Standing on the shoulders of giants here. Kudos to the kind folks running the JRPG, CRPG, Strategy, and Adventure Game Clubs!
What's This?
If you like playing Metroidvanias, Soulsbornes, Roguelites, Shooters, Beat-em-ups, and other Action Games, but find yourself having trouble getting to the finish line, then this is the thread for you! Join up with fellow GWJers to share builds, revel in glorious story exposition, and commiserate over totally unfair boss fights.
"Action Games" is a pretty broad genre, but breaking this club down into smaller sub-genres seems like it might be too narrow; I'm open to discussion, though!
What are we currently playing?
System Shock
CrossCode
What games are eligible?
- Action Games that are at least a year old.
- Games that are good, relatively inexpensive, and readily available.
- Given the inherently broad nature of this Club, games that have been previously featured in any of the other GWJ Game Clubs will be discouraged.
How do we decide on games to play?
The procedure will be similar to some of the other GWJ Game Club threads.
First, the Nomination Phase:
- We'll take a few days to collect nominations of games.
- Members are allowed to nominate no more than one game per quarter.
- Games must also be seconded by at least one Member to qualify for voting.
- Members are allowed to second any number of games per quarter.
Next, the Preliminary Vote Phase:
- We'll spend a few days allowing for Members to vote for their top 6 preferred games in unranked order.
- The 6 (ish) top-voted games will graduate to the Final Vote Phase.
Finally, the Final Vote Phase:
- A few more days will be taken to let Members vote for their top 6 (ish) preferred games in ranked order.
- Ranked Choice Voting rules will be applied to the full list of votes.
- In the unlikely event of a tie after all this, a quick and brutally efficient tiebreaker vote will be held. Or maybe we'll activate both games simultaneously. Whatever.
How much time do we have to play each game?
This is a quarterly game club, so we'll vote on and start a new game every 3 months, but we'll keep the discussion thread open for an additional 3 months to allow for any stragglers.
Club History
24Q1: Severed Steel
24Q2: Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
24Q3: CrossCode
24Q4: System Shock
Action Game Club Members
Level 3:
AUs_TBirD (24Q1) (24Q2) (24Q3)
Merphle (24Q1) (24Q2) (24Q3)
Kstress71 (24Q1) (24Q2) (24Q4)
Level 2:
Sundown (24Q1), (24Q2)
Jontra (24Q1) (24Q2)
Gewy (24Q1) (24Q4)
Mrtomaytohead (24Q4)
Level 1:
This space intentionally left blank
Yep. If the game's in my library or on my wish list, I'd play.
Sure, same as gewy. If I've got it (and I've gotten a ton of free little action games from Epic if nothing else) then I'd be down to play some action games.
I'll start by nominating Severed Steel, which is bite sized, and also that was given away free by Epic awhile ago so people may already have it.
Would Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin qualify? If so, I’ll nominate that.
Never heard of Severed Steel but it looks cool so I’ll second it.
I’ll nominate Superhot. Been meaning to play it for a while.
Good idea for a club!
I'll second Superhot since that's the only one I already own.
Also, I'll nominate Hi-Fi Rush (turns 1 year old in 6 days - disqualify if necessary), since the GOTY thread got me excited to play it.
Going to prioritize ones I already have:
1. Severed Steel
2. Superhot
3. Hi-Fi Rush
1. Superhot
2. Hi-Fi Rush
3. Severed Steel
1. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
2. Severed Steel
1. Superhot
2. Hi-Fi Rush
3. Severed Steel (turns out I have it thanks to Epic)
1. Severed Steel
2. Superhot
Ooooh! A club! I'm in!
I only own one of the games on the ballot, so:
1. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
So we're halfway through the 3 month cycle for the club's first game, and there hasn't been any activity in the game's thread since February 18th - 3 weeks after it started.
Hence, perhaps we might consider more flexible cycles, depending on the games' expected playtime? Severed Steel, being only 3ish hours long, was going to either be completed or dropped very quickly by almost all players.
So perhaps there should be two votes? The first determines the game, the second determines how long before we vote on the next one?
What does everyone think? My goal with this discussion is to try to keep the club active.
I think quarterly is still fine, both for logistics and for knowing when nominations are coming up again. In general, action games are going to be shorter than RPGs so there would likely be less discussion around them, so that's kind of expected.
But at the end of the day, we're all also probably playing games other than club games, so I'm not sure a higher frequency of club games would necessarily get a lot more participation - people would just be more likely to skip something they're on the fence for if the next one is just a month away.
I would also think that for action games, the discussion may all be frontloaded - if I'm doing a game with the action club and the JRPG club in a given quarter, for instance, I may be more likely to play the action game first if I'm only doing one game at a time because of the shorter length.
My two pennies.
I'm certainly open to discussions on changing the allotted time for each game - either en masse, or on a game-by-game basis. I don't know how we might orchestrate a time-length vote for specific games though; if we do that vote after declaring a game winner, then folks who didn't want to play that game may try to skew the time-length vote on the short side, to try to move on to the next one as soon as possible.
Personally I like the quarterly format since it's easier for me to remember and plan around, though I'd be open to shortening it to bimonthly. I don't think I'd like a variable-per-game length.
Well, I'd like to think we don't have bad faith voters here, but I get the concern. If we did it, I think it would have to be case by case - 1 month might work for Severed Steel, but for something like AC Odyssey you'd need a year (or, in my case, five).
I think quarterly is still fine, both for logistics and for knowing when nominations are coming up again. In general, action games are going to be shorter than RPGs so there would likely be less discussion around them, so that's kind of expected.
But at the end of the day, we're all also probably playing games other than club games, so I'm not sure a higher frequency of club games would necessarily get a lot more participation - people would just be more likely to skip something they're on the fence for if the next one is just a month away.
I would also think that for action games, the discussion may all be frontloaded - if I'm doing a game with the action club and the JRPG club in a given quarter, for instance, I may be more likely to play the action game first if I'm only doing one game at a time because of the shorter length.
Also fair points. I defintely agree that it would be lots more work to keep track of, and there is certainly something to be said for regularity - for the administration as well as participants. I didn't even think about the potential of playing the action game first because of its length vs an rpg.
I've really enjoyed Severed Steel, and am looking forward to the next club game - whenever that ends up being
I'll nominate Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
Pages