Comment by duckmysick | Hacker News Reader

Comment by duckmysick | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

> The comparison is disingenuous

I disagree. I can always pay the monthly subscription equivalent of the old standalone license and then just torrent the DRM- and cloud-free version of Photoshop. The developer still technically gets paid, but I'm under no illusion that my actions are in any way justified.

> a diablo like cannot be compared to a lengthy RPG.

I tried to look up how "lengthy" this game exactly is going to be and I'm not content with my results. "Our goal is to make it as long as possible with the funding that we get from Kickstarter" is as bland response as it can get. And from the look of it Pillars won't have a decent voice acting. Path of Exile does, not only main characters taunts, but also NPC dialogs and environmental lore (journals, statues, inscriptions, etc.). Recently, they released an expansion pack which added more story and fully voiced NPCs. In my book this "Diablo-like" can hold candle to a "lengthy RPG" just fine.

I really hope Pillars succeeds, but I'm going to hold my judgement until it's fully released.

> If they made a good game, and all that's bad about it is the drm scheme, is that really a "bad job"?

Apparently it is, since it's such a deal-breaker for you and you actively seek DRM-free games. And it's ok, because user experience is extremely important. Even if the gameplay is good, technical obstacles which won't let players enjoy the game will absolutely ruin its opinion. It was especially evident with always-online games that had problems during the launch (Diablo III, SimCity).

> Unfortunately, I'm pretty averse toward MMOs in general (...)

Ah, well. They're not for everyone. I'm not a big fan of them myself; I prefer to go at my own pace and often end up playing them like in a single-player mode.

Interesting point with emulation; I haven't considered that.

> Other than not liking MMOs, I do have a varied taste in RPGs.

What about roguelikes? Again, they might not be for everyone, but I had tons of fun with classics like Nethack and ADOM.

> I disagree. I can always pay the monthly subscription equivalent of the old standalone license and then just torrent the DRM- and cloud-free version of Photoshop. The developer still technically gets paid, but I'm under no illusion that my actions are in any way justified.

I am not looking for justifications. I am passionate about what I like, and what is essentially cultural content, rather than a tool. I don't see games the way I look at software, I see no need to "preserve" software. I do see a need for open formats, supporting interoperable standards etc though. But I really don't care if an old version of photoshop, or whatever, stopped working in a few decades. I'll still want to be able to run my favorite classics. I don't want a world where the things I bought and greatly enjoyed might stop working at some point. I am not looking for a moral justification or law or whatever. I don't care. It is just something I am passionate about. I buy the games not because the law requires me to do so, I buy them because I love them, because I want to support the developers, even if I don't like the DRM.

> I tried to look up how "lengthy" this game exactly is going to be and I'm not content with my results. "Our goal is to make it as long as possible with the funding that we get from Kickstarter" is as bland response as it can get. And from the look of it Pillars won't have a decent voice acting. Path of Exile does, not only main characters taunts, but also NPC dialogs and environmental lore (journals, statues, inscriptions, etc.). Recently, they released an expansion pack which added more story and fully voiced NPCs. In my book this "Diablo-like" can hold candle to a "lengthy RPG" just fine.

Do you have any experience with branching storyline content ? RPGs like PoE are extremely difficult to do well because we're talking about a particular flavour of RPG, that of "Choice&Consequence", where you can have an impact on the storyline, the way you handle quests, the way the world react to your actions etc. PoE comes from the Fallout/Arcanum/Mask of the Betrayer lineage of RPG when it comes to that kind of content. All these games tend to have as a side effect a certain amount of bugs despite all the testing and Q/A that goes through, it's inherent to the genre and both Fallout and Arcanum are still getting new fan patches to this day, which is a testament to the complexity involved. I have never seen a game with a certain amount of branching that wasn't overly complex to handle. What games like Fallout/New Vegas/Arcanum did with branching simply does not compare to what happens in games like modern Bioware stuff, or Bethesda. The epilogue details all the actions, and the consequences they brought, to all the places you visited, the characters you interacted with etc. The games have a lot of reactivity. The number of variables to keep a track of is overwhelming. This isn't like games where the gameplay doesn't go beyond monster bashing.

Things like voice acting are honestly not in my list of priority in a game, any game. Voice acting doesn't add complexity in development either, it requires more funds to be spent on actors, funds I'd prefer to see being spent on more quests, more branching complexity, more testing and polishing.

> What about roguelikes? Again, they might not be for everyone, but I had tons of fun with classics like Nethack and ADOM.

Nethack is a favorite of mine but I don't have any experience with ADOM. A lot of great RPGs subgenres to go through and too little time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com