One of the Worst Gaming Articles I've Read

[Nimbus]

Really?

http://kotaku.com/all-games-should-unlock-every-level-right-away-1737026752?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

Where to begin?
Firstly, video games are completely different to books, music and movies. Suggesting that games should conform to these other mediums is a discredit to the uniqueness of gaming and the interactivity of the player.

Secondly this whole "every level is open at once" thing really doesn't work for most story-driven games. The ability to just skip over all the content would not only kill the pacing but it would take away all sense of progression and remove any satisfaction gained from beating a level you had to actually work on to overcome.

Furthermore, just because you've beaten a game once doesn't mean you've seen all the story has to show. When I first played through Okami I clocked in at about 33 hours. During my second play-through however I got closer to 40 because I was picking up on all these little details that went over my head last time which lead to me exploring more and finding so much more content I had missed.

I'm not even going to comment on his idea of starting a game on one console and wanting to finish it on another.

What do you guys think of this article? And what do you think about the idea of having every level unlocked at the start of the game.

[Deep Blue]

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and share it and so does he, now with that out of the way I think he is talking bs and he is doing it just to be controversial for the attention that the article will receive, specially with this type of phrases " the Call of Duty people were right", I don't expect anything different from kotaku so it doesnt surprise me.
Also comparing different media doesn't work, a book is a book and a game is a game is stupid to mash them together and expect to be the same thing or do what they do in the same way, again that argument is moronic just as the rest of his article.

Edited October 17, 2015 by Deep Blue

[tahu157]

The comedian guy also tries to fallaciously shoehorn you into agreement by saying if you hate DRM you have to hate unlockable levels.  That's obviously not the case, you can like your games free of restrictions and still want levels to be unlocked.

[Redpanda]

Ah, Kotaku. What have you done now?

[Zakamutt]

#clickbait

[Soulless Watcher]

Not really sure the point of this article, mainstream games nowadays are painfully easy. There really isn't much point in unlocking all content in a game at the start or end..... mainly because all the extra content requires microtransactions.

[Mugi]

"I don’t want this because I am bad at video games or intend to skip to the end so I can post the video on YouTube."

Sounds like someone is in denial

[solidbatman]

I support this, but only for Key VNs because fuck those route trees

[Deep Blue]

I support this, but only for Key VNs because fuck those route trees

I second that motion, with a vengeance!

[CeruleanGamer]

His logic is just as stupid as "if I buy a slab of meat, it should taste like a steak without me cooking it."

Just like visual novels, in video games, not everything should have an answer after a single playthrough. Games reach their golden moments on subsequent playthroughs or taking your time to explore everything (100% mindset) and you can connect the pieces together and understand the story better.

Typical casual mindset = beat the game, done with it, wont touch it again and move onto other games (don't mistake these guys for speedrunners. Speed runners are already masters of the game from playing it many times and they skip the unnecessary parts to beat the game faster). Casuals dont care for the "journey" of the game as much as long as they beat it eventually.

True (hardcore?) gamer = play the game one or two more times or take most of your time to 100% clear it and analyze the parts you didnt understand well. They appreciate the experience that stem from playing game in all or most of its essence.

For example, in an RPG game, character development and storytelling are so important, giving access to all towns and dungeons will destroy the intention of "having an adventure" and "roleplaying" which RPG games are all about. 

If you suddenly find out what's going to happen, that's like slapping yourself with a spoiler intentionally and you won't appreciate the fun of the game as it slowly unveils itself. If you suddenly "fast forward" to check who the final boss is going to be, why bother going back and playing the parts of the game before that? You basically destroyed the whole experience of playing the game if you already know the conclusion or end parts.

It's all about the journey, not the destination. As we also connect the similarities between video gaming with visual novel reading, isn't that why we visual novel readers read ten and hundred thousand of words for hours, laugh/cry/shout at the screen as drama, seriousness, and comic relief unfold on each scene, appreciate and "tranquilize" as the "ahhh ahhh mmmm mmm I'm coming!" moans are heard from our precious waifus and heroines' voices, and working our way to that nice/satisfying ending after all that reading labor? 

Edited October 17, 2015 by CeruleanGamer

[Funyarinpa]

Pacing

Plot progression

Difficulty curve

Equipment/Skill etc. evolution

 

This article is trying to kill gaming.

[monkeysrumble]

As soon as I saw it was a kotaku article I immediately knew it had nothing important to say.

To be lenient I can kind of see what he's getting at but it's all situational to what game you're playing. It sucks to have locked characters in a fighting game or locked tracks in a racing game or whatever but it's not really that big of a fuss to unlock them (oh no, looks like you're actually going to have to play the game!). He makes some awful comparisons which really breaks apart his logic. Why anyone would think comparing a kindle book to unlocking things in a video game as a sound-proof argument is beyond me. I also don't think he knows what DRM is and why people hate it either.

Also fuck this guy for using a comedian to try and prove a serious point.

[Beato]

I don't necessarily think everything should be available right away but I do think there should be a way to skip past stuff in single player games. A lot of games these days are completely bloated with content or have some parts that simply aren't fun to play or even badly made. I still haven't finished Batman Arkham Asylum because I got stuck on one of the boss fights, the problem wasn't just that it was difficult (though I admit I'm not terribly good at that game) but that it was tedious, HP sponge bosses where you have to repeat the same few actions in the exact same way over and over again simply aren't fun to me (they're pretty much extended quicktime events in a way as you have no choice in how to play) and is definitely not what most people are praising that game for. Why should I have to suffer trough parts that are tedious or annoying to play when I could spend the same time actually having fun?

Edited October 17, 2015 by Beato

[Kosakyun]

Wow. Unlocked levels from the start?

Lol. Nice try, Kotaku. I don't even need to read this anymore. That's just for people who skip to the end of a book to spoil themselves.

[Nimbus]

#clickbait

For the sake of my sanity I hope you're right.

I don't necessarily think everything should be available right away but I do think there should be a way to skip past stuff in single player games. A lot of games these days are completely bloated with content or have some parts that simply aren't fun to play or even badly made. I still haven't finished Batman Arkham Asylum because I got stuck on one of the boss fights, the problem wasn't just that it was difficult (though I admit I'm not terribly good at that game) but that it was tedious, HP sponge bosses where you have to repeat the same few actions in the exact same way over and over again simply aren't fun to me (they're pretty much extended quicktime events in a way as you have no choice in how to play) and is definitely not what most people are praising that game for. Why should I have to suffer trough parts that are tedious or annoying to play when I could spend the same time actually having fun?

I disagree with you here, I think you shouldn't be able to skip the bad or boring stuff. If you take away all the bad stuff you loose appreciation for the better stuff. Focusing on the stuff that isn't boring can also fatigue you a lot more; If you, for example, skipped all the stuff that wasn't action-packed explosions you loose  lot of cool-down time and eventually you get bored of the stuff you had found interesting.
Though we can all agree that Arkham Asylum's bosses were shit.

*Gasp, The dreaded "C" Word!

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and share it

Yes, but sometimes opinions are just plain WRONG!

[Lewycool]

Promoting bad articles? Nice click bait mate. 

[Narcosis]

>Kotaku

People still read Kotaku?

[krill]

there are some games that skipping levels would a not problem (like fighting games with no plot, and fps games that have no story, many Roguelikes ). but most games would be nearly destroyed by all levels unlocked from the start with no limits placed on the player like ( most jrpgs, most vn, most platformer, story driven action games, etc). there is a place for games that have no limits to the freedoms to the player, but this should be the case to all games shows a lack of understanding of the medium, or a they just believe gamers need someone to think for them, whatever the case that shows once again kotaku screwed the pooch.   

[Funyarinpa]

kotaku screwed the pooch.   

I LOVE THIS PHRASE

[Nosebleed]

For some games, skipping things is not the end of the world.
For others, it can definitely deter from the enjoyment.

You can't make an umbrella statement like this because every game is different, and claiming that every game can fall into a formula where skipping levels/content is reasonable is absurd.

Conclusion: stop doing drugs, Kotaku writers.