VGC Weapon Durability MEGA Thread

[Areym]

Johnw1104 said:

Areym said:

I would not considering showing off a mechanic with a small textbox or animated video/image hand holding (assuming not even those things are shown on a new mechanic)

Also, that weapon would not be available so early IF NOT for the weapons being so frail. Otherwise, that would be a god-awful balance issue.

That's your opinion and you're still being dismissive despite recognizing how it's unreasonable to do so. I agree that it isn't the make-or-break thing for the game, but it can be a reasonable annoyance. Even Sterling recommended the game, it's not like he dropped it completely or deemed it unplayable. In fact, I have not read a single post where somebody stopped playing the game entirely because of the durability of the weapons.

I'm not dismissing the criticism itself, I'm saying that it in no way deserves the kind of attention it's getting (to the point that a thread to condense all related threads had to be made).

Early on the clear criticism that likewise was probably receiving too much attention (though it also is a valid criticism) were the frame rates, and no one was bothered by the weapon durability enough to make an issue of it. Now, with (primarily) one well known reviewer voicing his disdain for the durability system (despite essentially admiting in the review that he must not have played very far as he couldn't speak to the durability of better late game weapons), suddenly the entire gaming community is discussing it and throwing words around like "lazy" without thinking through the implications of their complaints (that's one thing Sterling was particularly guilty of in his review on multiple occasions, especially in regards to any progression whatsoever and stamina).

I suppose it's to be expected as it's certainly not something that occurs only with games; I think to basketball where LeBron does impossible things night in and night out, and yet for his entire career people have been looking for flaws to label him with. Whenever we come across something that is essentially a masterpiece, it seems to be almost human nature to focus in on any negatives we can find.

I think these pictures can best explain my position on it:

Zelda: BotW and the Durability Issue
[Diamond with tiny scratch]

How Zelda BotW has been covered over the last couple of days:
[Diamond with tiny scratch with tons of arrows pointed to it]

Based on the discussions and threads I've been seeing, the above examples don't seem far off ;)

I can agree with that, it did get out of hand. It started with simple criticism then a user started a comparison thread and then other people joined in and it became this huge thing, with people making threads for any slight variation. However, it got to this point because  users were defending the design decision just as hard as people who were pointing it out. If it all would have been concentrated into one thread (like this one), it would have been less noticeable. Personally, I only started to chime in when I saw Jim's video, since i watch his stuff regularly anyways, and it opened my eyes to how "different" the durability system was in this game than in TW3 (which i'm currently playing and has some parallels to BotW)

 I also think that something close to perfection will certainly be under more scrutiny than something that's passed off as great