The Reviews Rant

[LemonJoel]

(NOTE: This post has been edited to alter some sentences and remove some unnecessary bits.. I'll admit to saying that I wasn't a best mood when I was writing this up, I apologise in advance if some of the stuff comes off as a bit much for some people. I don't expect anybody to agree with what I have to say, and that's okay.)

This isn't about the Naughty Pack itself. In fact I'll say this to start off;
I don't think it's as bad as most people say it is. Is it for me? No. But I think there's stuff that makes it fun. I think All Night Long was the highlight here. Let Me Finish being in 2nd place for me. (Though it really is a matter of playing with the right people) And Dirty Drawful in 3rd.

What this is about is some people's thoughts on it. Which I'll be honest, have irked me the wrong way.
Now, I do understand that not everyone was super harsh on it, there's people out there that have given out their thoughts in a fair and understandable manner.
The kind of people I'm referring to is the people that really got harsh on it, to unwarranted levels in my opinion.

I feel like a good chunk of the criticisms I've seen are not valid criticisms, making false claims or; people not giving it a fair chance.

Here's what I've heard/seen:
"It's too expensive!"
- Comparing to the Party Starter, it's around 20 USD, Naughty Pack is around 22 USD (If you round it up) Compared to other games, It's not even that big of an increase imo.
In terms of what your getting, that is a fair counter point though.

"It doesn't go far enough!"
- I've got taken aback by some of the prompts I've gotten from when I played the three games for the first time. If they crossed most lines and went off the very deep end, that would be very bad for many people, the team, the people playing...
Crossing lines not meant to cross is the LAST thing Jackbox wants. One part of Jackbox is making them accessible to everybody, mind you they also said that this pack wasn't gonna be for everybody.
Consider the streamers who stream the games early also, a lot of them make up for the demographic, and having a game that can't be streamed is not something the streamers and an indie company wants.

"People didn't ask for this!"
- You didn't look closely enough, or just didn't choose to. I find it hard to believe that there weren't any people that asked for this. Cause there were in fact people that asked for it. Take note of the customer feedback surveys that Jackbox does from time to time. a 18+ pack was one of the options.* *from memory, might be a bit foggy on my end.

"My harshness towards this game and the team is justified!"
- You can have your opinion on the game, I'm not here to change it, but IMO things like "This shouldn't have been made, shame on them for making it' is possibly the worst thing you could say to a team of game devs, big or small. Also, there are much, MUCH better, and more kinder ways to give out criticisms than saying something like that for example. To put a twist on an old saying; "Got nothing nice to say? Then don't say it."

"Over-exaggerations (Nothing good about any of the games, Zeeple Dome is better than this, etc)"
- ...Come on, now. Don't over-exaggerate. That's low. "But I'm not wrong! I mean it when I say it" you might say. Doesn't make it any less low.

"Other people say it's bad, so I think it's bad!"
- Don't believe other people's opinions on absolutely everything. That's not a good path to be on.

"I'm not old enough to play this!/The prompts are too dirty! I'm giving this a bad review because of it!"
- I mean, It's an ADULTS only pack for a reason. Minors shouldn't be playing this. Also that's a bad and dumb reason to give a review.

Again, I know there's people out there that aren't like this, but some people that ARE like this.
I get that sometimes experiments don't work out well, and that's okay. But if you do no experimenting, the science club just gets boring.

If you're gonna review something, at least be constructive. If your just bashing on it unapologetically without reason. Well, people aren't gonna appreciate that, first of all. Secondly: That's not constructive feedback, that's just low.

[Akira896]

I don't think the Naughty Pack is a "bad game". But I do think it's a "bad Jackbox Pack".

When you look at the "Pack", all you got is a F a k i n' It sequel that was much needed but was ruined by the dirty humor (I'll get to that later), which makes most people ask for the original to recieve its remote mode, a Drawful game which can be replicated and have an almost exact same experience with any of the previous two games with custom episodes (which this version also lacks) and a presentation game that most people compare to Talking Points while also having the aesthetics from Fibbage 4.

The main problem this Pack has is that it just feels like rehashes made dirty bundled together. And THAT'S the reason why people say this is too expensive. The Party Starter might be pretty much the same price, but it includes much more variety in terms of the games (if you think about it, the Naughty Pack has two drawing games in one Pack) and the quality of them is much higher. You may like the games from the Naughty Pack, but there's absolutely no denying that the ones from the Starter have many more fans. And no, being dirty is not the reason that happens. If these three games weren't dirty, which one would be the better Pack?

Now, onto the games themselves. Let's start with F a k i n' It. I love the original, so it's pretty easy to assume that I was excited for this sequel. It needed many fixes, and the only thing this sequel did is worsen them. In the original, Face Value and Text You Up were the worst categories by far. What did the sequel do? Make them worse! Face Value is now the emojis one. In the original, the F a k e r had to imitate the face of someone else and by sheer luck get it right. Now, you have to pick one of hundreds of emojis and if you're somehow lucky you're in the clear! And in Text You Up, the main problem was that the F a k e r was extremely obvious from the beginning. Well, now the F a k e r doesn't know it's the F a k e r, so it's even more obvious! The strategy in the final round is completely gone and it's all entirely random now. But that doesn't even come close to its main issue: the prompts. The original had all kinds of prompts, so it was fun having to defend so many types of situations. This game only has adult stuff, so it gets really repetitive and just...not fun. There's a reason why people are asking for the original to have the quality of life features of this game. Many people prefer the original, myself included. This would've been a fine dirty game if we had a proper normal sequel before this. It's sad to say, but this sequel is a downgrade if we don't include the remote mode. The music is also worse too (although I suppose that's subjective).

Dirty Drawful is...fine, I guess. The undo button and reactions are fine additions, I suppose. But once again, this experience can be replicated in the previous two entries. We really didn't need a fourth Drawful game. It also lacks custom episodes entirely.

And finally...Let Me Finish. Again, if you like it, then that's fine. But when you got multiple people saying that this is the worst Jackbox game they've ever played (myself included), then I think it's safe to say this is not really a good game. Doesn't really help that this is also the only original game of the Pack. The limitation on what to do is just really big to let you do anything to cause laughs. Contrary to Talking Points which gives you a LOT of freedom on what to do.

Now, about the dirty humor itself. I want to preface by saying that I'm not the biggest fan of dirty humor in general. But I do use it and love it being used in my game sessions in Jackbox from time to time. The reason why the dirty humor works in other Jackbox games is because it's unexpected having a dirty answer coming from a completely normal prompt. Now, when the prompt is already dirty, then...the joke kinda falls flat. That unexpectancy is gone now, so laughs are much harder to get across. And well, this is me personally speaking, but I don't think the content included in the games is that funny. This kind of dirty humor CAN be funny (played Cards Against Humanity: Dirty Edition and had a blast playing), but here I don't think stuff like "raise your hand if you think you can enter the rear end of King Kong" is that...good. Drawful is the game where that somehow works, though.

There are obviously some reviews that are "rage negative reviews" that don't really give much thought into it. But most people just...don't like the Pack. Again, I don't think this is a "bad game". I actually had a good time playing F a k i n' It and Dirty Drawful. But when you compare it to everyhing else that came before this, it's easy to see why people are disappointed. I really hope Jackbox can learn something from this. Maybe the "dirty" aspect can be a side mode instead of a full fledged Pack in the future, who knows.

So yeah, there's your constructive feedback.

[polocatfan]

LemonJoel a écrit :

(NOTE: This post has been edited to alter some sentences and remove some unnecessary bits.. I'll admit to saying that I wasn't a best mood when I was writing this up, I apologise in advance if some of the stuff comes off as a bit much for some people. I don't expect anybody to agree with what I have to say, and that's okay.)

This isn't about the Naughty Pack itself. In fact I'll say this to start off;
I don't think it's as bad as most people say it is. Is it for me? No. But I think there's stuff that makes it fun. I think All Night Long was the highlight here. Let Me Finish being in 2nd place for me. (Though it really is a matter of playing with the right people) And Dirty Drawful in 3rd.

What this is about is some people's thoughts on it. Which I'll be honest, have irked me the wrong way.
Now, I do understand that not everyone was super harsh on it, there's people out there that have given out their thoughts in a fair and understandable manner.
The kind of people I'm referring to is the people that really got harsh on it, to unwarranted levels in my opinion.

I feel like a good chunk of the criticisms I've seen are not valid criticisms, making false claims or; people not giving it a fair chance.

Here's what I've heard/seen:
"It's too expensive!"
- Comparing to the Party Starter, it's around 20 USD, Naughty Pack is around 22 USD (If you round it up) Compared to other games, It's not even that big of an increase imo.
In terms of what your getting, that is a fair counter point though.

"It doesn't go far enough!"
- I've got taken aback by some of the prompts I've gotten from when I played the three games for the first time. If they crossed most lines and went off the very deep end, that would be very bad for many people, the team, the people playing...
Crossing lines not meant to cross is the LAST thing Jackbox wants. One part of Jackbox is making them accessible to everybody, mind you they also said that this pack wasn't gonna be for everybody.
Consider the streamers who stream the games early also, a lot of them make up for the demographic, and having a game that can't be streamed is not something the streamers and an indie company wants.

"People didn't ask for this!"
- You didn't look closely enough, or just didn't choose to. I find it hard to believe that there weren't any people that asked for this. Cause there were in fact people that asked for it. Take note of the customer feedback surveys that Jackbox does from time to time. a 18+ pack was one of the options.* *from memory, might be a bit foggy on my end.

"My harshness towards this game and the team is justified!"
- You can have your opinion on the game, I'm not here to change it, but IMO things like "This shouldn't have been made, shame on them for making it' is possibly the worst thing you could say to a team of game devs, big or small. Also, there are much, MUCH better, and more kinder ways to give out criticisms than saying something like that for example. To put a twist on an old saying; "Got nothing nice to say? Then don't say it."

"Over-exaggerations (Nothing good about any of the games, Zeeple Dome is better than this, etc)"
- ...Come on, now. Don't over-exaggerate. That's low. "But I'm not wrong! I mean it when I say it" you might say. Doesn't make it any less low.

"Other people say it's bad, so I think it's bad!"
- Don't believe other people's opinions on absolutely everything. That's not a good path to be on.

"I'm not old enough to play this!/The prompts are too dirty! I'm giving this a bad review because of it!"
- I mean, It's an ADULTS only pack for a reason. Minors shouldn't be playing this. Also that's a bad and dumb reason to give a review.

Again, I know there's people out there that aren't like this, but some people that ARE like this.
I get that sometimes experiments don't work out well, and that's okay. But if you do no experimenting, the science club just gets boring.

If you're gonna review something, at least be constructive. If your just bashing on it unapologetically without reason. Well, people aren't gonna appreciate that, first of all. Secondly: That's not constructive feedback, that's just low.

I don't wanna be mean but these guys are basically AA devs at this point. They aren't a small studio anymore.

[AaronAllBlacks]

Bro Let Me Finish is one of the worst games I've ever played