Personally, I never cared about the cheating aspect, I was never particularly good at gaming and I’d definitely prefer cheating over not finishing a game or trying to bruteforce whatever I’m stuck on for 10 hours. The issue is that looking up stuff casually like many people (including me) do today has a high risk of reducing the fun for no real reason. And I feel like games today tend to be easier and less grindy than they used to be in the dial-up days, too, so there’s also less reason to look anything up in the first place.
Ah ok ok, yes, what you’ve said is all true as well, removing the sort of comepetive aspect and just focusing on a single person playing a game as an experience.
Absolutely yes, in general, nowadays, most single player games are simpler, easier, power fantasies, as opposed to legitimate challenges.
While I do not miss the bullshit ‘difficulty’ of grinding, healthbar sponges… I do not like the actual lower amount of tactical/technical complexity and risk/rewark of a lot of modern AAA games.
Its possible for gameplay itself to be actually complex and engaging, instead of having essentially a metagame of stat min maxxing wrapped around it, for that to be the ‘more important game’… basically to compensate for the actual shallowness/repetition of the rest of the gameplay.
But, most people seem to prefer a dopamime stream, over a challenge of both intellect and dexterity.
And also yes, even without comparing your skill at or experience in a game to others… yeah, if looking at a game guide is basically the same as having substantial portions of a movie or book spoiled for you… yeah, that’s a problem for any kind of game with a narrative structure that weaves into its gameplay as well.
If you can’t be surprised in any real, impactful, shattering kind of way, its not a very compelling experience, at least in my opinion.
Its more like a movie you walk through, as opposed to watch.
Personally, I never cared about the cheating aspect, I was never particularly good at gaming and I’d definitely prefer cheating over not finishing a game or trying to bruteforce whatever I’m stuck on for 10 hours. The issue is that looking up stuff casually like many people (including me) do today has a high risk of reducing the fun for no real reason. And I feel like games today tend to be easier and less grindy than they used to be in the dial-up days, too, so there’s also less reason to look anything up in the first place.
Ah ok ok, yes, what you’ve said is all true as well, removing the sort of comepetive aspect and just focusing on a single person playing a game as an experience.
Absolutely yes, in general, nowadays, most single player games are simpler, easier, power fantasies, as opposed to legitimate challenges.
While I do not miss the bullshit ‘difficulty’ of grinding, healthbar sponges… I do not like the actual lower amount of tactical/technical complexity and risk/rewark of a lot of modern AAA games.
Its possible for gameplay itself to be actually complex and engaging, instead of having essentially a metagame of stat min maxxing wrapped around it, for that to be the ‘more important game’… basically to compensate for the actual shallowness/repetition of the rest of the gameplay.
But, most people seem to prefer a dopamime stream, over a challenge of both intellect and dexterity.
And also yes, even without comparing your skill at or experience in a game to others… yeah, if looking at a game guide is basically the same as having substantial portions of a movie or book spoiled for you… yeah, that’s a problem for any kind of game with a narrative structure that weaves into its gameplay as well.
If you can’t be surprised in any real, impactful, shattering kind of way, its not a very compelling experience, at least in my opinion.
Its more like a movie you walk through, as opposed to watch.