this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2025
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Unpopular Opinion

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Ok so first off I don't mean that games are too accessible to people with disabilities or anything like that. This is more of a critique of how strategy games shows you the ramification of your actions, even before you do the action.

The main culprit are Paradox map games, there was generally a shift between HOI 4 and CK 3, that made the games more accessible to new players. In CK 3 you get the to know the exact results of all options of events with the minor caveat of when you only get the probability of results but even then you often get the exact persentages. Before you declare a war you get a full roundup of which allies will join either side, how many troops each side has and even a force comparison based on troop quality. When doing diplomacy you get an exact value of how likely the the other part is to agree to a deal, and if not how much more they must like you for it.

This is great in the sense that new players of the franchise don't get scared and overwhelmed. However, since they designed the game around all this info always being available, it's not really possible to play it any other way. This makes it nearly impossible to fail with a bit of experience.

The main thing this kills is immersion. I don't have to know who I ally with, nor what they're personality is, if I need them for a war I can just throw money at them until their "willingness" number is greater than 0. I don't need to study their force composition compared to mine, the game just says who's is better.

Imagine a game without these values being so open to the player. Choosing who to ally with wouldn't be just choosing the one with the biggest army, but choosing someone with the correct profile that you need. For example if you are planning to wage a lot of war then it's probably best to chose someone with a militarily aggressive personality and large army. However if you want to play tall, investing in your realm and avoiding war then you probably want someone callous that won't drag you into offensive wars, but still have your back incase you get invaded.

I've foucesed on CK 3 but this is valid of all recent Paradox map games. In Viccy 3 then you get to know if a factory will be profitable before you build it, you know exactly who and by how much someone has the advantage on a Frontline.

While these games are a lot more accessible, they lose the need for reasoning, deduction and critical thinking. You don't need to have initiative, just press the best options and play opportunisticly on the moment.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

It's a general trend in modern gaming, similar to how RPGs usually have quest markers that not only show you the general location of your quest objective, but often the exact target - and it's one thing to do it like that when the NPC you need to interact with is out in the open (when IRL you could just ask someone for directions) but often games will have quests like "go to this place and search for an item" and mark the exact location of the item down to the centimeter. And you can't just deactivate the quest markers (I've seen that option in some games, plus this should be relatively easy to mod), either, because most games won't actually tell you with words where you need to go.

[–] andrewta 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I prefer the marker be there but that because I don't have much time to play. But that's only because I want to get to where I'm going so I can enjoy the story. I wouldn't want all the other info.

But I do agree we should be able to remove the markers and be able to read or listen to the dialog and figure it out from there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 days ago

Yeah, in games like Morrowind or Gothic it definitely got annoying sometimes trying to find the destination of a quest. I just hate it that the markers will often be directly on an item to the point that I can't even really see the item before picking it up, because smaller items often get completely covered by the quest marker.

It's a great innovation that has been overused and abused.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Speaking of RPGs, Kingdom Come is perfect example of this. I found the first game to be a lot more enjoyable in hardcore, since there were no markers in the hud, only on the map. This was made even better by the removal of the compass and the player marker on the map, making the player actually need to stay oriented in the world. Also making free food more scarce, making buying food actually happen naturally, made it one of the most immersive games I've ever played. Can't wait for hardcore in the sequel

[–] dojan 5 points 3 days ago

I think that's just the norm of modern day gaming. The goal is to have a wide audience and so in order to facilitate that they make the games as approachable as possible.

I recently bought two games that got a fair amount of negative reviews for lacking a tutorial. Hyper Light Breaker which is in early access understandably doesn't have much of a tutorial. It does give you a general direction, and it feels more or less like any other roguelike I've played (which admittedly isn't many). It wasn't hard to pick up and I don't really get why it would need more of a tutorial than what it has.

Mind Over Magic is a management sim akin to RimWorld. It also doesn't really have a tutorial, but all of the information is in there and not very hard to discover yourself. The game will give you plenty of hints as you encounter challenges, and there's a comprehensive in-game codex with all the information you could possibly want.

I don't think either game is unapproachable. There's trial and error involved in both. You might fail a few times doing things, but you learn and next time around you'll do better.

Perhaps people have forgotten what that's like. Maybe that's something some people genuinely don't like. I don't know.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

Popularity leads to bigger budgets from investors and shareholders.

Bigger budgets demands higher profits.

Higher profit comes most easily from a larger playerbase.

Larger playerbases imply/cause management to push for more casual, less niche, gameplay.

This is why sequalitis and capitalism will continue to ruin games and films. Thank you for reading my CED essay.

[–] andrewta 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Haven't played those games and honestly most newer games but that sounds like it would suck to have all that info. There's no surprise

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

In virtually all modern games, the core design is not driven by professional designers, but by "managers." If you're lucky, it will be one manager only, instead of a dizzying cycle of higher-ups giving "input" which you are required to accept, and that one person will at least be open to good sense even if not professionally trained in the art.

Usually you will not be lucky.