Are you serious?
You're all familiar with
the term 'trolling', right? It's where one person says or does something
deliberately controversial or contrary with the express intention of
getting a reaction from someone else. It's a joke. Well, despite the
fact that gamers have something of a reputation for being extremely
vocal and not having a great sense of humour when it comes to games,
some developers still like to have a joke at our expense. They troll us
to deliberately provoke a reaction.
Here are some of the games that troll their own players most effectively. I've tried to include titles that do it deliberately, rather than games with poor design that simply appear to troll, when they're actually just broken.
Here are some of the games that troll their own players most effectively. I've tried to include titles that do it deliberately, rather than games with poor design that simply appear to troll, when they're actually just broken.
Metal Gear Solid 2
Oh, Koj--how you tease
us. Metal Gear Solid 2 was one of the most highly anticipated games on
the PS2, and when it finally arrived fans were delighted to be back in
the boots of bearded badass Solid Snake. Or were they? Because after the
prologue level, set on a tanker, which did indeed star Snake, the rest
of the game forced everyone to play as new boy Raiden.
Fans were understandably upset, especially as they'd fully expected a full game with Snake following the prologue. Despite everything MGS2 is a great game in its own right, and we've since learned to love Raiden. Kojima even trolled players in MGS3. If players select the 'I like Metal Gear Solid 2' option, then before HALO jumping from the plane at the start of the game, Naked Snake wears the Raikov mask (which looks an awful lot like Raiden) to 'hide his identity' from the crew. And have a massive joke at our expense too.
Fans were understandably upset, especially as they'd fully expected a full game with Snake following the prologue. Despite everything MGS2 is a great game in its own right, and we've since learned to love Raiden. Kojima even trolled players in MGS3. If players select the 'I like Metal Gear Solid 2' option, then before HALO jumping from the plane at the start of the game, Naked Snake wears the Raikov mask (which looks an awful lot like Raiden) to 'hide his identity' from the crew. And have a massive joke at our expense too.
DMC: Devil May Cry
Fan reaction to the new
look Dante in Ninja Theory's reboot of Devil May Cry was fierce. They
hated him. This hatred was further fuelled when game director Tameem
Antoniades told fans that he didn't think old Dante was cool or
appealing. Much credit to Antoniades, though, he stuck to his design for
new Dante while other developers like Sucker Punch were redesigning
their leads (Cole from inFamous 2) to pander to fan pressure.
However, Antoniades probably went a bit far when he and fellow developers created a scene in the game where Dante crashes through a fancy-dress shop and ends up wearing a wig that makes him look like old Dante. He throws the wig away in disgust after seeing his reflection. First-class trolling, for sure, but the relatively poor sales of DMC suggest that Ninja Theory should probably have listened to the fans.
However, Antoniades probably went a bit far when he and fellow developers created a scene in the game where Dante crashes through a fancy-dress shop and ends up wearing a wig that makes him look like old Dante. He throws the wig away in disgust after seeing his reflection. First-class trolling, for sure, but the relatively poor sales of DMC suggest that Ninja Theory should probably have listened to the fans.
