I have two works to thank for this piece of ancient Greek mythology. An anime called Legend of Olympus, which probably quite a few of you have seen.
A game called Hades, which quite a few people should have played as well.
My favorite thing about Guan Yu’s cold saw is that it has a strange sense of contrast
I’m ashamed to say that although I’m a self-proclaimed master of Kurodex, I didn’t get my hands on its Platinum Cup until recently.
Once I was wandering around the library, I stumbled upon books depicting the ancient Greek gods, and after tasting the chaotic, ungodly plots of the real ancient Greek myths, I realized that the colorful, positive images of the gods that I remembered from childhood to adulthood were hard-won, thanks to the mercy of the writers of the anime and games.
Back to my original question: is Kurotis a 2A game? The question itself is a head-scratcher. What is a “2A game” after all?
The question came from my roommate, who doesn’t know much about games, but still knows what a 3A game is. After repeatedly bumping into me laughing with Zeus and holding a sword, he couldn’t help but ask, “Is this a 3A game?”. .
“No, how can this be a 3A game.” Out of a love-hate emotion, I answered with some self-deprecation.
Hades is undoubtedly a good game
the “build construction” in the action system is very fast, there is a kind of WYSIWYG feeling; in addition, the game’s text volume is really amazing, your various attempts to trigger the unexpected dialogue, even every time you die, there will be the same line as the reward, in terms of immersion in the satisfaction. It’s satisfying in terms of immersion.
But the problem also lies in the sheer volume of text. In order to reach the platinum, you need to trigger some key conversations, and due to the number of conversations in the game, coupled with the fact that you can only talk to each character once after each game, the result is that after all the various builds and playstyles have been memorized, the key plot conversations still haven’t taken their turn, so you have to restart the game over and over again. This gives the game more unnecessary liver, and the shortcomings of a lack of map numbers and too much repetitive gameplay begin to be gradually magnified.
It’s also a real struggle to level up all the tokens
“So how many A games is this, 2A?” my answer failed to put off my roommate, and his questions got weirder and weirder.
“I don’t think it’s even a few A’s, right?” I was a little shaken by this stupid question. I could have said it differently and ended the conversation on a quieter note, but for a moment I lost my nerve about the concept of “a few A’s”.
“No A? So it’s not a B. ……”
After putting down the joystick, I tried to find the answer online, and the first thing I had to address was the definition of a 3A game. Since it’s called a 3A game, the letter A is probably some kind of abbreviation, and as long as you know what the A’s correspond to, you’ll have a basis for determining a game’s grade. However, for such a small question, there are many different answers online, and the most popular one is the one shown below.
But if you think about it, you will realize how unreliable this answer is. Not to mention the number of time and money, whether there is a standard or not, the most incomprehensible thing is the contradiction between the positioning of resources, time and money, obviously “resources” can include the rest of the two, but now they go hand in hand, which seems superfluous and frivolous.
If you simply google it year by year, the same suspicion was raised at least nine years ago. Judging by the discussion at the time, the question has never been given a standard answer, but that hasn’t stopped the term 3A from becoming more familiar.
The more you look into it, the more the term 3A is reminiscent of another famous marketing concept - Hollywood movies. Hollywood movies are often characterized by a “Bigger is Better” mentality, with everything from the content to the marketing being commercialized, but the “Hollywood” moniker is not standardized, it’s more of a marketing tool. When you think about it, things become more understandable. In other words, there is no official standard for 3A, and it is also a marketing gimmick in the gaming industry.
As for what kind of game Black Dice is, the officials have their own understanding of this issue. On Supergiant’s own official website, they state that they are an independent game team.
But that answer also leaves some doubt. I still remember The Great Indie Game Movie from 2012, and the impression I got from indie game makers was poignant: overachievers yet detached from society, self-seeking yet stuck in the mundane, hungry for rewards and outside judgment.
In another documentary on domestic indie games, “Chronicle”, this impression is further amplified, and the bitterness becomes more simple - firewood, rice, oil and salt trip up one batch of developers who want to create, and being an indie game maker is like being an ascetic monk.
Chronicle focuses more on the gamer experience
But on the Hedis channel, you’ll see a very different kind of life, one that seems to have a “decency” that’s hard to match for solo gamers. Employees chatting in tastefully decorated offices, musicians working on elaborate soundtracks on professional recording equipment …… You can hardly associate these images with the word “lack of funds”.
Supergiant Studios is indeed a veteran of the indie game scene. But after Bastion, Transistor, and Pyre, they’re no slouches - and the difference in the indie scene is a bit of a “heaven and earth” experience.
In the opening scene of Chronicle, Liang Qiwei, the producer of the Rainblood series, lays down a tough standard for the definition of an indie game:
“Indie games have to be if they’re made without publisher support.”
For a long time, this viewpoint has been held in high esteem among the many gamers I’ve met. In their eyes, gaming is an art that needs to be free from the constraints of capital.
I don’t know what year this was taken, but it’s one of those “look across the mountain” views of indie gaming these days. At least in the eyes of a producer friend I know, she and her game can’t do without the support of a publisher.
With that, it’s time to bring this nightly conversation to a close, but the debate over the definitions of 3A and indie games will surely continue.
While the 3A argument smacks of marketing, this article has no intention of correcting it. As editors, I believe our job is to be another set of eyes for our readers, to bring to light things that you wouldn’t normally see. Since it is a pair of eyes, there is no need to go against the “brain”, no need to give lessons.
In the eyes of game makers, 3A and indie games may be a “silent” advertising slogan, but in the mouths of players and writers, 3A and indie games can be described as quickly as possible, allowing you to form a preliminary concept of the game in front of you: how the production specifications of this game, and how the amount of content should be expected. Once you’ve accomplished your goal, there’s no need to get to the bottom of it.
The bottom line is that these labels are limited in what they can represent. They may be tied to money, but they can’t represent the quality of a game. Undertale was crowdfunded for fifty-one thousand dollars, but fifteen million euros could have built Ragnarok: Gollum.
