Dan Talks Games

Yeah, there's a very big difference between 'this is a particular sore point that could be done better' and 'literally unplayable with no solutions.'

Like I think the swinginess of low level play is a problem that makes it favour expedient damage, but it's still less swingy that 3.5/1e and 5e.

Like I'm responding to a guy who's using Quandary and Wall of Stone as the litmuses of what spell utility should be and it's like...you realise those spells are considered way OP, right? Buffing to that level wouldn't fix weak spells, it'd just add ten flavours of save or suck and break the game.

Is it a problem with the game's design? Possibly, but also the question effectively boils down to 'how do I make support and debuffing as fun as big spikey crit damage' and all the complainers boil down the takes to 'buff everything back up to 3.5/1e and 5e levels of save or suck.'

Funnily enough that's what people say about me, but also I'm tired of pretending I don't think they're more egregious.

Like the solutions are known. The thread says the oracle and druid are focusing on support and debuffs. The answer is low level play is too quick for those elements to matter.

I do get why people don't want hard fail states, but pretty much everything I've seen of no null-state games goes too far the other way into a perpetual motion machine for my tastes.

Unfortunately I must engage if I want to stay on the zeitgeist, but this is probably a flag to step back to analyse and fish more for feedback than giving my honest opinion.

Like I wasn't the /r/relationships guy who said break up with your girlfriend at the slightest red flag, I basically went full IT mode and troubleshooted all the possible avenues of appeasement before reaching 'you just can't deal with bad dice luck in a healthy way.'

mean as someone who is cripplingly cynical about the wider state of RPG players and how normalised problematic behaviours are in the scene, I almost can't blame them.

I just prove my own point by extrapolating how I showed boundless empathy and this was the end result, so now what?

Online RPG commenters not seeing healthy emotional boundaries and behaviours as problematic challenge (impossible).

We will skip through the meadows and run through the woods and swim in the river.

The industry exists by their hard work and they get treated worse than dancing monkeys most of the time. There needs to be at least a respect and understanding of that effort put in, and the fact they're *people,* let alone ones who rarely get due kudos and compensation for their efforts.

Like yes, I criticize designs I don't like, and have even been been critical about specific designers with certain opinions and design habits (even ones at Paizo), but I never disrespect the effort they put in or the fact they're trying to make a serviceable product for a wide audience.

But it's very much the same joke as IT techs (which is my day job), people don't notice you when things are going right and wonder why they even hired you, but then blame you when things go wrong and wonder why you're getting paid.

It's why I have such respect for designers.

Oh it's 100% charisma stat plus parasocial relationships. It's why the designers that put themselves on socials and streams are often the most beloved.

I'm also just cynical because people seem to treat designers as killjoys who are there just to police fun and ruin the game they...uh, made.

Like don't get me wrong, I love a good Liveplay show (emphasis on 'good'), but as always the direction of consumer capital definitely skews towards superficiality over substance and the people actually doing the hard work to enable the content they consume (often for cheap).

The more I hear about the RPG industry the more increasingly I become convinced players hate designers despite reaping the benefits of their hard work, while glorifying people who can lose their shit entertainingly on stage just for rolling a natural 20.

me looking outside today

Hell ye

To be fair this is me with TTRPGs, but that's also because

1. I'm running the system in real time and have to put up with the consequences of munchkin shitheads.
2. A stable system is much more doable for a tabletop game.

I don't have that level of unrealistic expectation for digital devs.

It's like they expect the designers to make a perfectly foolproof game with no bugs or exploits, because they see anything less as permissive and fair game, even if they hate it.

Considering the comorbidity of ADHD and autism (which I also have), it wouldn't surprise me if there's overlap.

The irony is that a lot of it is self-sabotaging; like using the speed run analogy, people who resent games that are broken and allow you to ACE to the end credits, but when you suggest running glitchless or non-ACE categories they go 'no I'm still playing as the game allows, I just don't enjoy it.'

While I personally haven't seen that overtly in what I'd consider ADHD behaviour, I'd believe it.

More than that, I've *definitely* seen it in people with autism (of which I'm one) who take things to extremes and kneecap fun and enjoyment through stringent principles and arbitrary limitations.

The real reason for the salt over Sure Strike nerfs was dopamine deprivation.

Like honestly at this point, if my entire generation of gamers were to have had permanent alterations to our brain's biology from grind addiction as a result of hours playing WoW, it would not surprise me in the slightest.

Makes me wonder too how much of what we perceive as ADHD is just a by product of the actual, legitimate brainrot science is increasingly finding as a real symptom of short-form mobile content.

Also how loops in certain types of games could be contributing to it.

Tenfold if they shut down and make excuses for any attempt to solve or get advice for their complaints, let alone being told 'go do something else then.'

The lack of incentive to appeal to reward structures and unwillingness to engage with unfamiliar content maps too cleanly to the diagnosis.

As someone who was diagnosed ADHD two years ago, I'm increasingly realising that gaming forums dominated by people spending hours complaining about them being too hard and demanding them to be easier, instead of spending time getting better at them, is in fact peak ADHD behaviour.

I said what I said

The character illustrations I made for Pathfinder RPG in 2024. Pathfinder NPC Core book. ©Paizo Inc