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[StueyDuck]

Currently my time is being shared between two AAA campaigns, ffxvi and starfield, this time being limited, I can only squeeze an hour or two luckily a night

If I'm lucky

Modern game design/pacing/story-telling has characters nattering on for minutes and minutes on end. it's always just pointless meaningless shit with side characters we are meant to Care about apparently.

Am I only one finding this pointless droning on by characters about menial shit ruining most modern games, the writing seems to be extremely superfluous and doesn't respect the players time whatsoever.

I am finding myself mashing the skip button as fast as I can in these games after a few hours.

EDIT: thanks to mods for getting this on the right side

 

[The Stig]

you know what?............. youre right.

 

[AJUMP23]

Posting while this is still off topic.

 

[TheDraconian]

And then people wonder why games like Elden Ring and ToTK were astronomical successes..
Gamers do want to drop the fucking hand-holding prevalent nowadays.

 

[Revolutionary]

In Starfield I just read the subtitles and skip ahead to the next line - I very rarely wait for the voice actor to finish.

 

[Magic Carpet]

I don't know about the Final Fantasy but the Starfield lets you skip convos.

 

[killatopak]

This is why Minesweeper exists.

 

[cormack12]

When it's really lengthy then yeah it's obnoxious. Spending 5-6 minutes filling me in on a backstory I don't care about is horrible.

But for games like starfield/ffvii it's kind of the genre. It got easier for me when I realised I was just trying to rush it to do something else. Just chill.

 

[Robb]

Yeah I agree to an extent. I’m all for having more game and less chatter.

But I’m not sure if WRPG/RPG games are good examples, that kind of stuff is a big part of those genres in general.

 

[diffusionx]

This is why Minesweeper exists.

For me it’s picross

 

[MadPanda]

I haven't played any of those games but I use subtitles, read and skip. I hate that I can't skip in A link's awakening. I also don't have much time and if I play a game I want to play. When I want to read long texts I have hundreds of books in my house so I pick up a book and read.

 

[HTK]

Currently my time is being shared between two AAA campaigns, ffxvi and starfield, this time being being limited I can only squeeze an hour or two luckily a night

If I'm lucky

Modern game design/pacing/story-telling has characters nattering on for minutes and minutes on end and it's always just pointless meaningless shit with side characters we are meant to Care about apparently.

Am I only one finding this pointless droning on by characters about menial shit ruining most modern games, the writing seems to extremely superfluous and doesn't respect the players time whatsoever.

Am I the only finding myself mashing the skip button as fast as I can in these games after a few hours.

EDIT: WHOOPS wrong side. Can a mod put this in gaming please. Dankie

One of the reasons I enjoy more linear experiences like Uncharted.

 

[RyRy93]

If a video games story and characters aren’t in the top 5-10% in terms of quality then the amount of time I spend watching cutscenes needs to be as little as possible.

 

[fart town usa]

Agreed. It's why I don't play the vast majority of modern games, just way too long. VR is perfect for me right now because most games are like 5-7 hours and cost between $15-30.

 

[Black_Stride]

Skip the convos and cutscenes if you dont care about them.

If this was a thread about Max Payne 3, I would be all in.

But in Starfield especially, you can read the subtitles much faster than the voice actor and go to the next dialog.

Funny enough I did the same thing in Mass Effect 3 after listening to every word in Mass Effect 1 and 2......thats how I knew I was getting old.....id just read the sub, and skip.....i know i missed some shit cuz Sheperd actually says more than the text option, but fuck it.....im short on time.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

I agree

It’s painful in Starfield

The writing is bad and I just keep pressing A to fast forward through all this endless droning with no charisma at all

How do people get invested into this?

 

[Drizzlehell]

Depends on the game for me but yeah, even in those that I actually bother to pay attention to the story, more often than not I feel like the writers/voice actors were paid by the word.

The best kind of game is the one that jumps right into the game and if it really needs to have a story, then it's drip fed organically during gameplay. Fuck them cutscenes.

 

[Danjin44]

Then play games that story is not the focus.

 

[StueyDuck]

Yeah I agree to an extent. I’m all for having more game and less chatter.

But I’m not sure if WRPG/RPG games are good examples, that kind of stuff is a big part of those genres in general.

When it's really lengthy then yeah it's obnoxious. Spending 5-6 minutes filling me in on a backstory I don't care about is horrible.

But for games like starfield/ffvii it's kind of the genre. It got easier for me when I realised I was just trying to rush it to do something else. Just chill.

The thing is I love w/rpgs and I do enjoy deep lore and interesting dialog, I haven't played much of BG3 since Early Access, but OS2 I really enjoyed the dialog, but I'm finding dialog and conversations really stale and plain and poorly written in most modern AAA games.

Even comparing the Witcher 3 to Cyberpunk you can see a large dip in quality of pacing and dialog, same with the assassins creed franchise and so on.

We use to get to the point then all extra dialog options were up to the player.

Starfield (I hate to pick on one game but it's literally the one I played last) has me choose 3 or 4 dialog options before getting to Crux of the conversation and it went on for sooooo long I was just mashing skip, late game final fantasy xvi has had similar moments with its side quests where the damn black Smith and his ex friend are just chatting away for minutes about some pointless fued they once have that has literal 0 impact on anything.

I feel skyrim and mass effect did a far greater job at delivering lore/plot/dialog while still getting to the point and getting the player... well playing

 

[mrmustard]

You are abolutely right. I want to play the damn games too, not watch them.

 

[alphachino]

 

[Roman Empire]

All the suits infiltrated gaming and made it needlessly complex and dragged out for the sake of money. All these time-gates, multiple editions of games, and whatnot should go. Let me boot my games, and go straight to the action. LET ME HAVE FUN.

 

[TerribleAtThisGame]

I don't dislike character building, dialog or whatever...but it's just not any fucking good nor engaging in the vast majority of games in my opinion. It tends to be some mundane, extremely stilted and boring shit bookending the game equivalent of an exposition dump.

I just found myself mashing through every character in Blasphemous II's lines because it's just meandering waffling and for some reason they decided to add more of it in the sequel. Not that it's frequent but yea.

 

[StueyDuck]

Agreed. It's why I don't play the vast majority of modern games, just way too long. VR is perfect for me right now because most games are like 5-7 hours and cost between $15-30.

Honestly I'm fucking addicted to VR right now, it's the only thing in gaming that feels genuinely new and interesting

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

Agreed, FF XVI was pretty awful about this. Slow delivery, monotone VA, pauses after every line, and they just yap on and on about shit I don’t care about.

Bitch I’m already annoyed that you tasked me with finding 6 Chocobo turds or whatever. I don’t need some 10 paragraph explanation why you couldn’t go do it yourself.

 

[cireza]

I think it's fine to have one game like Starfield of Persona that you can do over the course of an entire year. You can jump back when you want as these games are not really focused. This could also mean that they are not that engaging to some.

But otherwise I play shorter games. If you only have 1 or 2 hours in the evening, you should go back to 8/16 bits games honestly. You can play (and complete) a different game every day. No load times, focused, fun, just the right length. Play some Gunstar Heroes tonight.

 

[R6Rider]

I agree

It’s painful in Starfield

The writing is bad and I just keep pressing A to fast forward through all this endless droning with no charisma at all

How do people get invested into this?

They also just stare at you and then the game will cut to a camera showing your companion through five walls being part of the conversation.

STFU Sarah.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Agreed. It's why I don't play the vast majority of modern games, just way too long. VR is perfect for me right now because most games are like 5-7 hours and cost between $15-30.

What VR games you playing lately?

 

[TrebleShot]

You know what I find myself feeling the same so much pontificating most recently in Mortal Kombat 1 and FFXVI goes on forever.

 

[StueyDuck]

I don't dislike character building, dialog or whatever...but it's just not any fucking good nor engaging in the vast majority of games in my opinion. It tends to be some mundane, extremely stilted and boring shit bookending the game equivalent of an exposition dump.

I just found myself mashing through every character in Blasphemous II's lines because it's just meandering waffling and for some reason they decided to add more of it in the sequel. Not that it's frequent but yea.

This is exactly how I feel in a nutshell

 

[Robb]

it went on for sooooo long I was just mashing skip

Hmm, I gave up on StarField after roughly 12h but was actually doing this exact thing myself by the end.. Which just made me stop and reconsider why I was even playing it.

I’m not a RPG-guy though and usually don’t care for that kind of role-play stuff/conversations, so I just assumed that’s why I lost interest. But maybe you have a point.

 

[fart town usa]

What VR games you playing lately?

Another playthrough of Organ Quarter but Synapse and Hubris are my recent purchases. Finished Hubris, need to get back to Synapse.

I have probably 30 games though and also still play PSVR. Was doing coop in Killing Floor: Incursion and Arizona Sunshine the other week. Good janky fun.

Lots of random stuff too but I've been so busy the past week with travel that Im having a hard time remembering other games. I probably have 60 games total between the two headsets.

 

[Darkmakaimura]

OP, don't ever play the Trails games.

 

[R6Rider]

I don't dislike character building, dialog or whatever...but it's just not any fucking good nor engaging in the vast majority of games in my opinion. It tends to be some mundane, extremely stilted and boring shit bookending the game equivalent of an exposition dump.

I just found myself mashing through every character in Blasphemous II's lines because it's just meandering waffling and for some reason they decided to add more of it in the sequel. Not that it's frequent but yea.

This just reminded me of the recent Remnant 2. I swear some characters talk for 10 minutes straight.

And if you are playing co-op you just have to stand there and have no idea what the character talking to the NPC is selecting in response.

 

[StueyDuck]

Another playthrough of Organ Quarter but Synapse and Hubris are my recent purchases. Finished Hubris, need to get back to Synapse.

I have probably 30 games though and also still play PSVR. Was doing coop in Killing Floor: Incursion and Arizona Sunshine the other week. Good janky fun.

Lots of random stuff too but I've been so busy the past week with travel that Im having a hard time remembering other games. I probably have 60 games total between the two headsets.

Have you played windlands 2? Since we been on our co-op vr kick that game has come up on my radar and wondering if it feels good and has more to it than just swinging.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

When this guy starts saying anything my mind just tunes the fuck out

 

[DonkeyPunchJr]

I don't dislike character building, dialog or whatever...but it's just not any fucking good nor engaging in the vast majority of games in my opinion. It tends to be some mundane, extremely stilted and boring shit bookending the game equivalent of an exposition dump.

I just found myself mashing through every character in Blasphemous II's lines because it's just meandering waffling and for some reason they decided to add more of it in the sequel. Not that it's frequent but yea.

Agreed. I loved Oppenheimer which was a 3 hour movie that was 90% people talking. I was riveted almost the entire time.

The problem isn’t that gamers aren’t patient enough or “should play some other genre” or whatever. The problem is game writers just suck at their jobs.

I swear these people must be getting paid by the word or something. JRPGs especially, I feel like they’ll have dialog scenes that are like twice as long as they should be, and it’s mostly them just talking in circles, explaining stuff that doesn’t need explaining, reacting to stuff, etc.

 

[Dacvak]

Do what I do and play Nintendo and/or retro games. I already know I’m not gonna be able to get very far in Starfield, and the only reason I’ll play through BG3 is because I’ve got a scheduled session going with a friend. But other than that, I almost exclusively have been playing retro games with the occasional new Nintendo title.

I ain’t got 80 hours to finish these gigantic games anymore. The best length for me is 7 inches hours.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Ubisoft gave us tedious collectible padding and a lot of us complained. Now to combat that devs are now giving us endless rambling from npcs we dont care. Even BG3 is padded with this kind of shit in Act 3, when useless random npc's have fucking cutscenes that just say 3 sentences and you cant even tell the important ones from random ones apart.

 

[StueyDuck]

Agreed. I loved Oppenheimer which was a 3 hour movie that was 90% people talking. I was riveted almost the entire time.

The problem isn’t that gamers aren’t patient enough or “should play some other genre” or whatever. The problem is game writers just suck at their jobs.

I swear these people must be getting paid by the word or something. JRPGs especially, I feel like they’ll have dialog scenes that are like twice as long as they should be, and it’s mostly them just talking in circles, explaining stuff that doesn’t need explaining, reacting to stuff, etc.

That's a great way to put it. Like you I fucking loved Oppenheimer, so it's got nothing to do with having a short attention span or not being interested.

It's just the dialog and the pacing in these games being very remedial, which was great in the ps2 era and tidus said 2 lines of stupidity, but then we get back to the action.

It seems now that writers are getting way to into their own heads with how a conversation should go and how much info is given and how long a player is willing to listen to it.

There's a reason why people say less is more.

I also think adding modern gen z slang and talking points aren't helping many games cases, look at forspoken sounding like a teenager in a marvel movie

 

[Edellus]

What is "the point"? I can't talk about Starfield, but with FFXVI I actually enjoyed the rest and slower pace given by side quests. To me, it's thanks to the lows that I felt the highest highs and I appreciate them for it (although, I agree they can be improved upon in many ways).

"The point" as in the shortest path to the end? If so, perhaps certain games (most likely the so called RPGs) are just not for you and that's okay. Because otherwise I don't understand this "respect the player's time" sentiment.

To me, "the point" is to enjoy the game as much as possible . I take my sweet time with them. Playing games is not a job or a chore to be that I could ever feel as being "wasted" or "not respected". I'm not sure I could help thinking I'm engaging in my hobbie the wrong way if I ever felt like that.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

OP coulda gotten to the point faster tbh

 

[fart town usa]

Have you played windlands 2? Since we been on our co-op vr kick that game has come up on my radar and wondering if it feels good and has more to it than just swinging.

I haven't but I think it's on sale right now. Need to check it out.

 

[StueyDuck]

What is "the point"? I can't talk about Starfield, but with FFXVI I actually enjoyed the rest and slower pace given by side quests. To me, it's thanks to the lows that I felt the highest highs and I appreciate them for it (although, I agree they can be improved upon in many ways).

"The point" as in the shortest path to the end? If so, perhaps certain games (most likely the so called RPGs) are just not for you and that's okay. Because otherwise I don't understand this "respect the player's time" sentiment.

To me, "the point" is to enjoy the game as much as possible . I take my sweet time with them. Playing games is not a job or a chore to be that I could ever feel as being "wasted" or "not respected". I'm not sure I could help thinking I'm engaging in my hobbie the wrong way if I ever felt like that.

The point as In what is the point of this conversation, what are you trying to tell me,

Go and kill a wyvern then just fucking say it. Getting 4 pages of dialog on what a "space rat" is in starfield when basically all they needed to say was "yeah it was tough being a space rat"

Just try imagine some of these conversations between real people, it would just never happen, anyone who drones for half an hour usually are avoided

 

[StueyDuck]

OP coulda gotten to the point faster tbh

I need at least another 5 pages for it to qualify for a modern AAA game

 

[GymWolf]

For me depends on 3 things:

quality of the digital acting (face expressions, body acting movements etc.)
quality of the voice acting
how good the writing is\how much i'm immersed in the world.

If those are good i don't skip anything, if it is like starfield, i barely pay attention to what they say after 60 hours because it is all a dull, boring mess delivered by robotic mannequins.
In bg3 and most sony games i don't skip anything (for different reasons depends on the game)

 

[GymWolf]

The point as In what is the point of this conversation, what are you trying to tell me,

Go and kill a wyvern then just fucking say it. Getting 4 pages of dialog on what a "space rat" is in starfield when basically all they needed to say was "yeah it was tough being a space rat"

Just try imagine some of these conversations between real people, it would just never happen, anyone who drones for half an hour usually are avoided

Most of that is to give flavour to the world.

If you are not immersed or don't care for that universe of course you are not gonna like 4 pages of dialogue for anything.

 

[rofif]

Yeah both these could take a lesson from Mass Effect games.
all 3 ME games are 20h main story each.
FF16 did not needed to be 50 hours

 

[Buggy Loop]

I spent 130 hours in BG3 enjoying every goddamn lines

Same for Disco Elysium

Some games are just useless chatter. What i hate the most is a protagonist that doesn't shut up.

 

[StueyDuck]

Most of that is to give flavour to the world.

If you are not immersed or don't care for that universe of course you are not gonna like 4 pages of dialogue for anything.

I agree.

But I do think many modern games do it poorly, these flavour speeches should be entirely optional, and I don't mean a side quest, I mean like starting a side quest "yo guy with sword, there's monsters there eating my chocobo, of you kill them I'll pay you" then after that side dialog can pop up and I can choose ok
Do I want to know this guy's shoe size or not.

Some of these conversations in these games are just meandering and honestly not very flavourful for the world building.