Posted April 03, 2021
Back when it first launched, No Man's Sky was my favourite game ever.
Loved it to bits.
I literally burned a graphics card to death playing it so much. Then couldn't afford a replacement and play for ages. I was a sad panda.
But I came back super eager, especially for those immensely delightful living ships. So gorgeous.
What killed the game for me is the QUICKSILVER merchant and events.
One of the key promises in development and which I always felt had been delivered, was that you could play how you wanted. Explore, fight, craft. Whatever floats your boat.
Brilliant. I'm especially fond of non-violent gameplay and NMS really delivered in that department.
Except that the godawful quicksilver missions are randomised and timered. Your accursed game no longer allowed me to play how I wanted. Unless I was willing to stand around forever in the Nexus waiting and desperately for content I enjoyed.
So I did your stupid arse missions and it completely ruined the game for me. Cos I don't want to fight pirates or kill animals or hurt poor plants, even if they're a bit nibbly. I happen to be quite fond of carnivorous plants. Murdering them is not my idea of a good time.
Plus you managed to make multiplayer - an element I had been keen on - a negative. There I was all set to go full and meticulous explorer with a particular naming system for systems, planets etc., and NMS's default multiplayer mode randomly grouped me with someone who obviously couldn't have known and entirely innocently started scanning and naming planets etc. in one of my systems.
Multiplayer off.
Eventually I did what I hate doing, which is cheat. Used a save editor to give myself enough quicksilver to buy everything..... and having had to resort to cheating to enjoy the game, after super not enjoying it, fell out of love.
Weirdly Cyberpunk's violent but non-lethal gameplay had me thinking about NMS and maybe I could stand to do at least the pirate missions - which are super quick for me with a good ship - since you don't actually kill pilots. Theoretically they crash land.
So I looked in on it to find Expeditions.
Super duper cringe on reading the details. Cos it's the same quicksilver crap but to a greater degree and with another gaming element I utterly despise - limited time rewards for participation.
I've got very bad news for you Hello Games. Zenimax with Elder Scrolls Online has already scarred me in that department and I'm not super keen for more. No joke - I immediately uninstalled Astroneer the moment they added them. But once upon a time I had enjoyed NMS so immensely that I felt I should at least see for myself.
As my thread title details it's definitely more of the same conceit. You should be happy for players to love any part of your game. When you descend into trying to force or "teach" players to love all of it, you've lost. Forever.
One of the key components of World of Warcraft's early phenomenal success was varied end-game gameplay options, none of which the game treated as mandatory or more rewarded than others. Blizzard happily accepted anyone's sub money who was able to find joy in any part of their game. I only stopped playing because my guild was super into raiding, which I despised.
No Man's Sky is for me, a hair's breadth from being pure joy.
But that hair is an extremely oily and dirty one from a stinky place.
Right in the middle of my delicious dessert.
To HG, thank you for making the game. It was great for a while and honestly I never would have imagined anyone creating procedural game universes in my lifetime. I'm awed. And the original game was wondrous.
But my parting memory of the game is playing as some random character with a random head rather than the one I love, without my beautiful ship. Staring down the barrel of more playing parts of the game which I don't enjoy rather than enjoying the hell out of the parts I do.
It's another uninstall for me.
Loved it to bits.
I literally burned a graphics card to death playing it so much. Then couldn't afford a replacement and play for ages. I was a sad panda.
But I came back super eager, especially for those immensely delightful living ships. So gorgeous.
What killed the game for me is the QUICKSILVER merchant and events.
One of the key promises in development and which I always felt had been delivered, was that you could play how you wanted. Explore, fight, craft. Whatever floats your boat.
Brilliant. I'm especially fond of non-violent gameplay and NMS really delivered in that department.
Except that the godawful quicksilver missions are randomised and timered. Your accursed game no longer allowed me to play how I wanted. Unless I was willing to stand around forever in the Nexus waiting and desperately for content I enjoyed.
So I did your stupid arse missions and it completely ruined the game for me. Cos I don't want to fight pirates or kill animals or hurt poor plants, even if they're a bit nibbly. I happen to be quite fond of carnivorous plants. Murdering them is not my idea of a good time.
Plus you managed to make multiplayer - an element I had been keen on - a negative. There I was all set to go full and meticulous explorer with a particular naming system for systems, planets etc., and NMS's default multiplayer mode randomly grouped me with someone who obviously couldn't have known and entirely innocently started scanning and naming planets etc. in one of my systems.
Multiplayer off.
Eventually I did what I hate doing, which is cheat. Used a save editor to give myself enough quicksilver to buy everything..... and having had to resort to cheating to enjoy the game, after super not enjoying it, fell out of love.
Weirdly Cyberpunk's violent but non-lethal gameplay had me thinking about NMS and maybe I could stand to do at least the pirate missions - which are super quick for me with a good ship - since you don't actually kill pilots. Theoretically they crash land.
So I looked in on it to find Expeditions.
Super duper cringe on reading the details. Cos it's the same quicksilver crap but to a greater degree and with another gaming element I utterly despise - limited time rewards for participation.
I've got very bad news for you Hello Games. Zenimax with Elder Scrolls Online has already scarred me in that department and I'm not super keen for more. No joke - I immediately uninstalled Astroneer the moment they added them. But once upon a time I had enjoyed NMS so immensely that I felt I should at least see for myself.
As my thread title details it's definitely more of the same conceit. You should be happy for players to love any part of your game. When you descend into trying to force or "teach" players to love all of it, you've lost. Forever.
One of the key components of World of Warcraft's early phenomenal success was varied end-game gameplay options, none of which the game treated as mandatory or more rewarded than others. Blizzard happily accepted anyone's sub money who was able to find joy in any part of their game. I only stopped playing because my guild was super into raiding, which I despised.
No Man's Sky is for me, a hair's breadth from being pure joy.
But that hair is an extremely oily and dirty one from a stinky place.
Right in the middle of my delicious dessert.
To HG, thank you for making the game. It was great for a while and honestly I never would have imagined anyone creating procedural game universes in my lifetime. I'm awed. And the original game was wondrous.
But my parting memory of the game is playing as some random character with a random head rather than the one I love, without my beautiful ship. Staring down the barrel of more playing parts of the game which I don't enjoy rather than enjoying the hell out of the parts I do.
It's another uninstall for me.
