James Galizio 🔜 GDC

I will say, hopping between Pokopia and Marathon it's kinda funny how despite being about the direct opposite games you can think of, there's still some genuine comparisons to be made with the world design.

It has a story with credits, yes.

Ok if you liked Viva Pinata, you'll fuck with this.

There's just something about Pokopia's vibes, and the writing of all the notes everywhere. It's so damn somber, in a way I never expected from a Pokemon game. Definitely something special.

Well, are you into Dragon Quest Builders and Viva Pinata?

Man, Pokopia's OST is so damn good.

it's really heartbreaking seeing my friends enjoy playing a video game. It's like they don't even realize that's exactly what the developers want them to do.

It's okay, the frames they dropped were fatal anyway

Got jumped by 2 squads and came out on top. Having someone activate prox chat to call me a bitch as I melee finish him; priceless.

oh yeah I would die for Cabin Pragmata

two white guys passing by each other in a hallway

I'll be honest I completely forgot about this.

Didn't even mean to start today's games industry discourse, it just felt like something to be disclosed!

This definitely clocks to me as, anyone who actually played Destiny 2 completely understands the ask here and why it's not really *that* weird.

We clarified with PR last week – the clause in discussion is merely a suggestion in this case

...as for this, if it's anything like Destiny the endgame is *the* reason to play. There are no "casual" D2 players, so it clocks to me as completely understandable for folks to want to see that loop first before penning their reviews. Not to say that I will, necessarily.

Want to put a pin in to say I think there's value in reviews that are more focused on endgame/hardcore content. That's what I did with Dawntrail, after all.

I'd agree too. I just think there is nuance here and folks that do decide to see the full scope of the launch content isn't inherently playing defense rather than doing what they think is their due diligence.

Monster Hunter has pre-launch code, I had Wilds for like a month. Marathon wasn't available until server launch because there's PvP. I also very explicitly didn't review Dawntrail until I'd cleared the first raid tier, so I don't think we necessarily agree on concept.

That's fair, too. It's unfortunate all around, and what I'd argue is pretty inherently the main pain point with reviewing service games like this.

FWIW I do think there's value in reviewing what's there now as like an early review or "review-in-progress" kind of thing, but what is happening here is not a case of a company being shady and wanting to hide negative reviews during the launch window

FWIW I very explicitly didn't review Dawntrail until I finished the first raid tier, if that help explains where I'm coming from here.

Guess what I can say is I *did* delay my XIV Dawntrail review until after I'd finished the first raid tier, so having a developer say "hey maybe consider seeing the endgame content" doesn't exactly clock as trying to game the system.

There is no embargo. If they really didn't want people to review it there would be an embargo for the content drop.

People taking this as "lol the game wasn't ready" instead of Bungie knowing they have endgame stuff that they consider an integral part of the game coming in a couple weeks are completely missing the point and getting mad over nothing

Jordan that's not what they're doing here, and it's by no means unusual for MMOs/Service games to have endgame stuff unlocked a few weeks after launch.

Good thing that's very much not what they're doing.

I don't think this is the game "not being ready", or even Bungie "gaming reviews". They didn't want folks to have early access to the servers (and then wipe progress for launch), and this was pretty explicitly the only other option.

This shit sucks, because I completely understand the logic in saying "hey we have the endgame content delayed by a few weeks so folks are ready, and we think reviews would be best served by engaging with that content" but also the game is available for purchase right now. Nobody is wrong, here.

They're not going to stop him. They agree with him and are happy they can hide behind him starting this.