Exploring Musuo And New Perspectives: Guest Editorial by Aleksandr Fritz
Hey everyone, this is Aleksandr Fritz, also known as Hon Si Zi. I'm here to talk about broadening your horizons, specifically the issue of missing the forest for the trees. Now, I'm sure many of you out there have heard of Musou games, especially if you're familiar with the popular Dynasty Warriors series. Many people have played these games before and just saw them as games where you mash the attack button and your opponents dies. While this is true, that is not the point of the game. The same can also be said about many fighting games.
Many lower-level players people (often referred to as scrubs), who do not know much about what they’re playing, look at high-level players and think that they're just spamming moves. They think that the point of the game is to use moves in novel ways, and don't think just about getting your opponent's life bar to zero. They miss what the game is really about, and they try to make it about what they want, not what the developer intended. Individuals who fall into this group are missing the main point of the game, and the same can be said about Musou games. People don't understand them.
A common misconception of Musou-origented game is that the objective requires taking down your opponent in combat. In actuality, the goal is is to capture and hold a specific territory; specifically in Hyrule Warriors, the point is to capture keeps. These keeps give you a strategic advantage over your opponents. When you own a keep, that is a safe haven for your troops that can only be taken down by a formidable enemy force. This is where the true mechanics of the game lie. Moving around the map is an exercise in efficiency. You must defeat enemies and capture keeps in a more efficient manner than your opponent. If you are capturing two keeps every 10 minutes and your opponent is capturing three keeps every 10 minutes, then you are bound to lose the engagement.
It doesn't matter if you can take on your opponent's character in one-on-one battle, if you cannot rally your troops correctly to capture territory you will lose. These aren't games about the one-on-one fight having you and your opponent up against each other in combat while everyone else watches. These type of games are all about massive armies and acting as a general, directing them as well as possible. The AI that governs the soldiers behaviors tend to act in a more realistic fashion than most conventional games. They don't just do what you want them to. A lot of them are afraid of dying or they’re afraid of that giant group ahead and they won't listen to you trying to send them on suicide missions. You need to think of them more as actual people than just AI units.
The morale system is a perfect example of that. When big things happen, your troops become either excited or scared and that can affect their performance. So this game isn't really just about mashing the attack button and winning, but about careful troop placement.
This isn't just a problem for Masou games, though. Many people going to different games especially unconventional ones and expect them to be how they want them to be. You can't go into Super Smash Bros. and expect to get zero to death combos like you can in Marvel.
You also can't go into a game like Skyrim and expect complex political intrigue. You have to take a game for what it is, and sometimes that means you're not going to like the game. Look at games and other media with knowledge and respect. Take something for what it is and not what you want it to be. This goes further than just video games. You have to be open to what a situation truly is rather than what you want it to be. This is how video games truly can better you.
All of these new experiences can open your mind to be ready to accept different things that things aren't always the same and that's where a lot of people struggle I just hope that this mindset can take on and make people better.
