this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2023
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Gaming

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What game mechanics do you enjoy or that surprised you when playing a game? I recently started playing Tunic and I love building out the "manual" for the game and getting hints on how to play.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

YES I GET TO TALK ABOUT GOOP

In NakeyJakey’s The Last of Us 2 video he describes a condition he has called Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain. Having GGGB essentially means that your motivation and interest in games is powered almost purely by moment-to-moment gameplay. Anything that gets in the way of gameplay, like:

  • Stealth/Trailing sequences
  • Overly long, unskippable cutscenes / game sequences where you just stand around to look at how pretty a game is
  • Long Tutorials

is a threat to Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain.

I have Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain. A very bad case, if I’m being honest. It’s the reason why I can’t stand games like The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption 2, and other “prestige-type” games. It's the reason why I am a big fan of a lot of Japanese games, which tend to focus very heavily on mechanical systems.

So when I say a game is "goopy," this is what I mean. Maybe the movement system is godlike (Gravity Rush, Infamous 2, Forspoken). Maybe it has really deep customization mechanics (Bravely Second, Final Fantasy Tactics, Etrian Odyssey). Maybe the pew pews feel good (Apex Legends). Maybe it's a Ys game (Ys).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I must be playing different Japanese games, as if they aren't from Formsoft they tend to feel like cutscene simulators to me. Sometimes it can be fun if they have enjoyable writing (looking at a lot of the side content in the Yakuza games).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nah I wrote a whole thing about it. Japanese games are in general significantly more interested in game feel in the moment to moment, even when they have tons of cutscenes (ex. MGS)

A game like RDR2 is extremely concerned with realism and physicality even if it costs the players agency. Morgan controls like a lumbering tank, and everything feels cumbersome. The game will make you watch him skin an animal for 20 seconds where you aren't even playing the game, really. Contrast that with something like strangers of paradise or devil may cry. Is it realistic for Jack "Skip Cutscene" Garland to cancel out of any animation to perform a finisher? Nope. Does it feel good as fuck? absolutely.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Right? I feel like a lot of stuff needs to have the golden question asked. That is, "Is this fun?".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Maybe I just don't jive with the common tropes of game feel for them, as most of the ones I've tried haven't given me that visceral fun you got.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Ooh, I'll have to give that video a look at some point. I feel like the term game "goop" is actually perfect to describe the main type of mechanic, where the player is meant to learn and experiment with things.