No Man's Sky - Too good to be true?

Started by Jarhead0331, June 17, 2015, 09:12:54 AM

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sandman2575

From the article MD linked to :

"as Murray has said, "It's a weird game, it's a niche game, and it's a very, very chill game." Which is a nicer way of saying there's no overarching purpose, no point, no meaning other than perpetuating the grind.

And yet — aren't most video games ultimately pointless? They send you out to complete virtual tasks in a virtual world, to repetitively collect items and combat imaginary opponents, to solve puzzles or manage systems that have no bearing on the real world. They are all just elegant time wasters, designed to distract you from the real world, to let you pretend, for a moment, that it is not messy and frustrating with no certain payoff, but clear and contained and knowable, with a reward guaranteed at the end.

The difference is that No Man's Sky does not attempt to disguise its nature. Instead, by refusing to provide you with a purpose, it forces you to reconcile with the essential emptiness of its universe, with the pointlessness of a game whose only reward is the opportunity to continue playing the game. It is cold and lonely and empty and unsatisfying — and that may be the point. It is an existential crisis simulator, an infinite, interactive reflection on mortal ennui."


Hmm...  I think this gives players too little credit (and perhaps gives Hello Games too much credit).  I don't think players who are dissatisfied with NMS are chafing against the hugeness of the game's universe/sandbox. They're upset about the fact that there is simply too little to do within that sandbox. The complaint doesn't seem to be "Oh my God the universe is just too big and I can't derive any sense of meaning out of the quest I'm supposed be on." It's more "There's too little to do, and what you are able to do quickly becomes repetitive and tedious."   If even half of the features on that long Reddit post about "promised features removed from NMS" were actually in the game, it's hard to imagine that the sense of disillusionment and disappointment would be anything like it is now.

Ian C

I've uninstalled it and it's a game I ultimately regret buying. By that, I really don't mean its by any means a bad game. It's a splendid waste of time and a Time Vampire. But that's all it is.

It doesn't challenge me, it doesn't grip me. There's no emotional involvement, no visceral thrill. It touches upon several popular tropes of game fun and there's the carrot-stick system of need/reward, cycle and that's it. In short, it's a highly evolved glorified Tetris or Candy Crush Saga for the thinking gamer. Nothing more.

JasonPratt

Quote from: MetalDog on August 29, 2016, 11:32:15 AM
NMS is about existential crisis:


http://www.vox.com/2016/8/27/12646008/no-mans-sky-game-review-existential-crisis

I saw a video apology for the game amounting to much the same thing, retconning a lot of the situational details to point to a universe on the (relative) edge of heat death, where the player is hunted for advancing entropy even a little, but everything is fruitless because everyone and everything is going to die sooner or later (and relatively sooner for everything here).
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Flywheel

Quote from: Ian C on August 29, 2016, 12:21:26 PM
In short, it's a highly evolved glorified Tetris or Candy Crush Saga.

Someone say a glorified Candy Crush? Stop tempting me!
Hold my beer and watch this!


Apocalypse 31

Quote from: Ian C on August 29, 2016, 12:21:26 PM
I've uninstalled it and it's a game I ultimately regret buying. By that, I really don't mean its by any means a bad game. It's a splendid waste of time and a Time Vampire. But that's all it is.

This. I tried to refund it. No dice. 

Swatter

The Vox article is silly, IMO. While I agree we likely live within a simulation of some sort, that doesn't mean its OK to only half finish a video game and give the developers kudos for doing so.

panzerde

Quote from: Swatter on August 31, 2016, 03:54:54 PM
The Vox article is silly, IMO. While I agree we likely live within a simulation of some sort, that doesn't mean its OK to only half finish a video game and give the developers kudos for doing so.

Well said! I had the same reaction when reading it - "WTF does the metaphysics of the universe have to do with the fact that the developer didn't deliver the game they promised?"

Not that, as the article indicates, some people might not find it their kind of game. I haven't played it, so I'm in no position to comment beyond that I haven't picked it up largely due to the concerns raised by people here.
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JasonPratt

The obligatory Zero Punctuation review, at last.



NOW WE CAN ALL HEAVE A SIGH OF RELIEF AND GET ON WITH OUR LIVES (or with having fun in the game, if that's working for you.  O:-) )
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

JasonPratt

Wow. Sony tries to exculpate itself from NMS backlash.



The key point here is that Shuhei Yoshida, speaking for Sony in a statement, while admitting the marketing was... not exactly fraudulent but ill-conceived, let us say... blames Murray the dev for the public relations debacle saying that, after all he's an indie developer, he doesn't have experience in this area (marketing not being his thing), and if he had had a professional PR team this wouldn't have happened.

Except he did have one of the most professional PR teams on the planet. He had Sony's. Sony emptied the magazines until the barrels glowed red-hot, enabling and supporting his PR strategy.
ICEBREAKER THESIS CHRONOLOGY! -- Victor Suvorov's Stalin Grand Strategy theory, in lots and lots of chronological order...
Dawn of Armageddon -- narrative AAR for Dawn of War: Soulstorm: Ultimate Apocalypse
Survive Harder! -- Two season narrative AAR, an Amazon Blood Bowl career.
PanzOrc Corpz Generals -- Fantasy Wars narrative AAR, half a combined campaign.
Khazâd du-bekâr! -- narrative dwarf AAR for LotR BfME2 RotWK campaign.
RobO Q Campaign Generator -- archived classic CMBB/CMAK tool!

Jarhead0331

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sandman2575

Has Murray and his team seriously not made any public statement since the game launched? Thought I read that on Kotaku.  If so, that's beyond inexcusable. It's bad enough to deliberately oversell a product that you know doesn't really live up to billing. It's another to just stay mum through a massive PR s**tstorm that ensues as a result.

ArizonaTank

Quote from: sandman2575 on September 19, 2016, 05:45:55 PM
Has Murray and his team seriously not made any public statement since the game launched? Thought I read that on Kotaku.  If so, that's beyond inexcusable. It's bad enough to deliberately oversell a product that you know doesn't really live up to billing. It's another to just stay mum through a massive PR s**tstorm that ensues as a result.

Maybe he has just been too busy shopping for a Lamborghini or two...;)
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