Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
Helldivers 2 is the *perfect* model for a live-service game. The progression is brisk -- you can unlock multiple rewards after almost every session -- the cosmetics and premium battle passes can be earned quickly just by playing, and it definitely doesn't hurt that the game itself is an absolute blast.
If you haven't checked it out, #Helldivers2 is basically a 3rd person Left 4 Dead meets Halo with a Star Troopers vibe.
I absolutely love it.
Jon
@killyourfm I haven’t played but sounds interesting. I’m a big Halo fan.
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@jnv If you love Halo — and especially love Firefight mode — I think you’ll really enjoy this.
Emmet Coughlan
@killyourfm I haven't played it yet, but I did see there's a huge backlash at the moment over #Helldivers2 suddenly requiring a PlayStation account to continue playing it on PC, which seems pretty shady on Sony's part.
Emmet Coughlan
@billiglarper I don't think I've really seen anything negative towards the game itself, or much directed towards Arrowhead as a studio - mainly just complaints against Sony for rolling out these account requirements to pad their numbers, like you said.
Normally when these review-bombs occur there is a valid reason for the upset, but that upset always attracts the people that just want to see the world burn, who show up and loudly shite on everything.
Billiglarper
I hated when jerks reviewbombed #darktide and Fatshark, and I hate seeing them do it again to #helldivers2 and Arrowhead.
It's simply bullying. And the lame excuse of "we only hurt you because we care about you and your baby" is just the same toxic bullshit you will hear from any abuser.
Billiglarper
Seriously, take a step back. Take a look at all the #enshitification and #monetarisation and #darkpatterns in #gaming. And how people react to that - or don't.
And then tell me that Arrowhead Studios and #helldivers2 deserve to be singled out for the 3rd party account requirement and how they handled it.
The backlash doesn't occur because Arrowhead Studios deserves it. But because folks want to, and because they can. The downvoting on Steam is a power trip.
Billiglarper
Personally, I think what we are seeing is the outrage cycle dynamic in action.
#Helldivers2 is a really fun game, and more than the sum of its parts. But imho it's far from GOAT. Imho the game has been quite a bit over-hyped, and Arrowhead has had the hero/saviour trope assigned quite a bit.
And now folks are all too eager to see the hero/saviour cast into the dust. You could see that in the negative hyperbole to the latest balance patch already. Dramaturgic powerplay. 🤮
Billiglarper
Shady isn't the word I would use.
Communication could have been better - I missed that, too. But the information was out there. And the requirement having been waived due to the difficult server situation at launch sounds plausible.
Still, the requirement seems foremost in the interest of Sony - number padding #enshitification. Though the report and ban infrastructure argument has some merit.
Personally, I'm critical of singling out #helldivers2 for 3rd party accounts.
Jason Evangelho 🐧🎒
@svenjacobs @EccTM @ProfessorCode That's nice to see. Now, I hope the 10s of 1000s of people who rallied together to review bomb the game update their scores so more people jump in.
Sven Jacobs :androidHead:
@EccTM @ProfessorCode @killyourfm Luckily they backed down regarding the PSN account linking requirement.
GNU social JP is a social network, courtesy of GNU social JP管理人. It runs on GNU social, version 2.0.2-dev, available under the GNU Affero General Public License.
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.