacking description. Bloody Psn store is a joke. My point mostly being it is a complete mystery, therefore out of any comfort zone. So somebody richer (and who's job is more suited) than me should play it.
 

Silence

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Just to make a completely pointless point. Episode 4 of Star Wars was kinda forgettable.

So ... damn the Star Wars hipsters? ... I think I'm kinda missing the point here.

Undertale ... goddamnit, I didn't even want to write something about it again, didn't do anything comfort-zone wise for me at all. But that's fine too, it's a mediocre game for me, and that's fine, too.
At the same time, I had pretty much the exact same experience with Dark Souls as Yahtzee. So hooray for generalizing!
 

Freedom153

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No matter how much the installments improve, no matter how much a seventh sequel boasts of 'recapturing' the original, there can only ever be one moment of discovery.
Even if Yahtzee doesn't like television, the same can be said there. For any sequel series, you already know the world, and have certain expectations of what will be delivered, so unless you do a really good job, you end up with good to meh at best(The Legend of Korra), and horrible at worst(the new Muppets).

Silentpony said:
So does this mean Yahtzee is going to be playing RTS games, Smash Bros, and Space Marine? Or by 'leave our comfort zone' does he mean for us to come join him in his comfort zome and just sit quietly while he explains why his views are inherently correct and that he need not take any risks of his own, because that might ruin the facade of expertise he cultivates?
To be fair, if he were to try out any new RTS games right now, he'd probably find only games that long time RTS players themselves despise or find huge flaws in. From what I've looked around and speaking from what I know, there aren't any Westwoods of game development left, or even any early day EA Westwood takeover and C&C Generals franchises left. As a whole, Total War's gone down hill ever since Medieval 2, the footage I've watched of Attila showing the game to be soulless.

So if you read this and are choosing things to get out of your comfort zone with, Yahtzee, as far as I know, don't bother with RTS games, period.
 

Barbas

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Oct 28, 2013
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Holy shit, he's actually been reading the comments. Well, possibly.

All these popular franchises, your Halos and your Tomb Raiders and your Star Wars, there was a time when they weren't part of the comfort zone. There was something about the time we were first introduced to the franchise that made us want to stay there. Well, unfortunately, that first, energizing experience that bought our loyalty will never happen again within the same franchise. No matter how much the installments improve, no matter how much a seventh sequel boasts of 'recapturing' the original, there can only ever be one moment of discovery. How many did we miss today?
Very well put, this took me back to that magical moment when I finished Dragon Age: Origins for the first time. There were a few minutes of silence, if I recall right, before I got up and walked out of the room to find something else to do. It wasn't revolutionary, it retreaded old ground in quite a few places, but I'd never seen a fantasy setting that engrossing before. I wondered whether this was how my friend felt when he played Baldur's Gate for the first time.
 

CaitSeith

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Johnny Novgorod said:
I agree with Yahtzee, but doesn't Undertale belong to another kind of comfort zone? The little indie game that breaks the fourth wall by addressing player agency?
Maybe, but being crowdfunded kinda sets it apart (even if it got only about $50,000). About a year and a half ago, the creator made a demo and basically told to the Internet: If you like what you see, donate and I'll do more of it. Needless to say, people liked it. That's a lot more than it can be said about other little indie games that breaks the fourth wall by addressing player agency, like... uh... do you know any them?
 

Arnoxthe1

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Dec 25, 2010
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See, that's the thing about Undertale.

Undertale Disliker: You are, without doubt, the worst RPG I have ever heard of.
Undertale: ... But you HAVE heard of me.

Like it or not, the game has certainly gotten everyone to think. Something that wouldn't have happened if they played Star Wars Cashcow #22 (AKA Battlefront) or Carl on Duty #4024. And it DID get people out of their comfort zones. And that, needless to say, is amazing.
 

CaitSeith

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Silentpony said:
So does this mean Yahtzee is going to be playing RTS games, Smash Bros, and Space Marine? Or by 'leave our comfort zone' does he mean for us to come join him in his comfort zome and just sit quietly while he explains why his views are inherently correct and that he need not take any risks of his own, because that might ruin the facade of expertise he cultivates?

Also I went ahead a watched an Undertale Lets Play after the vitriol I received when I said Yahtzee was just baiting Indie gamers in his Top 5.
And I will admit if my only experience with RPGs were the Pokemon series and Skyrim, then yeah Undertale does a lot of new things. If on the other hand I had played FF6, FF7, Chrono Cross and maybe half a dozen other 90s RPGs...then no. No, Undertale doesn't really do anything unique or new that hadn't already been done 20+ years ago.
I'm sorry, but only watching an Undertale Lets Play is not enough to make an informed opinion about how unique or new Undertale isn't. Unless of course, if you saw the genocide run, where Undertale adresses to the LPs audience (something that no 90s RPG did, because LPs didn't exist back then).
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Freedom153 said:
But Yahtzee does retro-reviews. Just get Dawn of War. It's considered a fantastic RTS, and its 40k, both of which are far outside his comfort zones.
Thus it'd show he has the courage of his convictions.
 

Cowabungaa

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Johnny Novgorod said:
I agree with Yahtzee, but doesn't Undertale belong to another kind of comfort zone? The little indie game that breaks the fourth wall by addressing player agency?
Which isn't really a comfort zone in the grand scheme of things. Barely anything has really done that, especially for the gaming audience 'at large'. It does quite a little more than breaking the fourth wall and addressing player agency though. I haven't played it, but seen enough to acknowledge that.

But in the end, people have different comfort zones to step out of. It could be the RPG fanatic who suddenly tries Rocket League, the film fan who decides to explore theater, the sci-fi reader who takes a look at poetry, someone who only eats European food deciding to try out a traditional Korean BBQ place. You name it.

In the end the most important message is this; we live in an incredibly plural world, and one of the greatest strengths of our society is that we have an access to that plurality more than ever before. And exploring that plurality, if only by experimenting with different videogame genres, could be a great boon to us in all kinds of ways.
 

The Enquirer

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Silentpony said:
So does this mean Yahtzee is going to be playing RTS games, Smash Bros, and Space Marine? Or by 'leave our comfort zone' does he mean for us to come join him in his comfort zome and just sit quietly while he explains why his views are inherently correct and that he need not take any risks of his own, because that might ruin the facade of expertise he cultivates?
I think you've misinterpreted what was said, quite drastically actually. Smash Brothers, a game I recall he's reviewed in the past, hasn't exactly done anything revolutionary to its mechanics since the last one. While one may argue that at high levels of play certain mechanics may have been changed, added or removed, it still plays almost identically to the previous entries in the series. If you're not a fan of the concept of RTS games, changing how some sub mechanics work won't change that, and the same can be said about the FPS genre. That said it's still entirely possible to try a game in a genre you disliked and find yourself enjoying it.

Also in reference to the last part of your statement he addresses people having different views from him in the article.
Maybe you played it and didn't have the same experience, and that's fine. Everything's subjective.
The way I'm interpreting what is being said is to try something new looking to you. Not something you disliked previously.

OT: This is probably one of my personal favorite EPs, particularly this bit:
...there can only ever be one moment of discovery. How many did we miss today?
 

EyeReaper

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Thyunda said:
Silentpony said:
So does this mean Yahtzee is going to be playing RTS games, Smash Bros, and Space Marine? Or by 'leave our comfort zone' does he mean for us to come join him in his comfort zome and just sit quietly while he explains why his views are inherently correct and that he need not take any risks of his own, because that might ruin the facade of expertise he cultivates?

Also I went ahead a watched an Undertale Lets Play after the vitriol I received when I said Yahtzee was just baiting Indie gamers in his Top 5.
And I will admit if my only experience with RPGs were the Pokemon series and Skyrim, then yeah Undertale does a lot of new things. If on the other hand I had played FF6, FF7, Chrono Cross and maybe half a dozen other 90s RPGs...then no. No, Undertale doesn't really do anything unique or new that hadn't already been done 20+ years ago.
So I assume this is the part where you present to us a bullet-point list of all the things Undertale is said to have innovated, but didn't - and you'll provide examples of these 90s RPGs that do it?
What exactly did Undertale innovate? I can think of two things:
A) The whole "We know what you did even if you don't save/we know when you save" thing, which was honestly the only part of the game that wowed me, even though the moments where this comes into play are too few and far between
and
B) the bullet hell-like combat, that (subjectively) is boring and time wasting.

Everything else seems pretty standard. None of the major players are anything new (Outside of Flowey, obviously), heck, Alphys and Papyrus's characters are pretty cliche at this point. It's hardly the first game to break the 4th wall or go "You know how in other video games, this happens? That's hilarious!"

I kinda figured that was the entire point of Undertale honestly. It doesn't do a whole lot of new things, but the things it does do, they're done very well. Except the combat. That was shit.
 

Kingjackl

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I had this argument with a friend recently when I was trying to get him to give Undertale a go. He kept telling me he wasn't interested; "I don't care", "I don't like those kinds of games", "I don't like the graphics", etc. Now, the last point is kind of hard to argue with, but I figured he'd heard all the talk about the game, the comparisons to Earthbound (which neither of us were interested in) and was put off by it.

I ended up showing him the Papyrus boss fight. I think that particular fight is a good showcase for the game at it's best; it's early on so not too spoilery, it shows off the gameplay as being more skill-based than a traditional turn-based RPG, it gives an idea of the sense of humour, both in how it subverts expectations (eg the 'blue attack') and it's comic timing ("you're meeting all my standards!"), and it has catchy music, which is one of Undertale's great strengths. He watched it, then came back to me saying "Ok, that was interesting. I get it now".

My point is, I can understand why people get annoyed when games develop these kind of followings. Yahtzee touched on it in his 'Dark Souls' review as well; when all you're hearing is people saying "It's really good, but I can't tell you why" or communicating in their own riddle language of memes, it's easy to want to distance yourself from it. It's classic hype backlash, and the fanbase can be partly to blame for it. It's much better to show why something is good and explain it in terms they'll appreciate, rather than trying to be vague and pretentious.
 

fix-the-spade

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Well I'm going to be flying out my comfort zone soon.

After four and a bit years I'm at Colonel 99 in BF3, one more level to go and I get my shit bucket. I'm a get the bucket and have it mounted on a plinth...

...and then I'll be selling my PC to help fund this year's big ass trip to Canada. Dunno how I'm going to manage without any gaming, it's been a long time since I had no gaming hardware at all to hand.
 

Sniper Team 4

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Thanatos2k said:
The thing with Star Wars is they needed to put us back in the comfort zone after the prequels. They literally could not make any other film at this juncture than the one they made.

Now, that excuse is gone for the next one. If they make a carbon copy of Empire then they deserve all criticism.
My thoughts exactly. I very much enjoyed The Force Awakens--it felt like Star Wars to me once again, and I was happy to feel that sense of excitement and wonder once more.
But if the next two films are like that, are just a retelling instead of a new telling, then I'm going to have a problem. I'm already worried about a new Star Wars film every year until the end of time, but if they show that they can't really tell new stories even for the main movies, oh dear...


Anyway, on to the games! I like my comfort games. I want to get an Xbox One just so I can play Halo 5 and Gears of War 4--but I need more than that. I like new games too, ones that slip under the hype radar and don't make it onto the main store shelves.
For instance, I was browsing through Amazon the other night just for fun and came across a bunch of games coming out that I'd heard nothing about. Not even a squeak. Granted, a good deal of them are Japanese anime style ones that would probably make Yahtzee's brain scream and die, but two of them have caught my eye: Nights of Azure and Omega Quintet. I intend to check both of these games out because there's been no talk about them.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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The Enquirer said:
So wait, when it comes to games we should be playing, we need to step outside of our comfort zone and play games/genres we normally wouldn't to better expand out horizons, preferably those Yahtzee already likes.

But when it comes to games/genres Yahtzee doesn't normally play, its "What part of he doesn't do RTS don't you understand?!"

Don't you think that's kinda an absurdest attitude to take? I'm sure he would love some individual RTS games if he gave them a chance, but reading his little piece it seems to me he won't be expanding his horizon. Rather we need to expand our horizon to include games he likes.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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Silentpony said:
Don't you think that's kinda an absurdest attitude to take? I'm sure he would love some individual RTS games if he gave them a chance, but reading his little piece it seems to me he won't be expanding his horizon. Rather we need to expand our horizon to include games he likes.
No. Comfort zone and not liking something are not the same thing. Staying in your comfort zone means not knowing if you'd like things that are outside of it. Take me for example. I don't know if I'd like base-jumping. But I'm scared of it so I'm gonna stay in my comfort zone on the ground where it's relatively safe.
 

Gul

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EyeReaper said:
What exactly did Undertale innovate? I can think of two things:
A) The whole "We know what you did even if you don't save/we know when you save" thing, which was honestly the only part of the game that wowed me, even though the moments where this comes into play are too few and far between
and
B) the bullet hell-like combat, that (subjectively) is boring and time wasting.

Everything else seems pretty standard. None of the major players are anything new (Outside of Flowey, obviously), heck, Alphys and Papyrus's characters are pretty cliche at this point. It's hardly the first game to break the 4th wall or go "You know how in other video games, this happens? That's hilarious!"

I kinda figured that was the entire point of Undertale honestly. It doesn't do a whole lot of new things, but the things it does do, they're done very well. Except the combat. That was shit.
There's also the whole diplomacy thing and being able to go through the entire game without killing anyone. There are plenty of games that have done the latter, sure, but the only one that's done the former is Shin Megami Tensei, and it was kind of mashed-together and not very well done back then: you basically try to diplomance them a bit in a fairly generic and repetitive manner, and if you fail it's lost forever. Giving every single enemy a minigame of their own is definitely new.

And, for that matter, I'm pretty sure that making every single random encounter, down to the lowliest mook, an individual with at least a little bit of personality, is also new. Can't think of a single other game that's ever done that, at least.
 

Callate

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I don't necessarily think there's anything inherently wrong with making comfortable increments on excellent games and providing customers with solid entertainment that doesn't do anything wildly different and challenging. Nor with trying to re-jigger the pieces of various things that worked in the past, fuse them into a whole, and make something better than the sum of its parts.

...You just can't do that forever. You shouldn't make that your long-term business model. Of all the people who got into making video games, I'd hazard a strong guess that very few of them did so with the primary thought "Well, this will be a safe and consistent paycheck for rote work that I can more or less do in my sleep." (Which is good, as anyone who thought that is probably getting royally screwed by the expand-and-contract pattern that seems to dominate AAA game publishing these days.)

It might well be great to cut your teeth on a successful franchise while you're still learning the ropes, maybe (if you're extremely lucky) even be the guy whose suggestion got taken to the top and included in the latest iteration. But if you're still doing nothing but that franchise five years later, that little spark inside you that said you were going to be a creator, you were going to be an artist, has to be weeping bitter tears.

And when the majority of your team reaches that point, you've got a sure recipe for slipping from "comfortably good" to "contemptibly mediocre". Or worse.
 

Silentpony_v1legacy

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Adam Jensen said:
Actually no. A comfort zone is a state of mind where you feel at ease, where you don't feel stressed or are familiar with what a going on.

If you have certain genres you play, that is your comfort zone. Genres not in your comfort zone are, by definition, not in your comfort zone. So playing a genre you don't like for the sake of you not liking that genre and wishing to give it another try IS going outside your comfort zone.

So not only is it a absurdist attitude, but in telling others to go out of their zones while adamantly refusing to leave theirs we can add hypocritical too.