Like everyone, I have fond memories of LEGOs. (Childhood memories playing with them, not adult ones where I step on one and die in writhing agony.)
I quickly moved past them, though, because unless you’re just slamming shit around and making anything magically (look! this lump is a spaceship!) – you really do need to have some basic talent to make anything that others can recognize. Forget coming up with my own ideas (see: previous article on how I can only make cubes).
Becca builds all our Ikea furniture for good reason.
I suck at building. There, I said it.
But, and my memory is never the most trustworthy, so take this with a grain of salt, if I recall correctly, the most fun was had when you were fucking around and using the random little pieces to create things. Right? I don’t know who was excited to hear “And I got you that Lego starship kit you wanted!” and then they handed you the ship, and it’s already been built. Womp womp.
That thought actually popped up in a Discord chat the other day…
So, for argument’s sake, I mean five pillars games, because the ones that are just RPGs and action-adventures in scavenged clothing don’t really need help, unless the help you mean is “WHAT R BEST WEAPON IN GAME” type help.
If you watch someone play a true survival game, where shit isn’t force-fed to you on a cracker, then watching them figure out everything (TO ME) is like having someone hand you a completed LEGO build.
I know this is an imperfect example, because you can probably throw that LEGO thing at the wall and it’ll break into pieces, and you can just rebuild it (maybe it’s glued, but IDK if that would stop it from separating, I know shit about these things), but you can’t unlearn things that you’re taught from the video.
You won’t get the, “Amg I was mauled by the jaguar and I’m bleeding out and I need something, bandage?, IDK, I’m trying to figure it out and I’m looking and I..am dead.”
This is far different from “Oh, it’s a tricky puzzle. Up up down down left right left right B A start” There’s no weight to it. Content creators aren’t your Game Genie; they’re not there to hand you cheat codes. Survival’s supposed to kick your ass a little — that’s how you actually learn.
Play or watch however you want—I support it. But for me, survival games lose their teeth once you’ve already seen behind the curtain. I’d rather stumble, bleed out, and learn the hard way. (Luckily, I’ve got a superb curse vocabulary to support this playstyle.)
The most recent enjoyment of a survival game I played was SOTF. The first walk through with minimal knowledge was insane. The rush of creeping through the woods not knowing what was around the next corner. The thrill!!
I go back to that game now and try to search for that thrill, longing for it!
But I watched a creator first to see if I would like it. I read reviews. I checked forums. The pulled the trigger and bought it.
But still I long for that “flutter of the unknown” I got when playing the game. The jump scares. I never had that before.
So I can relate. But I would not have bought it if not for watching the creator.
What I want to do with Hashtag YT videos (see: Jordan has ADHD brain, see: Jordan has 3 spoons and 2932893892 ideas) but I’d like to do a capsule series for games where I give you the vibe without ruining the plot. (Not plot as in story, but plot as in the DETAILS.)
Rambling off course.
But I think that may be a neat series for folks to pick up something without feeling like they’ve been there, done that.
But (see, forgot to add this!) – the first time for me on The Forest was equally AMG WHAT NEXT. And it’s part of what makes it hard for me ever to go back to it. On the other hand, having completed the story and explored- and also the “survival elements” are ass- it makes me feel like I got a complete and satisfying adventure through it.
I definitely understand watching gameplay before you buy it. The one thing that happens that I don’t get is where people watch an entire playthrough, start to finish, over like 4-10 hours instead of playing the game. That stuff makes no sense to me
Honestly, the big win for me is just solid Steam trailers. I don’t usually need outside opinions to figure out if I’m gonna buy something, especially not in survival games. Maybe in an FPS or a city-builder, where I want to see what the actual mid-game looks like. For survival, a well-done trailer can sell the whole fucking vibe. (Green Hell had a great trailer.)
It’s like a book jacket and the first couple pages: just enough to let you know what you’re in for. (Hi, Outlander. Your main character is fucking tiresome. Same with ACOTAR.) Or a movie trailer. (the good kind, not the three-minute monstrosities that make seeing the movie irrelevant)
The Forest, I always wished I had seen something on it. My first encounter with the natives, I screamed and logged off. Haha…but tbh am glad I did not view someone else play it, I might not have purchased it.
I mean I think the trailer for Forest painted a pretty good picture that it was going to be horror/gruesome. 🤔 But, for games especially, that two-hour return window is also solidly helpful to let people poke around and touch shit for an hour.
I too suck at building, no matter the game i’ll just make a functional box. Minecraft with tons of mods and pieces and colors and i still make a box for all my machines or storage. As for watching others play a game usually by first video i know if i will buy and play it or a get when cheap and what they do is watched but not studied. so when i play it i might have a gist but its not so engrained that i will know 100% and lose any satisfaction of learning or accomplishing something.
That’s fair. That’s what the trailer fulfills for me, it’s just wrangling devs to create better trailers is key. 😅