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)
Level 2:
Sundown (24Q1), (24Q2)
Jontra (24Q1) (24Q2)
Kstress71 (24Q1) (24Q2)
Gewy (24Q1) (24Q4)
Mrtomaytohead (24Q4)
Level 1:
This space intentionally left blank
Testing the waters to see if there's any interest in a new Action-oriented Game Club.
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.
Alright, it's a bit of a late start for 2024Q1, but let's give this a shot. Maybe we can aim for something a bit more bite-sized for the club's inauguration?
The Nomination Phase is now open for 2024Q1. Nominations will close on Monday, January 22 at 8PM ET.
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.
Would Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin qualify? If so, I’ll nominate that.
It's a FF-themed Soulslike. From what little I played of it at release, it's definitely leaning way harder towards Action-RPG than it is JRPG, and more importantly, it has not yet been featured in any of the other GWJ Game Clubs. I'm ok with letting it through the Nomination Phase and see where it shakes out during voting.
And on that note, I'll second Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, since I only played a little of it at release and keep meaning to go back to it. 
Just about 1 day into nominations. Getting off to a bit of a slow start, but I kind of expected this for a new thread.
Nominated & Seconded:
Severed Steel
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Nominated:
Superhot
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.
I've also heard really good things about Hi-Fi Rush, but I have yet to play it. We'll still be in the midst of voting in 6 days, so I think this should be reasonable to include. I'll second Hi-Fi Rush.
Nominated & Seconded:
Severed Steel
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Superhot
Hi-Fi Rush
Just under a day and a half left for nominations. Anyone else up for a challenge?
And that concludes the Nomination Phase. Ordinarily we'd go into the Preliminary Voting Phase, but given we have only 4 games nominated, let's dive straight into the Final Vote between now and this Friday, January 26 at 8PM ET. Please list the games you'd be willing to play in ranked order.
Hi-Fi Rush ($30 $20 on Fanatical, 11 hours HLTB)
Severed Steel ($25, 3 hours HLTB)
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin ($40 $24 on Humble, 18 hours HLTB)
Superhot ($25 $7.5 on Steam, 3 hours HLTB)
Hi-Fi Rush
Severed Steel
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Superhot
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
For myself:
1. Hi-Fi Rush
2. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
3. Severed Steel
4. Superhot
Just about 1 and a half days remaining for the Final Vote Phase.
Remember, everyone: Even if you didn't participate in Nominations, you are still encouraged to vote & play along with us!
Ooooh! A club! I'm in!
I only own one of the games on the ballot, so:
1. Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin
Voting is closed, and a winner is declared: Severed Steel!
If you want to see gory details in the output of my Ranked Choice Voting script, knock yourself out:
Severed Steel thread is now available. We'll be actively playing this through the end of March, with a 3-month overflow window until the end of June.
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.
Heh, I was going to bump this thread last night to get the ball rolling on the next vote. I'm planning to start the Nomination Phase this Friday, let that stew for a week, and then hold the Voting Phase during the following week.
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.
I like this discussion though. Keep it coming!
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
Alright, let's get this party started! I hereby open nominations for our second Action Game Club game, for 24Q2*. The nomination phase will remain open for the next week, until next Friday.
* I'm happy to continue the club length discussion as we go through nomination & voting phases, but for bookkeeping purposes I'll continue calling this the 24Q2 game until we communally decide whether to make a change.
I'll nominate Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy
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