Wikmalm

Good on Hot Scoops for finally getting his ghost game on TV's.

Gone Home is great though.

So the only gameplay loops I really think about are in games that I really don't care about the story in. My podcast games, basically.

The two that come to mind are Path of Exile and Warframe.

Path of exile is interesting in that it opens up to you so gradually, not by any means of gameplay restrictions or anything, but with knowledge restrictions.

The first character you make in Path of Exile will most likely have a hard time progressing past the second difficulty unless you have some intuition for hack and slash games and know what to build. The other option is that you follow a guide for some basic build and get along fine that way.

In both cases you are probably going to feel somewhat constrained, either by the rigidness of the build you chose, or the difficulty of the game with your homemade one. The lessening of that feeling with every new character you make is really the part of the gameplay loop that is interesting to me in that game.

Sure I like killing loads of monsters in any Dioblo-like hack 'n' slash, but what keeps me coming back to PoE over Diablo 3 for example is the freedom that opens up to you when you understand how all these complex systems work together.

Warframe is another fun example, although not as involved. Warframe has a fun gameplay loop because of all the things that isn't the basic Look-Move-Aim-Shoot that a Halo, for example, would have. It's fun because you can fit other things like "Run on this wall and jump and shoot while slow motion diving" or "holy shit I'm a Mech Space Ninja look at me." in between them.

Good article Austin. I really like all the stuff you do on the site.

You being at Giant Bomb has really changed it for the better. Thanks for getting personal sometimes Austin.

@shaunk: Yeah I see what you're saying and I kind of agree with it. It was just not how my brain was used to think about Youtube I guess. That's obviously changed from when everyone was just throwing up unedited garbage.

So I'm kinda saying that the endurance run jives with my understanding of what a youtube LP was in like, 08.

But you know, good.

I ain't knocking your preference or anything at all, I just never thought I'd see over-editing being described as "YouTube-y" since never editing anything is exactly why everyone hated youtube LP's in those circles a couple years ago.

I feel like cuts are warranted if there's nothing funny and just busywork. The P4 Endurance run is probably one of the things that feels most "YouTube-y" to me on the site, in fact. I still like it though.

Anyway I enjoy both types of content at gb, and as I said, not knocking your preference at all.

Hugs and sms's is like the most dad-joke thing and I love it.

Nice job with the "thamps" It's all I was thinking of.

At least how I read it the Polly answer was more about not getting in her way with a potential relationship that will never come to frution.

Either you gotta try something new and see how it feels or get out of there in respect to her.

Antyhing else is just stringing someone along that you're not up for a real thing with.

Have you ever wished you could rewind time? Anyway there's this game...