The Fine Line of Change

[TWOxACROSS]

It's part of the deal. Look , DMC 3 had backtracking as well. Keep complaining all you want. It is'nt such a big deal.

Totally different. Backtracking in DMC used to mean something, because you had a closed off area that showed you things that you couldn't figure out just yet. It's the old Metroid idea, of making you question your surroundings, and it all played into the puzzles and riddles the franchise used to have. DMC4 had like...no puzzles, and the backtracking wasn't so much backtracking as it was literally going backwards and fighting all the bosses you had previously fought but with a new character and in reverse, instead of giving them their own campaign and enemies to fight. It's lazy, and it is a big deal, because if we just shrug crap like that away, devs will keep doing it.

It's saying something when people crap on Ninja Theory for being a "sh!t developer" and yet they gave us DmC that has two playable characters with their own campaigns and unique enemies. Vergil's Downfall might be short, since it's DLC and all, but at least they tried. DMC4 didn't, they took one of the laziest ways out to lengthen the game.

*yawns*

And this just makes you sound like an asshole.

May be you should decide the estimates on wat should be developed and how less of an effort it would take to implement it. Mean while, i will play with wat capcom decides to implement.

I play what they give me, too, but as a consumer it gives me the right to criticize their laziness, especially when they've already proven with DMC2 that they could do what I've said they could replicate in order to rectify what I'm criticizing.

You're also still ignoring the fact that it's not backtracking in a sense that's actually entertaining, it's lazy implementation. Plus, your statement of "no one is forcing you to play, so you shouldn't complain" is still completely ignorant and seeks to do nothing but whisk away a person's argument

 

[Macabre]

Don't even get me started on DMC1. Generic all-powerful demon planning on taking over the world was played-out... even back in 2001.

It was "played out" when the Old Testament was scribed, that doesn't decrease the inherent value of any storyline within this series, or that of any other. Plot is the tiniest part of the Devil May Cry series distantly behind gameplay and DmC's overt focus on the former is a big part of why it has underperformed.

It doesn't even make very much sense from a marketing standpoint either; DmC was intended to compete with God of War or at least to rival it's sales. I fail to see the logic in trying to emulate the success of that series by creating a game saturated with intrusive cutscenes, inescapable voiceovers and an overt narrative focus when it's trying to capture the hearts of the Kratos crowd. GoW has it's nicely executed plot moments certainly, but they never get in the way of it's gameplay.

I'll be here playing other action-adventure games with stories that are actually worth a damn. -_-

Remember Me looks promising, but I'm worried that the platforming relies on fixed camera angles and linear climbing options. Plus the memory manipulation looks less akin to Ghost In The Shell and more like a Choose Your Own Adventure paperback, but I'm glad to see a developer take a risk on a new plot-driven IP in the current market. It certainly looks more interesting than the twaddle that David Cage is putting out.

Mind you, I can't see the title without thinking of this guy:

Damn you Other M.

 

[Demi-fiend]

that doesn't decrease the inherent value of any storyline within this series, or that of any other.

Hahahaha.... yes it does.

Plot is the tiniest part of the Devil May Cry series distantly behind gameplay

See? That's why DMC1 had "decreased in inherent value". Not to mention the rest of the old series, as well. And you just contradicted yourself. Nice job.

It was "played out" when the Old Testament was scribed

Impressive. You made a Cain and Abel reference. Good for you!

Your intelligence and wit is downright staggering. :O

Seriously, don't talk to me anymore, Moses.

 

[Macabre]

...what the hell are you talking about?

 

[AlchemistFromEden]

Remember Me looks promising, but I'm worried that the platforming relies on fixed camera angles and linear climbing options. Plus the memory manipulation looks less akin to Ghost In The Shell and more like a Choose Your Own Adventure paperback, but I'm glad to see a developer take a risk on a new plot-driven IP in the current market. It certainly looks more interesting than the twaddle that David Cage is putting out.

David Cage and quantic dream are extremely talented developers and beyond two souls is taking many more risks than remember me and also required much more effort. Remember me looks cool and all but definitely not as good, innovative, or polished as Beyond Two Souls, which is most likely gonna be a goty contender, remember me although it looks good, probably won't

 

[Chancey289]

David Cage and quantic dream are extremely talented developers and beyond two souls is taking many more risks than remember me and also required much more effort. Remember me looks cool and all but definitely not as good, innovative, or polished as Beyond Two Souls, which is most likely gonna be a goty contender, remember me although it looks good, probably won't

David Cage is full of sh!t. Dude was all at Sony's conference saying that more polygons and better graphics equal more "emotion." Emotion emotion emotion emotion, represented by this old man head and it's similar to the Alfred Molina head we showed at the PS3 launch that meant nothing. That being said, I am interested on Beyond and I don't hate Quantic Dream. It's just David Cage's dumbass philosophy I think is bs.

Telling me it takes awesome graphics to deliver a deep and compelling story? I know of people who were on the verge of tears seeing Aerith die in Final Fantasy 7 and I myself felt the emotion playing Metal Gear Solid because I became so engrossed in the story. They just bobbed their heads up and down when they talked. Making an emotional and compelling story for a video game has nothing to do with how pretty it looks.

 

[Railazel]

I go away from a thread for two days...

 

[Stylish Nero]

DmC vs DMC4..is what it seems here.

Lets compare the 2 games based on initial release.

DmC was made in 4 years of development..the largest dev time of any DMC game. So it had more years to prove itself.

DMC4 had 2 years potentially less and plenty of ideas of scapped and to cut corners and meet deadlines Capcom didn't extend dev time so DMC4 compared to past DMC games had a very short dev time (well not DMC2...that game was like literally 1-1.5 year long of development).

DmC has 2 playable characters but one was only playable a month and half later (maybe more) when it was released and you had to pay to just play as him if you didn't pre-ordered.

DMC4 has 2 playable characters.

On a side note. DMC4 Dante and Nero are drastically similar to DmC Dante and Vergil in gameplay intricies meaning that Dante are the guys with lots of weapons and variety while Nero/Vergil are the ones who have less weapons (2) and less variety but rather unique gameplay mechanics and something that gives them a deep edge (Exceed and the Buster for Nero and Vergil being teleportation skills and his DT doppleganger mechanics).

DmC has 6 bosses (7 if you include Downfall). You can't fight Dante's bosses as Vergil and you can't fight Vergil's one boss as Dante (not that it matters since its a slightly upgraded/altered version of one of Dante's bosses)

DMC4 has 9 bosses which has more effort put into them and more challenging and puts up a decent fight with Dante whose moveset and programmed AI/strategy increases and changes drastically per difficulty. With the exception of the Savior can fight any boss as any character (although you need BP to fight Credo and Dante as Dante)..well that is if your not modding.

DmC had its BP mode a month after the game came out and Vergil can't be played in it.

DMC4's BP mode was in the game both Dante and Nero are playable in it.

DmC has 9 weapons (including the whip as well as Demon/Angel abilities) for Dante which equals up to around 60 moves.

DMC4 has 7 weapons for Dante (plus various other style based abilities such as Trickster and Royal Guard moves) which equals up to around 80 moves.

DmC DLC Vergil has 18 moves for Yamato, 6 moves for the Summoning Swords, his Dark Slayer trick (3), and his DT Doppleganger moves (practically copies what he does) so like 30ish. The Doppleganger makes it hard to count.

DMC on disk Nero has 20 moves with Red Queen (it gets tricky since I did count EX/Exceed upgrade attacks but due to the nature of the level of the Exceed the attack animations will differ but hey that is why I counted them since a level 1 EX Streak is drastically differen from a level 3 EX Streak), Blue Rose has 3 (since each charge shot offers different effects even more than the EX attacks such as lvl 1 blasts them away, lvl 2 booby traps them by making the target hit ignite so if another enemy touches the enemy that got shot they catch on fire/gets damaged too, and lvl 3 makes them blows up later)...it would be 4 if each individual non-charge shot counted but since I counted Vergil's basic summoning sword attack (no charged attacks either) and even counted the Dante's gun weapons indivdual non-charge shot attack and it does juggle enemies so yeah 4, the Devil Bringer posses 6 moves (as for the Buster this one out of any individual move in DMC history had the most effort applied to it since you needed to created a specific animation for every enemy and boss and some had 2 or more and not only that when it came to enemies and even some bosses these have various effects that can be used creatively such as being able to throwing the Frost in any direction or using the Fire Hounds as a cannon or send the Alto Angelo crashing into another enemy and the animations and effects can vary with Devil Buster and mid-air), Yamato/DT specific abilities has 6, and other abilities are 3. It adds up to 39...so around 40 if I missed anything.

Plus, despite having half the amount of moves as Dante, you can see Capcom put a lot of effort into Nero's simple gameplay mechanics as his abilities and combat potential dive much deeper into it such as if you charge shot an down enemy you can blast them back up into the air and due to Nero's DT explosion you can blast enemies into the air and each EX attack have various results such as a level 3 EX High Roller pulls off 3 strikes and due to the Exceed system the player can instanteously (if you mastered it) pull of level 3 attacks without spending time charging which makes Nero's combat much more fast paced than even Dante's. Also, there are plenty of hidden secrets to his combat such as when pulling off a Devil Buster if you cancel DT you can save DT runes but still shoot your Spiral Swords and can even integrate the Spiraling Swords with his taunting as well as you can pull off EX Streak by holding the attack buttons for it when at any level of Exceed (lvl 1 as an example) and can charge up to the next/top level while still holding Streak and release it. You can even use enemies as shields. I've never seen that implemented in any hack & slash game. Plus more, learning these extra tricks makes playing as Nero very interesting, makes combat more enjoyable, and fast paced. He maybe limited but he makes up for it in quality. I see Nero as introducing a new unique gameplay type to the mix in the HnS genre to test it out all the while giving an improved Dante gameplay from DMC3. Testing the waters from the basics almost like making a new IP or how DMC started out very limited cause it was the beginning of something great. That is how I see Nero and its the same way many of you pro-DmC views Dante's combat mechanics as how even though it may not be on equal terms with DMC's standards its not supposed to be its supposed to be an alternate look, find its own leg in the hack n slash gameplay department, and improve upon on it in a sequel. Well unlike DmC, DMC4 did that with Nero but all the while supplying hardcore fans Dante so we have something for pro-players (Dante) and newcomers (Nero) and if you mastered Nero, you've mastered basic advanced fighting game mechanics/systems (something DMC as a hack n slash runs on and something Itsuno specializes in and something Tameem/NT should learn if they want to compete with heavy hitting titles/companies such as DMC (Capcom), Bayonetta (Platinum Games), and Ninja Gaiden (Team Ninja) in gameplay) such as frame timing and being able to see the difference among animation frames and manipulate them to your advantage as well as reflexes and knowing how to react in specific situations quickly and button input memorization.

Both games have out of place game design/concepts. DmC has color coded enemies while DMC4 has the Chimeras who are a pain to fight as Dante but they don't limit your combat options but you gotta be extra careful fighting a herd of them as Dante but I let them merge with the Scarecrows for in fact fighting Chimera Scarecrows is better as Dante since he has more powerful, long distance moves.

DMC4 was rushed there was no denying but its not blamed on the hard workers and individuals at Capcom or them running out of ideas its blamed on the top business executives at Capcom who rushed the game out or made them make a game in a short amount of time....and Kobayashi (I heard that guy was involved with RE6 and I see that guy has a history of f*cking things up) for just like DmC by looking at early concept art DMC4 was supposed to be a different game altogether. DmC wasn't rushed and had more dev time than any DMC game and it came out the way it is. It shows who are the more dedicated, talented, and experienced workers. I mean if Capcom gave the team more time to work on DMC4 and took Kobayashi out DMC4 would've been much better, probably the best hack and slash and we really wouldn't be getting a reboot (unless if DMC4 was the end as it answers all the questions and gives a good enough ending).

Capcom rushed DMC2 too, which sucked much more, you don't see people back then calling reboot or Capcom scraping the series cause "they ran out of ideas" or f*cked up game after one amazing game.

If anything DMC game development time need the same attention Capcom gave DmC, a 4 year dev cycle (the longest dev time any Capcom game ever had) and that game had a 2 million unit expency, which was lower than DMC1 and DMC4 actual sales. So Capcom gave more attention and time for a game they had lower expectations than a game that they rushed made by a Western team that they don't own and I don't care how much Capcom (even Itsuno) kiss NT's ass they know that only they (or at least anyone more competent NT) are the only ones who can make a DMC as great as DMC3/DMC1 or better as long as they have the right team (that means f*ck Kobayashi) and they have the talent...THEY REALLY DO.

On a side note. MGR was made with a short dev time or was rushed too (it too had backtracking where you went through some of the stages backwards) and may not be perfect or great (I prefer it over DmC) has potential just like Nero.

 

[Zey]

Don't even get me started on DMC1. Generic all-powerful demon planning on taking over the world was played-out... even back in 2001.

Devil May Cry 5 would have turned out with a story just as bad as 4, if not worse.

But it seems like that's what the audience wants.

Go ahead. Take your sacred fifth entry in your hallowed series.

I'll be here playing other action-adventure games with stories that are actually worth a damn.

This is the exact reason for the declining of the industry.

Most genres in gaming are supossed to be focused in gameplay; puzzles, sports, platforms, and of course, hack n' slash/beat 'em up games too. Even RPG's, while most of them need a decent plot for maintain the interest in the player (since most of them need like 50-100 hours to complete), they need a good combat system too. Only visual novels like Muv-Luv: Alternative and Fate/stay Night or interactive movies like The Walking Dead and Heavy Rain need to be focused on the plot.

Let's see, I'm gonna take Xenogears as an example. It has one of the best plots ever, there's so much depth on the universe, the characters and the music are amazing too, the gameplay is fun, etc. But for some problems on the production, the game suffer in the second disc and look more like a novel than a game, you are mostly reading text and everything happen too fast, even some scenes for the first disc are scrapped and some plot elements aren't really explored like they should. This, of course, affect my opinion overall, I'm playing a game, not a novel.

Same happens with Metal Gear Solid 4. Even if the long cutscenes are one of the caracteristic of the series, they really were too far with this one, making it more a movie than a game. Taking away the action of the players for 30 minutes? Christ...

Now, I'm gonna throw Kid Icarus Uprising and Sakurai opinion about this. It's a fantastic game, why? Because it's an action game which main focus is the gameplay. Sakurai thinks that most plots in gaming are irksome, most of them make you watch tons of cinematics, or read a wall of text every 2 minutes without care about the inmmersion, he just think that games could tell storys better. I agree with him. Kid Icarus Uprising brings a pretty decent story, is not something pretentious, and the characters make out for it. Devil May Cry 1 and 3 are like that for me, even the 4.

Sadly, the industry changed years ago, companies try to bring us pretentious plots with amazing graphics, one-dimensional characters and mediocre-decent gameplays. I can relate this to most action games released this generation.

So, I say that games don't really need a story like the one of Planescape: Torment to suceed. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the first Shin Megami Tensei are amazing games, they are waaaaaaaaay too different, one is a western action-sandbox game and the other one is an old school JRPG, their focus are different, but both are still amazing.

Tl;dr: Story is a secondary element in action games.
PS: I would talk about "fully-clothed females" too, but damn this a long post already.

 

[Demi-fiend]

David Cage is full of sh!t.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

This is the exact reason for the declining of the industry.

Hahahaha...!

No, keep going. Obviously, action games have no business trying to immerse the player in an actual plot.

Like I said, keep your DMC5. There are plenty of good action games out there with great stories that I can get into.

And I don't really care about Remember Me being GOTY or not.

BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY, THEY WOULD HAVE PAID OFF THE PEOPLE IN THE AWARD CEREMONY ANYWAY, RIGHT??

 

[Chancey289]

This is the exact reason for the declining of the industry.

Most genres in gaming are supossed to be focused in gameplay; puzzles, sports, platforms, and of course, hack n' slash/beat 'em up games too. Even RPG's, while most of them need a decent plot for maintain the interest in the player (since most of them need like 50-100 hours to complete), they need a good combat system too. Only visual novels like Muv-Luv: Alternative and Fate/stay Night or interactive movies like The Walking Dead and Heavy Rain need to be focused on the plot.

Let's see, I'm gonna take Xenogears as an example. It has one of the best plots ever, there's so much depth on the universe, the characters and the music are amazing too, the gameplay is fun, etc. But for some problems on the production, the game suffer in the second disc and look more like a novel than a game, you are mostly reading text and everything happen too fast, even some scenes for the first disc are scrapped and some plot elements aren't really explored like they should. This, of course, affect my opinion overall, I'm playing a game, not a novel.

Same happens with Metal Gear Solid 4. Even if the long cutscenes are one of the caracteristic of the series, they really were too far with this one, making it more a movie than a game. Taking away the action of the players for 30 minutes? Christ...

Now, I'm gonna throw Kid Icarus Uprising and Sakurai opinion about this. It's a fantastic game, why? Because it's an action game which main focus is the gameplay. Sakurai thinks that most plots in gaming are irksome, most of them make you watch tons of cinematics, or read a wall of text every 2 minutes without care about the inmmersion, he just think that games could tell storys better. I agree with him. Kid Icarus Uprising brings a pretty decent story, is not something pretentious, and the characters make out for it. Devil May Cry 1 and 3 are like that for me, even the 4.

Sadly, the industry changed years ago, companies try to bring us pretentious plots with amazing graphics, one-dimensional characters and mediocre-decent gameplays. I can relate this to most action games released this generation.

So, I say that games don't really need a story like the one of Planescape: Torment to suceed. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the first Shin Megami Tensei are amazing games, they are waaaaaaaaay too different, one is a western action-sandbox game and the other one is an old school JRPG, their focus are different, but both are still amazing.

Tl;dr: Story is a secondary element in action games.
PS: I would talk about "fully-clothed females" too, but damn this a long post already.

Now don't you just like to demean video games and act like telling a compelling story is somehow a bad thing. Action games can tell a great story as well *ahem*

Yea, good narratives and great characters are possible in an action game without stripping away from it. I don't know why you want to defend DMC 4. Not only is it just half a game that is the definition of laziness but it puts hardly any effort in to most of the aspects. The developers actually did you a disservice and why is it shrugged off and supported? Guess you guys really do have low standards and just settle for the lowest common denominator.

As a person who actually works to earn my own money if I would drop $60 on a game I'm dropping money on something that's worth it. Not something that completely spits in my face as a pathetic excuse of a game, aka DMC 4. I can just go back and play the older ones for just a better experience. Give me a good reason why I should like DMC 4 since I can just go back and play 1 and 3 having more fun not dealing with 4's stupid BS.

 

[Zey]

Hahahaha...!

No, keep going. Obviously, action games have no business trying to immerse the player in an actual plot.

Like I said, keep your DMC5. There are plenty of good action games out there with great stories that I can get into.

And I don't really care about Remember Me being GOTY or not.

BECAUSE OBVIOUSLY, THEY WOULD HAVE PAID OFF THE PEOPLE IN THE AWARD CEREMONY ANYWAY, RIGHT??

Impressive. Your post is very respectful!

Like I said, most action games released this generation got subpar and pretentious plots with mediocre characters. And yes, developers put "effort" on this with the visuals and forgot about everything else. Those games anyway got "10/10 It's okay" from the developers and "11/10 BEST GAME I PLAYED IN MY LIFE" from the casuals. I think this sub-forum actually talk about one of them...

At this moment, I'm re-playing God Hand, one of the best beat 'em up of all time, showing that you don't need a story for make a good action game.

And about DMC5, the "amazing" reboot most likely killed the series already, so I don't care about it.

 

[AlchemistFromEden]

David Cage is full of sh!t. Dude was all at Sony's conference saying that more polygons and better graphics equal more "emotion." Emotion emotion emotion emotion, represented by this old man head and it's similar to the Alfred Molina head we showed at the PS3 launch that meant nothing. That being said, I am interested on Beyond and I don't hate Quantic Dream. It's just David Cage's dumbass philosophy I think is bs.
he was talking about the emotion that you can show on the character's expressions,which is true, better graphics and better facial animations lead to more believable emotions, imagine if elizabeth from BI didn't have all of the amazing expressions and was animated like the characters in oblivion, would we really care about her as much and wonder why she has a sad face, hell no he wasn't saying, "no character can show or imply emotion without impressing graphics" and he definitely didn't say that "if a game doesn't have the best graphics than it doesn't have the best emotional story" -_-
Telling me it takes awesome graphics to deliver a deep and compelling story? I know of people who were on the verge of tears seeing Aerith die in Final Fantasy 7 and I myself felt the emotion playing Metal Gear Solid because I became so engrossed in the story. They just bobbed their heads up and down when they talked. Making an emotional and compelling story for a video game has nothing to do with how pretty it looks.

does every person on this forum take what a creative director says out of context -_-

 

[AlchemistFromEden]

DmC vs DMC4..is what it seems here.

so yeah most of your post was completely invalid because once again, you didn't check your sources, DmC had a development time of two and a half years, not four -_-

 

[Demi-fiend]

does every person on this forum take what a creative director says out of context -_-

No. I agree that someday that better graphics may become a necessity, just not today.

And, people just take issue with the way that David Cage presented his opinion. It's the same way when other people get in your face about "how bad DmC is" without being civil about it.

so yeah most of your post was completely invalid because once again, you didn't check your sources, DmC had a development time of two and a half years, not four -_-

Since when have the elitist detractors ever checked their sources??

...without being called out on it first, I mean. -_-

 

[Zey]

Now don't you just like to demean video games and act like telling a compelling story is somehow a bad thing. Action games can tell a great story as well *ahem*

Yea, good narratives and great characters are possible in an action game without stripping away from it. I don't know why you want to defend DMC 4. Not only is it just half a game that is the definition of laziness but it puts hardly any effort in to most of the aspects. The developers actually did you a disservice and why is it shrugged off and supported? Guess you guys really do have low standards and just settle for the lowest common denominator.

As a person who actually works to earn my own money if I would drop $60 on a game I'm dropping money on something that's worth it. Not something that completely spits in my face as a pathetic excuse of a game, aka DMC 4. I can just go back and play the older ones for just a better experience. Give me a good reason why I should like DMC 4 since I can just go back and play 1 and 3 having more fun not dealing with 4's stupid BS.

I'm not saying that tell a good story is a bad thing. I'm saying that the CORE of action games is the gameplay.

About the examples you show me, I consider most of them overrated games, some actually aren't fullfiling the "good story and gameplay" completely but they are still good (just my opinion). Those that I actually can say are "amazing" are RDR and BAA, but the story is a really small reason compared to all the things they bring to the table.

About DMC4, the game is a step-down in the series, we all know about it. Story is the reason? It can be one, but the series were never supposed to bring a good story.

"Low standards"? Yeah... Let me tell you that there were really few games that I actually enjoyed this generation. But it's fine, you can use prejudices here on the DmC forums.

 

[Demi-fiend]

I'm not saying that tell a good story is a bad thing. I'm saying that the CORE of action games is the gameplay.

The core of "action games" (or any other game) is whatever the creator wants it to be.

If I wanted to make a "Sims May Cry" with an "interior decorating" section, then hey, I'd go ahead with it.

About the examples you showed me, I consider most of them overrated games.

Sands of Time... overrated?

 

[Terrutas]

The core of "action games" (or any other game) is whatever the creator wants it to be,

If the core of an action game is not the action, it's not an action game.

As for the rest of your post, You were never really that mature about discussion. So I don't even want to reply.

 

[IncarnatedDemon]

Chancey let me adress Red Dead Redemption ok?

Let's first just put it out there what Zey said (and i agree with): Gameplay is core of a game.

Is Red Dead Redemption's core good to great? Hell yeah.
But is Red Dead Redemption new? Hell no.

Go up and read what i said Zey said about gameplay as a reminder before you read this:
Before Red Dead Redemption Rockstar Games had the experience in creating the world and gameplay of Red Dead Redemption through GTA serie.

That's basically what Red Dead Redemption is: a GTA game in wild west with a good story.

What i want you to realize is: When Red Dead Redemption was going to be made they had a GREAT foundation for the gameplay.

>>> GTA formula

It was already made and it worked nicely. They just had to do a little work to make a new "GTA" world.

Because of this they got more time on their hands. They didn't need to create a new gameplay formula or a new world for that matter.

Red Dead Redemption in gameplay and in world is again a GTA in Wild West.


So ask yourself "WHAT IF Rockstar had not made any GTA games when they started on Red Dead Redemption project?". Probably a game that wouldnt be that very great.

And you can then conclude that reason Red Dead Redemption was a solid gameplay game with a good story is because the gameplay was formula was already made. Things would be different if they had to create something totally new (new world and new gameplay).

So really Red Dead Redemption isn't a good example of a "Game with good story and good gameplay" because the gameplay wasn't something new. Rockstar had made 3 GTA games prior to Red with very similar gameplay and world.

 

[Demi-fiend]

So I don't even want to reply.

Then don't bother replying in the first place.