Who here will admit to having a love/hate with Jeff's games?

[Bac4More]

OMG will i now have to play Geneforge AGAIN! Who here will admit to having a love/hate relationship with Jeff Vogel games? He is a cranky old man who pulls cheap tricks out of the bag simply to frustrate the player; and yet I keep coming back to play his games. His games are like all those little mines he puts in your way, I know I they are there, and I don't want to go that way, but I will. I will play the game, yell and scream at the monitor, curse him for making me go thru half a dozen strategically placed turrets, each that can kill me in 1-2 shots, but I will get no experience from my hard fought victory; I will go to a lever and put 10 living tools on it....one by one(why can't he just program it to see I have the number of tools needed and ask me if I want to use them). I will get surrounded by enemies that will slow me down, cover me in acid, poison me, hit me 2,3,4 times before I get a shot in, and constantly run away just out of my reach and hit me with ranged weapons. In short I will constantly fight above my weight, going where I should not go. But then there are the times I make it through a quest and feel like I am the greatest champion that ever lived. Poor, poor pitiful me! I know he is snickering and laughing , gleefully rubbing his hands together somewhere as he make these games!

Edited April 24, 2021 by Bac4More
added text

[The Almighty Doer of Stuff]

If you think Jeff is a cranky old man, believe me, you have no idea how far the word "cranky" goes to describe an old man.

 

The big problem I have with Jeff's games is they are very long, lots of content and well written, and they draw me in... but I have ADHD so I almost never finish them, even though I sincerely want to.

[Randomizer]

Try being a beta tester for the recent games playing on torment difficulty and seeing what Jeff puts into recent games that he wouldn't play himself at that difficulty.

 

Queen's Wish had the first boss fight on torment that you had to complete to advance to shop building and getting the next quests being impossible on torment difficulty. The original version added a 15th level mage/priest spell caster to fight your 1st level party. You had to spread out to avoid total party kill from the first area attack and anything you damage, but you didn't kil that round would all be group healed. I kept thinking, there must be some tactic to win this fight, I just need to try something different. Then there was the false hope that I got down to killing everyone but that one 15th level foe.

[Magenta]

1 hour ago, Bac4More said:

I will go to a lever and put 10 living tools on it....one by one(why can't he just program it to see I have the number of tools needed and ask me if I want to use them)

You will be glad to know that's exactly how it works in the remake. A few other things have been improved as well. The biggest problem I have with Jeff's games is I can't stop playing them. In fact, I have decided I need to get some of his other games and try them out. The only other one I have played is Nethergate. (I'll take suggestions on which series to play next.) But for now, I'm in the midst of doing something I never thought I would be able to do - playing on torment. Do I need an intervention? 

[stilltim]

The games are challenging. And yes, sometimes they just want to make me pull my hair out. But frankly, isn't that also one of the reasons why they're so compelling? I mean, they're not exactly boring are they?

[ZorroDragonslayer]

A good thing about Jeff's games, and I've played them all, is that they are so versatile. Not everyone wants the same thing in an adventuring game. There are nearly infinite possibilities in how you play the game. Probably very very many you have not thought of. And the methods are mostly by your choosing. You are given a choice of difficulty level, which items to wear, which path to take, which areas to cross or not, which spells to use, style of battle, to fight or run, who your friends are, who and how many companions you want. Where to save the game and so on. When to go back to a save and pick it up again. Customizing through training points gives versatility. After all these combinations of characteristics of the game and after a lot of playthrough the ultimate customizing can be done by modding some of the game characteristics. Within the hard code parameters, you can invent new weapons, change graphics so you look like a dragon, customize potions, have someone in one of the cities train you in exchange for certain things, have someone trade you shaper books for shaper equipment, endless possibilities. Its not like you are locked into a straight line experience.

 

Yes there are potentially frustrating events but rising to the challenge is a part of the game. How you use creative thinking and problem solving determine your success. If the game was so so easy you didn't need any of these thinking skills would it be that interesting? Would it be any more entertaining than reading through the story line or watching a video of the events?

 

Just my two cents anyway...............

 

 

 

[PerishedFraud]

22 hours ago, Bac4More said:

OMG will i now have to play Geneforge AGAIN! Who here will admit to having a love/hate relationship with Jeff Vogel games? He is a cranky old man who pulls cheap tricks out of the bag simply to frustrate the player; and yet I keep coming back to play his games. His games are like all those little mines he puts in your way, I know I they are there, and I don't want to go that way, but I will. I will play the game, yell and scream at the monitor, curse him for making me go thru half a dozen strategically placed turrets, each that can kill me in 1-2 shots, but I will get no experience from my hard fought victory; I will go to a lever and put 10 living tools on it....one by one(why can't he just program it to see I have the number of tools needed and ask me if I want to use them). I will get surrounded by enemies that will slow me down, cover me in acid, poison me, hit me 2,3,4 times before I get a shot in, and constantly run away just out of my reach and hit me with ranged weapons. In short I will constantly fight above my weight, going where I should not go. But then there are the times I make it through a quest and feel like I am the greatest champion that ever lived. Poor, poor pitiful me! I know he is snickering and laughing , gleefully rubbing his hands together somewhere as he make these games!

Play Geneforge 2 and do a full parry build.
Thank me later.

[BenS]

I love playing Jeff's games, true. I hate that I have to wait 1-2 years for the next one, true. Huh, guess you were right about the love/hate thing.

[Losrandir]

Heh I get what you're saying but it's still very much on the love side.

[OmegaNecros]

There is a reason i play these games on Normal and no higher. I love the depth, the madness, the political games, the power gaming, the trial and error. But i like to do *everything* in the game and if i played on a difficulty that was hard id never find time to complete it.

I cleared the Beta of G1M as a shaper (Battle/Magic Army) running 7 creations for 75% of the game, but still havent gotten around to Guardian or Agent runs. Not my fault though, guardian was Borked hard until the last strech of the beta and ive had a hard time coming back after that experience.

I want to do a run of the remakes with every single class, itll be an endeavor for me. Gotta also make sure i catch every single kickstarter so i can pay jeff to add Helix Gear to every game. All Hail lord Helix!