Podcast Questions!

Hello Dark Pixel Gaming! I started watching your videos a few months ago and now the podcast is something I look forward to every week. Thanks for all of the great content you create! I have a meta question. What do you think makes a great podcast question? What are some of the most memorable discussions that have come out of a podcast question and what was it about the question that got you so engaged in that discussion?

Thanks for answering my question, Mike. I appreciate it. I know you can disable trophy notifications on PS4 in the system settings. At one time in my life I cared about achievements, but once I realized it was incentivizing me play the game for longer than I wanted I disabled those notifications and just stopped caring. But I know people who are still way into it. They buy games they don't even enjoy very much because there are a bunch of "easy trophies" the can earn. I find it kind of sad that they do this, but it's not really my place to tell them how to enjoy their games or how to spend their money.

One way is to break up the analysis into parts. One can talk about story and lore. Another could be about the battle system and growth system. Another could be on sidequests. If you truly wanted to go in depth you could make a video on a theme in the game and how it is represented. In doing this you can upload more content/videos based on one game.

Well, I'd say I'm not doing a very good job consolidating myself considering my latest FF13 review was almost 50 minutes long, haha. It is very difficult to make a comprehensive review on rpgs because there is so much to talk about; so you kind of have to decide whether you want to put in the effort to make a 30+ minute video, or if you'd rather focus on the experience as a whole and take a bit more of an emotional approach rather than a strictly analytical one. It's not easy either way, but if length is what you are concerned about then I'd try to stay away from being totally comprehensive and covering every single thing in the game. So much of it also depends on the game in question. Newer games are harder to review because there's lots more content in them. Older games are easier in that regard. Short answer is I don't know, because I struggle with the same thing :/

Resonant Arc

I would love to, but I think there are others who have done a better job than I can do. I'll give you some links! FF1: <a href="http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy/Version_differences" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy/Version_differences</a> FF2: <a href="http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_II/Version_differences" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_II/Version_differences</a> FF3: <a href="http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_III" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_III</a> (scroll down on this one ^ to the section on "releases) FF4: <a href="http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_IV/Version_differences" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_IV/Version_differences</a> FF5: <a href="http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_V/Version_differences" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_V/Version_differences</a> FF6: <a href="http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VI/Version_differences" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VI/Version_differences</a>

Resonant Arc

We weren't able to include this question this week, but feel free to post again next time!

Resonant Arc

I think I can confidently summarize our thoughts on achievements, considering we have talked about this a little bit in the past. Basically we don't like them, and especially hate how the pop up and interrupt the experience constantly. As for how they promote repetitive or menial tasks, I think that is in large part due to the fact that they are required. Developers HAVE to include a certain number of achievements, so often you get them scrambling a bit to hit the 'quota' so to speak. If a game is coming down the wire, and developers are working with crunch time, I bet there's a lot they prioritize ahead of which achievements they're going to put into the game, so that's probably why lots of achievements are really dumb like that.

Resonant Arc

I actually made a video on this pretty recently! Here's a link if you haven't had a chance to see it yet: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlTPQ1HxIv4" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlTPQ1HxIv4</a>

Resonant Arc

Oh nice! We'll make sure to announce it much earlier next time!

Resonant Arc

As someone who is currently about to try his hand at reviewing video games, I'm overwhelmed. Games are massive, and in these games that have 50+ hours of gameplay(for JUST the base storyline) there's no way to even scratch the surface in a 15-30 minute review it seems. What are your methods for analyzing, consolidating, condensing, and eventually compiling all of the information and opinions into a coherent review? How do you choose what scenes to show in the "b-roll" so to speak? How do you plan, and execute the reviews? I got thinking about this after listening to your entire FFXIII discussion series a while back, which inspired me to play the game. Thanks so much, I truly adore and appreciate the content and all that you do. :) -Micah

To clarify, I don't run past every NPC. That isn't like a sworn strategy, but it does happen fairly often in newer games. Even semi-newer games like Xenoblade, if there is no voice actor, I'm not talking to NPCs generally.

Hat

Given that almost all RPGs these days have voice acting, how do you think that has changed the genre in terms of storytelling, when in the past, it was all text? Feel free to take that wherever you want, as it is an open-ended question. However, I think the obvious answer here is that the development process for story-based games in general, has been greatly impacted as a result of voice acting. Stories can no longer be tweaked as easily late in production. Additionally, developers have to contend with what the character should actually sound like, and in some cases, players might despise a character’s voice acting, despite the game being great (Tidus). Yet, older rpgs, players could imagine Cloud or Cecil however they’d like them to sound. To complicate things further, I’ve noticed in older rpgs, I as a player, relied heavily on speaking with EVERYONE in order to provide context to the story (Black Mage Village in FF9 provides great context to Vivi). However, in newer games with voice acting, I’ll usually just run past NPCs that are talking, or if they don’t have a voice actor, I’ll assume the NPC doesn’t have anything important to say… I guess I just assume, if it was important, the game would force me to watch a minor cutscene. Sorry that is so long.

Hat

P.S. I live close to Salt Lake (I'm in Twin Falls), so I might be able to make it to your next meetup.

The Electric Underground

Could you guys go through the different ports and versions of the 2d Final Fantasy games and weigh the pros and cons of each? Which version of each game is your favorite? Also, have you heard of the sound restoration versions of the GBA games? There are a bunch of bootlegs of these on ebay and I am strangely tempted to pick one up.

The Electric Underground

2nd attempt at posting, first one appears to be gone. My friends and I recently had a conversation about the depth and quality of storytelling in RPGs and the conversation steered toward the concern that a AAA game today has to have so much more time spent on artwork, graphics, and the game engine itself versus character development and story and it seemed like Final Fantasy XV was a good example of this. I like that Square has created Tokyo RPG Factory and tried to recapture some of the smaller scale development that gave us classics like Chrono Trigger and FF VI in a much shorter development cycle than modern day JRPGs and ultimately resulted in superior gameplay and longevity for myself and friends. The question I'd like to see discussed is on the design philosophy of Square moving forward. They seem fixated on photorealistic big budget releases for consoles and leave anything remotely stylized like Dragon Quest on handhelds with minimal marketing push. Titles like Persona 5 and Ni No Kuni 2 show that stylized games can still hold their own and thrive, but Square seems loathe to experiment with that on their big budget releases in this era. Are Square and other companies that seem to fixate on the graphical presentation doing their games a disservice by trying to look as "shiny" as possible and should more games branch out into a style that works so they can spend more time focused on world building and story development?

Recent Patreon sub and really love your content. As someone who did not get into JRPG's till very recently (I did play FFVII on the PC back in the 90's as well and if you had a Roland MIDI device it was pretty awesome on the musical end) I find I rely pretty heavily on the Square/Enix offerings and have not really branched outside of that. My question is pretty simple and may have been answered before, but outside of SE what are some good JRPG series to get into that are easy to actually buy and play today?

What does a game 'evolving' mean to you? Many I talk to look at Breath of the Wild and Final Fantasy XV as the evolution of their gaming franchises but you will see the some state the same games completely changed their genre. What does it take for a game to evolve for you? Would you consider games like Breath of the Wild as an evolution or just a different take? What are some games you think evolved and what are some you think didn't? Love to hear your thoughts.

ReyIvory

What are your thoughts on trophies/achievements in games being used to incentivize players to complete menial, boring, or repetitive gameplay tasks? It seems to me that often times the achievements/Trophies in games are used as an external reward to keep the player playing the game longer than they would otherwise. This very much seems like a “carrot-on-a-stick” manipulation that allows the developer to get away with what would otherwise be considered uninteresting, bland, and repetitive content to artificially lengthen the overall playtime of the game. And because of the current DLC and “games as a service” climate of the AAA game industry, it is actually in the publisher’s financial interest to keep players playing the game as long as possible in order to increase the probability that the player still owns or is still interested in the game when future DLC and micro-transactions are released. When I look at trophies/achievements lists on new games that come out it makes me think that the publisher’s might be using these trophies/achievements as a method to artificially prolong player engagement and promote future DLC sales. (Especially the achievements that are tied to multiplayer accomplishments that might require hundreds of matches to earn.) What do you think? Are achievements being purposefully used this way in games? And if so, is implementing trophies with the intent to prolong gameplay and manipulate the player’s behavior like this unethical? Is it just smart business strategy? Or is it harmless and just tedious/annoying? Or am I stumbling into tinfoil hat territory here? Interested to hear your thoughts either way.