#mad at ubisoft forever

[sc4llywag]

Good morning Ratonhnaké:ton nation.

I present to you,

Re-boobiefied Connor+no text covering the boobies

This was for fun bc I got bored and I was feeling salty that they took away this beautiful man's honkers in the dlc so eat up babes

I tried adding more muscle too bc they also took his STRONK smh

It's barely noticeable

[lilborealis]

Songs that I think fit characters, ships, oc’s etc (pt.1???)

(As you can tell, I’m very bored)

Iwaoi-Jenny by The Studio Killers

-this is pretty self explanatory if you know the lyrics. They have been best friends since childhood. When it says “why I never like your new boyfriends, oh, your love for them won’t last long”. I can definitely imagine Oikawa not understanding why Iwaizumi doesn’t like his new girlfriend. She’s incredibly nice, why wouldn’t anyone like her? Oikawa brushes it off as he just dismissed as Iwa being his grumpy-self, little does he know, his best friend has been in love with him for the longest time.

Philip Graves-Ick by Lay Bankz

-Graves slander till I DIE

The Frye Twins-3005 by Childish Gambino

-I’m pretty sure Childish Gambino actually did write this song about he and his sister! Anyway, I could definitely see this song from Jacob’s pov, as his twin seemed so much more “established” in life, while he is “falling behind”. Yet, he loves his sister and she’s the only family he’s got left. He doesn’t want her to leave for India but wants her to be happy.

Emily Denning (ac syndicate oc)-Hazy Miss Daisy by Kid Bloom

-for a bit of context, Emily was an assassin raised thief that became indebted to the Blighters. She originally was an antagonist towards the Frye twins before joining them (after they showed her evidence that could send her to prison) and picking up the blade again. Hazy Miss Daisy talks about Daisy, who is struggling with various emotions and learning that her actions truly have consequences. Emily is forced to deal how much damage her working for the blighters caused.

The Bad Batch-A L I E N S by Coldplay

-The Bad Batch themselves have been forced to run from the empire. You could argue that the clones feel like “Aliens”, out of place, as they’ve never really had a “set” identity. Their “home” isn’t necessarily a real place, it’s just peace that they can never really find, due to being “property” and born of the empire.

Kei Tsukishima-Alien Boy by Oliver Tree

One lyric I’d definitely like to emphasize is “I fell down to earth, from a hundred miles away, and somehow, I still make it work, but it’s overrated and somehow, played out”. Tsukishima was once a happy little kid until he “fell down to earth” when he realized his brother was a fraud. He still joins the volleyball team obviously but he believes it’s “overrated” and pretends not to care.

Shoyo Hinata-What Was I Made For? by Billie Eilish

I immediately thought of Hinata calling himself “the new tiny giant” as he pursues his own character in the series. After Karasuno looses against Kamomedai, against “the new tiny giant” he is despondent. It’s only when Takeda has his talk with him that Hinata truly has to question who he really wants to be.

Lionel Poussin x Georgette Chevrolet(Ac Unity Oc’s)-Cooler Than Me by Mike Posner

-to put it plainly, Lionel is a shameless flirt+reckless while Georgette is very uptight+cautious. Georgette is basically forced to babysit Lionel (who is a lower rank than she is) and he is definitely not mad about being paired with a pretty swordswoman. You can read more about them in my fic Cœr d’acier 👀 (pinned at the top of my page!)

Aya of Alexandria and Bayek of Siwa-Always Forever by Cults (I love them so much you have no idea)

-you absolutely know they still loved each other, even when they had to part. Even when they had to split up, you KNOW either would come running of the other was in trouble. “You know you’ve got me in your pocket, you don’t just have to wait around”. And Ubisoft if you see this give us a Bayek sequel rn

[blazehedgehog]

What also bothers me is that there seems to be no monthly plan this time. You have to either drop the $50 ($80 for family plan) immediately, or just not get it at all. The people saying, "If you don't like it, DON'T BUY IT OR COMPLAIN ABOUT IT!" are seemingly so brainwashed. It's kinda sad, seeing Nintendo being more upfront about their bad business practices (Which like you said, they've been doing for quite a while)

(Readers: This is a follow up to this post.)

In general, the people saying "if you don't like it, just don't buy it" are just people who want to avoid hearing complaints. Which, I mean, some people are like that, I guess. Negativity upsets them and they can't handle it or whatever, so they don't.

And some of them are, like you say, brainwashed. They want to keep living in their world where their favorite corporation can be their favorite forever without them having to confront the fact that not everybody is happy.

The thing that gets me about "if you don't like it, just don't buy it" is that it's honestly kind of pointless. Corporations like Nintendo, or Electronic Arts, or Ubisoft have well-paid marketing departments that spend millions of dollars on advertising campaigns. They are here to sell you a ketchup popsicle. They make you get a product whether you need it or not.

It's that one image, right, back when Modern Warfare 2 was dropping custom, player-run dedicated servers. There was going to be this big boycott, a whole Steam group was created, and on launch day more than half the people in the boycott group were playing Modern Warfare 2.

The entire reason these marketing teams are so highly paid is because it is their job to make you want the thing. And... most people are weak. It doesn't take much pushing to get someone to break on this kind of issue. When you say, "We're all going to boycott this bad thing," you're some unpaid rando versus what is probably a team of industry professionals with decades of combined experience in making you want the thing.

That doesn't mean it's hopeless, like these guys aren't invincible, but it's a lot harder than "vote with your wallets."

I mean, Microsoft got away with it with Xbox Live Gold. Few-to-none of the features offered by Xbox Live Gold actually needed to cost money, but Microsoft forced it on people until they accepted it. They also tried to do a "Games for Windows Live Gold" on PC once, and it fell flat on its face! None of the competition on PC charged money for those features, because they weren't expensive features to have in games. When it came to Xbox Live Gold, we were told to "vote with our wallets" then too, and it did not matter. On an Xbox, Microsoft gets to write and enforce the rules, so Xbox Live Gold solidified as the standard for the industry.

"Shut up and vote with your wallet" is mostly an empty platitude from people that don't like to hear complaining. On the other hand, "squeaky wheel gets the grease" is a tried and proven tactic. So, by all means, if it makes you mad, get loud!

[felassanis]

I've seen so many fans fucking livid about there being a female viking and LGBT romance in the new AC Valhalla because they say its historically inaccurate, there were no LGBT vikings nor people back then because it wasnt a part of the culture and that no one wanted this beardless man who makes Abbie from the last of us Fuckable.

First of all, yeah theres no historical data to suggest that women went on raids with the men during the Viking age but given that Viking mythology depicts female warriors all the time and THIS IS A GAME, WHERE FAMOUS PHILOSOPHER NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI WAS AN ASSASSIN, then it makes sense for Ubisoft to bend some elements to carry on the story and to make the game appealing to all types of gamers (because they really shot themselves in the foot with making it a near mandatory mechanic for players to be both Male and female) these games have historical settings but it's not the point of the game to be historically accurate its meant to tell a story, and really it makes no sense for badass women to exist in their mythology but not in their society. (Obviously it's because women were seen as lesser, even if Viking women did have a lot more freedom than other women of the time) but it's not out of the question for Ubisoft to do this.

Secondly, LGBT HAVE BEEN AROUND FOREVER YOU DONKEYS. No, their culture may or may not have allowed, approved or hell, even conceptualized it, but that doesn't mean Gay Vikings or bisexual Vikings weren't real nor existed. You dont choose your sexuality and that's not a thing the SJW's came up with, it is literal human biology. You dont choose how your wired, it may take you your entire life to figure it out but that's because we've lived in a world where LGBT have been discriminated against for millennia (or you're just not sure and that's fine) and a lot of them have been forced into heterosexual relations or manipulated into thinking they're something they're not. But they still existed and to claim it has no place just sounds like your mad you gotta see two men kiss on someone's play through and that your raging because you've potentially got to hear a man flirt with you and your very very very "strong" masculinity cannot deal with it.

Thirdly, Women back then unfortunately did not look like Lara Croft and you cant complain about lack of historical accuracy and then expect hot babes with bouncing tits in a Viking game. Also, yes currently we live in a society where female characters are expected to be more than Fuckable, sorry you can't get your dick wet, but I think female Eivor looks really hot actually.

[darthvxd3r]

I will forever be mad that we got 3 games of Esso Auditorium da Fiancee but like only 1 (and we didn't get the whole game to play as him) with Ratonhnhaké:ton. Like, ubisoft let me be my favorite AC character again.

[livingchalice]

PLACE IN SOCIETY

FINANCIAL – wealthy / moderate / poor / in poverty / inapplicable MEDICAL – fit  / moderate / sickly / disabled / disadvantaged / deceased CLASS OR CASTE – upper / lower / middle / working / slave / unsure                                   EDUCATION – qualified / unqualified / studying /

FAMILY

MARITAL STATUS – married, happily / married, unhappily / engaged / partnered  / single / divorced / widow or widower / separated / it’s complicated CHILDREN – has a child / no children / wants children / adopted children FAMILY – close with siblings / not close with siblings / has no siblings / siblings are deceased AFFILIATION – orphaned / adopted / disowned / raised by both parents / other

TRAITS & TENDENCIES

disorganized / organized / in between close-minded / open-minded / in between cautious / reckless / in between patient / impatient / in between outspoken / reserved / in between leader / follower / in between sympathetic / unsympathetic / in between optimistic / pessimistic / in between hardworking / lazy / in between cultured / uncultured / in between loyal / disloyal / in between faithful / unfaithful / unknown

SEXUALITY & ROMANTIC INCLINATION

SEXUALITY – heterosexual / homosexual / bisexual / asexual / pansexual / demisexual SEX – sex repulsed / sex neutral / sex favorable ROMANCE – romance repulsed / romance neutral / romance favorable SEXUALLY – sexually adventurous / sex experienced / naive / inexperienced / curious / uninterested

ABILITIES

COMBAT SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none LITERACY SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none ARTISTIC SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none TECHNICAL SKILLS – excellent / good / moderate / poor / none

STOLEN BY: @thejackcl TAGGING: @vivalarevolutionassassin, @parisian-eagle, @alexandra-savoy, @rafiiiq and  @jonathanpitcairn,

[springairs]

“if you want a happy ending, it all depends on where you stop telling your story.”

happy desmond miles day!

i will never get over how badly ubisoft treated desmond and i am FOREVER mad at the ending of ac3, but happy happy birthday to my favourite bartending, kickass assassin! i love him lots. des wasn’t perfect but he was just like one of us which made him so special. i loved seeing his character grow between games and how his relationships evolved.

(plus the modern sequences running about with him and pestering shaun lucy and rebecca were the best and some of my fave bits of the game)

thank you, desmond. requiescat in pace.

[thisyearingaming]

2011 - This Year in Gaming

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - Nintendo DS, January 11th

A quirky adventure game where you are fucking dead, and you gotta work out who killed you. Ghost Trick is like Ace Attorney at first glance - it looks similar, and is made by effectively the same development team. Give it a shot on iOS.

Dead Space 2 - Multiplatform, January 25th 

Dead Space 2 was the undisputed king of alien horror until Alien: Isolation released. Yeah, you battle massive acid-spitting aliens, but it’s the necromorph babies you’re gonna be shit-scared of. It isn’t quite as unique as it’s predecessor, but it’s definitely much better to play. Bring your brown pants.

The Nintendo 3DS Releases - March 27th

The 3DS was like magic when you first fired the 3D slider all the way up - then it became a gimmick you never used again. Releasing with a few decent launch titles and being able to boast Street Fighter IV as playable, the 3DS arguably didn’t really pick up much steam until a few months after launch. While more powerful than the original DS which was six years old at the time, I can’t remember being particularly interested in it at the time.

Portal 2 - Multiplatform, April 19th 

Valve’s final single player experience until their jump into VR was a bloody good one - very funny and amusingly written with the best Steve Merchant performance since The Ricky Gervais Show, Portal 2′s puzzle solving adventure is rarely a chore to play through, and has thousands of custom maps courtesy of the Steam community.

L.A. Noire - Multiplatform, May 17th

Rockstar’s foray into adventure games has stood the test of time as an enjoyable and often startling journey nto the seedy underbelly of 1947 Los Angeles - as Cole Phelps you’ll threaten a Jewish man with the gas chamber, arrest a paedophile instead of a clearly guilty father, quote Hamlet to a prop skull at the scene of a car crash, destroy thousands of dollars of property, and yell at a child whose mother’s just been murdered. Great fun!

The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings - Windows 

CDPR hit it out of the park with a fantastically improved sequel to 2007′s Eurojank diamond in the rough The Witcher, and really introduce Geralt of Rivia to more people for the first time with this game. A branching story that sees Geralt hunting Letho, the killer of King Foltest, and allying either with smelly hippy elven leader Iorveth and his terrorists who don’t appear in the sequel or the very cool but quite racist Vernon Roche and his special forces group, who are supporting characters in the sequel.

Alice: Madness Returns - Multiplatform, June 14th

A surprisingly charming, unsettling dive into the fractured psyche of the Victorian equivalent of an actual goth gf, Alice is a sequel to American McGee’s Alice from 2000. Surreal as fuck and absolutely drowning in atmosphere. Just don’t look at any of the YouTube comments on videos of the soundtrack. Rather bizarre show...

Duke Nukem Forever - Multiplatform, June 14th

Sometimes it’s best NOT to bet on the Duke. I bought this game to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and I did neither - DNF is fucking boring, and I blame it ALL on Randy Pitchford’s devotion to ruining things I like. DNF could’ve been brilliant - either embrace your heritage like Doom Eternal would eventually do, or make it into a “last hurrah” kind of thing where Duke realises he’s getting old and can’t kick ass forever. The greatest disappointment of the 2010s so far - but worse would follow with it. The King is dead - hail to the King, baby.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Multiplatform, August 23rd

The piss-tinted prequel to 2000′s excellent conspiracy RPG Deus Ex, Human Revolution is like smashing Robo-Cop into a world where Detroit is not a humanitarian disaster zone. Adam Jensen, the gravelly-voiced biomechanically enhanced security chief of David Sarif, is dragged into a world of American conspiracies involving FEMA death camps, the government enforcing martial law in US cities and massive Chinese conglomerates plotting to control the world. Just like real life! DXHR is my favourite in the series for its design, atmosphere and narrative.

Dead Island - Multiplatform, September 6th

Eh. Wasn’t that good. Notable for having the most misleading fucking trailer since Metal Gear Solid 2, but nowhere near as fulfilling upon release. An open world zombie survival game with a focus on melee weapons more fragile than your granny’s second hip. Oh great, now there’s a dead kid on my page. Thanks, Techland!

Driver: San Francisco - Multiplatform, September 6th

A game you literally can’t buy anymore, DSF was incredible to play when it came out and has only really gotten better with time. It’s still so unique for a driving game that I’m surprised Ubisoft have had the good sense to just leave it and not go pants-on-head retarded with the franchise since. Nick Robinson had to buy Subway gift cards just to purchase this game. 

Batman: Arkham City - Multiplatform, October 18th

Arkham City was so cool at launch and it still is today. A proper Batman epic with twists, turns, and the most addictive combat arena for years. This whole thing is gold from start to finish, except for the Harley Quinn DLC. I can’t even go into detail about it here, but I fucking LOVE this game.

Sonic Generations - Multiplatform, November 1st

Sonic Generations is the best Sonic game since 3 & Knuckles, but has now unfortunately convinced Sega that not only do people despise the Adventure games, they also really want to see Classic Sonic and Green Hill EVERY GODDAMN DAY. Generations is like a proper celebration of Sonic’s history, even including stuff from every reviewer’s favourite punching bag Sonic 2006 - I really like Generations and it has a stellar modding scene on PC.

Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception - Sony PlayStation 3, November 1st

The “finale” of the Uncharted series until Naughty Dog decided it wasn’t. Uncharted 3 may not be as tight as Among Thieves, but it’s just as enjoyable. As quipping invincible action hero Nathan Drake, you’ll ruin historical artifacts and “incapacitate” about 4000 guys in your quest to find Iram of the Pillars, chased by Cruella de Ville and her mercenary squad of a million faceless Englishmen. 

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 - Multiplatform, November 8th

God I was so excited for this. World War 3 never looked cooler, and then it came out - and it wasn’t that good. It didn’t feel as epic as MW2, not as well-written as MW, and not as interesting as World at War and Black Ops. Multiplayer was... fine? I think this is the point where most people realised that Call of Duty was basically downhill from here.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Multiplatform, November 11th

See this paragraph? You can read it. Another installment in Bethesda’s cross-franchise “Little Lies” series, Skyrim has been released more times than China’s created a pandemic. But it’s still really good and when you rub it the right way it comes all over your screen like a particularly excited storyteller, ready to point in the direction of adventure.

Super Mario 3D Land - Nintendo 3DS, November 13th

Yeah this was the point I decided I wanted a 3DS. It looked incredible and so fluid, and it really was! Playing this was great fun. That’s really all there is - I can’t be funny about it, nor overly critical. What do you want from me?

Assassin’s Creed: Revelations - Multiplatform, November 15th 

I didn’t like this when it came out - I thought the new graphic style was bad, Constantinople was dull, and the music was too different. Ezio was angrier, older, and the complete lack of any supporting cast from Brotherhood had me thinking this was a game that nobody wanted to work on - but now that I’m older, I can see this for how good it really was. Revelations blends the Ezio and Altair stories together, culminating in a satisfying emotional climax. 

Saints Row: The Third - Multiplatform, November 15

This video speaks for itself.

Minecraft - Windows, November 18th

There’s something beautiful about those early builds of Minecraft. Quiet, unassuming, and riddled with potential for exploration. I could talk for hours about the first time I was thrown into Mojang’s survival experience, about how I still get a bit weepy hearing Wet Hands by C418, about how shit-scared I still am of the mines and caves. Minecraft is immortal, and always will be. 

[wowunlimited]

December Video Round-Up: Frederator Networks

The hectic holiday season has just come to a close, making this afternoon a perfect time to look back at all of the festive (and not-so festive) videos that were delivered by Frederator Networks last month. The Leaderboard braved airport madness to visit Ubisoft in Montreal for a sneak peek of Far Cry: New Dawn, while Get In The Robot justified their Dragon Ball Z binges with a deep-dive on Toonami’s history. Last but not least, the season finale of Bravest Warriors aired on VRV to close out the year with a bang.

Now that you’ve escaped your in-laws, unwind with some of the Frederator team’s favorite videos from December:

(above: Bravest Warriors Season Finale on Cartoon Hangover Select on VRV)

How Toonami Changed Anime Forever: Creating a New Generation of Anime Fans (Get In The Robot)

The Secret War for PlayStation One - A History of PlayStation (The Leaderboard)

Far Cry: New Dawn First Look + Exclusive Interviews (The Leaderboard)

-- Andie Newell

[ninety-eightpointsix]

For decades Ubisoft has done it’s best to flood the market with thousands of worthless games. It then uses all that money to make it’s “good” games. Supposedly their best game of all time was “Beyond Good & Evil” which is actually playable... I mean it’s not very good by any stretch of the imagination, but if you compare it exclusively to other Ubisoft games it is pretty... playable. And by “playable,” I mean not too broken. What’s their endgame? Are they trying to bring about another video game crash, or are they just that incompetent? It matters very little.

Anyway, I’m getting off track... I am now boycotting all Nintendo products for one full year. Maybe they’ll try to drag Nintendo down to their level, maybe they won’t, whatever happens I will take no part in it. In June 2018 I will reconsider based on how badly MRKB does or something... IDK they are Nintendo, obviously I can’t stay mad at them forever.

So, no more Mario Odyssey or new Pokemons or whatever else I would have otherwise bought this year. Nintendo stands to lose hundreds of dollars from me. ... someone add that pic of homer yelling “You’ve just lost yourself a customer!”

[symbianosgames]

Most players won't play to the end of your game. That's not a tragedy -- that's a feature of video games' design landscape. Ubisoft creative director Jason VandenBerghe explains, in this reprint from the final (June/July 2013) issue of Game Developer magazine.

Argument: As a game designer, you are more free when crafting your ending than you are for any other piece of your game.

First of all, having an ending at all is your choice. Don't want one? All good! Games are loops, and if you want to leave yours closed, you will be in good company. No one has ever "finished" poker, or football.

But for games that do have an ending, only a small portion of your players will ever see it. We are, as an industry and as a culture, still confused about this. We are dismayed at the low finish rates of our games, and a player who puts down the controller before reaching the end is left with a vague sense of having dissed the game team.

Yet, the ability for players to stop playing whenever they feel like it is inherent in the form! This is not a bad thing; this is a good thing. It is part of the game-design landscape. And if you learn to worry less about insisting that everyone who starts finishes, and put your attention on the advantages this fact of gaming gives you, you will not find a more personally liberating moment in game design than in designing your end.

The question is: How will you use that freedom?

For several years back in the late 1990s, I lived with an eccentric friend named Dylan. Dylan was a carouser, a lover of swords and theatrics, a collector of experiences -- and an avid video game starter.

Dylan played dozens, maybe hundreds of games per year, and this was before the Internet, so they mostly came from the store. But, for all his passion, I don't know that I ever saw him put more than an hour into a single one. He would buy them, try them, love them... and then set them aside forever. This was a man who stopped playing Diablo after an hour or so (!). Even more weirdly, he was always perfectly content with his purchases, never showing a single hint of regret at not seeing the end.

He never did this with movies or books. Ever.

Watching Dylan's weird relationship with the games he played taught me that it is absolutely not required to finish a game to appreciate it.

Last year, you may remember that CNN published an article by Blake Snow that regaled the Internet with the news that only 10-20 percent of gamers actually finish the games they started.

No argument. When we see game finish rates over 30-40 percent, we sing the praises of the team and pop the bubbly. Numbers like that imply that we managed to make some seriously compelling content, and smooth out all the bumps along the way. Precious few games reach that goal.

But, I have a beef with an unspoken assumption in this article, and in many articles like it. Here's how the article's author put it:

"Let [this] sink in for a minute: Of every 10 people who started playing the consensus 'Game of the Year,' [Red Dead Revolver] only one of them finished it. How is that? Shouldn't such a high-rated game keep people engaged? Or have player attention spans reached a breaking point? ...Who's to blame: The developer or the player? Or maybe it's our culture?"

My beef is with the idea that failing to finish a game is a bad thing.

Putting down the controller somewhere before the final climactic scene in a video game is not a sin. It is an intrinsic part of our art form.

I never finished the first BioShock, yet it remains a game I thoroughly enjoyed. Grim Fandango? Never finished it. But I sure as hell use it as an example in design discussions! I have never finished a single Z, but, man, they are fun (usually).

There are a ton of games that don't even have endings. Most arcade-style games and most MMOs don't have real endings. The Sims doesn't have an ending. Poker? Chess? Football?

In fact, a broad majority of the world's long-standing favorite games are specifically designed to never be finished. One game of Sudoku leads to another, which leads to another... In game design terms, even putting an "ending" into your game is, clearly, optional. We know this. It's self-evident. So, then, why do we gnash our teeth and tear out our hair when only 20% of players reach the end of our (story) games?

I believe that the idea has its roots in our beliefs about other media. There is an implicit rejection that is present when someone walks out of a movie, turns off a show on TV, or sets down a book unfinished. For those mediums, the message of this action is clear: "I'm not enjoying this story enough to continue."

When someone stops playing a game, however, the possibilities are far, far more varied:

"I'd love to keep playing, but the time commitment is too high for me."

"I enjoyed the beginning, but now it's getting sort of grindy, and that's not for me."

"Love the game, but I'm weary of the player culture, so I'm going to hang out somewhere else."

"My friends stopped playing."

These are not necessarily sins of the designer. Gaming is as much a lifestyle as it is entertainment, and if a game doesn't fit into an individual's life, they are going to put it down. That's not a tragedy. That's a feature of our design landscape.

So, instead of looking guiltily at our completion rates and fantasizing about a world in which 99% of the players who start our (story) game reach the final scene, let's flip it around and see what we can do to take advantage of this fact, instead.

More than half of your players are not going to finish. You know that going in, so think of it as a design constraint! What does that mean to you?

First: The deeper into your game your content is, the more likely it is that the players that are still with you have been having a good time. They're in. They've bought it. You have earned a certain amount of faith capital with them, and they probably want to see what else you've got up your sleeve.

Second: Because your producers and various high-mucky-mucks have seen the finishing stats for other games, they know that dev time spent in detailed iteration on your ending is effort going to a small subset of players. They will prioritize the team's time accordingly. They will thus be more likely, whether through disinterest or lack of time, to let your crazy idea for the end slip through the cracks.

Third: Players themselves already know that arriving at the end is a rare occasion—because they, personally, most likely don't do it very often. Every player has put down the controller on at least a few games. If they do decide to complete the whole thing, they will wear that fact as a badge of honor (we hope). So, they are psychologically primed to receive some kind of acknowledgment for their effort. Bright-eyed, with the end in sight, your players look to the designer expectantly, ready to interpret whatever you present as a kind of reward, while your producers turn a blind eye...

I only have one piece of real advice for you about this moment: Tell the fucking truth.

Whatever it is that is in your heart, whatever it is that has drawn you into making this game in the first place, do that with your faith capital. Spend it telling them that, somehow.

The first Modern Warfare had a great example of this: The final mission was the most over-the-top crazy, punishing, nearly-impossible-to-complete madness-fest in their game. It had almost no explanation, required none ("PLANE! TERRORISTS!"), and it was simply brilliant. The level was a celebration of the game that you had just finished, a self-referential guns-blazing cherry on the cake that was completely unnecessary, but became legendary.

One of the most satisfying endings I have ever played was the ending of The Darkness. It laid bare the truth of the fantasy they had created, and gave me full rights to punish an evil that I had come to loathe. The truth there was consistent with the story, but it was the play that they created that made that last scene true. I hated the villain of that game, and in the end the game did nothing to force my hand (beyond closing the door behind me). When I took my revenge, it was me that did it, and that act stayed with me.

But it is the ending of the first Metroid, perhaps, that best demonstrates the strange liberty we have with this moment. It could have ended with Samus Aran raising a blaster into the air in victory. That would have been satisfying, and it was an amazing game all the way through. Hero pose! Instead, Samus stepped out of the battle suit, demonstrated her gender, and shattered the 8-bit preconceptions of players everywhere. It is still one of the most celebrated endings in gaming history.

Let's say we were to apply these principles to this article.

You've stuck with me this far, so I can perhaps assume that you're interested in what I've had to say so far. We're near the end, so you are maybe starting to think about what you'll read next, or putting down the magazine. Perhaps you are looking forward to the internal satisfactory tick-mark that comes from reading the last line.

How might I use this receptive state of mind? What is my truth about endings, right now?

Speaking of endings, did you know that this is the final issue of this here magazine? Funny story: Through random luck, I've ended up with the honor of writing the final Design of the Times. That's this article, right here.

You know, the first time I picked up an issue of Game Developer was back in 1996, in the offices of Hyperbole Studios. I was a late-20-something, blown away to be suddenly making games after long years of professional wandering.

It was the existence of this magazine that gave me my first glimpse into the murky, somewhat-secret society of game developers. The magazine's professional-looking cover and its interior pages full of post-mortems and dev tricks all were clearly aimed specifically at a readership made up of people who made video games. Flipping through the pages, I gradually discovered that I very much wanted to be part of that target market.

It's much later now. We have internets, game developers are meeting with vice presidents, and 99.9% of people under 25 have played video games. It's a world in transition, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. But I, for one, won't move forward into that future without fi rst pausing and, maybe just for a moment, placing an affectionate hand on the magazine that was the warm face that greeted me as I entered this industry.

Thanks. Thanks for that, and for all the other stuff.

That is my truth on endings: I mark them, I use them to reflect, and if I can get away with it, I give thanks to people who have had an impact on my life.

As a game designer, you are more free when crafting your ending than you are in any other piece of your game. So, in the end, tell the fucking truth. Tell as much of it as you can manage. Tell it as best you can. And see if you can give the world something to remember.

[first15tv-blog]

Since editing this video, I have put in well over 10 hours into this game, finally beating the first campaign. This game has, as the reviews put down below, completely changed the way I see MMO RPGs. The battle system is awesome, and the most rewarding part of the mechanics of this game is that when you learn how to parry, block, and finish foes, you are rewarded with some of the best finishing moves I’ve ever seen.

The game is hard, no doubt. I found myself dying over and over even on “normal” mode campaign. It doesn’t dumb down the game play. You must grind through it, learning how to advance and learning how to hone your skills as a warrior.

I knew that this game would be one that I’d play a lot. You got me Ubisoft. For as much grief as you get my the massive amounts of trolls out there. I’d say that this game was the best purchase I’ve made in 2017 so far. I doubt if any other will eclipse it.

IGN.com said: “For Honor has some dents in its shiny armor, such as the mediocre campaign, the frugal economy, and the snowballing victories in team modes. But it’s hard to be mad too long when I consider that the melee combat system is second to none and a joy to learn, take your licks, and then learn some more. I could feel myself becoming a better warrior with this deep, flexible, and complete fighting system. The more I play For Honor, the more I want to play For Honor. I hope Ubisoft doubles-down on support, because it’s something truly special.”

Gamespot.com said: “After slaying countless foes, it’s clear the impact For Honor’s combat has had; its fundamental tenets of discipline and restraint are bestowed upon you permanently, forever changing the way you perceive a melee-combat encounter in a game. In its highest moments, For Honor is difficult to put down. Its slow combat pace and narrative shortcomings might turn off those unwilling to take the time to dive deep into what it has to offer. However, make no mistake–those who do will be rewarded with some of the most satisfying multiplayer melee fighting conceived in recent years.”

Watch my first 15 minutes of game play of For Honor, streamed on Twitch:

Roll NEED – This game is epic in every way.

  About For Honor

Carve a path of destruction through an intense, believable battlefield in For Honor.

• UNIQUE WARRIORS TO MASTER Choose your warrior amongst a variety of bold Knights, brutal Vikings and deadly Samurai, each with their own weapon set, play style and customization options.

• MEMORABLE STORY CAMPAIGN Storm castles and fortresses in massive battles and confront deadly bosses in intense duels to ensure the survival of your people against a mysterious and deadly foe.

• CONQUER FOES ALONE OR WITH FRIENDS For Honor offers an engaging single-player campaign and thrilling multiplayer.

• INNOVATIVE ART OF BATTLE CONTROL SYSTEM Wield the weight of your weapon and feel the power of every strike through the system that puts you in total control.

For Honor Media

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Get the game [HERE]

Tech Specs

OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)

Processor: Intel Core i3-550 | AMD Phenom II X4 955 or equivalent

Memory: 4 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX660/GTX750ti/GTX950/GTX1050 with 2 GB VRAM or more | AMD Radeon HD6970/HD7870/R9 270/R9 370/RX460 with 2 GB VRAM or more

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 40 GB available space

Sound Card: DirectX-Compatible using the latest drivers

Additional Notes: Mouse and Keyboard supported.

RECOMMENDED:

OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)

Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K | AMD FX-6350 or equivalent

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX680/GTX760/GTX970/GTX1060 with 2 GB VRAM or more | AMD Radeon R9 280X/R9 380/RX470 with 2 GB VRAM or more

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 40 GB available space

Sound Card: DirectX-Compatible using the latest drivers

Additional Notes: Mouse and Keyboard supported

FIRST 15 Minutes of FOR HONOR - Loving the Tutorial @ForHonorGame Since editing this video, I have put in well over 10 hours into this game, finally beating the first campaign.

[symbianosgames]

Most players won't play to the end of your game. That's not a tragedy -- that's a feature of video games' design landscape. Ubisoft creative director Jason VandenBerghe explains, in this reprint from the final (June/July 2013) issue of Game Developer magazine.

Argument: As a game designer, you are more free when crafting your ending than you are for any other piece of your game.

First of all, having an ending at all is your choice. Don't want one? All good! Games are loops, and if you want to leave yours closed, you will be in good company. No one has ever "finished" poker, or football.

But for games that do have an ending, only a small portion of your players will ever see it. We are, as an industry and as a culture, still confused about this. We are dismayed at the low finish rates of our games, and a player who puts down the controller before reaching the end is left with a vague sense of having dissed the game team.

Yet, the ability for players to stop playing whenever they feel like it is inherent in the form! This is not a bad thing; this is a good thing. It is part of the game-design landscape. And if you learn to worry less about insisting that everyone who starts finishes, and put your attention on the advantages this fact of gaming gives you, you will not find a more personally liberating moment in game design than in designing your end.

The question is: How will you use that freedom?

For several years back in the late 1990s, I lived with an eccentric friend named Dylan. Dylan was a carouser, a lover of swords and theatrics, a collector of experiences -- and an avid video game starter.

Dylan played dozens, maybe hundreds of games per year, and this was before the Internet, so they mostly came from the store. But, for all his passion, I don't know that I ever saw him put more than an hour into a single one. He would buy them, try them, love them... and then set them aside forever. This was a man who stopped playing Diablo after an hour or so (!). Even more weirdly, he was always perfectly content with his purchases, never showing a single hint of regret at not seeing the end.

He never did this with movies or books. Ever.

Watching Dylan's weird relationship with the games he played taught me that it is absolutely not required to finish a game to appreciate it.

Last year, you may remember that CNN published an article by Blake Snow that regaled the Internet with the news that only 10-20 percent of gamers actually finish the games they started.

No argument. When we see game finish rates over 30-40 percent, we sing the praises of the team and pop the bubbly. Numbers like that imply that we managed to make some seriously compelling content, and smooth out all the bumps along the way. Precious few games reach that goal.

But, I have a beef with an unspoken assumption in this article, and in many articles like it. Here's how the article's author put it:

"Let [this] sink in for a minute: Of every 10 people who started playing the consensus 'Game of the Year,' [Red Dead Revolver] only one of them finished it. How is that? Shouldn't such a high-rated game keep people engaged? Or have player attention spans reached a breaking point? ...Who's to blame: The developer or the player? Or maybe it's our culture?"

My beef is with the idea that failing to finish a game is a bad thing.

Putting down the controller somewhere before the final climactic scene in a video game is not a sin. It is an intrinsic part of our art form.

I never finished the first BioShock, yet it remains a game I thoroughly enjoyed. Grim Fandango? Never finished it. But I sure as hell use it as an example in design discussions! I have never finished a single Z, but, man, they are fun (usually).

There are a ton of games that don't even have endings. Most arcade-style games and most MMOs don't have real endings. The Sims doesn't have an ending. Poker? Chess? Football?

In fact, a broad majority of the world's long-standing favorite games are specifically designed to never be finished. One game of Sudoku leads to another, which leads to another... In game design terms, even putting an "ending" into your game is, clearly, optional. We know this. It's self-evident. So, then, why do we gnash our teeth and tear out our hair when only 20% of players reach the end of our (story) games?

I believe that the idea has its roots in our beliefs about other media. There is an implicit rejection that is present when someone walks out of a movie, turns off a show on TV, or sets down a book unfinished. For those mediums, the message of this action is clear: "I'm not enjoying this story enough to continue."

When someone stops playing a game, however, the possibilities are far, far more varied:

"I'd love to keep playing, but the time commitment is too high for me."

"I enjoyed the beginning, but now it's getting sort of grindy, and that's not for me."

"Love the game, but I'm weary of the player culture, so I'm going to hang out somewhere else."

"My friends stopped playing."

These are not necessarily sins of the designer. Gaming is as much a lifestyle as it is entertainment, and if a game doesn't fit into an individual's life, they are going to put it down. That's not a tragedy. That's a feature of our design landscape.

So, instead of looking guiltily at our completion rates and fantasizing about a world in which 99% of the players who start our (story) game reach the final scene, let's flip it around and see what we can do to take advantage of this fact, instead.

More than half of your players are not going to finish. You know that going in, so think of it as a design constraint! What does that mean to you?

First: The deeper into your game your content is, the more likely it is that the players that are still with you have been having a good time. They're in. They've bought it. You have earned a certain amount of faith capital with them, and they probably want to see what else you've got up your sleeve.

Second: Because your producers and various high-mucky-mucks have seen the finishing stats for other games, they know that dev time spent in detailed iteration on your ending is effort going to a small subset of players. They will prioritize the team's time accordingly. They will thus be more likely, whether through disinterest or lack of time, to let your crazy idea for the end slip through the cracks.

Third: Players themselves already know that arriving at the end is a rare occasion—because they, personally, most likely don't do it very often. Every player has put down the controller on at least a few games. If they do decide to complete the whole thing, they will wear that fact as a badge of honor (we hope). So, they are psychologically primed to receive some kind of acknowledgment for their effort. Bright-eyed, with the end in sight, your players look to the designer expectantly, ready to interpret whatever you present as a kind of reward, while your producers turn a blind eye...

I only have one piece of real advice for you about this moment: Tell the fucking truth.

Whatever it is that is in your heart, whatever it is that has drawn you into making this game in the first place, do that with your faith capital. Spend it telling them that, somehow.

The first Modern Warfare had a great example of this: The final mission was the most over-the-top crazy, punishing, nearly-impossible-to-complete madness-fest in their game. It had almost no explanation, required none ("PLANE! TERRORISTS!"), and it was simply brilliant. The level was a celebration of the game that you had just finished, a self-referential guns-blazing cherry on the cake that was completely unnecessary, but became legendary.

One of the most satisfying endings I have ever played was the ending of The Darkness. It laid bare the truth of the fantasy they had created, and gave me full rights to punish an evil that I had come to loathe. The truth there was consistent with the story, but it was the play that they created that made that last scene true. I hated the villain of that game, and in the end the game did nothing to force my hand (beyond closing the door behind me). When I took my revenge, it was me that did it, and that act stayed with me.

But it is the ending of the first Metroid, perhaps, that best demonstrates the strange liberty we have with this moment. It could have ended with Samus Aran raising a blaster into the air in victory. That would have been satisfying, and it was an amazing game all the way through. Hero pose! Instead, Samus stepped out of the battle suit, demonstrated her gender, and shattered the 8-bit preconceptions of players everywhere. It is still one of the most celebrated endings in gaming history.

Let's say we were to apply these principles to this article.

You've stuck with me this far, so I can perhaps assume that you're interested in what I've had to say so far. We're near the end, so you are maybe starting to think about what you'll read next, or putting down the magazine. Perhaps you are looking forward to the internal satisfactory tick-mark that comes from reading the last line.

How might I use this receptive state of mind? What is my truth about endings, right now?

Speaking of endings, did you know that this is the final issue of this here magazine? Funny story: Through random luck, I've ended up with the honor of writing the final Design of the Times. That's this article, right here.

You know, the first time I picked up an issue of Game Developer was back in 1996, in the offices of Hyperbole Studios. I was a late-20-something, blown away to be suddenly making games after long years of professional wandering.

It was the existence of this magazine that gave me my first glimpse into the murky, somewhat-secret society of game developers. The magazine's professional-looking cover and its interior pages full of post-mortems and dev tricks all were clearly aimed specifically at a readership made up of people who made video games. Flipping through the pages, I gradually discovered that I very much wanted to be part of that target market.

It's much later now. We have internets, game developers are meeting with vice presidents, and 99.9% of people under 25 have played video games. It's a world in transition, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. But I, for one, won't move forward into that future without fi rst pausing and, maybe just for a moment, placing an affectionate hand on the magazine that was the warm face that greeted me as I entered this industry.

Thanks. Thanks for that, and for all the other stuff.

That is my truth on endings: I mark them, I use them to reflect, and if I can get away with it, I give thanks to people who have had an impact on my life.

As a game designer, you are more free when crafting your ending than you are in any other piece of your game. So, in the end, tell the fucking truth. Tell as much of it as you can manage. Tell it as best you can. And see if you can give the world something to remember.