Paper scissors rock - An in depth review.

[Methpoodle]

This will be my first review, on the game paper scissors rock (PSR).
Paper scissors rock, a game as old as opposable thumbs, hit early access 2.3 million years ago and remained in alpha hell until achieving full release in 206 AD.
While simple in design, the game has garnered a large following world wide and received much critical acclaim. Weather deserved or not, PSR is clearly here to stay.

I begin this review with performance. Built in the imagination engine and ported to reality, PSR runs well on most systems, achieving a constant frame rate of 150 fps. Though when intoxicated, performance can stutter to a crawl.
The simple design allows for maximum efficiency, avoiding the performance bottlenecks that plague other AAA releases such as Fallout 76.
Animations are smooth, graphical fidelity is top notch and advanced AI allows for hours of interesting game play and unique encounters.

PSR is free to play and has been since early alpha. With a new version released yearly, customers are eager to see what changes come. This though is where I believe PSR begins to fall down. Much like FIFA, the yearly show very little change. If any at all. The only noticeable DLC being Paper Scissors Rock Lizard Spock, inspired by the television show The Big Bang Theory, being released in 2012. This I believe to be the largest gap between initial release and DLC content drop to date. Though fans were pleased, it would be nice to see content released more regularly.

My primary gripe with PSR is the introduction on rampant micro transactions. Since their introduction the competitive landscape has change significantly. Initially introduced as cosmetic only, it has become apparent that these so called cosmetic additions give players who are willing to shell out anywhere from one to tens of thousands of dollars are gaining a huge competitive advantage. I recall a game I had where my opponent had purchased a black suede glove, disguising his hand movements, essentially removing the 100 to 360 millisecond window I had to adjust my strategy. I've also heard numerous reports of players wearing watches and using reflected light to blind their opponents.
I reached out to the developers for comment regarding this via their support service and received a message back.

"Greetings,
PSR has a long standing history of being free to play, this brings us a great sense of pride and accomplishment. However due to production expenses and server upkeep we felt it necessary to add cosmetic micro transactions, which we believe to be of great value. We aren’t planning on doing anything about it."

I wanted to add this quote as I believe this to be an important moment in recognizing the para dime shift in the attitude of the company. With ownership changing hand in 2014, I believe we may see the same decline with PSR as other franchises in recent years such as Battlefield.

All in all I believe PSR to be an important pillar in the history of gaming. No other title has had a concurrent player base of this size and magnitude, and for this long.
Even with the introduction of shady micro transactions, PSR sits on a sturdy foundation of great core game play and possibly the best engine to date.
While I remain tentative on the direction of PSR, I choose to remain positive in the hopes we may see it return to its glory days.
Only time will tell.


I give this game four and a half Avocados.

This has been an in depth review by your friendly neighborhood MethPoodle.
Tune in next time for my review of Arm Wrestling.

[DarknessFX]

Solid review, lol.
This thread reminds me of this Numberphile video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rudzYPHuewc

[aileron]

I'd be laughing out loud if it wasn't the middle of the night and everyone was sleeping! Awesome review!!

[Methpoodle]

Did you guys know there's actually a meta to PSR? IIRC, humans are more likely to throw the thing that beats the last thing that they threw. So if you practice you can play that pattern. Not only that but you can learn what an opponent does and see if they have any tells or hesitation when they're going to actively interrupt that pattern and then throw the correct thing to mess them up. (I.E. if they threw scissors last then they show a tell, then they're probably going to throw something other than rock, so your best bet is to throw scissors, because you're safe to do so.) However, if they lose, I think they're most likely to try the same thing again. So you have to read again after you win and see if they're going to try to break that pattern as well.

Believe it or not, there are PSR tournaments where the people who are the best at this compete and they have learned how to beat the normal odds of the game against less skilled opponents. Even something this simple has a meta and a competitive scene. Figures, right?

Don't mean to be that guy, but the websites code of conduct states that we are not to post cheats/cracks. This hack was banned by the PSR team decades ago.

[Fexel]

RPSLS (Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock) always seemed like a cashgrab, PRS for life!

[Spect3r]

Right?? The human brain is a weird thing. It's pretty amazing stuff.

Indeed. Not trying to go offtopic (sorry) but there are a bunch of interesting stuff about it on youtube, like how your brain reacts when you are exposed to different collors, etc.

[Spect3r]

Did you guys know there's actually a meta to PSR? IIRC, humans are more likely to throw the thing that beats the last thing that they threw. So if you practice you can play that pattern. Not only that but you can learn what an opponent does and see if they have any tells or hesitation when they're going to actively interrupt that pattern and then throw the correct thing to mess them up. (I.E. if they threw scissors last then they show a tell, then they're probably going to throw something other than rock, so your best bet is to throw scissors, because you're safe to do so.) However, if they lose, I think they're most likely to try the same thing again. So you have to read again after you win and see if they're going to try to break that pattern as well.

Believe it or not, there are PSR tournaments where the people who are the best at this compete and they have learned how to beat the normal odds of the game against less skilled opponents. Even something this simple has a meta and a competitive scene. Figures, right?

I actually saw a show about it, they interviewed the "world champion".
I was blown away by the "meta" of it. As someone that is highly interested in behaverioul pathern i found it fascinating.

[KingDiQ]

aka Ro, Sham, Bo

[Spect3r]

This thread is gold!!!