It seems opinions are most polarized when it comes to some of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s unique gameplay “obstacles.” According to Oyama, players in Japan and Asia tend to be quite vocal about what they perceive as “inconveniences,” while players in Europe and North America are more likely to view these same game elements as “friction” and welcome them. While the developers don’t cite any specific examples, they do describe travelling by foot and Dragonsplague as some of the “inconveniences” the game throws at players earlier in the interview.

  • Chais@sh.itjust.works
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    2 days ago

    “Inconvenience” vs. “friction”? Seems neither of them is overly fond of the mechanic. Definitely doesn’t make it sound like opposites.

    • MarcomachtKuchen@feddit.org
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      2 days ago

      Nah I’ll disagree. There is a certain amount of friction a game should have to enhance its intended gameplay

    • Uruanna@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The term friction in gaming is a good thing, it’s basically engagement, keeping you awake while going from point A to B, a challenge, a puzzle, making you think or act / react, test of skills. Seeing it as inconvenience just shows the disconnect between what the dev wants you to do and what gameplay loop makes you happy.

    • violentfart@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      If someone from Japan calls it an inconvenience, it means it’s actually fucking terrible.

    • Mardukas@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      But they “welcomed” the friction. I do not think I have ever heard someone “welcome” an inconvenience.

      • Zombiepirate@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I loved the game partly because of the lack of fast travel, which is not my usual attitude for an open-world game.

        They made it actually interesting to get around and fun to figure out how to proceed after a hard won fight.

        It’s strange to me that people would find that inconvenient, because it seems to be half the point of the game.

        • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I was going to make a similar point that we need more info. There are things that make a game annoying, and there are things that just offer a different form of play. If a menu is shit, that’s annoying and inconvenient, if a mechanic is different than your favorite thing, that’s a gameplay difference and not inconvenient so much as not your preference. I hope when asking players about things they made these distinctions.