Damage Numbers in games. I hate them

[boontobias]

They are unimmersive and intrusive on the UI. They're usually obvious distractions from adding meaningful visual feedback when damaging enemies. It's a cheap way to trigger dopamine reactions from seeing your numbers go up as you invest more and more time into a game.





Is there some accessibility demand for damage numbers from some group of persons? Or is every game just copying every other popular game?

 

[Tamerlane]

It's a useful way to see whether your build or weapons do bonus/less damage vs certain enemies

 

[HockeyBird]

Watching your damage numbers going higher and higher triggers that dopamine effect which is why a lot of developers use them.

 

[Bleu]

good thing you can remove them then.

 

[AxeVince]

Damage numbers are here thanks to focus groups and playtests.
Don't think it's an accessibility thing more than a demanded thing from most people tested.

 

[Butch]

A lot of games that have them let you disable them, in my experience, but I don't know about those in the OP tbh. It should be totally optional.

 

[Toni]

I love them in Dragon Age Inquisition and Destiny.

You want to have informative feedback on the damage outputs of your attacks as they can help you understand what you may or may not be doing right.

Personally, I want more of it. it helps me become more invested in an immersion-level with my weapons.

 

[Quinton]

I kind of see where you're coming from here but there are a lot of games that wouldn't feel quite right to me without them. Many RPGs, for instance.

3287 damage to OP

 

[Procheno]

Everybody wants to be an RPG these days so the easiest way to do such a thing is to make a stat mechanic that makes numbers go bigger. And when numbers go bigger, I is happy cuz I is stronk

 

[HardTimesFamilyPride]

I get it in some games. It helps people see which attacks/combos deal high damage witbout having to do math with health bars or what have you. Some games don't have a training mode where you can work that stuff out.

Although I do get kind of annoyed by it if there isn't a meaningful way to see your damage relative to the enemy's health. Like, if you are attacking an enemy and it's showing your damage numbers but the enemy doesn't have a visible health bar/health amount of some kind

 

[CaptNink]

Personally, I love seeing numbers fly out of someone when I'm shooting them. Makes me think I'm accomplishing something.

 

[BadWolf]

It's super useful in MHW.

You can always turn them off though.

 

[StrangeRoboMemory]

How do you feel about Xenoblade, OP

 

[YourFriendLevi]

More games seem to make it an option now, including Gears 5. In a lot of games it makes sense because it's a way to see progression. I get not liking it in a lot of instances, though. I turn them off if I can in games where I feel like they don't add much value or they simply create too much screen clutter.

 

[Chaos2Frozen]

Give me that BIG NUMBERS

 

[TheMrPliskin]

I love them. I live to see the numbers get bigger.

 

[Numberfox]

They're invaluable for min-maxing, which is what I do a lot in games.

 

[Musubi]

Damage numbers are a good feedback tool. Especially in stat based games.

 

[Deleted member 45414]

It's not necessary sure, but it has it's place.

 

[Nome]

Damage numbers are a good feedback tool. Especially in stat based games.

Click to shrink...

One and done.
Whole lotta uninformed comments in this thread regarding dopamine.

 

[Jobbs]

I think they're useful in a game with RPG elements where it's important to see if the type of weapon you're using is effective. They should be toggleable though.

 

[Post Call Gaming]

I do like them, especially if the game is built around them (i.e. meaning there are systems in place where you can make choices that make significant differences in those numbers).

The problem is when they are just there for aesthetic purposes, which I think is what you are getting at. Otherwise, yes, it does help to know whether a different element or weapon type is doing more damage to my foe than not.

My issue with damage numbers more recently is the inflation of stats, a la Final Fantasy XIII, where things are often so high (in the thousands and then tens of thousands) that the difference becomes more difficult to conceptualize and compare. It's like the law of large numbers -- as things get bigger and bigger and bigger, they actually level off and become more or less the same (i.e. similarly "infinite"). in those cases, *then* I find damage numbers useless because I'm getting no useful information whatsoever.

 

[DanteMenethil]

Give me all the numbers. Nothing excites me more than the utter damage number soup when doing some crazy aoe damage in WoW

 

[Nome]

Damage numbers are here thanks to focus groups and playtests.
Don't think it's an accessibility thing more than a demanded thing from most people tested.

Click to shrink...

Wut

 

[KarmaCow]

It's a symptom of every game trying being a soft RPG so that players can be given bonuses that give tiny increases every 10 minutes instead of something significant more sparsely. There's no way to actually notice the difference between a gun that gives you 2% extra damage without damage numbers showing that 245 is indeed more than 240 because that 5 extra damage functionally does nothing when it comes to the number of hits you need to land or change how the enemy reacts at all.

 

[blame space]

i mean, it does if that enemy has 245 HP.

 

[Tuorom]

"....They're intrusive, unnecessary, and fill up the whole screen."

 

[Dark Ninja]

It usually means bullet sponges to me

 

[BakedTanooki]

Always loved it (in rpgs). Especially huge numbers, Disgaea style :)

 

[Kanann]

What's wrong with ERA recently? last time was silent protagonist now damage number.

You guys try to take away the things I love about video games so hard, what did I do to your families and pets? huh huh?

 

[ryushe]

As an RPG lover, once I see floating number in games, I'm almost always immediately sold.

 

[Regiruler]

I turned it off in Astral Chain immediately once I figured out how.

 

[DeadPhoenix]

...the idea of Immersive-nish is the bane of video games.

 

[Cats]

Damage numbers are cool but I hate when they just get rediculous like 128958394. I can't even read that and when there's 50 of those a second spititng out from my minigun like, what's the point. I just turned them off in Division 2, pointless and too hard to read.

 

[thetrin]

I dont give a shit about immersion. Give me information, please.

 

[Necromorph]

On stat based games works great, but it doesn't work in other games. The damage numbers on Project Resistance gave me cancer.

 

[Tohsaka]

...the idea of Immersive-nish is the bane of video games.

Click to shrink...

Indeed. I've never felt "immersed" in any game, I'm always aware I'm playing a game at all times even if there's no HUD or whatever.

 

[nsilvias]

i hate enemies with hp bars in the thousands while the game only allows me 999
just balance your game goddamnit

 

[Deleted member 1635]

I love damage numbers. I mean, I don't need them if it's a game without stats and gear or the enemy reactions and other audio visual feedback is really good, but I tend to prefer having more information to make decision about what gear to use.

 

[Shadout]

I love dmg numbers in games.
<3 information

 

[blame space]

information isn't even that good.

 

[Blu]

I don't understand why you would want to label them as cheap dopamine triggers when games are about making you enjoy yourself.

Sounds like you want to focus on the animations of your enemies writhing in pain while you continue to hit them which makes you sound like a psychopath.

"That's not what I mean." What does "adding meaningful visual feedback " mean when damaging enemies?

I'm joking by the way.

 

[Slamtastic]

Damage numbers are great and should be an option in every game.

 

[Kapryov]

I love them.
I always enable them when given the option (but agree they should be an option for those that don't like them).

And "immersive" means different things to different people, hopefully the topic doesn't devolve into picking apart OP's choice of words.

 

[Rocketz]

I like to make the number go up.

For real though they are great indicators for aiming especially if I need to adjust.

 

[leng jai]

Literally the first thing I do in any game is disable as much of the UI as possible without making it unplayable. Health bars and damage indicators are the first things to go.

 

[Nostremitus]

It lets you see how much damage your current weapons/attack is outputting. I don't get how you wouldn't see why it's good to have...

 

[TsuWave]

Damage numbers are a good feedback tool. Especially in stat based games.

Click to shrink...

facts

 

[DeadPhoenix]

Indeed. I've never felt "immersed" in any game, I'm always aware I'm playing a game at all times even if there's no HUD or whatever.

Click to shrink...

I've been immersed in plenty of games. but no amount of 'first person view' 'no hud' or 'no damage numbers' was ever the reason. but yeah, it also doesn't do nearly as much to improve the experience that people make it out to.

 

[piratethingy]

i hate enemies with hp bars in the thousands while the game only allows me 999
just balance your game goddamnit

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While I love me some damage numbers I must agree this is absolute garbage.