TheRetroArcade
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Posts: 1,971
Joined: Feb 2026
Joined: Feb 2026
Is it really cynical to take great ideas from other games, or is it just how you design a good game?
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Prolific tweeter and take-haver Michael Douse, Larian's publishing director, has delved into the Crimson Desert discourse. The man knows his RPGs (I know, I know, Pearl Abyss says it isn't an RPG), so he offers an interesting and informed perspective. I just think he's dead wrong this time.
"Crimson Desert is fun to play, but it is such a cynical amalgamation of borrowed mechanics," he says in the original tweet. "It is Now That's What I Call Gaming plucked off a gas station shelf, for better & worse. Expect a lot more of this in premium & F2P. There is less risk in it."
In follow-up tweets, he acknowledges that this is very much par for the course when it comes to open-world games, adding, "At least it's adding spice to the stew, rather than removing it."
Responding to Douse, Ivory Moose asks him to "name a better videogame that's more immersive or fun to play recently," to which Douse replies, "By no means is it bad, it's fun."
Crimson Desert is fun to play, but it is such a cynical amalgamation of borrowed mechanics. It is Now That's What I Call Gaming plucked off a gas station shelf, for better & worse. Expect a lot more of this in premium & F2P. There is less risk in it.March 28, 2026
This is a take I've seen quite a lot recently: that it's fun, but it's basically just a cynical hodgepodge of mechanics borrowed from other games. I get it—but it still strikes me as an unfair assessment of both Crimson Desert and other games that take advantage of popular mechanics and systems.
Videogame development is over 50 years old, and it's rare to see something entirely unique. Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the best games ever made, but there's almost nothing truly new in Larian's greatest RPG.
BG3 is full of nods to older CRPGs, the combat system is drawn from Larian's previous games and D&D, and the smartest move the studio made was borrowing mechanics and concepts from tabletop roleplaying. All these things come together to create a singular RPG, but the ingredients are not unique.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked b...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?
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Prolific tweeter and take-haver Michael Douse, Larian's publishing director, has delved into the Crimson Desert discourse. The man knows his RPGs (I know, I know, Pearl Abyss says it isn't an RPG), so he offers an interesting and informed perspective. I just think he's dead wrong this time.
"Crimson Desert is fun to play, but it is such a cynical amalgamation of borrowed mechanics," he says in the original tweet. "It is Now That's What I Call Gaming plucked off a gas station shelf, for better & worse. Expect a lot more of this in premium & F2P. There is less risk in it."
In follow-up tweets, he acknowledges that this is very much par for the course when it comes to open-world games, adding, "At least it's adding spice to the stew, rather than removing it."
Responding to Douse, Ivory Moose asks him to "name a better videogame that's more immersive or fun to play recently," to which Douse replies, "By no means is it bad, it's fun."
Crimson Desert is fun to play, but it is such a cynical amalgamation of borrowed mechanics. It is Now That's What I Call Gaming plucked off a gas station shelf, for better & worse. Expect a lot more of this in premium & F2P. There is less risk in it.March 28, 2026
This is a take I've seen quite a lot recently: that it's fun, but it's basically just a cynical hodgepodge of mechanics borrowed from other games. I get it—but it still strikes me as an unfair assessment of both Crimson Desert and other games that take advantage of popular mechanics and systems.
Videogame development is over 50 years old, and it's rare to see something entirely unique. Baldur's Gate 3 is one of the best games ever made, but there's almost nothing truly new in Larian's greatest RPG.
BG3 is full of nods to older CRPGs, the combat system is drawn from Larian's previous games and D&D, and the smartest move the studio made was borrowing mechanics and concepts from tabletop roleplaying. All these things come together to create a singular RPG, but the ingredients are not unique.
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked b...Read more: Full article on www.pcgamer.com
What do you think about this?