re: footnote 3 (which I 99% agree with) I think the idea that artists should be free to create the art they want to see, and that there's a nobility in doing so, has receded somewhat in the social media age. As if the primary purpose of art is to be consumed and anything that gets in the way of that consumption is a failure on the part of the artist. Makes me sad.
Interesting that the Dark Souls, eternal focus of all difficulty discourse, takes basically the same approach as Rondo of Blood, where game difficulty is highly dependant on character build.
I've been playing Monster Hunter, and that game is all build, heavily personalized. The interesting thing is players get to choose quality of life perks vs damage themselves. Choose QoL and the game gets a little easier, choose damage and you have to abandon a handicap.
The interesting thing is that when you leave it in the players' hands, players understandably always pick damage. So everyone you meet online in Monster Hunter is a glass cannon who must not get hit, and without a dedicated support player it's really easy to get bodied unless the players are good enough to just never get hit. But particularly at the higher difficulties, you simply have a party full of guys who die in one hit because they don't realize they're playing on "Hardest".
re: footnote 3 (which I 99% agree with) I think the idea that artists should be free to create the art they want to see, and that there's a nobility in doing so, has receded somewhat in the social media age. As if the primary purpose of art is to be consumed and anything that gets in the way of that consumption is a failure on the part of the artist. Makes me sad.
Interesting that the Dark Souls, eternal focus of all difficulty discourse, takes basically the same approach as Rondo of Blood, where game difficulty is highly dependant on character build.
I've been playing Monster Hunter, and that game is all build, heavily personalized. The interesting thing is players get to choose quality of life perks vs damage themselves. Choose QoL and the game gets a little easier, choose damage and you have to abandon a handicap.
The interesting thing is that when you leave it in the players' hands, players understandably always pick damage. So everyone you meet online in Monster Hunter is a glass cannon who must not get hit, and without a dedicated support player it's really easy to get bodied unless the players are good enough to just never get hit. But particularly at the higher difficulties, you simply have a party full of guys who die in one hit because they don't realize they're playing on "Hardest".