The Blackangel

I just think that if you're a master at every game, you can get bored easily.
 
For example: What's the point of playing with friends if I always beat them?

I have to agree - the US government always tries to police the world and this is why more and more countries don't want any help from them or to co-operate with them for that matter.

I just want to know what it is that makes the US the authority on this. So we released some documents. Woo hoo. Yippee. That doesn't mean shit for the rest of the world. We don't have any authority to tell other governments to keep their mouths shut until we say it's ok to talk. And it's not just UFO's. It's everything. It always seems like people tend to think it all starts and ends with the authority of the US. Even though I'm American, I just don't get it.
 
 

That's for damn sure. That big bastard that's constantly hunting you throughout the entire place is enough to make a person leave a wet spot where they're sitting if he gets the jump on you.

I wouldn't buy fish there since the guy has crabs.
 
 

Final Fantasy XIII, it would give me a chance to shoot Snow in the face. That may no sound like the most noble or righteous of motives on paper, but trust me it is.

Drawing. I can't even draw a half decent stick figure. I love to try, but everything I come up with looks like something an infant would come up with.

Nope. I would never want to get perfect in every game. That will surely lower the interest of game. The main excitement of a game is to start from scratch and learn each and every tactics of the game. I know it takes time, but surely it pumps up my adrenaline.

Totally understandable and I agree completely - aging sucks. It's a good thing I still look extremely young for my age. It's only the somewhat receding hairline that kinda makes people realize I'm older than 25.

I would say zombie. Robots can easily repair and rebuild their forces, and they are harder to kill. Think Terminator situation. Zombies, however, all you need is a sharp sword and a good sidearm, and you should be fine.

Drawing. I can't even draw a half decent stick figure. I love to try, but everything I come up with looks like something an infant would come up with.

Beach all the way. All the reasons you mentioned and more. I love the beach.

There's no force wielded by man nor God that will convince me (With the exception of puzzle games, kid's/educational games and some forms of strategy and platformer. Multiplayer is also an obvious exception to this as well.) that a game having one difficulty setting is a good thing. People have the right to play games the way they want to, but there's more to it than that.
 
I can't think of many games with one difficulty that were too easy, at least not recently, but the flaw with them is obvious. With the exception of interactive narratives like Life is Strange or a Tell-tale game, a game with no challenge has no reason to exist. If there's no challenge, there's no tension and the gameplay is almost completely pointless and will inevitably get boring very quickly.
 
Games that are made to be hard with no alternant difficulty settings are no better. Take Demon's Souls, a game veteran members may know I despise. I despise it not because it's hard, but because it's cheep, but that's another rant and not the important part here. A side effect of the obsession with difficulty lead to an RPG with a dull colour palate, uninspired design, little story that was impossible to get immersed in anyway because one spent so much time repeating the gameplay. The gameplay itself was tedious and with controls that deliberately crippled the player and the game, in it's infinite arrogance, wouldn't even let you pause, all to support a completely pointless online mechanic. The game became comprised in other aspects because of how From Software obsessed with just making a game as difficult as they could and the fans let them get away with it because they did just that.
 
The game's fans can't admit any flaws in the game or it's sister franchises in Dark Souls and Bloodborne because the game met the low bar that it set for itself. It's hard. Well done From Software, 10/10 obviously. I've been literally kicked of forums and communities that weren't "Soul's" focused just for criticizing the games. For a fanbase that takes such pride it's virility and how they are gods among gamers they really can't take criticism and far to quickly cry to moderators (I hate moderators ). Having difficulty settings that are designed for people who wish to explore the game world, design, graphic, music, narrative, basically everything else other than challenge forces game dev's to focus on those elements instead of being distracted by making a game as difficult (or indeed, as easy) as possible.
 
The question I put forward is, what if From Software has made the game with multiple difficulty options in mind? I believe they would have spread thier focus so other areas of the game that wouldn't have been let down. Better story elements, better design, better controls, better music, better... just better. So I think you see why I believe multiple difficulty options make games better. If Demon's Solus had multiple difficulty options the challenge wouldn't have been lost. All those "Git Gut" pricks would have to do is turn the difficulty up and it would better as the game mechanics wouldn't have have so cheep and cryptic by design.
 
My least favourite thing it does is the effect it has on people. People can get so arrogant when they master a game that the loose sight of what gaming is meant to be. Few people are better people when they get to that kind of level. They mostly just lord over others and don't offer constructive advice at all. Soul's fans are, by far, the worst. You can't look for advice on a related forum, reddit or social media on these kinds of games without encountering some extreme toxicity and it's the games own obsession with how hard it is that's the route cause. "Git Gut" has even become a traditional meme to dismiss other people seeking advice. I'm not painting every Soul's fan with the same brush here, there are just as many if not more perfectly nice and civilised people out there who play those games, but the assholes are loud and unavoidable, so that community should be avoided.

We hit the member count. At the time I'm writing this there are 12,005 registered members. We're at 69.3k posts, so there's still a way to go on that one.
But I'm working on it!

Now that we're starting to come out of the pandemic, will you be able to start the auctions in the Bid For Rewards board again?

True, but if you take care of it, and know how to repair it, they can last much longer than people give them credit for. I've repaired dozens of NES and SNES systems over the years.
2 years of electronics taught me how to troubleshoot and repair damaged electronics. When my systems start to malfunction, I look into them to figure out what went wrong, and can usually fix it easily. Typically it's a resistor that burned out, or a chip pin that became unsoldered from the board. Easy fixes, and the system runs like new.

I would tell the investors they just have to wait and that they don't get to set a deadline. I would have my employees work their best at games, and pay them a fair amount. They would get overtime if they decided to stay late to continue working on the game they were assigned to. They would do a 9-5 M-F. If they wanted overtime they could come in on the weekends by their choice. They could stay past 5:00 by their choice if they wanted to. After the game was completed, I would have a team of testers whose sole job was to play the game and document any bugs or broken issues with the game. Report it to the developers, and then have the developers work on the game to fix the issues. When the testers play it and give it the green light, then the game would be released to stores to buy.

I would think this should be something that the parents choose for their families and not something that any government should impose. Yes, children's brains and health are at risk if they are constantly are glued to a video game. But parents should be the ones who step in and set boundaries.

I carry a .357 magnum when I go out, and will use it if I have no choice. Otherwise, it stays holstered on my hip. I always keep one in arms reach. Right now I have my newest gun right beside me. It's a laser sighted .380. It's compact, but accurate and will get the point across if required.

A hammock. They are so comfortable, that I could live in one. I have a sky chair at the moment, but nowhere to hang it. 😢

I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but the reason I play games for so long is because I’m in a wheelchair and on disability. I have nothing but empty time to fill, and games do the trick. I’m stuck sitting on my fat ass all day. But I don’t only play games. I do use my time productively for a couple hours. I’m using Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish at the moment. But I’m still sitting at the same desk that I game on. Very little movement. I have to have my girl exercise my legs because I don’t have the strength to do it myself.
But luckily, I know when it’s time to get off the computer. When I get so bored I want to strangle myself, it’s time to shut down.