Who is FO76's Target Audience?

[blitzen]

 

I think the ratings are more strict for games because you are directly participating in the violence, rather than simply observing it. I'm just guessing though, since I haven't paid much attention to the ratings on either.

NOTHING could be further from the truth. The disgusting ratings of games, that commonly turn MILD PG-13 content into 'adult only', comes directly from the idea that non-gamers have a right to moral panic over games, which they describe as "childish nonsense" for working class children and wastrel males. We saw the exact same thing with the comic code from the 1950's, and the cinema code of the 1940s that killed all adult content in movies.

 

Today, after many many decades of TOTAL censorship, comics and movies have (mostly) grown up. But games are still in the cultural 'ghetto' so all gamers (being "mentally deficient"- see that recent UN ruling about "gaming addiction") must be protected from themselves.

 

Hence most literate well-educated parents have ZERO issue allowing their children to play carefuly examined games whose supposed ratings put the games out of their reach. But alongside these totally moral choices comes the general disrespect of the game rating system that can allow some parents to allow far too young children to play some of the actually inappropriate titles. A CORRUPT rating system, like that which currently exists for games, is worse than no rating system at all.

 

 

Maybe. You do tend to have a conspiracy-theory-like explanation for things. I wouldn't make the "NOTHING could be further from the truth" claim. It's entirely possible that both are factors in determining the ratings for games.

Edited August 11, 2018 by blitzen

[crawe1x]

Come on, guys. If by "ranting" you mean long, passionate, and pissed off... then yeah, zanity's ranting. But that doesn't mean he's wrong. Or crazy.

 

I'm not saying I agree with everything he has written, and I know sometimes he goes on and on, but a lot of what he writes makes sense. It certainly doesn't deserve to be dismissed as crazy talk.

[blitzen]

I still can't make any sense out of the FO76 information I know about. Todd Howard seems to be slightly annoyed that people are referring to it as a "survival game" and claims that it isn't. So it's not a survival game. It's not a standard RPG either. There won't be long, sophisticated quests as in previous FO games. There are no human NPCs. Quests are driven by robots and journal entries on terminals. There are a bunch of monsters that are new to FO, and some are claiming lore has been discarded, with varying degrees of outrage. You can build some type of settlements which can then be vaporized (or at least irradiated) with nuclear warheads by other players. There must be significant pieces of information that have not been released because this doesn't add up to an actual game, at least not by my definition.

Edited August 11, 2018 by blitzen

[blitzen]

Come on, guys. If by "ranting" you mean long, passionate, and pissed off... then yeah, zanity's ranting. But that doesn't mean he's wrong. Or crazy.

 

I'm not saying I agree with everything he has written, and I know sometimes he goes on and on, but a lot of what he writes makes sense. It certainly doesn't deserve to be dismissed as crazy talk.

I think that's exactly what the definition is. I don't think agreeing is even relevant. One should not only consider opinions with which they already agree. Those are the ones from which you don't learn anything. Although it doesn't help that he chose a name that is very close in spelling to "insanity" and then launched on a series of diatribes which consistently paint the bleakest possible picture. I'm hoping he continues. I can't read his comments without laughing at the intensity.

Edited August 11, 2018 by blitzen

[jcdenton2012]

Humans, and Sentient Beavers.

[zanity]

I see Todd's Toxic Army operates on this thread as well. I'd advise looking at the responses to the Youtube blogs on Fallout:76 (all the bloggers started as very optimistic about this title) to see their true face- here they have to (somewhat) sugarcoat their pro-Beth (anti-critic) activities.

 

Attacks on peeps like me were obviously coming after Quakecon. Indeed a LOT of co-ordinated anti-critic activity will have been organised at Quakecon.

 

Quakecon saw that Quakewars game return to F2P- my thread here on "will Fallout:76 return to F2P" got locked here by a corporate mod yet Beth did exactly this with the Quake game, so my point was completely reasonable.

 

A common form of trolling is to attack anyone (on any subject where corporate or established power hates well argued opposition) who puts together more than one paragraph of 'comment'. The term "RANT" is hate speech against intellectual argument that runs counter to a well-funded establishment position. Todd's Toxic Army uses this tactic against critics of Fallout:76 everywhere on the net.

 

Anyway, back to Quakecon. Naive Beth fans swore we'd see 'gameplay' from Fallout:76 here- of course we did not. Like a mega-budgeted film 3 years in production that has proven to be an utter failure, where the studio keeps reviews of the movie delayed to essentially the day when it is finally released to a general audience.

 

Todd, on the Settee, got the famous FAKE 'hardball' questions from a FAKE 'indy' interviewer. Todd's body language was so awful, I found it hard to watch. 100% of the focus of the 'new' reveals was classic F2P, iPhone style microtransaction and addiction gaming rubbish.

 

Informed educated gamers would have started sobbing when Todd got to the "collectors card pack" that cloned EA's notorious card system from Star Wars:Battlefront 2 to the tiniest degree. Todd, his two 'friends' and the interviewer notably FROZE when the moment came when any sane person would have expected the interviewer to ask "ARE THESE CARD PACKS ***FREE***". They KNEW this one the only question on the minds of everyone. But the question never came.

 

Now Todd's Toxic Army- you know the ones attacking me here- will dribble about Hines hitting twitter later to say the packs are 'free'. Yeah, like Beth 'ACCIDENTALLY' missed that question and the chance to perfectly clarify the issue at the worldwide Quakecon broadcast. Hines purposely ambiguous tweet has no legal standing. What Todd has CLEARLY stated (like you CANNOT play with your friends- the lobby free system always throws you into a random game instance with another 31? randos) is what the game does.

 

With respect to the addiction gaming card system, I believe the current plan is to say "customers have DEMANDED the opportunity to buy packs on the store, so we are going to give our customers what they want". You see the form of all activity by Todd's Toxic Army is to argue that 'gamers' want the rotten systems so critics are anti-gamer not anti-Beth.

 

But however you slice it, the collectable card system replicates the horrifying anti-consumer mechanisms in Star Wars:Battlefront 2.

 

No gameplay (this close to release). Confirmation that the 'BETA' is lies, and that in reality the version of the game made available is 'early access' a handful of days before the proper release is actually the GOLD version (and yes I know the game continues to have updates after 'gold' - most games do these days). Near 100% focus on addiction gaming mechanisms over the traditional gameplay Beth's core IP fans expect.

 

So why would anyone here care to defend Fallout:76, when it is the diametric opposite to the form of game Skyrim and Fallout 3/NV/4 represent? Well a LOT of people work at Beth and Zenimax, and a ton of them kick around here (how many Nexus mods have 'inspired' content in later Beth games?). To me it is a badge of honour when members of this tribe to to kick people like me.

 

What is my sin. Saying Beth cannot work on F2P games (which Fallout:76 truly is, even if Beth is charging a AAA price for it)? Never. My one crime is pointing out Todd could have had, at zero risk and tiny financial cost, external devs using existing tools working on traditional rapid follow-ups to Skyrim and Fallout 4- allowing Beth to do what the heck they liked AND meeting the needs of traditional fans.

 

When Rocksteady was taking forever to make Batman:Arkham Knight, their publisher forced Rocksteady to hand over their tools to a Canadian dev, who knocked out Batman:Origins in record time - and made a very good game to boot.

 

Anyone in this forum who is not unhappy that Beth has BANNED the dev of a traditional single-player Fallout 5 is totally suspect - for the very reason the Nexus exists is the nature of Skyrim and the trad Fallouts. But as I said there is a lot of corporate activity here as well. Beth has directly contacted many of the Nexus key modders in the past, and never to improve the nature of Nexus style modding.

 

A sane Bethesda would have met its traditional fanbase half-way. Instead Todd chose to wage war on his loyal fans, and pitch to a whole new fanbase (which he clearly doesn't understand one jot).

 

Any optimist (about Fallout:76) whose heart did not sink after watching Quakecon really is all projected hope over cold facts.

[blitzen]

I found some information on FO76 PvP, reported by IGN, which outlines the anti-griefing strategy:

 

- an initial attack on another player will have a very low damage rate

- if the other player responds to the attack, subsequent attack damage will be normal, otherwise it remains very low

- it's possible to kill someone in low damage mode, but there are penalties: the attacker will be labeled a murderer, will have a bounty, and will be displayed as such on other players' maps

- one does not receive the usual benefits for a kill if it's murder

- murderers will no longer see other players on their map

 

This means it's not targeted at the usual crowd of hardcore PvP players.

Edited August 12, 2018 by blitzen

[WastelandAssassin]

from what I've heard of the game , FO76 is basically the culmination of the moddable Bethesda games , though in the most skewed fashion possible

want to add stuff that isn't lore friendly? who cares about lore anymore , just have whatever you want

don't want those pesky quests? we won't waste time making them

 

the game seems to be a simple playground , with nothing more to it

if you consider the fact that the moddable Bethesda games have always been a simple basis upon which mod makers have built great things , FO76 is in essence just this basis , only it probably won't allow for anything more complicated to be built around it

it's like taking your kids to the park and letting them run together and do whatever the hell they want , with no rules (and obviously the neighborhood jerk can come ruin their fun , as jerks do) . this appears to be what they are making here

 

who wants such a game? I guess someone who is tired of the game dictating what they should be doing , as there seems to be no narrative to even nudge you in any direction

so basically it's for someone who is perhaps the absolute opposite of a normal Bethesda fan

and considering the fact that Fallout Shelter seems to be more worthy of the Fallout title than this amalgamation of a game , and with Elder Scrolls Blades also coming , I think Bethesda are just trying to capture a whole new market , as maybe they are tired of their existing one (just remember how long time fans have reacted to Fallout 4 , with all it's issues and disregard to the Fallout universe)

[blitzen]

The initial release is just a starting point. Bethesda must be getting feedback from the closed beta testing. They will have more with the public beta in October. From what I've read TH has said, BGS expects to continue working on FO76 and releasing periodic updates. That is part of the plan. The community may be able to influence the direction the game takes, especially if the initial interest wears off, the player base decreases, and sales drop off within a few months. They they will either have to stop working on it or change it enough to draw players back to the game. This whole endeavor seems risky. The game would have to have some very interesting creatures, very appealing environments, and well-designed settlement construction tools. If any of these game elements are less than A+, it will be underwhelming. It doesn't sound like there is much else to draw people in for the first release, so those things have to be solid, high-quality game elements. The PvP doesn't sound like a strong point. It will be interesting to see what the gaming sites say once they have their copies. IMO, they tend to overrate BGS products.

[Moksha8088]

Humans, and Sentient Beavers.

Is that a veiled reference to The Elder Scrolls VI - Canada?