Gameplay Part 1: DIA,S

This is a brief indulgence that im giving myself. I say part 1 because i intend to make MANY more entrys on this about various different bits and pieces of gameplay. My first indulgence is gonna be on the Learn through Death mechanics or as Shamus Young puts it Do It Again, Stupid mechanics.

These types of things pop up in many games these days. Im sure there are probably those that dont think its a challenging game without DIAS mechanics inserted but 9 times out of 10 they dont work. Games like the Prince of Persia Sands of Time trilogy managed to incorporate it and it worked but they were the 1 time out of 10 that it didnt lead to near controller snapping frustration.

The reason PoP’s DIAS worked is because they incorporated the ability to reverse time at a whim, so there could be moments of “Oops i didnt see that saw blade until it cleaved the prince in half, well better rewind” and you didnt experience rage, but these days you have games that throw a random mission failure or death at you and you end up going back a truly sad amount of time.

The most recent example is the Alone in the Dark remake, where i died multiple times just trying to figure out how to get past various points in the game. It wasnt dying on the same part either, it was me wanting to explore a little or not understanding what im supposed to do so the game decides to hurry me up. After it resets you to either 10 minutes before or 10 seconds before you died you tend to get frustrated. I personally put the game down and the only time im gonna pick it up again is to hurl it into a dumpster.

Other games that are almost famous for this is the GTA series. Theyd have mostly task based missions and once in a while theyd throw a race at you where you have to memorize where the various cars come out and cut you off or where the cops come from. By doing that type of thing the game stops being a free-for-all sandbox and becomes a memory game.

Another game that i still play despite it doing this is Burnout Paradise. It pretends to have an open race map where you can find your way to the objective but iv encountered more than one race where it was either take the path the offered or turn around after getting near the end and restart.

People on forums like this will advocate that games arent fun unless you die at least once which makes me think “your absolutely right, dying in games like oblivion and having to go back an hour WAS SO MUCH FUCKING FUN”.

Id advise reading through that topic because you have like 2 people defending Shamus and the rest are bashing him and suggesting games that are from the coin operated arcade era, an era which has thankfully passed us by. In my mind anyone who fanatically defends DIAS and says that games arent fun unless you die once need to catch up with the times or stay off the internet because Super Mario Bros for the NES isnt considered the pinaccle of technology.

Also i fail to see how the Half-Life series has DIAS, are they saying that having to figure out a fire-fight is DIAS because if so then EVERY SHOOTER SINCE DOOM is DIAS.

The punks on the second forum advocating DIAS are just another piece of proof that i have for the Gamefaqs forums becoming a massive crap heap, but ill talk more about that in another post.

Oedipus was the first mother fucker