Crunch the Numbers

On the "crunch the numbers" part of the video: I found that one of the big things that turned me off from WoW (probably about 6 years ago now.... I don't remember), was the fact that I didn't follow the DPS build for hunter. Even with the beginning dungeons, there were always people that would refuse to play in the same party because my equipment wasn't "right" or my skill tree build was "wrong". There were other issues I've mentioned before that some people say mean I never knew the depth of the game, but the problem was that so much of the depth was behind a level wall or behind the "right" way of doing things. If I want to build DPS this way and see how it works, why can't I? I feel that in this case, they lost a customer because of it, which is rather dangerous. Whatever, rant over, I've never looked back (although it has given me a distrust of any MMOs).

On the sociopolitical commentary in video games part of the video: I've seen games that have done that quite a bit. I play a lot of old games from GOG, and they can be seen there, too, so it's been around for a while. One example is the Cannon Fodder series, which is blanket anti-war. In the Witcher games, there are the moral decisions and such that give a partial moral commentary along with the race commentary with the Scoia'tael. CivIV had a rather ham-fisted "eco" bend that is incredibly annoying that I always mod out (power=unhealthy... no matter the source, that means even solar power.... huh? Not to mention nuclear plants being completely broken, global warming way to easy to trigger with ridiculous effects, etc.) The Talos Principle is incredibly philosophical from what I've seen (though I've never played it). Deus Ex touches many moral and ethical issues. Postal (the original)... is really dark... and is Postal (Postal 2 was its own thing, mainly a parody), which also brings up the issue of the flame wars spawning from the announcement of Hatred to its release when it all died. The list really does keep going. I think it's been around for a while, and I don't think it is inherently bad. It can be abused, yes. At the same time, there are different types of games as there are different types of movies. A blockbuster, Michael Bay-esque movie will likely not touch on too many (if any) sociopolitical issues. A deep drama likely will. I think we can expect a mix of games that avoid it and also find games that use it either positively or negatively. I've already seen both in the past (not that I've agreed with all the "positive" examples, I just don't think they're ham-fisted).

In my opinion, "meta" should be left out of games unless the game is designed with extreme "depth". When I say depth, I mean in game mechanics. Most games do not qualify as having so much depth that "meta" game mechanics make a difference in competitions. I think any kind of "meta" mechanics take away from the enjoyment of playing a game.