Nodima

Since diversifying from the Bombcast, one of my favorite gaming podcast quickly became How Did This Get Played, eventually rebranded to Get Played. Heather Ann Cambell is one of the hosts, and she is a fighting game/character action savant. She dissects fighting games with supreme specificity and is drawn to FromSoft games primarily because they, as she likes to joke, pretend to be challenging. She is a gamer ass gamer. They've had a recurring segment in which she pulls out some random peripheral from the '90s SEGA days and tries to explain why she owns it for at least a couple years now. She gives me a lot of Jeff vibes, to be honest.

She's also a writer for a handful of huge animated and live action comedy shows, so she isn't purely focused on games.

...So. A couple years ago they also did a month-long gimmick where each host forced the other to play a game they thought the others might not like. Her week was Fortnite. She loved how absurd it was. She kept playing afterward. She developed a Discord crowd within their fanbase to keep a regular squad going. She has had a Fortnite Minute segment on the podcast for at least a year now. They cover the latest games, she gets enamored by what many of them do...and within an episode or two admits as much as she wants to keep playing some other game, she's gotta log in to Fortnite.

Listening to her journey with that game has been particularly illuminating. I did get sucked into it in some ways with MLB the Show's Diamond Dynasty, but I always played the offline mode. I obsessively played the first three season of Apex Legends, but I wasn't hooked in the end. I finally gave Fortnite a fair shot when they had some Witcher 3 cosmetics timed to the Unreal Engine update, but I couldn't figure out the economy. I just recently gave a couple days off to EAFC24 thanks to PS+ and I could see the hooks, I just failed to grasp the bait.

But again, you listen to her enough and she is deep, deep into gaming in a way I'm not, even if she has less time for it than I do. And because that's her experience, she'll have weirdly (personal) reasons for loving the hell out of FF15 but struggle to commit 3 hours to a newer release because she's gotta thank her bus driver. It's been a truly illuminating journey, because you like to imagine it's casual people that get dunked by these live services.But sometimes it's people who were forced to play something their best friends expected them to hate for the sake of podcast content, only to realize it's all they ever wanted from a video game.

@bigsocrates: When I'm playing d-pad based games like fighters and strategy games and what not, I like that both my thumbs rest high. When I'm playing analog games, I like that they both mostly sit low. It helps the strain on my joints feel balanced.

It's probably some weird mental barrier built up from the format of the NES controller until now, but the XBox/3rd party default format feels different for the sake of it, and maybe because of all that accrued muscle/joint memory it does put more strain on my left thumb when they're flipped.

Hey, it's me, the guy that says "offset analog sticks are very bad and make the d-pad a total pain to use" every time this conversation comes up.

I relented in the "face buttons vs. triggers" brake/acceleration debate (and in full fairness I was a total idiot to ever be annoyed by that change, lol), but I will never accept moving the d-pad. I still operate every single menu in a video game with that thing, it's just as important as the analog stick, but you can't just rest your thumb on it and go to town. You've got to lift, shift and press for every action. That should be a leisurely activity and it just isn't on an XBox or Switch Pro controller, IMO.

Plus I just like symmetry. The DualShock/Sense is an objectively prettier controller, it's perfectly balanced.

I've got no specific memory of the SNES game Kablooey! other than it being the other game my dad bought for it alongside the Mario World pack-in, and once I added Contra III (and a Game Genie, obviously) to the catalog he'd occasionally pop in and wonder if I'd made any progress in Kablooey!

Of a more recent vintage, I always chuckle when I see GreedFall, because I know it has some very vocal fans but even as a Playstation Plus goof I think it will forever hold the record for how quickly dire animations and voice acting repelled me from a game.

Alternatively, Erica was another PS+ "benefit" that is always front of mind because I'd never seen its lead actress, Holly Earl, in anything before or since yet I'm embarrassingly fond of her. The "game" was absolutely no good, and her performance was far from remarkable. And yet, I immediately felt protective of one of Dragon's Dogma 2's many cast aside story-relevant NPCs, Ulrika, only to learn during the credits roll that Earl was her English performer. Truly "weird".

Yeah, whatever disagreements we had in the other thread about the battle passes (re: still haven't launched the game in the week since) I think it's both remarkable that

A) One of the most fun subreddits in years immediately, resolutely became the most performatively toxic displays of "fandom" I've had no one but myself to blame for witnessing

B) As best my bystander perspective could perceive, less than zero consideration was given to the multi-pronged clusterfuck that would be borne by how limited PSN's reach is in comparison to Steam's

I found the data warrior angle pretty embarrassing, considering these were Steam/Twitter/Reddit blatherers taking a so-called stand for data privacy. However, when it became clear how vast the non-PSN diaspora was (that no sale list was, what, 150-odd countries?) I might've still felt the outrage was mostly of the terminally online variety but no matter how small the percentage of players in those countries might've been, I got it.

I'm not fluent enough in legalese to be certain about rightful ramifications (though I do know the guy that proposed launching a class action lawsuit from the States was being an absolute try hard) but if the idea was to require PSN registration from the beginning, selling the game anywhere in the world where that's at best complicated, at worst impossible does seem like malpractice.

To which it also seems like the community managers did an extravagantly poor job managing that reality, while the seemingly well-meaning CEO both sides-ed his way through the murkiest of PR waters probably as well as anybody could, but he's ultimately still steering a ship...I want to make some kind of cholera metaphor, for some reason.

It must truly have been the worst of weekends for everyone on the dev team, and for me that was honestly most of what I took away from this whole saga as a lapsed player who owns a PS5 in North America. This game transitioned from a pillar of Devs Done Good fanaticism to Devs Be Schemin' dogmatism instantly.

@bigsocrates: I didn't want to simply not reply to you, both because it's rude and because someone has to keep these forums going...but again, as someone who's barely played the game for over a month now, I hate to say I can't follow your logic. Not in the grand schema, because I do agree, but regarding this specific game...new toys simply don't simplify gameplay. Unfortunately, almost every new weapon debuts so broken that players can't understand they were released.

On that point, I would concede, the game has found a different way to be bad about the pass structure. If I were playing on the higher difficulties...or, again, playing at all...it'd be annoying as hell that the buggy launch of the mech suit didn't lead to a thorough examination of the new cluster rocket launcher. So, empathetically, it is annoying.

But it's also not the case that the basic guns the game launched with, or the strategems available to everyone of sufficient rank, can't get the job done. Again, having not played in a while I'm willing to be wrong, but on the latter point I think they've been pretty emphatic that they'll only be earned playing the game.

I've been as on the front lines as I can be slamming microtransactions thanks to how thoroughly they ruined NBA 2K (especially as a Franchise/MyGM player) and how constantly under duress MLB The Show has become now that it's multi-platform. They're sick, ugly and predatory for sure.

Maybe one day Helldivers will show its devil hand, and maybe our unspoken disagreement is that even Fortnite's cosmetics are succubi, but for now I think they're being both demonstrably and admirably chill.

You mentioned the weird quirk that almost every perk is available to all Playstation players so long as they activate the myriad quests on the phone app most of which involve simply launching games old enough anybody who'd care enough to regularly check the Playstation app for new "quests" has probably either already played or long ago decided against said game(s)...

And I agree that is unquantifiably stupid.

Yet...This program did allow me to play FF VII Rebirth for free, and also redeem a $10 credit to give the Phantom Liberty spin on Cyberpunk the old college try for just $10 or so when it was all packaged in that Christmastime make-good deep discount, so...

As hilarious as I find it's general obtuseness, I did get to play two really interesting/enormous games for quite a tiny bit of coin by buying whatever games I did and occasionally, practically absent-mindedly opening the PS app on my phone to see what it might ask of me when I was between new toys.

Again, I can't stress enough that the program is implemented so poorly that it doesn't seem real...but it also doesn't seem to have any ill intentions. I'm sure it took years to build up the collateral to get FFVIIR2 and Phantom Liberty, and in some ways that didn't come cheap. But out of curiosity I took another look at my account and I could just get me some Balatro if I wanted, too.

Granular as the program is, I'd say it's equally beneficial. Perhaps on accident.

If anyone thinks these people aren't serious, I'd invite you to the Mortal Kombat subreddit. I've enjoyed following it for years because I get to see what silliness the DLC characters can get up to as well as the absurd combos the best players come up with...

Unfortunately, a not insignificant portion of posts also consist of comparing how much more clothing the female characters are wearing compared to "the good old days", to the point of absurdity. I'm attracted to women, and I'm not against artistic portrayals of total babes, but I wouldn't be offended if Tifa wound up in a business suit. More, or back to, the point, it's comical that whatever Kitana is wearing would/should affect how enjoyable her moveset is.

I'm excited to dig into this game in a month or so, but I gotta admit Horny Gamers have tangibly, negatively influenced my decision to wait and see...despite by all accounts the game itself rejecting those clowns as readily as myself.

@bigsocrates: I know it was a hot button issue pretty recently because of that one former executive who said he wished he had a post purchase tip-button for some major games...

But I've worked in bars and restaurants my entire adult life, as well as half my adolescent one, so "tipping" is just part of my parlance. I'm also the odd consumer that buys maybe ten new games a year yet listens to five gaming podcasts every week, yet also doesn't find $70 an incredible ask for an entertainment product I'll possibly get just as many hours out of. In this case, I initially, honestly hesitantly, just got the base $40 game. After a wonderful first week with the game, I bought the upgrade. Then, despite not playing much the past few weeks, I reaped all the rewards as though I had, so throwing another $10 at the game to goof off with some new toys balanced me out at about $1 per hour of fun. Whether it's right to call that a "tip" or not, I feel I've got incredible value out of the game.

(Here's what feels like the right spot to double back and say TOO LONG;DR - I agree too many games are forced by their dads to become door-to-door vacuum salesmen, but at worst Helldivers is just a kid with a lemonade stand.)

All that being said, and also thinking it's worth emphasizing that unlike any other game I can think of with a battle pass progression model these passes do not expire...I fundamentally agree with the issue you're raising. Whether it's MLB The Show, Apex Legends, Street Fighter VI, NBA 2K, Mortal Kombat 1, Diablo III/Immortal or Marvel Snap, too many games I've played over the past year and change tuck shiny things behind significant time investments that can be mitigated by cash.

Personally, the last time I "tipped" for a good time with a game it was a pair of free ones; one battle pass shortly after the launch of Apex in 2019 and just the same for Genshin Impact in 2020. I'm happy to say that was that for both. But then...I guess I should admit I do sometimes, probably foolishly, make a "thank you" purchase from time to time. I played the Yakuza series, from 0 to 7, for a grand total of about $40 over the years following Beast in the East, so I got the $80 Infinite Wealth package. Ask me anything about what that extra $10 got me. Even worse, I was damn certain I hadn't spent a dime on Mortal Kombats 9 through 11 so I talked myself into the $110 early access, full first season of new characters package Being the Giant Bomb forum, I don't think I need to detail how silly that was.

To loop back to the game at hand, though, I don't think it's designed to corral and slaughter like most of those other games are. The few upgrades that require materials from the highest difficulty levels are undoubtedly enticing, but for someone like me who prefers (preferred? I really should get back to this fun ass game) the middle tier I/we aren't even seeing some of the game's most threatening enemies. What we are getting is dealt with by what we've got. That's no reason to dismiss out of hand anyone who might struggle harder to rationalize that, but even then, if a fractional credit is owed Helldivers, you absolutely cannot buy those upgrades. Which to me further emphasizes that they're meant to reward high level play rather than sucker whales. Alongside battle passes that, again, definitely signify all the shiny and new bells and whistles the model fundamentally stands for...yet, for once, are perpetual.

So when I bought the credits to unlock the latest Warbond (if I may indulge their marketing just once) no part of me felt like I was doing so to avoid missing out on it. In fact and again, all I did was log in to the game, receive roughly 250 medals from various major orders, buy the bond, unlock some random stuff, then go back to the single player games I was invested in...while constantly cocking my head 45 degrees to refresh the Helldivers subreddit and indulge in the ever expanding community role play that catapulted this game into the catbird seat it holds in the first place.

Second Edit: For what it's worth, after doubling back to check if I didn't address everything I wanted to, I do agree that the game is "content poor", in that it's the same activity ad nauseam, but I also disagree that the Pass content has a "pay to win" feel. The only way to "win" is to participate, and none of the new guns or grenades trivialize that. From what I remember of my 60-70 hours, everything essentially does the same damage, just at different rates. New kit is just new kit, and until you navigate its nuances likely a reminder how easy it is to kill your teammates when you meant to spread democracy. If anything, all of the new weapons have been more notable for how little they've changed the game, which one could easily argue isn't great.

I'd like to add that while several single player games and a personal desire to fully chill out in my after hours have led me to playing very little of Helldivers after putting about 50 hours into its first two months, you point out that the game has a bit of a FOMO element and in design I suppose that's true. It must be said, however, that you don't even need to have played the game during a successful Major Order to earn the reward for it. Coupled with the perpetuity of the battle passes, that feels extremely generous. I haven't played in nearly a month, but I logged in and earned enough rewards from the Major Orders I'd missed to purchase most of the first two pages of the most recent pass.

Yes, I gave them some money to unlock it, but I'd unlocked the first and second purely through gameplay, so I envisioned it as a tip.

While, again, I haven't played the game in weeks, I think they have the right idea. And they do need incentive to keep playing, because the game itself is definitely quite repetitive.

If any resource restriction(s) actually concern me, it's that the very last upgrades require materials you can only farm on the highest difficulties, and the few things they've added since launch ask for even more of said resources. I like(d) to linger on the 5th tier with an occasional dabble into the 6th, which effectively means I'm done upgrading. That sucks.