This is a critique of PoE but mods can't infer meaning so it got moved to Off Topic

I watched a critique of Fury Road on Youtube a while ago and it really stuck with me. It compared George Miller's style to Michael Bay's Transformers movies. The stark difference between the two was stunning. George Miller made sure the action was centered & clear so you could tell what was going on. Michael Bay, on the other hand, relied on quick cuts, awful camera angles, jerky camera movements, and threw as much shit on the screen as possible. It made the action scenes a convoluted mess. You had no idea what was going on. It really made the movies confusing and frustrating.

Anyways, I've been playing a bunch of From Software games since 3.9 came out, like Sekiro and Bloodborne. And, uh . . . Huh. Those are some pretty great boss fights, right? The action is clear and centered with attacks that are fast but telegraphed. And they don't try to overwhelm you with too much. You can really tell what's going on.

This is not a non sequitur.

[EDIT]Let's see how long this lasts. I wanted to go full scorched earth, but maybe this will be sufficient.[/EDIT]

This is not off-topic. Move it back to the Feedback forum.

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GrumpyMcElbows wrote:

This is not off-topic. Move it back to the Feedback forum.

Given that not just the title but virtually all but a sentence is unrelated you shouldn't be surprised.

I like Michael Bay films, but they're not very memorable, more like doing a keg stand - fun for the moment but devoid of any real meaning or substance.

I can still remember more about Fury Road than I could about all the Transformer movies combined.


EDIT -

I guess I should add that I haven't fought sirus yet because even in Std I lack the motivation to farm for watchstones, so I can't imagine starting from scratch anymore.

Elder/Uber Elder, Atziri/Uber and Shaper are the only memorable poe Bossfights for me given that anything else around that level is usually gated by rng/trading (not that they aren't to some degree).

Well then there's the crab, but that's just the immune phases.

It's just too bad that balancing is so heavily influenced by the wealthiest players pushing boundaries instead of the majority of the player base.

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GrumpyMcElbows wrote:

...You had no idea what was going on. ...

Just like "Fury Road!" :) (That movie sucked... Lots of forced drama, no darn story, elements just shoved in there for no discernible reason, nonsensical decisions and plot, etc.. However, that's not all Miller's fault. He had to make a "Blockbuster" out of a cold piece of crap. What else was he supposed to do?)

Here's the thing - PoE hasn't been able to escape "the flashy stuffs." It's a free game and you, the player, only have a connected interest to keep playing it if you are properly motivated. "Big 'Splosions" is part of that model. Things that make your character, the one you're supposed to be so happy with that you will pay monies to dress up, to be a complete bada$$ are there to motivate you to continue playing... and paying.

Lots of mobs to blast and chop into bits, 'splosions, blood, limbs flying all over the place... These are why you are playing. And, maybe the story, maybe an interesting setting, maybe some cool ideas for abilities and phat lewtz, etc.

Yes, there are issues with being able to tell what's going on. But, that's not a huge problem - You press the button, stuff happens, big 'splosions, "you're so cool." And, then there's this huge loot explosion and phat lewtz drop from the sky! So much stuff! So many different affixes! "EETS TREZURE!"

The problems come from the consequences of all this stuff on the screen. One big pile of black goo gets quickly overshadowed by giant 'splosions and then your character or minions steps in it and they're... dead. That is a real problem that comes from all that screen clutter being thrown in your face.

It's not the 'splosions, it's the consequences. Those have to be balanced out a bit for wholly mechanical and practical reasons. On that, I'd agree.

But, those 'splosions are still needed in the game in order to achieve its mission of attracting and keeping certain players. That eye-candy serves a purpose.

Fury Road was so feminist it actually made me sad. They should just reboot every classic with an all-female cast and be done with it.

Some games are truly action RPGs, developed with a clear understanding of both the RPG genre and of the action genre. Games where the designers obviously understand the interaction between telegraphing and human reaction time and use RPG elements to provide a limited ability to ignore said telegraphing. Such games are arguably action games first and RPGs second.

Other games call themselves ARPGs but show no particular designer understanding of or, more likely, concern for telegraphing, and thus basically are like turn-based RPGs with a ridiculously short time limit for each turn, and thus are undeserving of being called action games in the first place.

Diablo 2 was the latter, and PoE is a spiritual successor of D2. GGG, regrettably, is not From.

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ScrotieMcB wrote:

Some games are truly action RPGs, developed with a clear understanding of both the RPG genre and of the action genre. Games where the designers obviously understand the interaction between telegraphing and human reaction time and use RPG elements to provide a limited ability to ignore said telegraphing. Such games are arguably action games first and RPGs second.

Other games call themselves ARPGs but show no particular designer understanding of or, more likely, concern for telegraphing, and thus basically are like turn-based RPGs with a ridiculously short time limit for each turn, and thus are undeserving of being called action games in the first place.

Diablo 2 was the latter, and PoE is a spiritual successor of D2. GGG, regrettably, is not From.

My mates and I are old enough to remember when gaming meant "cut class, go to pool hall, play pool".

One said to me the other day, "Publishers these days just don't care that a quarter of the server population at any given time are bots. Ban the bots, and the player volume gets uncomfortably small...investors get salty..."

To borrow a phrase, modern action games are little more than CGI movies with risk management.

And like big movie producers, game companies know they have 90 minutes to sell you a concept. And they only need to catch you once - pour on enough CGI to get you to open your wallet, and they don't care what happens a month from now.

They're no longer going for any sort of long-game or retention, because there frankly isn't anything new to see after the movie is over. And if your game servers are playing host to a growing proportion of bots with every passing week, there's no reason to put effort into the lategame grinds because bots don't go "wow, that was intense! I wanna buy that as an MTX!"

There's simply not enough diehard vets for the f2p model to work to their benefit at the grindy end of the game. With limited resources, you have to cater to the fresh meat, keep the churn running.

@crunkatog: Unfortunately not new. Mass entertainment always churns out quantity over quality, because people are already hooked. The only time there is business incentive to produce real art is when the market is so underdeveloped that content providers are relying on word of mouth to transform fans into proselytizers spreading the faith to the ignorant. But once everyone is converted? No point. Addicts will buy utter shit.

Like the critique of the movies, you try to compare apples with oranges. Don't go around comparing single player action - rpgs with a loot arpg game.