Okay but the original post is fucking stupid though. The idea that you can't have problems with the aesthetics of a medium because of tbe exploitation of the workers is nonsense and should be fucking dunked on.
Like nobody would call you a bad person for saying Marvel films have bad scores or poorly written dialogue no matter how shitty Disney is to their employees.
I mean op said in a reply that he straight up doesnt think yellow painted cliffs are bad at all and thats why he made this post and I agree with him. They get put there because people dont find that shit on their own and its also a "respecting the players time" thing not to force them to explore everywhere looking for the climbable portion.
Theres probably better ways to do it but. Im with twitter op.
They get put there because people dont find that shit on their own and its also a "respecting the players time" thing not to force them to explore everywhere looking for the climbable portion.
Yeah like in the Sands of Time trilogy. Those games had easily readable climbing elements that respected your paths because of yellow paint
Sands of Time was mostly a series of corridors of self contained puzzle rooms. With games being entirely unfocused experiences bow, you need the yellow paint. I'd prefer games just be shorter, more focused and cheaper, but here we are.
Yeah like Uncharted, which for the entire PS3 lifecycle was linear games with yellow paint... Or Horizon Zero Dawn, which has exclusively linear paths in story missions coated in yellow paint... or Far Cry 3, which has extremely linear radio towers as climing "challenges" covered in yellow paint....
I genuinely feel.like this at work sometimes, I'll talk games with a dude 10 years younger than me who's frustrated with whatever some online shooter did and I'm like 'I unlocked the x cup in zero on the n64 and it was a white knuckle thrill. Got close to a personal best on Wild Guns and ran through the first Castlevanis.' I played 3 games and had a sick time and he seems to just get mad at one at a time. The NES was my first console and I've always been more on the retro side of things post childhood and I think I just approach vidya games different than the kids now. I'm still arcade brained a bit.
It's basically a shorthand for cinematic interact locations that otherwise get lost in the noise of otherwise-identical clutter surrounding them. Like "is that flattish rock a pretty scenery rock or a mantling-cutscene rock?" sort of stuff that gets solved by just splashing bright paint on the interactable stuff or otherwise making it stand out aesthetically even when that doesn't make sense diegetically.
Yes, really simple and shortcutty way to say to the player "OVER HERE DUMBASS, COME PRESS X A FEW TIMES". Thank you AAA games, such depth of gameplay...?
Even if you don't agree with the criticism "You shouldn't make this criticism because the industry is exploitative" is dumb.
Like this is absolute onsense to write either way.
In many games it is used to direct the player where they can interact with terrain. Which ledges are climbable or not etc. Some people think this makes things too easy.
I think the point is that blaming the workers for the shitty writing is myopic, because it really comes down to shitty work conditions, ridiculous deadlines and executive meddling. These people think that their art sucks because the people making it are incompetent, and therefore deserve to the punished, and not because of capitalism, which is the real culprit. They can't see systemic problems because their worldview is highly individualistic.