The Order 1886 Controversy

Started by Xbro, Feb 18, 2015, 06:22 PM

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Xbro

There was an interesting blog posted by an IGN user. Check it out below.

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I wasn't going to write a blog about this. In fact, I wanted to finish writing my blog about the "cinematic games debate", but something struck me while I was reading articles about The Order 1886. The CTO and founder of Ready at Dawn, had to blame himself for apparently not communicating the vision of The Order well enough.

And this where I think the criticism of games in general has gotten too far. Now we've gotten to the point where a developer is doubting himself and his team, when in fact, they've done a perfect job of portraying what kind of game they're making. All because of the constant barrage of clickbait articles and rumors from people who only hate them/their game. Even the lead game director has noticed it and commented on it.

In this blog, I argue it's time we start to change our perception of games (not just The Order) and treat them as art -this is the exact reason why games aren't seen as art- because gamers are not seeing them as art. Speaking to a fellow IGN user about the games controversial game length, he stated that "It's one of many reasons games aren't taken seriously as art. Its fans don't treat them as art." And that statement in my opinion couldn't be anymore truer.

Most of us know about the controversy surround The Order. Whether it's the initial mixed reception and previews from journalists (many of which are valid criticisms) or how the game has not been "innovating" enough in the third person genre space or the defense of the 30fps frame rate that the game is playing at, or the talk of a suppose "downgrade" (which has been denied by the developer and proven false) or even to the most recent controversy about the games length, some complaints have been valid (let me reiterate no game is above criticism) whilst others have been outrageously laughable.



          The 30fps vs 60fps debate has been even more heated since the arrival of the new generation consoles



Developers Vision

One thing that struck me as a major criticism of the Order is the lack of multiplayer or variant modes apart from a single player mode. Now for some, that is a real bummer, especially if it impacts their replay value of a game, and that is fine, but I do honestly find it surprising people have only started noticing it now. I do believe that the developers have portrayed their vision for this game as clear as crystal since day one.

It was always a heavily cinematic, story-driven, third-person shooter - and whether it delivers on that to a good quality is up to debate. However, there have been tons of articles and videos over the past year or so that have talked about what this game is and what their vision is.

If anyone has misinterpreted their vision with The Order: 1886 then it's entirely their own fault IMO.

It would alsobe nice to see the hyperbolic gaming community as a whole take a bloody chill pill. The negativity that surrounds each major exclusive release (X1 or PS4 or Wii U or PC) is disheartening to people who just enjoy games.


How about we don't pre-order most games? I think 2014 taught us that lesson...
Length

Ludwig Kietzmann, former Editor-in-chief of Joystiq wrote a sarcastic tweet about the controversy surround The Order's length:



And I completely agree. It just leads onto the earlier comment I mentioned that a fellow IGN user said about why videogames cannot be treated seriously as art until we as gamers do.

I mean let me set something straight: if you judge a game based on how long it takes someone on YouTube, someone with a vested interest in getting it done as fast possible, you're doing yourself a disservice and it's completely pointless.

Honestly, I facepalm whenever someone claims to watch an entire game on YouTube from start to finish to prove an ideological point. My point? Watching and playing are two completely different things. Gaming as a medium, is best experienced, when your PLAYING it.

And this is where some people don't seem to understand that the play time varies a lot between persons.  Some may be doing extremely good and can finish it fast, or maybe they skipped a lot, there are those who wants to explore every corner and maybe admire the environment, some may have a hard time with a certain chapter etc.


Read the rest here. http://www.ign.com/blogs/kralamoonard/2015/02/18/the-order-1886-controversy
3 people like this

Max King of the Wild

I knew exactly what the team was going for from the very beginning. And I have known from the start that I want to experience this game. My mind has not changed. Buying this Friday.

Legend

Agree with most of what you posted.


I personally hate the recent trend of everyone demanding 60 fps. First of all there are so many drawbacks to 60fps vs 30fps as far as visuals go. I'm not saying resolution and graphic fidelity is more important than framerate, but it's at least important enough to make 60fps a personal desire and not a clear cut priority. Secondly, 30fps does look more cinematic than 60fps. I'm always shocked on gaming forums when this fact is thought of as a joke. Film grain, chromatic aberration, lens flair, HDR, blur, lens distortion, black bars, etc. are all effects that decrease image quality in order to make games look more cinematic. Lower FPS is just one more of them. Again nothing wrong with someone personally not liking any of these effects, but it's crazy that so many people firmly believe they are inherently evil and BS.



the-pi-guy


Agree with most of what you posted.
I personally hate the recent trend of everyone demanding 60 fps. First of all there are so many drawbacks to 60fps vs 30fps as far as visuals go. I'm not saying resolution and graphic fidelity is more important than framerate, but it's at least important enough to make 60fps a personal desire and not a clear cut priority. Secondly, 30fps does look more cinematic than 60fps. I'm always shocked on gaming forums when this fact is thought of as a joke. Film grain, chromatic aberration, lens flair, HDR, blur, lens distortion, black bars, etc. are all effects that decrease image quality in order to make games look more cinematic. Lower FPS is just one more of them. Again nothing wrong with someone personally not liking any of these effects, but it's crazy that so many people firmly believe they are inherently evil and BS.



I'm not sure how well I can tell the difference between 30 and 60. 
I played Minecraft and I didn't notice anything off until the frame rate went below 20. 
DriveClub feels/looks great, but I couldn't tell you what frame rate it was without knowing first.
On the other hand, some PC games feel off the second the frame rate goes below 30 after experiencing 60, but I'm not sure how much of that is my imagination and how much of it is oh no, it's getting worse. 
When it's running at crazy frame rate and having screen tearing, I can notice though. 
Or when it drops like a rock. 
So I agree, with your general statement, even if you disagree with my general statement. 

The length argument is an interesting one. 
Frankly there have been shorter games that haven't seen such criticism, and games that are ultimately worse in some aspects of their execution than The Order that haven't gotten as much hate.  (Well, I'm guessing how bad it is, might be worse than I thought.)  But on the whole, the trashing of the game is almost certainly heightened by the combination of questionable design choices, questionable by the fact that they are the matter of great debate as it is, and the fan boys.