Everything always has to be perfect. Or does it? A streamer explains why guides annoy him and why viewers should just let him play.
YouTuber and streamer Josh Strife repeatedly analyzes MMORPGs, but also other games, and he breaks down in detail what makes good game design, a gripping story, and fair monetization. He mostly plays MMORPGs, but recently also played Mass Effect on stream.
He is constantly given instructions by the audience about what he should and shouldn’t do in the game. He took the time to explain to the chat why this ruins every RPG experience.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition – Trailer
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Who’s speaking? The streamer is Josh Strife Hayes, who offers interesting analyses and views on video games from time to time. He streams or publishes his videos on Twitch and YouTube. We have already reported on him in the past, for example when he highlighted the problems of parasitic systems in MMORPGs or why he turned down money from Blizzard to promote WoW.
Now he is devoting himself to the Mass Effect trilogy and playing the game on stream.
What did he say? While playing the classic “Mass Effect 1,” Hayes has to deal with comments from the chat again and again. The chat constantly warns him when an important decision in the game is pending, such as when a point of no return is approaching. The chat also alerts him when he should talk to characters because otherwise he would “miss something.”
But Josh Strife Hayes seems to be bothered by this and doesn’t give in to the demands. For him, this would spoil a real RPG experience:
I can’t play the game the way you want me to. And I can’t play the game to have the “optimal story”. I can only play the game the way I play it and I can accept the consequences.
There will be decisions I make that will exclude me from certain things. That’s the nature of an RPG game.
He goes on to say that there will be things he will find or not. And some characters will die during his playthrough, while others will survive. He is fully aware of that.
If I just follow a guide and have the most perfect experience possible, that’s not my experience of Mass Effect. My experience is the best decisions I can make as Commander Shepard and with the knowledge I have. (…)
And if I mess it up, that’s my fault. But that’s the adventure I’m going to have.
It is precisely the things that don’t go perfectly in the game that create an individualized experience and make for an interesting role-playing game in which everyone experiences a slightly different story:
Everyone tells me: you have to do this and you have to do that. If I did all of that, then I wouldn’t be playing as Commander Shepard. Then I would just do what the guide tells me. Why I’m so opposed to your suggestions:
Decisions are only relevant if there are consequences. If you tell me in advance which decisions lead to which consequences, then you are simply ensuring that I actively choose which story I will play. I want the story to unfold on its own and for bad things to happen.
Imperfections create interesting stories. We don’t like perfect characters. We don’t like perfect stories. We like it when there’s a flaw. We like when there’s a problem to overcome. And if I play the game in a flawless way, then there would be no reason for me to play it at all.
Complex role-playing games like the “Mass Effect” series in particular offer a multitude of options and decisions. There is almost always a “perfect” path, or at least an optimal one that results in the fewest losses – but that can ruin the gaming experience. It is precisely the losses and small mistakes that make decisions and consequences so appealing. That will certainly be the case in Mass Effect 5 as well.
Because if you want a role-playing game with freedom of choice, but then completely ignore it by forcing perfection – why should you even play it?