Part of me feels like Dark Souls wouldn't have caught on if the first game had difficulty settings. It'd be "cheap", "pointless", etc.

Arcade games had a relatively granular difficulty option via credit feeding and it played a big part in them written off as "button mashers"/"quarter munchers".

If pac man were made today, you would just get stat checked and die at level three, then, get chucked into a roguelite progression hub.

The PS2 truly is the best console ever because it is constantly becoming more powerful. Each time we say something "looks like a PS2 game" we're talking about a game of a higher fidelity than the last. What the PS2 is capable of in 2025 is so far beyond what it was capable of in 2003. That's amazing

games should have version control / undo redo for settings and controls

testing random fucking graphics settings -> wait did that actually do anything -> wait what did I even change 😭

checking the weather like what's the preciptuation

normal games: "this is a keycard. it opens doors."

Metal Gear: "This is a P.A.N. card (Personal Area Network). The P.A.N. system passes small electrical currents through the user's salt content to emit a small field, allowing access through level 1 doors."

snake: "doors?"

Suck my nuts assholes

same wavelength as fromsoft

my current thoughts on the phrase 'kill gameplay' is that what pursuing 'gameplay' has gotten us is these perfectly addictive, perfectly tuned, and perfectly *predictable* 40-1000+ hour experiences that often function to obliterate the self (games being, like, the "Diet coke of Casinos")