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Sony

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
565
Usually I write between eight and ten reviews a month. I cover almost every genre from AAA to indie. I tend to stress myself out over whether or not my reviews are accurate, informative, and entertaining.

What do I get out of all this? Honestly, I still haven't figured that part out yet. The pay is nonexistent and half the time it feels like everyone hates my guts.

I don't want to hear about being held to higher standards. The standards I hold myself to are already ridiculously goddamn high.

Then why do you feel addressed?
 

Deleted member 5864

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,725
If he is in fact referencing the Ars Technica review then it's even more embarrassing for Ybarra, because I read it yesterday (It was discussed in the review thread) and like many other reviewers, it's not that he didn't know the combos existed but that the game didn't make a single effort to familiarize you with such a crucial system.

It's OK if as a reader you disagree and don't need the game to make it explicit, but it is completely fair to mention it in a review and completely inaccurate of Ybarra to paint it instead as if the reviewer just wasn't "good" or professional enough at evaluating the game.

So yea, a pretty bad look from someone in his position.
 

Mula

Banned
Jan 18, 2019
280
He is kinda unpredictable. Last console launch was a PR disaster, MS shouldn't risk this again
 

Crayon

Member
Oct 26, 2017
15,580
I feel like Microsofts interactions with social media and stuff has been questionable.

At some point oh, we have to stop looking at every little thing as it comes and look at the through line of behavior over the years. This guy suggesting streamers and influencers sort of brings things full circle.

Machinima paid YouTubers up to $30,000 to say positive things about the Xbox One, as part of a secret 2013 agreement with Microsoft about an advertising campaign, according to a Federal Trade Commission investigation made public today.


There's been support of way toxic personalities, a handful of cases now of pushing back on reviews, exerting undue influence like the article above shows, sending out turfers to communities including ours.

Maybe you could call it a string of isolated incidents. In my opinion, it's a pattern.
 

The Albatross

Member
Oct 25, 2017
38,958
Huh, so he just always does that. He really is Trumpian.

Today I learned I really don't like Mike Ybarra lol
the pertinent parts if it is indeed the review he's talking about





doesn't seem to match ybarra's characterization at all

Yeah, Ybarra is being intentionally cagey about which review he's talking about, but I just thought it was this one because the reviewer noted frustration not understanding how 'Combos' worked, and Ybarras explicitly mentioned the reviewer not understanding the combo system when they published their review.

Just seems like a sloppy criticism by Ybarra. And then following it up saying that people shouldn't be influenced by reviewers but they should be influenced by streamers is just bizarre... OR what one is "Embarrassing" while apparently the other isn't...
 

NitX

Lead Developer
Verified
Aug 20, 2018
158
So ya'll can discuss about games and game reviews and not him because he works in the gaming industry. He is just giving his opinion and there is no marketing deal conspiracy.
 

Border

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,859
Patrick went digging for an explanation after he saw "Aura Combo" mentioned on a loot item he picked up. The game doesn't tutorial this rather large mechanic by all accounts and that is pretty piss poor design.
Why must it be tutorialized, though? Particularly in a game this collaborative, you can kind of expect people just to learn stuff through community and seeing others do it. Telegraphing everything to players often just becomes a tiresome experience when you are trying to stack a bunch of knowledge on someone who has only just started playing.
 

Garlador

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
14,131
Remember when Sony sent special instructions to reviewers playing their PS3-exclusive "Lair" because the reviews and impressions were negative and they took the "you're playing it WRONG" approach? That fixed EVERYTHING.

LAIR of course went on to become a major exclusive success that delighted millions and totally didn't come crashing back down, forcing its studio to close up shop. Nope.

You can't always hit a home run. Hell, sometimes you can't even get a base hit. But don't get defensive about it and say the pitcher was throwing the ball weird when you strike out.
 

Alucrid

Chicken Photographer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,413
Yeah, Ybarra is being intentionally cagey about which review he's talking about, but I just thought it was this one because the reviewer noted frustration not understanding how 'Combos' worked, and Ybarras explicitly mentioned the reviewer not understanding the combo system when they published their review.

Just seems like a sloppy criticism by Ybarra. And then following it up saying that people shouldn't be influenced by reviewers but they should be influenced by streamers is just bizarre... OR what one is "Embarrassing" while apparently the other isn't...

sloppy or purposeful
 

headspawn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,605
People are outright defending his bullshit and my trolling is the thing getting called out lol

It's not that gravely important. Time to go "play" Apex.

AmazingGroundedCoypu-size_restricted.gif

Well at least you're honest in the end.
 

MrNelson

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,356
I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a reviewer to look for a combo system in a game with extensive melee combat. I can't really speak to the particulars of Anthem, but even Klepek says that they are mentioned somewhere in the menus.
He said he found it because he saw something about a combo mentioned in an item description, and then had to go search for the tutorial to learn what it was and discovered the combo system that way. I don't think it's asking too much for the game to say "this is how you do a combo" in the earliest portions of the game since apparently melee is a bigger part of the game than it is in most shooters. Even the Souls games tell you about the parry system at the very start.
 

OrdinaryPrime

Self-requested ban
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,042
Why must it be tutorialized, though? Particularly in a game this collaborative, you can kind of expect people just to learn stuff through community and seeing others do it. Telegraphing everything to players often just becomes a tiresome experience when you are trying to stack a bunch of knowledge on someone who has only just started playing.

There doesn't need to be a tutorial but at the same time, if there isn't one, you can't blame people for not picking up on it. I'm not sure why this is so hard to understand.

i finished the main quests after 17 hours and i still dont know how to do a combo so.....

Apparently you aren't a real "gamer".
 

Hailinel

Shamed a mod for a tag
Member
Oct 27, 2017
35,527
Why must it be tutorialized, though? Particularly in a game this collaborative, you can kind of expect people just to learn stuff through community and seeing others do it. Telegraphing everything to players often just becomes a tiresome experience when you are trying to stack a bunch of knowledge on someone who has only just started playing.
The game needs to teach the mechanic to someone at some point. What if you get grouped into a party and no one has that knowledge?
 

Wulfram

Member
Mar 3, 2018
1,478
He said he found it because he saw something about a combo mentioned in an item description, and then had to go search for the tutorial to learn what it was and discovered the combo system that way. I don't think it's asking too much for the game to say "this is how you do a combo" in the earliest portions of the game since apparently melee is a bigger part of the game than it is in most shooters. Even the Souls games tell you about the parry system at the very start.

The combo system isn't really about melee (though melee attacks do detonate or in one classes case prime). Its about the interaction of powers, which are the central mechanic of combat in this game. If you've played Mass Effect 3 or Andromeda then they're basically the same as that.

I think the game doesn't tell about it initially because its more advanced play than basic - new players should be focusing on getting comfortable with flying and using powers more than worrying about combos. You can have a build that totally ignores comboes and just does damage.

There is a valid criticism of the game, in that they use some rather unclear icons to designate the primers and detonaters.
 

Border

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,859
The game needs to teach the mechanic to someone at some point. What if you get grouped into a party and no one has that knowledge?
Then you fail and learn by watching others succeed? World of Warcraft never tutorializes the crucial heal/tank/DPS threat mechanic, yet it still got across to the community pretty quick.
 

lowmelody

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,101
So ya'll can discuss about games and game reviews and not him because he works in the gaming industry. He is just giving his opinion and there is no marketing deal conspiracy.

It's concerning that a lead developer doesn't understand that publicly calling people whiners and embarrassing because they had issues with your game is a problem.
 

Kage Maru

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,804
Yep. It sucked what happened to Adam Orth too.

Is this a joke post? I thought Adam deserved what happened to him. He inadvertently leaked/confirmed internal plans and acted like an ass to whoever disagreed. I think some here are over reacting to Mike's tweet but I don't have any sympathy for what happened to Adam.
 

TheChrisGlass

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,605
Los Angeles, CA
Remember when Sony sent special instructions to reviewers playing their PS3-exclusive "Lair" because the reviews and impressions were negative and they took the "you're playing it WRONG" approach? That fixed EVERYTHING.

LAIR of course went on to become a major exclusive success that delighted millions and totally didn't come crashing back down, forcing its studio to close up shop. Nope.

You can't always hit a home run. Hell, sometimes you can't even get a base hit. But don't get defensive about it and say the pitcher was throwing the ball weird when you strike out.
As far as I've ever researched, the Lair PSN demo was the very first title ever REMOVED from the PSN. Try to find that demo. Even if you downloaded it, you can't redownload it.

Sony nuked the Lair demo before PT was even a glimmer in Kojima's eye.
 

Hailinel

Shamed a mod for a tag
Member
Oct 27, 2017
35,527
Then you fail and learn by watching others succeed? World of Warcraft never tutorializes the crucial heal/tank/DPS threat mechanic, yet it still got across to the community pretty quick.
Is it really so absurd to expect that the game teach a key mechanic of team combat in a tutorial setting?
 

Green

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,409
The game needs to teach the mechanic to someone at some point. What if you get grouped into a party and no one has that knowledge?

Ever hear about trial and error? Perfectly valid form of learning a game's mechanics. Look at Destiny Vault of Glass for example. I don't think any of those mechanics are ever spelled out, and many are not even used in the rest of the game at all. There's countless examples of this in games.

Breath of the Wild is another example - how many of the mechanics in that game are directly spelled out to you? VERY few. Much is learned through experimentation, trial and error and emergent gameplay. Compare that to the tutorial-heavy disaster that was Skyward Sword and you can see why developers are opting for this more "old-fashioned" or "schoolyard" style info dispersion in these mechanics heavy RPG games. At least in my opinion.
 

headspawn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,605
So it's the game's fault.

Yeah, I'd put blame on the shit UI being a bit of a pain but it's not really hard to grasp, it's the same combo system as Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect Andromeda.

I actually did it by accident at first and then I was like 'ooohhh yeah, shit, combos!". I'm legit surprised this many people haven't played those games.
 

pirata

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,410
I like discussion. I don't think other peoples opinions help me decide which game to buy.

How could you possibly have a real discussion if you have no intention of believing anything anyone here says or of ever changing your opinion based on points being made?

Let me phrase it another way: if you have no respect whatsoever for the opinions of others, why should the posters, moderators, and other readers of Reset believe that your posts and the opinions within them have any value at all?

Are your opinions and the content your post inherently more valuable than my contributions?

I'm not trying to derail this conversation or make this personal. I think that a huge part of this issue is lack of understanding in discussion in good faith versus bad faith. I'm trying to see if the people arguing against journalism are able to grasp this concept.
 

Anti

Banned
Nov 22, 2017
2,972
Australia
Wow this is embarassing from Microsoft, instead of complaining about reviewers for not giving high enough scores to mediocre games why don't you try to make better games or get promotional deals for better games?

Ha! It is so transparent how MS is defending Anthem, how they are attacking reviewers and how he states his points across, great MS now you look like one of hour fanboys,if you put those tweets togetther you can make a crapgamer video and nobody will notice the difference...
 

Hailinel

Shamed a mod for a tag
Member
Oct 27, 2017
35,527
Ever hear about trial and error? Perfectly valid form of learning a game's mechanics. Look at Destiny Vault of Glass for example. I don't think any of those mechanics are ever spelled out, and many are not even used in the rest of the game at all. There's countless examples of this in games.

Breath of the Wild is another example - how many of the mechanics in that game are directly spelled out to you? VERY few. Much is learned through experimentation, trial and error and emergent gameplay. Compare that to the tutorial-heavy disaster that was Skyward Sword and you can see why developers are opting for this more "old-fashioned" or "schoolyard" style info dispersion in these mechanics heavy RPG games. At least in my opinion.
Vault of Glass is a specific Destiny raid. Learning the intricacies of an in-game event is different from learning the very basics of how the game is played.

If you build your combat system with an emphasis around team-based combos, and then the only explanation of what those combos even are is buried deep in a help menu that the game never directs you toward, you screwed up.
 

Typhoon20

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
1,568
If this is the mindset they (people
Terrible look when your company is investing millions into people being "open-minded" about this heavily advertised, E3 featured, AAA GaaS.

MS has made some dodgy bets this gen (including missing out on Destiny), they will seriously benefit from the reset.

Will they though ? With this type of mindset ?

And I don't think Battlefield, Fallout and Anthem crashing is just bad luck. Not 3x in a row. It's like they can't escape the wave of medicority, maybe because they make some bad decisions. We'll see next gen but I'm not that optimistic even with all the new studios.
 

Malkier

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,911
Ever hear about trial and error? Perfectly valid form of learning a game's mechanics. Look at Destiny Vault of Glass for example. I don't think any of those mechanics are ever spelled out, and many are not even used in the rest of the game at all. There's countless examples of this in games.

Breath of the Wild is another example - how many of the mechanics in that game are directly spelled out to you? VERY few. Much is learned through experimentation, trial and error and emergent gameplay. Compare that to the tutorial-heavy disaster that was Skyward Sword and you can see why developers are opting for this more "old-fashioned" or "schoolyard" style info dispersion in these mechanics heavy RPG games. At least in my opinion.

A core game play mechanic is different then an instanced puzzle mechanic in a raid.
 

Dphex

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,811
Cologne, Germany
Ever hear about trial and error? Perfectly valid form of learning a game's mechanics. Look at Destiny Vault of Glass for example. I don't think any of those mechanics are ever spelled out, and many are not even used in the rest of the game at all. There's countless examples of this in games.

Breath of the Wild is another example - how many of the mechanics in that game are directly spelled out to you? VERY few. Much is learned through experimentation, trial and error and emergent gameplay. Compare that to the tutorial-heavy disaster that was Skyward Sword and you can see why developers are opting for this more "old-fashioned" or "schoolyard" style info dispersion in these mechanics heavy RPG games. At least in my opinion.

we are talking of a mass market looter shooter, it should tell the players how to fucking play the game and that means explaining how to do those combos because it is a normal game mechanic...that has nothing to do with trial and error or finding it out for yourself.

and it doesn´t have anything to do with Breath of the Wild or raid content either, stop it please
 

MotiD

Member
Oct 26, 2017
1,560
Some very loud and rotten apples making it seem like the majority of Xbox fans on site are Crapgamer subscribes
 

Kirbivore

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,925
I feel like Microsofts interactions with social media and stuff has been questionable.

At some point oh, we have to stop looking at every little thing as it comes and look at the through line of behavior over the years. This guy suggesting streamers and influencers sort of brings things full circle.
Machinima paid YouTubers up to $30,000 to say positive things about the Xbox One, as part of a secret 2013 agreement with Microsoft about an advertising campaign, according to a Federal Trade Commission investigation made public today.

There's been support of way toxic personalities, a handful of cases now of pushing back on reviews, exerting undue influence like the article above shows, sending out turfers to communities including ours.

Maybe you could call it a string of isolated incidents. In my opinion, it's a pattern.

Thats some ill timing
 

Border

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,859
Is it really so absurd to expect that the game teach a key mechanic of team combat in a tutorial setting?
If people are able to beat the game without ever learning combos, then I don't know if you can make the argument that it is a key mechanic.

The level of tutorialization you expect will probably depend on your background and the genres you play. Somebody coming from MMOs or turn-based strategy or fighters probably doesn't expect games to be transparent and extensively documented. Someone used to Ubisoft's adventure games may want everything documented and pinpointed.