And so it begins…
(as seen on Kotaku)
Did you see this? Here's the gist of it:
Based on the statistics gathered from people playing through Episode One, we're making a small balance change to the elevator battle before you head back up to City 17
So they are going change the game, on one of my favorite parts, so it's a bit easier… And why? Not because people complained in forums (or so they tell us) or because it was broken…but because they recorded statistics of the players and it was proving difficult for people.
I honestly don't know how I feel about this. On the one hand, it's pretty interesting to know they are paying attention to that data and fixing parts of the game based upon it. On the other hand, what if I want to play it the original way? The only way would be to play it disconnected and never connect to Steam again. That's something I probably won't be doing (I'll be buying Episode Two at the least).
Do I want my game changed based upon how other people played? I think I might have died once there, but I wasn't upset about it and I looked forward to playing the section again. I liked how little ammo there was, how little light there was and how I felt I could die at any time. When those elevator doors opened, I was extremely glad, ran, pushed the button, aimed my gun to the other side and hoped I could make it to the top. It was probably the most tense part of the whole game. And now it will be watered down…
Don't get me wrong, I know developers of MMORPGs have been changing their game around, balancing their classes, etc., etc. for awhile now, but this isn't the same. HL2:Episode One is about setting a mood, feeling involved, being at the very least tense at points and really feeling involved in the world. No MMORPG has come anywhere close to doing that. They are taking a part that felt pretty damn good and making easier.
I think I'm sad…right? This is dumbing down of a game based upon mass numbers of people playing at that point (kinda like going to public school). What about how it was for me? What if I don't care how it was for everyone else? What if it was just fine for me as it was…the guy who purchased the game from Valve.
It would have made sense if they’d modified it so that it was easier for the Easy difficulty setting and left the rest alone.
Neale
10 Jul 06 at 12:34 pm
Yeah, I’d think the same thing. Modifying it for all kinda corrupts the game almost. I don’t know, I’m still on the fence about this, but it seems wrong to take something that was so fun the first time through and now will be easier…
Matt
10 Jul 06 at 1:14 pm
I’m kinda OK with it, but I do think that this is the kind of thing that should have been picked up in playtesting.
Dermo
10 Jul 06 at 1:34 pm
So ??
What’s your real beef ???
That’s what you get, or don’t get, with ANY STEAM powered shithole game. NO control. And it’s only the begining. So like it or lump it. You support this by supporting STEAM.
I hate STEAM and ALL who use it!!
10 Jul 06 at 2:09 pm
Is this what they mean by “Experience may change during online play”?
IIRC, they record how many times people die per level and their decision was based on those figues.
There’s a certain rationale behind looking at the number of people dying at a certain point and changing your game accordingly, and I don’t like it. Who says dying is bad?
I’m not sure whether they were able to measure how many people stopped playing after a certain point. That may be a valid reason to do something about the difficulty, but I agree with Neale: do it for the Easy difficulty setting alone. People who don’t like to die, play on easy.
Gunp01nt
10 Jul 06 at 2:24 pm
Yeah, I too wonder what stats they collected that said they should make this part easier…is this where most people quit? Were there lots of deaths here? Did the zombies complain on the forums that they had too many brains to eat?
Really though, it’s about what they do next for me… Lets say this is as far as most of the people that stopped all together made it. Will they go back? And if they do, will they come to another point where they get stuck and Valve will release another patch?
Slippery Slope!!! :)
Matt
10 Jul 06 at 3:03 pm