James Margaris

A perfectly harmless box. Game dev, half of Dark Roast Entertainment. Games criticism at

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

My latest:

On Concords failure and our need to turn every success and failure into a teachable moment

https://t.co/MZgUA3kiVs

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@PrestonGrimes15 @PaulTassi The message doesn't have any name attached and uses the word "maker", which is LinkedIn speak, not game developer lingo

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@XanderXCIV @Detective_Roo Even the people who worked on Golden Axe think it sucked lol.

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@Awakenalife @zandowastaken I see Teamfight once every 50 games or so, it's so unpopular that it was a complete waste of effort to even make it.

AND it's being massively nerfed!

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@Diaphone_ @SonicFox @yohosiefgc @Sajam This would be a generally understandable and learnable rule: the assist character simply can't block. Rather than a weird one-off rule where blocking doesn't work as normal in one specific scenario only for game balance reasons.

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@Diaphone_ @SonicFox @yohosiefgc @Sajam They should consider making assist unable to block at all. (instead of what they're doing)

The point would have to block the burst, but the point is the character who can mix up. Would also make it easier to punish bad activations and add more risk.

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@jchensor @BahnMiis If I don't play 2XKO for a couple days I forget so much because it's so arbitrary. Jinx's rocket super is on S1 but firing a rocket is on S2. There's also no pattern like "straightforward supers are on S1, exotic supers are on S2"

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@jchensor @BahnMiis I am in fact that same guy lol.

Yeah - it struck me how similar your points were, even using some of the same examples.

It's not just "well I'm old so I prefer motion controls" but *way* more specific - all the special moves are basically arbitrarily assigned command normals.

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@soundwves K you win, game is great, has no problems, they laid off half the staff due to a clerical error.

I concede.

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@soundwves Go count all the games in human history that map a move to simultaneous left and right face buttons. There's a reason the vast majority of games avoid that - you can't press those with your thumb without hitting a button in between. That's just physics.

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@soundwves It's the default controls.

If players on PS5 are supposed to swap the triggers and buttons that should be the default.

The average player can't press left and right face button at the same time, due to how thumbs are shaped.

Remap those also?

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@soundwves I didn't make up anything. Come on man.

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@soundwves @jchensor @BahnMiis They made a game with a bunch of tap vs hold inputs, but on PS5 those inputs are mapped to analog triggers with analog thresholds. Just that is weird by itself. (As opposed to making S1/S2 the digital bumpers)

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@soundwves @jchensor @BahnMiis Personal issue like the controls ran over my dog?

They're just not good controls. And again, it goes far beyond motion controls or not. They aren't good controls *even for a game that lacks motion controls.*

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@soundwves (BTW I explain a bunch of this in more detail in my writeup, which is better than a series of random tweets)

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@soundwves The game underperformed and they laid off half the team immediately - they made some bad calls, that doesn't really seem debateable.

In particular it's been picked up by basically no well-known League players. Many of them would rather play SF6 or Tekken.

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@soundwves @jchensor @BahnMiis And regardless, if you put aside motion controls vs "modern" controls, 2XKO has worst-in-class modern controls. I genuinely don't think there is any game with "modern" controls that has a worse setup!

[James Margaris @MarkyMarg2]

@soundwves @jchensor @BahnMiis Invincible Vs "conceded" by putting motion controls INTO the game to try to appeal to FG players.

When you "concede" by entirely removing motions, even as an option, *who* are you conceding to? Who are the players who benefit?