Let us, out of sheer bloody-mindedness, talk about trees.
Not the sort that pop out of the earth and grow leaves and things, neat though the idea is, not those. You know how it is about trees. Excellent chaps but they never go anywhere.
Let us talk about skill trees in games.
I could, if 'twere in my nature, look up the history and all the rest of it but why bother. This is not a history project.
My pique, if it is pique, arises from how every other game developer now feels compelled to include some variation of a skill tree even in genres that do not warrant it.
Now a certain type of game that involves the "build" (never got a grip on that one) and fundamentally changes the gameplay, or at least the approach to it, is one thing. But more and more it seems that skill trees are a sort of cosmetic bungling to induce a sense of progression or empowerment to the gamer.
Uh, not buying it.
Like the open world concept, the skill tree is not much talked about.
To illustrate, here are a few games that can be completed without even looking at the darned thing. Sure, the gameplay becomes a lot easier if you upgrade your weapon stats and your health but the rest of it seems to be so much developer time/effort/money wasted. (Some are just upgrade systems but the concept is the same).
Well, that list could go on forever.
As of today, I am playing Tomb Raider (2013) for the third time. It reinforces my suspicion that the whole XP and collectibles and side missions exist not because they add anything to the gameplay or the overall game experience. They are simply there to let the gamer know "you missed this one bit on the map." On my third play through, all my skill and salvage points went ignored till the mission where you get the rope climber. It is possible to reach the end of the main story campaign without availing any of those "points."
Not trying to single out the Tomb Raider games here. It just happens to be the most recent in memory. In fact, Tomb Raider sits at the top of my least disliked game-with-skill-tree list. At least the developer did not start you out as a weakling that needs periodic health upgrades to keep up with tougher and tougher enemies and thank goodness for no actual boss fights (separate rant on boss fights to follow).
Some people like skill trees and that's fine.
Perhaps it is just the whole stretched-out-time perspective that demands more room than the 21st century lifestyle permits. Some concepts I can only grapple with in perpetuity, never come to terms with.
When your mind keeps diving into the far end to surface fond fun memories it becomes a chore to like the current goings-on in gaming.
After Doom (1993) there came the age of Doom clones. Everyone and the chipmunk in their nearest tree wanted to make a Doom clone.
We don't use the term "clone" anymore. It seems the product of copying is okay but the act of copying is to be treated politely. We call them "like" now.
For the past few years we are stuck in the age of Rogue-like, Metroid-like, Souls-like. Individual games now turned into genres through the act of "liking."
Unlike the Age of Doom Clones, the Age of Nnn-Like shows no signs of abating any time soon.
The same applies to the spread of the skill tree. If the real-life pop-out-of-the-ground trees could match that tenacity for the good part of a century, we could stop worrying about them.
Seriously, if you have been gaming since the 1990s, just take a moment and think about the game after game after game that has passed your PC display without any of the modern trappings whose greatest achievement is having to pause the game and juggle upgrade menus and skill trees.
The really, really sad part for me personally though is the current iteration of the Doom games.
When even the elder statesmen are not exempt, things look rather bleak.
Then again, they looked equally bleak in the Age of Doom Clones and we got over that because the gaming community simply got fed up and walked away.
Praying for a swift and moderately painful death to the unwanted skill tree.
Maybe make it optional, as perhaps part of the Accessibility options. Spare the rest of us who have no use for it.
Hmm?
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