Asmongold TV - When Game Devs Actually Listen | Asmongold TV

Episode Date: September 27, 2025

When Game Devs Actually Listen Asmongold show for all of his stream highlights, competitions, reactions & more. ------------- -------------- Keywords: game criticism, streaming moments, mmo gaming, gaming opinions, gaming reactions, twitch clips, esports commentary, streamer podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So this is something that's happened. It happened a little while ago. And it is probably one of the, I think every time this happens to a video game, it is an amazing thing. There was a video game that came out last year, Words of the Fallen, and the reception to that game was incredibly negative. People hated the game. And by people, I mean me. I hated the game. They turned it around and they did a full 2.0 update. They put the game on sale and they totally changed the game. I don't think we've seen anything like this before. We have a studio that is essentially headed into oncoming traffic.

They've turned around and they're headed back in the direction of the players. They've been criticized by the media. They've been dismissed. No Man Sky, exactly. To buy their peers. All because they took a stance saying that they don't believe that social or political messaging should influence game design. Oh, God.

Imagine that being controversial. Imagine siding with the players being controversial. It's controversial. Take it a step further. I was approached by this studio to make a video under the condition that there are no restrictions. Make the videos that you like to make. It's for the best. So this video is sponsored by Lords of the Fallen with no red tape, no censorship. The only thing that they asked is that I talk about their 2.0 update and how much the game has improved jokes on them. I would have talked about it anyway. It's really impressive what they've done. But this is how you reach players. Transparency. They understand that. This game has gone through hell and back. It had a failed start. Gone through multiple. So basically what earned this development studio a bunch of hate from the games journalist people is that they put out a poll. Would you rather have body type A and B or one and two? Or would you rather have male and female?

And one of the lead developers of the game put this poll out, and the poll went exactly the way that you would expect. 95% of people said male and female. and they changed it based off of that. Now, this, of course, made them bigots, homophobic, transphobic, racist, not, I mean, you know, if you're one of them, you're all of them, right?

Fascist, yeah, I think there's that too. People Studios, gone through a reboot that didn't really land all that well right when it first came out, but now it's transformed into one hell of a comeback story. They are allowing you to be able to invite your friend to play the game for free. Seameless co-op progression,

friend plays for free. Just like it takes two or split fiction. I feel like I'm living in an alternate universe right now. So today what I want to do is I want to talk about Lords of the Fallen. I want to talk about how they... This is another really big thing is that if they ever want to make another game, they have to make it right with their first game. Because like they, Wars of the Fallen was already a remake from a game that didn't hit.

And so if you have two misses, you're not going to have people that get super excited for the third swing. And so now that you have, Obviously, the game get improved. People are happy. In general, I think people are happy. Building that reputation is necessary if you ever want to make another game. Taking a stance against the direction that this industry has been headed in.

I want to talk about all the improvements they've made with their game with their 2.0 update. And I also want to talk about the interview that I had with their CEO about how they're putting players first. The world is healing. Lord of the Fallen is a bit of an odd beast. The original game came out in 2014 under a studio named Deck 13. It had promise, great art direction, a strong premise, but it had a lot of issues. It didn't really understand what it was like to be a Soulslike game. And as such, it never really found an audience.

Then came the sequel. Well, the reason why is because it just didn't play very well. That's the reason. The fact is that, like, the graphics, the aesthetic, the design, and everything else was totally on point. Like, I mean, really, this is a game made for Dark Souls Andes. It is. And it was buggy. it was just the game just sucked, right?

I mean, that's it. Like, there's like 50 things wrong with it. But, like, I think the reason why so many people had such a negative reception towards of the following when it originally came out is because the expectation was that it was going to be amazing. Because so many other things about the game were amazing. The IP was then passed around a few different times through a few different studios. The project was shut down a handful of times before CI Games just said,

screw it and founded an entirely new studio called Hexworks to try again from the ground up. And what they made in 2023 was a massive improvement that now rebooted Lords of the Fallen under the same name looked beautiful. The art direction was incredible. Seriously, I love the way that this world looks. I mean, you have a game like this. This is a game for me. Really? I mean, it's a sword game with demons and it looks like this. This is an Asmingold game. Realm concept was genuinely unique. Shifting between realms, depending on the situation, serving as both a combat mechanic and an exploration tool. The game finally had something resembling its own voice.

But that voice was buried under some serious performance issues, bugs, balance problems, issues with combat and exploration. It reviewed decently with a 73 on Open Critic. Because they're fucking retarded. They don't know what the hell they're doing. That's the reason why. Mike, you look at this here. Top critic average?

No. Player rating is visible? No, this doesn't matter. So here's the big problem this game had. One of the biggest issues is the first level in this game. was basically you fighting on the side of a mountain on different platforms. Every attack that your character did would throw your character like five feet forward. So you would constantly be getting pushed off of the edge by your own attacks fighting monsters.

And then it had Dark Souls 2 enemy design where they had all of the enemies there. It's like every enemy is behind every wall so it will push you off unless you're waiting for it. It was basically designed to be the most annoying and frustrating version of the game that it could possibly be. Yeah, an open critic. But it didn't really land. It was one of those hot and cold games where some people really liked it for what it was and other people didn't want to have anything to do with it. The kind of game that you'll hear about for a week before it vanishes from conversation,

especially given the fact that it launched near a pretty steep competition in LISP, just the month before it. In most cases, hell, nine times out of 10, any studio, would have taken the loss. They would have fixed a few bugs and then begun work on their next title. But Hexworks and CIA games did the opposite. They dug in.

Over the past two years, they have shipped more than 50 updates. All of them... That's fucking insane. Look at all this. These are all free updates that were added for the game after the release.

That is amazing. It's like No Man's Sky again? I think so. Completely free. They've reworked performance, revamped the controls. they fix bugs. And also like keep in mind too that they release this huge patch with a sale on the game for like 40% off or something like that. It was a massive discount. Improved stability, added build variety and listen to very specific criticisms from the community.

Things like stamina balancing, boss scaling, mob density, co-op stability. It's rare to see a developer actually chip away at a game like this, not for press, not for hype, not for anything other than just wanting to make the game better for the people that bought it and for fans in the future. Well, also, like, real quick, this is good for their business. You can't develop a relationship with a customer base if you just continue releasing bad products. So if, like, theoretically, like, they're eventually probably going to make another game, right? And when they do make that next game, this game will be the frame of reference for the next game. And if the next game looks good, people still won't care because they're going to say, Well, the first game looked good and it was still bad. It's necessary.

Say that to Ubisoft? I don't have to. Tencent already did. That's why they had to make a subsidiary company and fire a bunch of people. They're probably going to have to lay off over 10,000 people. I'm not even kidding you. They're getting bought out by China. They're literally in an apocalypse situation.

People might not realize it, but they are. Actively, we're listening to feedback the entire time, making improvements and getting no recognition for it. Well, I shouldn't say no recognition because the game is consistently climbed from mixed reviews up to mostly positive. But after this next update, I wouldn't be surprised if this game's going to climb even higher. Lords of the Fallon has released their 2.0 update.

And with it, everything has come together. This isn't just another patch. It's a full overhaul. Combat responsiveness has been tightened, feeling much smoother than before. They've added unique sound and better sound to every single weapon attack, blocks, and even paris, giving combat that heft that it was missing. movement is bad. Yeah, the visuals, sorry, not the visuals.

The audio cues and everything were very not good. People even brought that up in the trailer when people didn't have the chance to play the game. Esther, dodging is cleaner. They added a dedicated jump button for smoother platforming. The lock-on feature is more intuitive now. The jump used to be like in Dark Souls 1 where you had to be running in order to jump. And you also, like, remember what I was talking about with the platforming thing on like the

side of the mountain, you had to be making these running jumps while you had these casters attacking you with range things that would knock you down. It was so annoying. Getting stuck on environmental objects anymore. They've even gone as far as adding a new guidance mechanic for the umbral lamp that allows you to navigate yourself when lost. I mean, they have quite literally, I forgot about that when I was lost in this game for two hours.

I wish I had remembered. Literally attacked every single major criticism of this game here. Visually, the game is even sharper. They've revamped their UI. They've improved their character creator, allowing for more masculine. and feminine character designs as the bested by their audience. And honestly, I still think this is probably one of the best uses of Unreal Engine 5 to date. From the texture deep...

This looks amazing. Really, this looks fucking awesome. Detailed to the lighting, to the fact that the entire game, though linear, renders the entire world all at the same time, it's gorgeous. But here's where things get really interesting. They have added a genre first system, which they're calling the free Friends Pass. You can now invite a friend. who doesn't own the game to come and play the entire thing with you, co-op.

No trial, no demo, the full game. You can play together. You all get to keep your loot and character progression, and eventually, if they want to pick up the game for themselves, well, they can pick up right where they left off. Now, I'll be honest. Holy fuck. God damn.

There's no skill in making Unreal 5 look good? No, it's not true. I think there's plenty of shitty things on Unreal 5. Skip this game at launch. I had watched a few reviews. I'd saw the performance issues. I'd heard the complaints about map design. the combat. I watched Asman Gold

pull out what was left of his hair while he was being overwhelmed by too many enemies and I just didn't want to deal with it. I was still working in construction at the time. I didn't really have man. We'll talk a little bit about the game. Yeah, what are your thoughts so far? Um, I think the game looks great. Uh, it's a great looking game. Uh,

the area that I did, not this area. Let me move away from the whiskers. It's covered on. Man, you did them dirty? I did. I had such a bad time on this game. a lot of hours to burn, so I figured I would circle back to it if things ever got fixed. And they did. And more. A lot more. I've been playing it, and while Lords of the Fallen still has some rough edges, the narrative is relatively thin and not particularly well delivered. You still

come across some random visual bugs here or there, like my cloak breakdancing around my neck. Enemy telegraphs can be a little inconsistent. Boss fights don't always deliver the impact that you feel like they should. Some of them definitely do. But there is something incredibly charming about playing this game. It's like they accidentally created their own sub-flavor of the soul genre. Something faster. I don't even know necessarily agree with a lot of that. I think the game plays pretty well.

I don't really give a fuck about the story that much. There's like some demon and he's bad. And then at the end he tells you he's good and they're bad. Okay. That's about it. I mean, fuck, it really didn't seem that complicated to me. Boring bosses. I thought the bosses were,

so the only thing about this is that I wish there were more bosses. I like the bosses. I think the best boss in the game was probably the Templar inquisitor that had the brother. I forgot. It was like Thangrid or something like that. I think that was probably the best boss. But other than that, I don't know.

No spoilers. Why did you spoil it? Spoil what? What? That there's a demon? You know that the first five minutes of the game. More consumable, less punishing, but still engaging. Leaning much harder into the fun of these games,

rather than the difficulty, though the game isn't without challenge. Lords of the Fallen doesn't really ask for your full emotional or mental investment to play. You said that he's good? Well, he tells you he's good. I don't know if he's good or not. If he's red, he's bad. The devil's red. I killed him.

I didn't believe him. What are you going to do? You're going to believe the devil? Fuck that. A game like this, or at least like a lot of other souls like games do. You're not constantly on edge or feeling drained after every fight. There is a much lower mental barrier to entry here.

something you can actually relax into while getting your Souls-like fix. There is something incredibly satisfying about shredding through a game like this, and even when I do hit a tough boss or a challenging section of enemies, I never feel stuck. I overcome it after a couple of tries,

and I move on. It's kind of nice to play a game like this that doesn't make me want to throw my controller through the wall. Yeah, I think this is a big problem that a lot of Souls-like games are beginning to have, is that the genre for the games

has become so experienced and so skilled, at playing it, that they now want increasingly harder games to be made in order to continue to like basically appeal to them. And I think that that's a huge, like, big problem. Because every single new Soulslike game that comes out that's built for people that have beaten Lies of P on new game plus one or two, this game is completely unapproachable for a new player. Totally unapproachable. And whenever I say like totally, of course there are some people that play. it and it's fine, but I'm talking about like on an average.

Make the perfect game, but they've made something interesting. And more importantly, they never stopped trying to make it better. In a time that so many studios are content shipping broken products and never fixing them, maybe patch it once or twice and move on, Lord's the Fallen feels like a genuine passion project, something that they never wanted to give up on. And one that keeps getting better every time that you come back. In most cases, this game would have been long abandoned by now.

But Hexworks and CI games, ever gave up on it. They really wanted to make sure that this game would work. And honestly, they did it. They pulled it off. There's something in that not wanting to give up. There's something in that iterative process where you're trying to... Going from Secura to Dark Souls.

Yeah. And I think that that's the problem is that a lot of people that are in this genre really want the games to continue being harder and harder. And I think that's a bad way of designing. I think that having some super bosses is a really good idea. Kind of like how Eldon Ring had bosses like Melania. but otherwise, and like, you know, like, Erd Tree was really hard, but the base game should not be super challenging.

To continue to improve. And we're talking about a game that failed once already that had multiple reboot attempts, finally put out another one, and here they are improving that one. Yeah. And I have a lot of respect in that because not only does it mean a lot to the players

that purchased the game, but it also means a lot to me as a player who hasn't, or, well, I mean, I have now, but it also means a lot to me as a player that's now looking forward to what they work on next. Because you're building a reputation. I've been having a blast week. People can rely on you not to just totally fucking, like,

as soon as they realize that, okay, this game isn't going well. All right, boys, abandoned ship, run away. And that's it. And I feel like that's definitely kind of a, that's a very common thing that many games have, is that as soon as it comes out, it doesn't do well initially,

and then the developers just immediately roach out. Sponsored video YouTuber glazing, I know. No, I've seriously been having a lot of fun with it. Because I'm happy I didn't play this game when it first came out because I would have gone in with the wrong expectations. I would have been disappointed by their performance. But now I'm just having a really good time, relaxing and playing something a bit more casual,

something a bit more polished, a hack and slash take on the soul's genre. I'm digging it. Share the game with your friends for free. That I didn't see coming. I thought that was something that was reserved just for haze light. And this is the last genre that I would expect to see something like that in.

Because it's genius, plain and simple. Not only are you going to get people... Well, the thing is that share the game with your friends and you can play with your friends, it's not genius in any way that... I don't know. Mario Kart was genius. This is effectively being able to play split-screen or co-op with your friends.

It's the exact same thing. You go over to your friend's house and you play at their house. They're going to want to buy the game so they can play with a friend for free. Yeah. But you're also going to... Exactly. Have that friend that's likely to buy the game if they end up liking it.

Yeah, exactly. That's how this whole thing works. Keep in mind, I've brought this up before. I said that while everybody else wants to increase their prices, the ones that are going to succeed are the ones that are going to undercut them. This is so funny he made this video and then Expedition 33 came out and it's the best reviewed game of all time. It's undercutting them.

Fair pricing? This is how you build loyalty. This is how you get players to trust you. I like it. You know, I've had my eye on, I've had my eye on CI Games and Hexworks for a minute. Their CEO of SciA Games has been very active over the past few years.

Oh boy. Getting very involved in discussion saying some things about the industry to say the least. And I never imagined that they would go to this length to make good on a promise. they came forward saying that they want to be a player first studio. And from my perspective, at least right now, that looks like exactly what they're doing. Imagine thinking that's bad.

Imagine how do you say no, you shouldn't be a player-focused studio. You should care about these arbitrary rules that we've invented, and you should make your game based off of that. We're going to do it regardless of whether or not it pisses off the industry. Yeah. The arrogance is unreal. One of the biggest complaints that I've seen for modern gaming, bigger than bugs, performance issues, hell, even bigger than monetization lately, is something that a lot of people don't even feel comfortable saying out loud. The creeping presence of personal ideology and games, political messaging, performative social narratives,

studio agendas that feel more concerned with social media engagement than they do with actually making a game that players want to play. It's not just about what's in these games. It's the overwhelming feeling that you're not even allowed to question any of it. that raising your hand to say, hey, maybe this doesn't belong here, will get you labeled, dismissed, or dogpiled by bad faith actors that think any disagreement is hate speech. And let's be real, very few developers are willing to be even open to this conversation. It's become the ever-present elephant in the room.

Most studios, writers, commentators, even players. It's absolutely an elephant in the room. And you see that with every new video game that doesn't do well. And every journalist and person inside of the industry is, desperately trying to figure out some sort of abstract reason for why the game didn't succeed instead of just reading the first 50 YouTube comments of the same people saying the same thing. There's always got, oh no, no, no, the audience doesn't understand why they don't like it. I do.

They're so afraid of even upsetting the status quo that they've been defaulted into silent complicity more than anything else. Even when these games are getting- A lot of developers are afraid of designing a design. a game without like, you know, the quote, woke elements to it because they're worried that the industry will demonize them. And you've seen this happen with multiple games already. So it's not like this is some kind of like made up bullshit. It's already happened.

We've seen it happen. And worse, even when the sales are going down, even when the fans are slowly walking away, everybody just stays silent. Yeah, they just stick with it. But CIA Games did the opposite. Sometime last year, Merrick Timminsky, the CEO of SciA Games, the guy behind Lords of the Fallen's resurrection, made a stand. He said that he was going to put players first, not just as a slogan, but as a

business strategy, a design philosophy, a studio culture. And he didn't just say it, he followed through. They started watching Twitch streams and YouTube videos. Who do you trust the most for gaming news and info? Traditional media is even below influencers. That's really bad. And also friends and communities, none of the above, fucking based. reading Reddit threads, polling people on Twitter, and actually listen. How should attractive female lead characters look in an action RPG? Classy and beautiful, sexy and provocative. I'm here for gameplay, cute and playful, right?

Well, they don't have fat and ugly, so how could all the Western journalists vote on that? How should attractive male characters look in an RPG? Rugged and badass. Yep, there it is. What a surprise. Guys want to look like guys that look good. Can you believe that? Is Asmond the media or an influencer?

Yes. But more important than that, responding. Should Souls like games have difficulty modes? No. Yep, that's right. That's what people want. Eric had posted a poll asking what players wanted when it came. You know what the difficulty mode in the Souls game is?

It's called Havel's Armor. It's called Playing Magic. It's called Vort's Hammer. Game to character creation. The industry standard at this point has been body type. Should lead video game characters be widely. considered attractive slash aspirational by the vast majority of players. Only 2.5% of people said no.

After over 10,000 votes, this is who Western gaming developers are listening to. 2.5% of retards. And the reason why people hate this guy for doing it is because he shows how transparently unpopular it is. A and body type B, a vague impersonal system that nobody really asked for and it just kind of appeared one day forced upon us. So he asked the players directly in a medieval... This was the evil. This was the true evil one that alienated journalists and made people very upset.

In a medieval fantasy action RPG experience, what do you prefer to choose between? We will follow the final result. body type A and B versus male and female. The obvious common sense, reasonable, non-mentally ill option, obviously won in a resounding landslide. And the reason why journalists and the people in the industry hate him is because he told the truth. Actually, he didn't. He just simply showed it. Fantasy, action RPG experience.

Would you prefer between these two? Body type A and B, male and female, or something else. Nearly 50,000 people voted. 88% of them said male and female. CI games, wouldn't made the change just like that. They reverted it. Now, whether you agree. There it is.

Why would you, here's the question, right? Why would you keep something in the game that 88% of your players don't like? What are you retarded? What are you some kind of big, dumb idiot? You taking stupid? pills. Or disagree with that decision. That's not really the point here.

The point is they asked their audience directly. They got an overwhelming response. They acted on it. This is what listening looks like. After making these changes, Merrick would then take things further. He would then take a stance and talk about how studios need to separate their personal politics from commercial products, saying that the key is to separate social and political views.

And you know, by the way, this was a hosemad situation. 2.3 million views with only 2,000 likes, absolutely hosemad. This is why they hate the game? That's right. Of studio employees from creative decisions that drive each project. The editorial... As I said, we are absolutely winning this like battle and I will not stop until every video game journalist is back to DoorDash.

and every single one of these sensitivity consultants is back to HR where they belong, or there may be back to working at Starbucks or Walmart or whatever. We already have made a tremendous amount of progress. We have been actively destroying this industry to a tremendous degree. And the reason why people are really upset about me is the fact that it's working. The number of video game articles dropped by over 100,000. There's less than 100 games journalists left. They're an endangered species.

And we're poaching them. We are. We're getting rid of every single one of these fucking parasites. Fucking parasites that have against everybody's will, desire, and intention, attach themselves to something that they have no business, being a part of and tried to force an ideology and a way of thinking into it without asking anyone, without any consensus, and then demonizing anybody who disagrees. That's it. Just one negative when they're gone is no more stupid content for them. They hate me because I'm standing away

of you. Well, I think that a lot of people get mad at me. You're right. They get mad at me because I am an avatar for the average consumer. I am an avatar for the average gamer. I have will tell people what actually what is going through the minds of an average person with no filter and that's why they really don't like me and that's also why the videos are really popular has to be independent are you doing the same thing yeah i know no i have no listen i have no problem utilizing bad tactics in order to get a goal that i want i have no problem with this at all of course If it works, then I'll do it. My goal is to achieve, like, so my mindset is I want to achieve a goal.

And so I look at how can I achieve that goal? And then I simply do those actions. That's the end of it. And justify the means? Yeah, sure. Would you lie? No, I don't, no, because that's disrespecting the audience. You see, a lot of times people take short-term gains that are actually long-term.

losses. I think I conduct myself in an incredibly ethical, morally correct, reasonable, humble, and good way. And the reason why is that I know what you need to do in order to win in a long game against an ideology like this. That's why I act the way that I do, which is short-term losses. Yeah, I have no problem taking a short-term loss if I feel like it's something that's beneficial in the long-term. Of course, the media did not take that well and headlines popped up everywhere. Lords of the fallen dev is wrong about politics

and Eldon Ring proves it. Lord's wrong about? What do you mean they're wrong about it? Eldon Ring proves it. I don't know. So the logic is that because Eldon Ring has body type 1 and 2 that people bought the game because it said less people would have bought the game

if it had male and female? What are you talking about? How can you even think like that? It proves it. Lords of the Fallen Publisher embraces the fear of DEI boogeyman. Lord's the Fallen Publop. That's right. That's right.

You can make fun of it and complain and cry and get mad and call me whatever name you want. And the only thing you're going to do is be in my next video. Go ahead. Seems fine to me. uses anti-DEI as marketing meme. It's the usual song in day. Yeah, it worked. Dance, any pushback.

Because nobody likes you. They didn't even like themselves. Any social, political, or identity first design is framed as evil, as ignorance, as bigotry. Even when the vast majority of players agree with it. Even when it's just a studio doing what any other business in the world would do and what they're supposed to be doing, which is serve their customers. I reached out to Merrick directly to ask him about this, about the backlash, and about why he felt it was important to open the door to these kind of conversations

when the industry has slammed it shut. He told me, and also, like, this is something that's becoming increasingly more popular. A lot of these game studios are now afraid of the negative reaction that they're getting from players when they introduce something like this into a video game, and then all the players reject it, and there's like a huge hate campaign against the games. that's the goal yeah that's the goal that's what that's that's the whole point

yeah duh so stop doing it that's the going to yeah exactly it's worth and it works we want to serve our communities the best we can last year we made it a part of our strategy is being player first that's not just a slogan it's the full reality

that we're committed to we don't allow any DEI bullshit to impact our products we were wrong they did not like that at all about body types a and B we fix that very quickly to male and female when it became clear that that's what the vast majority want. The games industry was hijacked at some point by activists. It ended up with a lot of false assumptions about... It did.

And the reason why it got hijacked by activists is because the gaming industry is full of a bunch of beta male scents that immediately will kow and capitulate to anything that a woman tells them. That's the reason why. You might not want to hear it. But I'm going to say it. that's the reason not us though no of course not we're totally different

they're bad and we're good so called modern audience I follow a very simple old concept make products your customers want what's wrong you can't just do that what or controversial with that

now regardless of where you fall on these issues I still think this is the key the fact that something so basic make what people want has become so controversial tells you everything that you need to know about the state of this industry today. The audience feels this overwhelming pressure being forced into almost every media

product that they consume. It's not something that they asked for and when they complain about it or they're actively something that they don't want. Try to ask a question, they are treated like social dissidents. These people are paying for these things. It's not that these things can't exist in games. It's just that you can't expect

people to want it or like it. And if you want your customers to be happy... Well, they think that they can bully people into being silent. And the fact is that they've been able to do that. They've been able to do that. And it's been, guys, it's been a long, like, how long have I really been, like, pushing and shitting on this stuff?

I'd say, like, probably three years, right? Like, three or four years? Like, seriously. Like, really, like, going in on it, et cetera, right? Since the Trump election? No, no, no longer than that. Yeah, because that was only like, that was like, what, a few months ago, really? Right after COVID?

Yeah, pretty close after that. And think about how much progress we've made already. And also, after I'm fully done, you know, getting rid of this, we will move on to something else. But, and this is also like we are entering into the, the circling the drain phase of this, of this behavior. Right? What's next? Well, you'll just have to wait and find out of this crusade. Yeah, I think, you know what? Crusade sounds really good. I like that word. Yes, against this crusade. Let the crusade continue. Exactly. And just like the Crusaders, after we raid one village, we'll got to find another fucking village, right? I mean, damn. You have to give them what they want, not what you want. When I asked Merrick about the... That is actually such a good way to say it. Give the customers what they want rather than what you want. Growing divide between players and developers

or just the industry in general and why so few studios seem willing to even ask any hard questions. He said something that really stuck with me. I think most of them are asking, but too often they ask selectively, avoiding questions they don't want to ask. Yeah, if you don't talk about it, maybe it'll go away.

That quote cuts to the heart of the issue. Sure, we see plenty of studios pretending to engage, collecting feedback, sending out surveys, running community Q&A, but it's all incredibly curated, selective, sanitized. Well, it's sanitized, retarded QA that's invented and created by a bunch of worthless HR people

or marketing people that contribute nothing to the end of product. They add no value to the company. And they'd be better off as janitors because at least then they'd be cleaning up shit rather than making the game shit. I'll ask what weapon balance feels like or what feature you wanted

the next patch, but they won't ask why players are feeling alienated, why character designs are getting roasted, or why games like Concord Flop while games like Marvel rivals take off. In a lot of cases, the industry simply isn't asking questions. They don't want the answers to. Continuing my conversation with Merrick, I asked about what else they've been doing to improve their games. Well, you can do that? What? Continuing my conversation with Merrick, I asked about what else they've been doing to improve that's crazy wow their games and leverage player feedback

and he went on to say that CI games recently started working with the same play testing agency that helped from soft with Eldon Ring and while they're not designing by committee they are validating their design through player feedback now that might seem obvious but that's not how a lot of studios work

so let me get this straight they they so they they thought okay well the game that we were trying to copy didn't go very well So why don't we just have the people that did playtesting for the game that we tried to copy, playtest our game, and then make it good? Huh.

That seems like a pretty good idea. That makes sense. Yeah, I could see that. Finally, I had asked him if this kind of transparency and player first focus was just a phase or whether it was something they were going to be committed to long term. He responded saying, we made a promise to be player first, and we will stay fully committed to that. But the key focus will always remain on making the best games we can. Now look, I'm not going to say that CI games or hex work are perfect.

I'm not saying that every studio needs to agree with every player. Hell, I'm not even saying that every studio or publisher. I think that it's very important that developers feel like they can make the games that they choose to make. And I think that's true with everything. That's why, for example, I was pretty positive about South of Midnight. I felt like this was a game that was made for an audience of people. I'm not necessarily a part of it. but this is an audience of people that does exist and it has a right to exist.

But I think the problem really of what happens is that there are people that it's again, it's the parasitic relationship where they insert themselves into a franchise, into a fan base, or into a game or a studio that they're really not a part of and then they try to actively change it to make it in line with what they believe. That's the big difference. You're a southerner, though, slightly for you? Yeah, I know, I know. But, like, that's just, that's, that's really it.

That's entire trading. Gamers want authenticity. They do. Sure should follow exactly what CI Games and Hexworks are doing. But if we want this industry to get better, to make games better, to rebuild trust that's been bleeding for years now, we need more of this. More honesty, more questions, more humility, more studios that are willing to say we were wrong and changed cores. More studios willing to listen. CI Games and Hexworks aren't just past.

patching a game, they're patching a broken relationship between players, publishers, and studios. And Lords of the Fallen and its 2.0 patch is just the first step down that path. A move towards more transparency and real discussions is the only way that we're going to get better games. It's how this industry heals over time because it does need to heal. It's been struggling for a while. And I'm sure this is going to lead to some tough conversations and people's feelings are bound to get hurt. But it's the only way for things to get better. It's the only way for us to get better games and for some of these people to be able to keep their jobs in some cases.

I think far too often people want to shy. And this is also a, that's a really good point that he's bringing up, is that these journalists are like the sirens in the, you know, the Greek myths. They're singing a song of body type 1 and 2, and all of these big studios are crashing their boats on the rocks of DEI. Unironically, that's what's happening. They're being led astray and they're destroying their studios. In the honesty, exactly.

Yeah, I, I know this. This is like, it's a little bit, you know, fucking ridiculous to say. But am I really wrong, though? Away from these. The DEI sirens, yes. Topics. And because of that, they then just dismiss whatever the other side has to say. When you got two walls that are screaming at each other and neither one of them want to move,

well, nothing can happen. Can't have that. It's great to see how much Lords of the Fallen has improved. I love seeing a studio genuinely listening to their audience, implementing that feedback. iterating on that design and improving their game. That's exactly what they've done. Two years this game has been out. Like I said before, in most cases, it would have been long abandoned.

They never gave up on it. It has been an absolute joy to play. I recommend it to everybody that's been watching this video. I beat the game. I beat the game. After I played it on stream, I knew I was going on vacation. I beat the entire game off stream. While CI games and Hexworks aren't going to get it right every single time. No studio ever does.

At least these guys are trying. And from my perspective, that's more than we get in a lot of cases. So I appreciate that. I want to give a huge thanks to you guys to the viewer because if wasn't for you, something like this wouldn't even be possible, this kind of collaboration. It's also a really good point that he brings up here is that, you know, like we really have to go and say a lot more often that we really do appreciate you guys that watch. Because like at the end of the day, like he or I are really just primals in Final Fantasy.

we're only as strong as the people who believe in us and i think that there have been a lot of people who have been tremendously supportive and massively beneficial to like this movement and it couldn't have happened without you guys it really couldn't have and i think the truth is that i mean you know i'm just a guy on on the internet right i mean but you guys choose to watch my videos you choose to listen to what i'm saying you agree with it you support you me and I mean we're really lucky to have that and I don't really say that enough I think a lot of people don't say it enough but it's really because of you guys that all this is happening that's the truth be possible I want to give a huge thanks to the fallen for sponsoring this video make sure that you guys go and check out the 2.0 update it will be live by the time this video has gone up I've been playing it I've been really enjoying it if you have the game re-download it invite one of your friends to come and play it for free. If you don't have the game, they have wildly deep discounts across the board.

PlayStation Store, Xbox, Epic Game Store, Steam, all of them. Up to 70% off on almost every single platform. Go check it out. Go give the game a buy. It's definitely worth your money. And yeah, that's all I have. I'm actually going to hop off and play a little bit more. Thank you guys for watching.

The funny thing about this video is I've already watched it in my own mind. I know I know everything that this video is going to say I know every point that he's going to make I know the entire thing and I cannot wait to watch it I've pre-watched it in my dreams yeah prove it yeah that's what it's going to be

and can you rotate an apple what do you mean why I rotated it? No why the fuck would I have an apple no I can rotate a Dr. Pepper can watching hope you guys enjoyed the video if you did Like the video, subscribe to the channel, comment down below. Share the video with your friends. And follow me on Twitch.

Watch me. It's nasty, bro. Stay cool. Stay righteous. Stay safe. Family. Family. Family.

Family. I am so fucking glad that this has happened. And I'm also so glad that the 2.0 update has been received so well by players. It is so fucking funny for me to see this because I think there's a video right there. Make sure to give it a like. And I think it's just going to. to become more and more common now. More and more you're going to see people pushing back against this and not only are they going to push back against it, but they're going to receive

such a tremendous amount of support that they're going to, you know, you're going to see more and more people doing it. And I'll buy the game just on principle. Yeah, I mean, I played it. I thought it was really good. I mean, I did. I played it a lot.