I've found a style of game mechanic I dislike watching even more than the "betrayal-rich co-op" genre (Among Us et al.): the "no win condition, the requirements just keep escalating until you inescapably lose" game. This annoyed me in '80s arcade games and it annoys me even more now.

In multiplayer games with this mechanic (R.E.P.O. and Lethal Company come to mind), there is at least the possibility of humorous mayhem to distract from the futility of it all. Single-player games with the same underlying mechanic lack even that mitigating circumstance, so I just find them pointless and stressful.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying yeah, I'm ready for people to be tired of CloverPit any time now.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I found a lot of that, especially in Lethal Company. I watched a bunch of it with the former VShojo crew, and invariably, almost inevitably, Zentreya would fuck up everything for everybody, purely for the content.

I'm honestly surprised anyone wanted to play with her after a while.

--
Jen Dantes - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lady of Sith Tech Support.
"This may not be a good idea, but it's the only one I have."

>I've found a style of game mechanic I dislike watching even more than
>the "betrayal-rich co-op" genre (Among Us et al.)

I don't want to push you to watch something you don't enjoy, but if anyone does want to see some exceptional Among Us play, Kronii put on a masterclass recently.

>In multiplayer games with this mechanic (R.E.P.O. and Lethal
>Company come to mind), there is at least the possibility of
>humorous mayhem to distract from the futility of it all.

This is why I can't watch Kaela playing these kinds of games, she's too organized and buttoned-down, and tries to make sure nothing "exciting" happens. And yeah, she and her team rack up some impressive scores, but it seems to go against the spirit of those games.

"This is probably a stupid question, but . . ."

CloverPit is I think vaguely in what we would call Balatro-alikes these days, yeah. They usually do have ways of 'winning'. I think even CloverPit does have a win condition, it's just that you have to know about it and know how to work towards it. I wouldn't be surprised if more casual streamers don't or find that it's more entertaining to just gamble.

A bit back, someone asked Bae if she was going to appear in the big HoloEN Among Us collab, and she explained that it's vanishingly unlikely that she'll ever appear in an Among Us collab. She had to be very diplomatic and circuitous about it, talking about how she's had some bad experiences in the past, but what her rationale boiled down to was essentially, "I hate that game, Space Ghost."

And you know, that is a perfectly valid position to take on any game, whether playing or watching. I hate that she felt she had to be so elliptical about her refusal to put herself through a gaming experience she finds unpleasant, for fear of the game's fans going on some kind of hate crusade because she won't play their game. Anybody in her position should be free to just come right out and say, "I won't play that game because it makes me feel bad."

There is a certain clade of toxic viewers who feel absolutely entitled to have the streamers they watch play the games they like, regardless of whether the streamers themselves enjoy it, are indifferent to it, or outright suffer. "It's your job," they cry. "You're getting paid. We're paying you to play what we want to see you play." Fuck that and fuck them. That's not how it works.

Goodness, I'm getting a trifle hot under the collar about this, aren't I? I do apologize. I am in a bit of a state this evening.

Partly that's because there's a greater-than-usual amount of that attitude going around in October, because it's the season when people expect everybody to be playing horror games, including--especially--the ones who clearly do not enjoy horror games. Hell, some of those guys think it's straight-up better if they don't, because the reactions are "funnier". Now I get that in some streamers' cases, being scared by horror games is just a bit, and there are others who are scared but kinda enjoy it, which is fair enough; but I've seen a few pressured into playing games that were legitimately harrowing them and I don't think that's right at all.

TLDR: viewer pressure on streamers to play games they dislike really gets on my tits, as I believe our Scottish friends say.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Partly that's because there's a greater-than-usual amount of that
>attitude going around in October, because it's the season when people
>expect everybody to be playing horror games,
>including--especially--the ones who clearly do not enjoy horror
>games. Hell, some of those guys think it's straight-up better if
>they don't, because the reactions are "funnier". Now I get
>that in some streamers' cases, being scared by horror games is just a
>bit, and there are others who are scared but kinda enjoy it, which is
>fair enough; but I've seen a few pressured into playing games that
>were legitimately harrowing them and I don't think that's right at
>all.

There's a part of me that is happy to never have to be a Vtuber because it's SO common to have do reactions to horror games for content/the meta and I just cannot stand them. I wouldn't even want to have them on there for milestone goals or the like, it'd just be a straight banned genre. The closest I'll get is coop action horror in the Left 4 Dead vein.

(Since I only have a hobbyist channel, I'm free to play and make content of whatever the hell I want, whenever I want.)

>Partly that's because there's a greater-than-usual amount of that
>attitude going around in October, because it's the season when people
>expect everybody to be playing horror games,
>including--especially--the ones who clearly do not enjoy horror
>games. Hell, some of those guys think it's straight-up better if
>they don't, because the reactions are "funnier". Now I get
>that in some streamers' cases, being scared by horror games is just a
>bit, and there are others who are scared but kinda enjoy it, which is
>fair enough; but I've seen a few pressured into playing games that
>were legitimately harrowing them and I don't think that's right at
>all.
>
>TLDR: viewer pressure on streamers to play games they dislike really
>gets on my tits, as I believe our Scottish friends say.

No offense, but people who pressure others into playing games/genres they do not like just to see their pained reaction are sociopaths. It's no different than dragging someone who hates horror films to see one just to watch them jump and cringe. There are a wealth of streamers/vtubers out there that play horror games, sometimes exclusively during October, and do so willingly. Hell, if you need to see vtubers scream and cringe to a particular game, go to Youtube and you'll find playlists dedicated to clips of such. Just because you slipped your favorite streamer a fiver does not mean they have to dance for you.

Long and short: Don't be a dick to your oshi, especially your kamioshi, and try to pressure them into something they don't want. And if you're doing so because you want to see them in pain, then you might want to visit a therapist because you've got some issues that need addressed.

While I'm airing peeves about vtuber culture, when did "just chatting" become "yapping"? It's so... reductive? Dismissive? Even though it's usually used good-naturedly, it feels kind of insulting to me.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.