I dont play this game like a story teller. I play on easy, with weak raids, with no insta colonist death, no friendly fire, and with reloads enabled. I just wanna build a cool colony! But it got me thinking…
How do you guys play? super hardcore or really chill, somewhere in the middle perhaps? I wanna know.
Yeah, just like freedom of speech is about freedom, and yet to enforce it you need to block toxic behaviors.
See my other comment about accessibility, if you want, I’m not going to write it again.
You’re talking about the paradox of tolerance, which isn’t a paradox and isn’t relevant here.
You said games should be about having fun, and then immediately proceeded to proscribe one kind of fun by baselessly denigrating the people who enjoy the challenge of a difficult game.
Some perspective for you: RimWorld is single player. There are no toxic behaviours to block, except the very ones you’re complaining about and perpetrating here like gatekeeping.
Or just wilfully ignore me and strawman me, whatever, it’s the internet so most likely that one 🤷♀️
The fucking post is called “I have a confession” and you’re telling me that there is no problem with people being shamed for not playing the game at the “proper” difficulty?
My point is that this love of “hardcore” is bringing a lot of toxicity in all games (including other than video games) and so yeah, right now I have a problem with hardcore gamers because they lead the movement of hardcore games, which are making games worse for everyone else.
It is similar to the paradox of tolerance because with the way things are now, not fighting against hardcore gaming actively makes everyone else have less fun with games. It wouldn’t be like that in a world of empathy and inclusion, but that’s not where we are at, just like “colorblind” would be a good term in a perfect world but for now it’s just racist.
I will add, you can always make a game more challenging on your own. Play with one hand, don’t save, don’t look at the screen, whatever suits you. But you cannot make the game easier without accessibility settings to do so, and even when they exist, then you get mocked online for using them or not playing the game the “right way”. So I call bullshit, rejecting hardcore games does not prevent anyone from having a challenging game.
And you’re taking a gentle poke in fun far too seriously (which is a bad idea, because you can’t seriously defend yourself - the charge of hypocrisy is accurate). Complaining about toxicity in the RimWorld community, no less, widely known as one of the nicest communities in gaming. Get off your high horse, you smug git.
Or don’t, and keep being insufferable. Again, it’s the internet, so most likely that one 🤷♀️
I cant stand toxic comments like this. Just joking.
I think you are somewhat wrong by saying love of hardcore is bringing toxicity. Its toxic people that are bringing in the toxicity.
I love playing games like Rimworld on harder difficulties, because it creates emergent stories in to the games. It makes the game richer for me and it makes the colonies feel unique and i enjoy that quite a lot, but i dont feel the need to ridicule anybody for playing the game on peacefull.
In a way you are doing exactly the same thing than the “HC-players”, but on the different end of the spectrum.
Also i want to say im firm beliver that not everything needs to be for everyone. If somebody wants to make a SHMUP that is impossible for people who have not played them before or kaizo Mario that only few people in small community can finish, its their artistic decition. I cant eat seafood, so sushi is not for me, but i cant resent the cheff who wanted to start a allfish restaurant, nor i cant blame my friend who loves to eat salmon.
How ever i do belive that aslong as the difficulty is not part of the games core design philosophy, it should be adjustable. Also there is no good reason to not add things like colorblind mode, adjustable font sizes and possibility to remap key bindings to games. Accessibility and difficulty are not the same thing.
I know that I’m pushing a bit too far in the opposite direction, but that’s because basically no one is trying to counter this endless trend of “hardcore is cool and edgy”
Obviously not all players are like that.
The problem is that the norm now is to assume that a game needs to be hard, and that anything less is “too easy”.
Recent example that comes to mind, Songs of Syx (you probably know it already, if not you can look it up, it’s not a bad game). The game has unlocks in an achievement-like way, which help make the game a bit easier; logical one would say, it’s along the lines of rogue-like unlocks, you can play and lose while still progressing, amazing. But the game itself can be pretty hard, and while there are difficulty settings, changing any to be easier prevents unlocking anything (but harder difficulties don’t, which clearly gives the vibe of “you are too bad at the game to deserve the achievements”). There’s no good reason to do that, the developer is far from being incompetent, but yet there is the idea that you cannot enjoy the full game if you don’t want it as hard.
It’s not about the core of the game being hard, nothing actually would change badly if the achievements were never locked from a difficulty setting, but here it is. And you are put with the background thought that you’re not really playing the game properly if you reduce the difficulty (even though the achievements themselves do that, but the " hard" way so it’s ok I guess)
I dont know this game well enough to really say anything.
If it is the way you say, it sounds bad way to handle the difficulty and i wholely agree.
Does the game have any progress beond the achiviements? Is the game run based?
If the achiement system is done in the same style that in The Last Spell, where the gameplay loop is build so that at the start the game is supposed to be impossible to win, but where after every run you get stronger in small increments until you are just barely able to beat a level and move on to the next one, it is fine. It means that by the design you are meant to loose and the progression of the game is that you get every time little further. Changing the game difficulty to easy and having the ability to get the same upgrades could ruin the gameplay loop.
But again. I havent played the game so i dont know. All i know that some games use roadblock enemies or level gates to make sure players have progresses enough to be ready for the next levels. Its not just to make game longer. It is also about to rythming the game. Devs can calculate that average player needs X tries to level up enough to progress in to the next part of the game and it can help them make sure players spend enough time in certain level, biome or what ever but not long enough to get bored to it.
The game is not run based, but there is an expectation of losing easily.
You cannot “win”, since it’s just a city builder in the end, but you don’t necessarily get any progress after a run. I’ve been playing it for some time, and most things are locked away because I’m not playing “hardcore” enough to unlock them. Which in turn makes the game harder, which makes me not get the achievements. It’s a vicious circle.
And I would gladly adjust the difficulty (which can be changed precisely) to make some parts that bother me a bit less tiresome, but even if I increase the difficulty of other parts of the game to compensate, the fact that I dared make anything easier at all is enough to prevent unlocking anything.
Some games are like what you described, made to make you progress very slowly, and that’s okay. But what I’ve observed is not generally a slow progress rate, but an actual roadblock that tells you that you cannot continue playing/progressing until you invest a significant amount of effort in the game.
And for the argument of ruining the gameplay loop… So what? If I want to play Monopoly with my homemade rules, does it matter if the gameplay loop is broken, as long as I’m having fun with it? No, because the point is to have fun. So why is it different with games, where there is the holy way to play properly, and every other way is invalid? If breaking the planned gameplay loop doesn’t prevent me from having fun, why is it a problem? And if it does prevent it, then I would just not do it. It doesn’t change anything for anyone else. If someone has fun playing dark souls with a cheat that makes them invincible, it ruins the intention of the game, but they are having fun, which is the goal of most games.
That’s my point: people and games, by default, consider that having fun is less important than playing “the right way”, which is already favouring hardcore players over others.
Now I understand what you’re saying
The Rimworld community is and always has been one of the most welcoming, civil, collaborative, and supportive in general and specifically nonjudgmental about play-styles
That’s one of the reasons why I still love this game. The general consensus is that Rimworld is made to be played whatever way you like. The fact that is has a scenario editor and doesn’t use achievements confirms this
I don’t think it’s accurate to map patterns from other gaming communities onto RimWorld. The comparison doesn’t fit well