Thread by @gravislizard

occasionally i try to play a diablolike - i apparently bought grim dawn ages ago? i have no memory of this. but like. do you like this game? i have a question: when you look at this, do you... see something? not just a blur?

i don't understand how a human brain can contain this many numbers simultaneously unless you're a math savant. this is what every single diablo game (including current-patch diablo ii) looks like now and I just don't get it.

i don't understand what's fun about having 9 things side by side that have literally 20+ attributes i need to compare, all of which differ by a percent or two, and no shorthand whatsoever for deciding which i should use

if i don't upgrade, i'll get slaughtered, but upgrading requires a degree in high math. am i missing something? do i have dyscalculia? i've been baffled for like 15 years as to how this can be fun

no, scratch that - i don't understand how this can be *coped with.* this is the sort of thing that would happen at work that would give me imposter syndrome. if there's 9 percentages that are higher by 1% and 4 that are lower by 5%, is that better or worse? i have no idea!

i just... i'm just honestly really confused. i don't understand how this is meant to be played. is it for people whose brains can assimilate information much faster than mine, or is there some trick i'm supposed to know?

do you just compare the base damage and ignore the rest? is this all a snow job? does *nobody* actually read the rest?

i try not to be judgmental but i can't help it here - i don't understand how the goal of "entertainment" is compatible with "ah, this has a 1% chance to cause fire damage." i don't understand that. how is that "fun"? how does that connect to "fun"?

i'm still carrying a torch for vanilla diablo ii, which didn't give you a single yellow item until like an hour and a half in. at the current patch level i'm pretty sure you get greens in the first dungeon. it just makes me want to cry

i have been telling the story for over a decade of how i got a spear imbued by charsi and loved it so much that i took it all the way to diablo. i'm pretty sure the current version of the game would destroy me for doing that

it just had everything i ever wanted. nice punchy percentages. 25% of this and 15% of that and a good base damage and i liked the way it looked so i just kept it. i was 12 and i understood how to enjoy things.

i can't help but think that the gross inflation that's happened in ARPGs is a result of a lot of people getting lost and forgetting that they came here in the first place to enjoy themselves

sometimes i wonder if the games are getting harder and harder to understand because the devs know that one day after release there will be a statistically improbable number of Build Guides that explain how to do everything

like, are the percentages just an API? an interface for the wikia spreadsheeters who are going to produce the *actual* documentation, the *actual* player interface?

everyone says "i just use a build guide" and i can't even understand build guides. i've tried, i look them up but they're written in some kind of argot that i don't understand

the last like 9 games i've tried playing, i looked up a build guide but they were all written in shorthand. they gave, like, goals? and i was supposed to figure out on my own how to get there?

it's like "in this build we'll end up with these items at level 80" and i'm like "but what does that do for me at level 2" and they don't explain. i'm supposed to already know the language

i am saying that modern PC RPGs are completely impenetrable to anyone who doesn't speak the spreadsheet language and it's very very frustrating

but then i also feel like i'm the only living person left who wants a game to... end. I'm playing games so I can reach the end. Then I play another game. But nothing wants to end anymore.

I don't want all these decisions. I just want to proceed through from the beginning to the end of the game, and there's a little flavor added by getting to choose paths - some light decisions made about skills, weapon types, etc. and the satisfaction of major upgrades.

But every game is designed around the idea that i'm going to play it forever, for years and years and years, and if you want that then things must be great but if you don't want that then the game is instantly diluted

everything's a homeopathic game now, a single drop of game dispersed into an olympic swimming pool, and if you can while away 12 hours with no meaningful change in what you're doing, that's great, but to me it feels like staring fully conscious into eternity