What is it with "gimmick"?

An Undead brat·Apr 24, 2017·4 votes·895 views

Why the hell does everyone use this word ALL THE TIME? Whenever there is a thing in a champion's kit someone doesn't like, they used to say "OP" and "broken", now they've changed it for "gimmick" so they wouldn't sound like a dick. But you know what? You sound like a dick even more!

's and 's stacking are a gimmick, let's give them tons of damage (go away, Phreak) since the beginning of the game! 's card choosing is a gimmick, let's give his card all three effects at once! field is a gimmick, let it stun immediately! And what pissed me off the most recently: 's passive is a gimmick, LET HER RATHER SPAWN SEEDS IN CIRCLES AROUND HER WHEREVER SHE'S STANDING SO SHE DOESN'T HAVE TO POSITION HERSELF.

Go f yourselves.

7 Comments

TyrekGoldenspearApr 24, 20173 votes

Honestly it seems to be a new buzzword people use to get a leg up in champ discussions by making the other side seem bad instead of focusing on making their own argument good.

May I ask where you saw the slanderous words towards Zyra?

An Undead bratApr 24, 20171 votes

One comment under a post I don't remember - seems like my brain deleted it and I thank to it for that.

UnpaladinApr 25, 20172 votes

This topic doesn't go much of anywhere, it's a buzzword now. This word will be thrown around in more situations than it's warranted. That said all of those examples aren't really gimmicks, those abilities/passives possess the ordinary power value of any ability. Aside from Nasus of course, who has this as a core part of his gameplay design.

I'm the kind of player that relies on gimmicks pretty much, which is terrible but also fun. Some gimmicks can be offensive to other players and it's likely because they give damage and raw effectiveness to a kit that's already solid, without the player even putting much effort into them. Let's take Fiora and Yorick passives. It's not so much that the passive does damage, but there's something to take note of when one player dies due to something either side has little control over. Yorick's fine in terms of balance though and yet Fiora's W fits in with the gimmick theme as well because it's just so darn effective for a normal move and is stuck in her kit forever.

If you remember back when "Minigames" was the hot buzzword you'd remember Gangplank, and lately you could attribute this to Kled. These two have some really solid interactions with their opponent while basing their success on a gimmick move/passive. These are good for the game. Anyone who makes a front about how bad gimmicks are will deny this though.

Teridax68Apr 24, 20171 votes

Generally, a gimmick in games is a feature that may look cool at the beginning, but that ultimately either contributes no depth at all, or even reduces it. In that respect, Skarner's innate is a gimmick, because it adds no meaningful gameplay to his playstyle and often reduces his options in the jungle, based on an arbitrary mechanic with no real connection to the rest of the game. By contrast, Veigar's AP stacking isn't really a gimmick, because in practice it encourages him to position himself in interesting ways to max out its effect, in addition to rewarding him for aiming properly. I agree that the term "gimmick"/"minigame" has been overused on the forums, much like pretty much any other important term like "counterplay", "binary", "hypercarry", etc., but there is some truth in that some in-game mechanics are gimmicky, particularly when they make it so that playing a champion is no longer the same as playing the rest of the game.

An Undead bratApr 25, 20171 votes

I did not ask what is a gimmick, I'm not an idiot.

I'm complaining about people calling everything a gimmick when they don't like it but don't want to look lie an asshole by saying "BOO BOO OP BROKEN or I CAN'T PLAY IT".

The reading comprehension....

Teridax68Apr 25, 20171 votes

The point I was making, which you made no effort to understand, was that the term does often get used with good justification on here, even if it is abused. Moreover, there is nothing special with how "gimmick" is being overused, as that happens to pretty much every word with specific meaning in the game, as I had pointed out. The examples of "gimmick" being used interchangeably with "OP" are few and far between on these boards, as even the most hyperbolic of posters generally makes the difference between the two. It seems you are just about the only one here to conflate those terms, particularly since you don't seem to want to pay attention to what other posters are actually trying to say. Reading comprehension indeed...

SEKAIApr 25, 20171 votes

Then there's Dota2 where the vast majority of their heroes are enjoying being the living embodiment of their own 1 or 2 gimmicks. There is nothing wrong with gimmicks inherently.

And unless you're serious, otherwise neither of those examples are actually true. I'll agree about Zyra's case, though not because of its power or whatever but the fact it's just a tagged on and horrid design itself, and that's about it.