In defense of the macabre creature designs from the "Return of Them" series of updates.

[Primalflower]

Just now, Monkey Cups said:

I think you missed the point here. Why would someone read that before even buying the game and then go hm, I bet there's going to be no horror elements in this? They wouldn't. Everyone who bought the game knows what they got themselves into from that description alone. Or should, anyway.

i'd argue theres a difference between a game like phasmophobia and dst which very rarely if ever actually goes to the levels that horror hounds or pengulls do

[KeshS]

28 minutes ago, Lbphero said:

Sure, if you look for them. I can't seem to work the search for the forums (it keeps giving me results for this thread instead of anything else, lol) but I can see people in here who, if absolutely nothing else, appreciate this small edit to the design more than the original designs. I am absolutely sure there are people who play console and would like to be on lunar islands, but also see something other than the current designs for hounds. Even if theres only 4 people on earth that are effected to the most extreme level, I still don't see how implementing a filter option would hurt.

All I can see is praise coming from users that have Roblox and Minecraft profile pics. If I recall correctly Pegi rated Don't Starve as 12+ age. If they have problems with such mobs it is better to deviate into something more child friendly, like Mario World.

https://www.taminggaming.com/game/Dont+Starve

[Primalflower]

Just now, KeshS said:

All I can see is praise coming from users that have Roblox and Minecraft profile pics. If I recall correctly Pegi rated Don't Starve as 12+ age. If they have problems with such mobs it is better to deviate into something more child friendly, like Mario World.

https://www.taminggaming.com/game/Dont+Starve

:I

[Monkey Cups]

Just now, Lbphero said:

i'd argue theres a difference between a game like phasmophobia and dst which very rarely if ever actually goes to the levels that horror hounds or pengulls do

Have you ever seen the ruins? The statues that drip nightmare fuel from their screaming mouths and eyes have been there for ages. Things on the level of horror hounds aren't new, you just haven't been paying attention.

[AlternateMew]

1 hour ago, minespatch said:

I can only imagine the confusion as Klei is trying to seperate these comments into categories before making a statement before things spin more out of control. I feel worse for them.

Probably the best move is to not say anything and just let us argue in circles. No reason for them to fan the flames. We’re doing a bang-up job doing that ourselves. 

[MondayNight]

19 minutes ago, Monkey Cups said:

...that is quite literally the tagline for the damn game on the Steam page. https://store.steampowered.com/app/219740/Dont_Starve/

What he's implying (certain other players too) is current DST isn't an uncompromising Survival anymore, as first compromise was done with introduction of the Telltale Heart, Rollbacks and Wilderness/Endless options among many other differences, making multiplayer a bit more tamed. Of course is just another opinion. Also the Uncompromising mod mentioned there is some other modders' attempt to offer what in their vision is "revitalizing the difficulty of Don't Starve Together for long-term professionals of the game". I've checked it in past, I don't find it hard just.. something else; not my cup of tea as art done for their particular mobs isn't remotely similar to DS/T. It has imo some interesting aspects (Mini Toads and Forest poison caps for "acid rain"), some not-pleasant-to-look-at (Rats and Winter Giant Moles - not actual names but I didn't care enough to remember them), all-in-all re-balances and stuff making game not feel DST anymore for me at least - more like a giant wave-based Battle Arena (bosses included). Try it for yourself to form an opinion if fancying such concept.

[me real life]

10 minutes ago, Monkey Cups said:

The statues that drip nightmare fuel from their screaming mouths and eyes have been there for ages.

This is not body horror, this is generically horror.

10 minutes ago, Monkey Cups said:

horror hounds

This is body horror. There is a distinction between generically spooky, and body horror. There's a difference between black goop coming out of statues, and dogs with mouths that go to their legs, or penguins who appear to have been eviscerated and then had their organs frozen in a chunk of ice. A big part of that distinction is also that one of them has been in the game since vanilla, while another was added years and years later as a series of free mandatory updates.

1 hour ago, KeshS said:

I just have several questions to the people that want to make a filter. What kind of straw man are you building? Do these people even exist or even want to have that option in the first place? Can you name a real person that is in dire need for this filter? Because I am reading this and I don't understand who is this for.

That mod that keeps getting linked didn't pop out of thin air, it was created as a response to a thread last year made by a real person who was in dire need of a filter, that had many responses from real people who also wanted a filter since they could not experience the new content because of the body horror.

 

Also, for the record, this kind of filter could likely be done much simpler than it was in the mod. Toggling body horror off could simply load the regular hound textures in place of the horror hound textures (and same for the two pengulls), and tint them a different color in-game. It really really wouldn't take up 50% of an update, or somehow halt Klei's development of new content permanently.

[Monkey Cups]

3 minutes ago, Sunset Skye said:

This is not body horror, this is generically horror.

This is body horror. There is a distinction between generically spooky, and body horror. There's a difference between black goop coming out of statues, and dogs with mouths that go to their legs, or penguins who appear to have been eviscerated and then had their organs frozen in a chunk of ice. A big part of that distinction is also that one of them has been in the game since vanilla, while another was added years and years later as a series of free mandatory updates.

I'll be blunt here, I don't see the difference.

You bought a horror game. And now there's a long thread where people are complaining about there being horror...in a horror game, that made it very clear from the start that it was intended to be a horror game down to the tags on the Steam page. The type is irrelevant.

I don't watch crime shows. You know why? Because I can't handle some of the themes. I know this, so I just don't watch the shows. But if I went to the writers of Law and Order: SVU and said hey take the crime out of your crime show so I can watch it, they would laugh me right out the door. Why is it different for a video game?

[Owlrust]

Also I'm a firm believer that this thread would look way different if *Confused* was never removed.

[me real life]

7 minutes ago, Monkey Cups said:

You bought a horror game. And now there's a long thread where people are complaining about there being horror...in a horror game, that made it very clear from the start that it was intended to be a horror game down to the tags on the Steam page. The type is irrelevant.

Steam tags are added by users, not developers, and Steam shows you the ones it thinks will get your attention.
For example, if I open Steam in my browser, where I'm not logged in, it shows this for DST's store page:

Even says user-define right there, see? But if I check DST's store page on my actual Steam client, it shows this:

See? Sandbox! Because Steam knows that I enjoy sandbox games, and sees that people tag it with sandbox sometimes, so it shows the sandbox tag to get my interest.
What I'm getting at, is that you're likely seeing DST presented as a "horror" game by Steam because it thinks that you enjoy horror, so it shows the horror tag. Klei had no part in this, as far as I'm aware.

[KeshS]

10 minutes ago, Sunset Skye said:

That mod that keeps getting linked didn't pop out of thin air, it was created as a response to a thread last year made by a real person who was in dire need of a filter, that had many responses from real people who also wanted a filter since they could not experience the new content because of the body horror.

Can I see the thread? I want to see a group of people saying they can't play this game because of these mobs. I have nothing against the mod and even changing textures of every mob to look not scary as you like, but asking to change a base game is a bold move since there are also thousands of people that want something different including people with poor health problems, for example color blindness.

15 minutes ago, Sunset Skye said:

It really really wouldn't take up 50% of an update, or somehow halt Klei's development of new content permanently.

Are you part of the Klei team? Do you know how their project is scheduled? Can anyone on the Klei dev support this claim and have no trouble implementing into the base game?

[Monkey Cups]

5 minutes ago, Sunset Skye said:

Steam tags are added by users, not developers, and Steam shows you the ones it thinks will get your attention.
For example, if I open Steam in my browser, where I'm not logged in, it shows this for DST's store page:

Even says user-define right there, see? But if I check DST's store page on my actual Steam client, it shows this:

See? Sandbox! Because Steam knows that I enjoy sandbox games, and sees that people tag it with sandbox sometimes, so it shows the sandbox tag to get my interest.
What I'm getting at, is that you're likely seeing DST presented as a "horror" game by Steam because it thinks that you enjoy horror, so it shows the horror tag. Klei had no part in this, as far as I'm aware.

Klei did write the description, though. The one that says the world hates you and wants you dead.

Edit: I'm also a bit baffled by the focus on the body horror in particular given this series is taking a lot of inspiration from cosmic horror stories. If you've read any Lovecraft it shouldn't come as a surprise.

[me real life]

1 minute ago, Monkey Cups said:

Klei did write the description, though. The one that says the world hates you and wants you dead.

I mean, yeah? But it's an incredible leap to go from "game which is mean to you and has permadeath" to "game which has body horror years after its release."

[Primalflower]

wait a minute... just 1 second... .  .  . . .  .  .

3 minutes ago, Monkey Cups said:

Klei did write the description, though. The one that says the world hates you and wants you dead.

[Monkey Cups]

2 minutes ago, Lbphero said:

wait a minute... just 1 second... .  .  . . .  .  .

I'm not familiar with the way non-english Steam pages work but shouldn't that be in your language instead of english? Admittedly I didn't check both pages but they're definitely there on single player.

[Primalflower]

Just now, Monkey Cups said:

I'm not familiar with the say non-english Steam pages work but shouldn't that be in your language instead of english? Admittedly I didn't check both pages, but they're definitely there on single player.

it doesnt have a translation, its in english

and no, its not on the singleplayer page.

 

[Monkey Cups]

2 minutes ago, Lbphero said:

it doesnt have a translation, its in english

and no, its not on the singleplayer page.

 

Odd. The tag's on both games on the english pages.

 

[Primalflower]

2 minutes ago, Monkey Cups said:

Odd. The tag's on both games on the english pages.

take a picture of the dont starve steam page tags in incognito mode

[me real life]

2 minutes ago, Monkey Cups said:

Odd. The tag's on both games on the english pages.

Horror is definitely in the user-defined tags... but, again, tags on Steam are user-defined. Klei hasn't been marketing DST as a horror game.

[MondayNight]

5 minutes ago, Sunset Skye said:

Steam tags are added by users, not developers, and Steam shows you the ones it thinks will get your attention.
For example, if I open Steam in my browser, where I'm not logged in, it shows this for DST's store page:

Even says user-define right there, see? But if I check DST's store page on my actual Steam client, it shows this:

See? Sandbox! Because Steam knows that I enjoy sandbox games, and sees that people tag it with sandbox sometimes, so it shows the sandbox tag to get my interest.
What I'm getting at, is that you're likely seeing DST presented as a "horror" game by Steam because it thinks that you enjoy horror, so it shows the horror tag. Klei had no part in this, as far as I'm aware.

That doesn't matter. If one wants to make an educated choice before any purchase (obviously the right way to go into shopping, highly indicated), one should inform oneself about the object of purchase in any available ways. And truth of matter is those tags are a good way of assessing a/the game. Don't defend bad purchasing habits to make a skewed point - people should check them:

And for DST 2 of the tags indicate "Survival Horror" and "Horror".

True, body-horror may be more visceral but should be expected. Frankly I don't remember any past or present horror movie from any sub-genre to not have at least some type of gore or body-horror.

 

Bottom point: people should make educated purchase choices. Will save them time, stress and money.

[ExtollerOfTrolls]

21 minutes ago, Sunset Skye said:

Steam tags are added by users, not developers, and Steam shows you the ones it thinks will get your attention.
For example, if I open Steam in my browser, where I'm not logged in, it shows this for DST's store page:

Even says user-define right there, see? But if I check DST's store page on my actual Steam client, it shows this:

See? Sandbox! Because Steam knows that I enjoy sandbox games, and sees that people tag it with sandbox sometimes, so it shows the sandbox tag to get my interest.
What I'm getting at, is that you're likely seeing DST presented as a "horror" game by Steam because it thinks that you enjoy horror, so it shows the horror tag. Klei had no part in this, as far as I'm aware.

That little + sign shows the other tags. It's true that the ones further down are typically less true to the game than the ones displayed on the page, but they are still relevant. It is your responsibility to research a game if you have certain fears. There are other games I've done this for.

 

Edit: Oop, posted this at the same time as several others, but just to be clear, I've looked up the tags for Don't Starve in the past, just because I was curious, and it had a horror tag (As in, Vanilla DS. So, the form of this game with less content still had the tag).

[pedregales]

To be fair, despite the games cute design it obviously has horror included in it: tallbirds, nightmare creatures (!), everything wants to kill you, deerclops, hound waves, the darkness kills you, etc. You can also find other creepy stuff that are not marketed as much like the statues that drip nightmare fuel in a similar fashion to blood, Klaus and his stitched eye-socket (which, honestly, should count as body horror), the game delves a lot around the occult and occult magic, artifical creatures (this is much less obvious, but ice and fire hounds are experiments of Maxwell, tallbirds as well), there is also the Gorge and mermification, you can revive Webber by burying his skull on the ground, and so much more.

Even if the game doesn't state it is horror explicitly, you can make that guess straight away.

2 minutes ago, Lbphero said:

it doesnt have a translation, its in english

The steam page you have is in spanish though ("punto de encuentro"). I will, however, give it a pass because horror in english and spanish is the same word: written the same, and mean the same.

[me real life]

1 minute ago, ExtollerOfTrolls said:

snip

1 minute ago, x0-VERSUS-1y said:

snip

Again, the tags are user-defined. As in, users define these tags, not Klei. You two are essentially saying that DST is a horror game because people say it is, rather than anything to do with the actual genre of the game that Klei has been making and marketing this whole time.

[Primalflower]

2 minutes ago, ExtollerOfTrolls said:

dont starve horror tag

 

3 minutes ago, x0-VERSUS-1y said:

the same

you guys are again looking in the user defined tags... user defined tags could mean anything

[Mike23Ua]

42 minutes ago, KeshS said:

All I can see is praise coming from users that have Roblox and Minecraft profile pics. If I recall correctly Pegi rated Don't Starve as 12+ age. If they have problems with such mobs it is better to deviate into something more child friendly, like Mario World.

https://www.taminggaming.com/game/Dont+Starve

This also equally doesn’t make sense- Minecraft and Roblox are the WORST examples to use- Roblox on one hand isn’t even Rated because it is less of a GAME and more of a large hub of community developed GAMES- You can find incredible extreme Adult content in Roblox...

(and trust me you can find stuff on there that makes silent hill look Tame)

so using that as an Argument is well, the absolute worst way to try and start your sentence.

Second Theres Minecraft.. Many many MANY people assume Minecraft is some kids game just because of its blocky appearance when in actuality... Minecraft is highly complex- there’s a reason it’s the most popular franchise in all of the world- and that’s because it’s playable and enjoyable to both children and adults..

Minecraft is equally a poor excuse to use against body horror- have any of you actually PLAYED Minecraft? Like I mean seriously 100% played it through to its actual conclusion? 

If you answer no to that then you have no real liberty to speak about Minecraft, that game has cultists, portals to the Minecraft Equivalent of Hell.. Zombified Pigman with there bones and intestines hanging out.. among many many MANY other things..

So using These two games of ALL games as your example... is just.... just BAD okay?

https://realsport101.com/minecraft/minecraft-2020-piglins-replacing-zombie-pigmen-nether-trading-location-update/
 

If you are letting your children play this game without being made fully aware of the content in said game... then maybe perhaps you should pay more attention to what you let your kids watch or play?