Palworld’s astonishing success swelled over the weekend, with the ‘Pokémon with guns’ survival and crafting game shooting up Steam’s most-played games list and selling millions more copies.
    •  TwilightVulpine   ( @TwilightVulpine@kbin.social ) 
      24•1 year ago

      Right? I see people saying “oh but the violence! the slavery!” as if it wasn’t a collective act of childhood goodwill that prevented such associations being made to Pokémon. They talk a lot about friendship, but it’s a friendship built on beating up creatures in the wild, which then obey and fight for you unquestioningly. Even some which are human-like and stated to be as intelligent as humans.

      I consider myself a Pokémon fan and I defended them often, but it’s a concept that gets a little iffy if you think about it for more than a minute.

      •  ormr   ( @ormr@feddit.de ) 
        4•1 year ago

        Sounds like any RPG to me. Except that your party consists of the same creatures that you’re fighting. In that sense it’s maybe more egalitarian than RPGs featuring classical enemy races like orcs or goblins.

        In Pokémon the concept of evil comes in the Form of Team Rocket and other shady exploitative organisations. Interestingly Palworld also has a counterpart organisation called Syndicates. But I still don’t know what their crime really is since you’re really doing the same thing of fighting and catching Pals. Nevertheless you have to treat the creatures in your party right, if you want to make progress in the game.

        •  TwilightVulpine   ( @TwilightVulpine@kbin.social ) 
          3•1 year ago

          Like any RPG? Nah. C’mon, in most RPGs the characters are brought together by the story. Even the occasional antagonist who is fought and then allied with has a whole discussion where they are convinced of the merits of the protagonists. I could grant that in the Pokémon anime fairly often the creatures are convinced or decide to come along willingly, but in the games that hardly ever happens.

          How do you reconcile the idea that the creatures want to come along with the active resistence of fighting them and having them break your pokéballs repeatedly?

          Of course if you take the story by its word they’ll say that trainers are good and friendly and only these criminal teams really are evil. And for fun I indulge that fantasy while I’m playing it, that these are martial artists pets that just love fighting so much and that pokéballs must be super comfy inside. But if you take a moment to compare what is happening you’ll see that it isn’t that different from what Palworld is doing.

          •  ormr   ( @ormr@feddit.de ) 
            1•1 year ago

            Okay not like any RPG. It’s a special kind of RPG. And as a game it has many elements that make video game RPGs so addictive.

            I agree with you on the ethics. Maybe Palworld in that sense is more honest than Pokémon. In the Pokémon anime however I always had the impression that they try to depict Pokémon as having humanlike character tendencies, e.g. some liking to get into fights and others just working as nurses in the Pokémon center…

      •  Vodulas [they/them]   ( @Vodulas@beehaw.org ) 
        1•1 year ago

        I see people saying “oh but the violence! the slavery!” as if it wasn’t a collective act of childhood goodwill that prevented such associations being made to Pokémon.

        I think the issue with the slavery (at least for me) is that there is human slavery that has exactly zero consequence. It doesn’t have much to do with the Pals themselves

        •  TwilightVulpine   ( @TwilightVulpine@kbin.social ) 
          5•1 year ago

          I heard the game warns you against it and there are police forces that chase you if you commit crimes against humans. Though I don’t know if that happens if you capture a human specifically.

          Still, distasteful but I wouldn’t see it much differently than, say, killing innocent bystanders in Hitman. The game allows you to do it but it doesn’t encourage you to do it. It just doesn’t block it either. It’s not something I do or I’d approve of, but considering it’s a more edgy version of the genre I can understand the game not making humans immune to the device that traps and essentially brainwashes living beings. Because, why would they be?

          •  Vodulas [they/them]   ( @Vodulas@beehaw.org ) 
            4•1 year ago

            From what I have read about, the only thing that happens when you capture a human is that it tells you it is inhumane and frowned upon. I have not seen anything mentioning actual consequences beyond that, but it may be that people have not encountered them. If that is the case, the consequences might as well not be there.

        •  Moira_Mayhem   ( @Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org ) 
          2•1 year ago

          Bought it last night, have been playing 15 hours straight and I regret the absence of sleep.

          But not enough to quit, I haven’t found a dungeon yet.

          It’s a blast and brings together the best parts of so many games I love.

      •  DebatableRaccoon   ( @DebatableRaccoon@lemmy.ca ) 
        12•1 year ago

        Not to mention in a more impressive format. I thought Arceus looked graphically barren and I know there are still plenty of people annoyed at the pop-in in Scarlet and Violet. I know it isn’t really Nintendo’s thing to play into the performance competition but a lot of people just expect better these days and the much bigger scope of Breath of the Wild and impressive level of expansion in Tears of the Kingdom has made even Nintendo fans see that there’s better out there.

    •  naevaTheRat   ( @naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 
      19•1 year ago

      Idk, it’s definitely not some sort of life changing experience or high art or whatever. It is however kinda cute, a little bit funny, has an enjoyable gameplay loop, adequate exploration, and satisfy combat. It’s also pretty cheap.

      The monster mechanics are surprisingly well integrated into the world. Just basic shit like pulling out a burny fox to see when in a cave is pretty immersive. Then discovering special mechanics like the boar that rapidly mines by charging rocks has you throw out your pick and start careening around like a loon.

      It only really has legs during the discovery phase I think, but that’s fine. Games aren’t bad if they end.

      •  Kaldo   ( @Kaldo@beehaw.org ) 
        4•1 year ago

        Id hope they use the popularity to improve it further but I really don’t wanna get invested in the same way I have with valheim, they have been mostly resting on their laurels so far and these developers will probably do the same. I hope I’m wrong tho, seems like a game I’d enjoy if it had more depth.

        •  naevaTheRat   ( @naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com ) 
          10•1 year ago

          It would be nice, I wouldn’t bet on it though and don’t recommend buying something in the chance it gets better later. I’m enjoying myself atm and wont be mad if it never becomes more than it is.

          Hopefully it’s at least a signal to other devs that there is real market interest in base building + monster collection or just open world monster collecting

          •  Kaldo   ( @Kaldo@beehaw.org ) 
            1•1 year ago

            Yeah, that’s always good advice, I don’t mind missing out on hype since I’d be playing single player anyway. Enshrouded is also out and it might turn out to be the better option too, who knows. Seems like a good start of the year for survival games enjoyers either way.

    •  t3rmit3   ( @t3rmit3@beehaw.org ) 
      15•1 year ago

      Nah, it’s actually pretty great. I’ve played hundred of hours of ARK, and this scratches the same “survival-crafting with monsters” itch that ARK does, but with a lot of big improvements (not being heavily PvP-focused, being able to safely store your ‘dinos’ when you’re away, having a reason [loot, npcs, pokedex completion] to explore the worldspace beyond finding dinos or resources, etc).

      •  ormr   ( @ormr@feddit.de ) 
        5•1 year ago

        It’s a fun game with a nice mixture of looting & leveling, survival, base optimisation and progress, exploration and fighting.

        I also like the humor of paldex entries hahaha.

      •  Pheonixdown   ( @Pheonixdown@lemm.ee ) 
        15•1 year ago

        While that’s part of it, it’s definitely not “just” that.

        Sadly, part of it is that the game has released in a fairly stable/polished state, which is considered a positive in the world of broken releases. The multiplayer also just works with little issue as opposed to some problems of yesteryear.

        There’s also a perhaps surprising pent up demand for good co-op PvE focused games. They blow-up hard but tend to fade out depending on gameplay quality. Part of this is the streamer effect, streamers like to play group games with other streamers because it helps cross-pollinate their audiences. Sales are also improved due to group/peer-pressure, if someone can pull in their friend group, that’s a lot of sale multiplication.

        I also think that the developers tried to make a game that’s fun. A lot of decisions seem to have followed the rule of cool for this type of game e.g. pal mounts, firearms, catching people, automation of survival elements via slavery.

        It also manages to have both a clear and guided progression system while maintaining the freedom for the player to just fuck off and do whatever they want while still at least partially progressing.

        My only honest gripes with the game are how world saves are handled (they should use the Grounded system in addition to having dedicated servers) and that I for some reason can’t find the exit button on the title screen so to quit I need to alt-f4, for the rare times I need it.

        •  ursakhiin   ( @ursakhiin@beehaw.org ) 
          8•1 year ago

          They are extremely similar to the point that I think they are edging very close to Nintendo caring if they don’t already.

          But I don’t think the assets are directly stolen from looking at them.

            •  Kiosade   ( @Kiosade@lemmy.ca ) 
              4•1 year ago

              I looked up a video showing some model proportion comparisons. Yeah they do look to be pretty similar, but I guess it just comes down to: Where do you draw the line between copyright infringement and fair use? Like obviously palette swapping a squirtle to be red and making him a fire type is probably illegal? But if you take the squirtle model, change him to be all fuzzy, with a spiky shell, different eyes, etc to the point where the model meshing is no longer the same… is that really infringement?

              I don’t know myself, and will leave it up to TPC to figure it out, but it doesn’t really bother me one bit either way.

              •  LoamImprovement   ( @LoamImprovement@beehaw.org ) 
                3•1 year ago

                I mean, the problematic part here is that they take the model in the first place, or at least that all signs point to that being the case. Sure, you can coldsteel the hell out of an existing character, but if you’re using an asset you didn’t develop and didn’t license to make a product that you then sell for money, no matter how different the end result looks from the original, that is absolutely infringement. It’s infringement that might have gone unnoticed had the models been more sufficiently edited, but at the end of the day it’s the theft of someone else’s labor.

                I don’t know if that’s what happened here, but when the industry professionals say it’s hard to get model proportions that close even moving the same asset into a different engine, and the whole roster is uncannily similar? If it looks like a duck…

            •  Moira_Mayhem   ( @Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org ) 
              1•1 year ago

              Proportions do not constitute imitating a copyrighted character.

              Everything Palworld does is legal, people who disagree don’t understand copyright law or what is protected.

              You can argue with me if you want, but you’re wrong.

            •  ursakhiin   ( @ursakhiin@beehaw.org ) 
              1•1 year ago

              That’s interesting, but it’s ultimately not up to the artists.

              The creators lawyers felt comfortable that they are in the clear. I don’t think that will stop Nintendo from burying them in litigation but I’d say if the lawyers are willing to say that then the assets are likely created in house.

              The idea that the assets were stolen was the comment I replied to.

    •  Moira_Mayhem   ( @Moira_Mayhem@beehaw.org ) 
      1•1 year ago

      After 4 decades of active video game play, the last year or so has been very empty for me.

      Nothing seemed to be satisfying, nothing captured my attention for long.

      Sure I got my Elden Ring character ready for the DLC, but not with enthusiasm.

      Sure I made it to diamond in Duel Masters finally, but it brought me no joy.

      I bought Palworld last night on a whim and it has been 15 hours and the only time I have stopped was to take care of basic needs.

      I am engaged, excited, and enthusiastic to game for the first time in a very, very long time. And the last time I liked a game this much it was Elden Ring at launch and I literally did nothing for 3 months than eat, sleep, work and Elden Ring.

      I feel that Palworld is heading in the same direction.

      Is there jank? Sure, but nothing that has broken my enjoyment yet.

      •  hyorvenn   ( @hyorvenn@jlai.lu ) 
        1•1 year ago

        I just cannot go past the bootleg aspect of everything they take inspiration from copied straight from other games. It just look like a soulless AI-generated game to me.

        But sure it didn’t sell for nothing, the game is surely enjoyable and I didn’t mean to take that from you in my (somewhat caustic) comment.

    •  pacoboyd   ( @pacoboyd@lemm.ee ) 
      6•1 year ago

      Thier last game (released over three years ago) is still in Early Access and they already got thier pay day. This is why I hate modern gaming. Gamers can’t help but pre-maturely ejaculate over some new thing, so devs are able to keep shoveling eternal Early Access games. I vote with my wallet and don’t buy EA games, but my game group still does. I miss out on a lot of gaming sessions because of it.

      Personally I think gaming companies should not be allowed to charge for Early Access and basically just go back to free betas for testing. Or if they do have an Early Access, they should be forced to have a published release date or automatic refund if they miss. That will prevent devs from releasing half baked content and coasting on it for years.

      They can still provide content and fixes via standard updates.

      •  blindsight   ( @blindsight@beehaw.org ) 
        9•1 year ago

        But you said yourself that you miss out on a lot of gaming sessions because you won’t buy EA games. If the game is fun, then who cares what it’s labeled? Presumably, your friends think the game is fun enough to play in its current state.

        I don’t really understand the problem with “Early Access”; just make a decision based on whether the game is currently worth what they’re asking for it.

        •  pacoboyd   ( @pacoboyd@lemm.ee ) 
          5•1 year ago

          It’s more that I would like a complete experience than have features and content trickled to me. I generally don’t have time to play a game more than once, so I want the time I invest to get the best return. For me, that’s not until a game is released.

        •  ursakhiin   ( @ursakhiin@beehaw.org ) 
          4•1 year ago

          This. Pay money for fun.

          I don’t care if it’s in early access if I’m enjoying it. I do care if I’m paying money for an extremely frustrating experience, but this game does look fun if you have friends to play with.