Friday, January 2, 2015

Q Attack, Round 6 - Are Video Games too Hard to Beat?

http://rainbow6.ubi.com/siege/en-US/
In the first Q Attack of 2015, Tiger and Rabbit discuss how many video games they have beaten in 2014. They also debate the difficulty level and length of current video games. Are video games too hard to beat? Read on to find out.

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Rabbit: Happy New Year Qgers and Qbbits! I hope you’ve had an amaztastic holiday season and that the New Year has treated you well. We’ve had a great year here at TvR and thank all of you for sticking with us for this long. How was your holiday season, Tiger?

Tiger: Cold and wet.

Rabbit: Did you get anything cool for Christmas?

Tiger: I got a Dualshock 4 controller, the white one that came out with Destiny. It looks awesome! What about you?

Rabbit: I got my stuffed toast! I named him Tsota!

Tiger: Wait... is that an anagram of "toast?"

Rabbit: You bet ya!

Tiger: *face palm*

Rabbit: What else did you get?

Tiger: I got an autographed puck from Joe Pavelski of the San Jose Sharks! Yeah!

Rabbit: That is pretty cool. I got the Rosetta Stone program to learn Japanese. Sugoi desu ne?

Tiger: Yeah, that's super. Now you just have to use it.

Rabbit: Hey! What do you mean by that?

Tiger: Oh, nothing. *sticks out tongue*

Rabbit: Fine, don't answer me. So, did you beat many games last year?

Tiger: Not really, we both had some things come up that prevented us from playing a lot of games. My notable accomplishments are beating The Last of Us Grounded Mode, inFAMOUS Second Son, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, and Persona 3: FES. What about you?

Rabbit: I finished Hakuouki: Stories of the Shinsengumi, Skylanders Swap Force, The Walking Dead: Season 2, The Wolf Among Us, and Hatsune Miku Project DIVA f.

Tiger: I played so many games that I didn’t beat too like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. I also bought a bunch of games that I haven’t even tried like Watch_Dogs, Assassin’s Creed Unity, and Persona 4 Arena Ultimax.

Rabbit: We are both terrible at beating the games we buy. It’s almost more of a collection than a hobby at this point. There are just too many games and not enough time to play them all!

Tiger: I think game length has a lot to do with beating a game too. I think I sunk in almost 80 hours before I beat the main campaign of Skyrim. With Black Flag, I’m still running around trying to get all the freaking Animus fragments and treasure chests before I play through the rest of the chapters.

Rabbit: Yes, open world games have so many side quests and collectables to find. But you don’t have to have those to finish Black Flag, do you?

Tiger: Nope, you don’t but I usually like to complete a game the best I can when I go to beat it. Like with Hakuouki, you played through all the different story endings but didn’t have to do that to technically beat the game.

Rabbit: That’s true, I wanted to see how everyone’s story turned out so I went ahead and just completed that game. Skylanders: Swap Force was actually hard to complete. While you can beat the game with the figures included in the starter set, you had to wait for the other figures to release for you to unlock everything in the game. I just finished unlocking everything and beat what I wanted to play. There are still so many things to do like beat all the challenge modes and get perfect star ratings on all the levels. I don’t want to waste my time doing that though, so I’m considering Skylanders done and finished.

Tiger: Skylanders is a lot like a free-to-play game. So many things are hidden behind a pay wall, count me out. They make it too difficult, too expensive, and too frustrating to beat a game. I don’t have that much patience to deal with those. I’d rather play a game that gives me a lot to do for the price I pay. I think there are factors other than game length, endless side quests, and waiting for content to be released that make beating video games hard.

Rabbit: Like difficulty! Some games are really really hard to play. I like how there’s a market for those tough games but I wish more games had difficulty settings. Sometimes I just want to play through a game for the story.

Tiger: I like it when games are hard, it’s a challenge. You have to practice and gain some skill to beat them. Plus you learn to persevere!

Rabbit: Though some games are just stupidly hard because they suck. Remember Haze on the hardest difficulty?

Tiger: Why did you bring that game up?! That was a terrible game-

Rabbit: That we played a ton of.

Tiger: *shakes head* We also played a bunch of Rainbow Six. I’m excited to hear that they are keeping the “no respawn” rule with multiplayer. That was fun, frustrating, but really fun once we got enough practice.

Rabbit: And I get that’s great and all but for people like us who don’t have the time to throw hours into a game anymore, it’s annoying. Think of Destiny, the hours you have to put into that game to level up past 20 is insane! I don’t have that kind of time and even if I did, I’d rather spend it playing other games.

Tiger: But I really enjoy playing games that you can sink your teeth into. Going back to The Last of Us, it was so satisfying to beat Grounded Mode and playing it stealthy all the way through. There were a couple of areas that I had to play over and over again but it was worth it to finally conquer the game.

Rabbit: And a couple of controllers you had to replace.

Tiger: I did not break any controllers playing TLOU.

Rabbit: What about Night Queen?

Tiger: Why are you bringing that up?!

Rabbit: Because I had to hear you moan and complain again and again about “freaking Night Queen.”

Tiger: OMG. Yes, Persona 3: FES. I got to the final boss and was doing perfectly fine against it. Next thing I know, the boss whips out this “Night Queen” move and totally charms, enrages, or paralyzes everyone! I mean everyone! I replayed that freaking boss so many times only to have to go back and reload an old save. I spent three weeks replaying that game and grinding to level up. I finally make it back to the last boss with my 10 levels higher main character and what do you know?

Rabbit: What?

Tiger: The boss didn’t use Night Queen at all! Not even once! I did all that work, wasted all that time, for nothing!

Rabbit: You beat the game though.

Tiger: Yeah, I beat that freaking game.

Rabbit: And you savored the challenge.

Tiger: I was so freaking PO’ed.

http://www.atlus.com/persona3/home.html
Rabbit: You were freaking out. I guess this means that you think video games are too hard to beat?

Tiger: Nope, I think they are just fine. If you have a problem with a game’s length, don’t do everything. As much as it drives me nuts to find every little collectable, it’s something I enjoy hating. I also like completing the side quests and extra content, it just makes me feel like I’m getting my money’s worth rather than speed running through a game. I avoid games like Skylanders or free-to-play games that hide things behind a pay wall, so I don’t have an issue there. I guess if you’re into those types of games that you either spend the cash or be patient, but you can still beat those kinds of games. As for difficulty, I think trying to beat challenging games is fun and worth the effort. People give up too easily and expect things to be handed to them in video games. I like video games that make you use your head and have to apply a little effort to beat them. Even if you feel frustrated during the process, sticking with it and finally conquering a game is one of the best feelings you can have. What about you?

Rabbit: I think video games are too hard to beat at times. I’m going to go back to Destiny which feels like it’s punishing you for trying to level up over 20. Now granted, technically you can “beat” that game without reaching the endgame that is level 20+, but if you really want to get the cool loot, you have to keep playing it. I know challenges are fun but I wish there was a way to have that challenge without having to put so much time into a game. We have 20 some odd video games from 2014 that we haven’t even played yet. Why should we spend all our time trying to beat a single game when we could be playing ones we haven’t touched yet? I wish there was just some kind of middle ground or something. Like with Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, they have a “time savers” pack that you can buy to give you all the materials you need right away so you don’t have to grind. I like that idea, if you want to play the game to get everything, go ahead. If you’re in a rush and just want to beat the game, you can pay the money and just be done with it.

Tiger: I can’t believe this.

Rabbit: What?

Tiger: You’ve turned into a free-to-play gamer.

Rabbit: I am not, and what’s the problem with that?

Tiger: Did you just listen to what you just said? You are willing to pay so you can just finish a game faster. Wow. Haze and now this, I am so disappointed in you.

Rabbit: Hey! Don’t give me this whole “I’m a better gamer than you” routine. Like the Doubleclicks say, I’ve got nothing to prove.

Tiger: Okay okay, don’t get your ears in a knot. We all like what we like. I’m just surprised since this is news to me. We’ll definitely have to talk more about free-to-play and DLC in a later segment. I know we covered season passes with Eagle but I think there’s a lot more to talk about here.

Rabbit: The line in the sand has been drawn. ^evil laughs^ Well, that’s all the time we have today folks. Thanks for reading and we’ll see you in two weeks!

Are Video Games too Hard to Beat?

Tiger     vs     Rabbit

1 comment:

  1. "Are games too difficult to beat?" On average, absolutely not! In the 8 and 16 bit eras, the average game was much more difficult to beat. I think a lot of that was because the limitation of video game tech at the time made for much shorter games and thus they were usually difficult to make the playthroughs longer. When I was growing up in those eras, I didn't beat most games I played. Now I beat the overwhelming majority of games I play. Part of that is because of the easier difficulty nowadays, but I feel my skills have hugely improved too. I'm like wine, I get better with age.

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