Ever since I read instruction book for Fallout 1 they got it ingrained in my brain: "save constantly, save often, save some more and keep saving" is what they've said 😁

Judicious scumming that eliminates gameplay bloat is fair game by any metric.

Personally I think save scumming is part and parcel of games taking a really long time to complete: The options are wasting possibly well over 30 hours (in case of RPGs, possibly over 80 or 100 hours) replaying everything again, or saving that time through save scumming.

When I first heard the term "save scumming" I had only a vague guess as to what it meant. When I learned what it meant I was like "oh lmao I do that all the time"

Can you imagine a world where someone doesn't save before a legendary pokemon battle and the damn thing Struggles itself to death and they've now just no way of getting that thing in their game without starting from scratch. There's a reason most games with limited save locations tend to hand you a save spot before tough fights, they want you to USE 'em! To take anything you learned from that specific scenario and succeed this time.

To save scum or not to save scum? Answer: who gives a shit. Play how you want

"It's taken an enjoyable thing and made it a drag" with footage of Elon Musk as Wario was absolutely brilliant.

i like to think of it like when i was a kid reading those choose-your-own adventure books. i loved having my fingers holding several threads open for my own backtracking. it felt like i was traversing a maze in book form and when you reach a dead-end you reload your save or go back to where my ring finger was holding my place.

This is what I love most about you , Steph. It's that you keep abreast of current controversies and expose them without shame or hesitation.

As a software tester, I will guarantee that any combination of inputs will ocur, especially if you put them next to each other. If developers put in manual saving, they want you to be able to do this.

I think Sterling was onto something with the bra-glins. We need to see more of their marketing genius.

All really good points. One that I think is worth adding though is that a lot of the times you can go for an option dialogue wise and the way is delivered or the tone, changes what you thought you were conveying. I had it with Larian's previous game Divinity 2 where I'd be in a discussion and the outcome would lock me out of something or piss off the wrong person because the option I picked closest to what I wanted to say was delivered in a more aggressive way than intended.

Real life D&D may not have save scumming, but if your DM isn't a total ass, they'll usually have interesting fallbacks or contingencies in place for failure, or they'll interpret the failure in an interesting and/or creative way. And of course, on occasion, they'll just simply flub the dice rolls. The DM in Baldur's Gate is an unthinking and unfeeling machine, so if I need a conveniently timed flubbed dice roll, I'll bloody well do it myself.

It's awesome to have games like Baldurs gate 3 and disco Elysium where your actions really matter, but in the end, you make your own story, you have the tools to play whatever the fuck you want, so do what makes you happy.

I have to say, as someone who watched your content years ago but for some reason just got distracted and missed a few years, it’s wonderful to see you so clearly happier and more comfortable in yourself.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could play a single-player game any way you wanted without being shamed for it?

Been waiting for the Stephanie Sterling Femdom arc for literal years. I think we all knew this was inevitable.

Save scumming imo encourages experimentation and mixing up strategies without having to slog through whatever comes before the boss/enemy you keep losing to.

the way to prevent save scumming is to make the failures at least as interesting and fun as the successes. i only save scummed while playing disco elysium once, and it's because i made kim upset enough that he wouldn't hang out with me for the rest of the day, which is bad enough on its own, but made worse because it meant i wouldn't have his backup when i went to meet up with pigs later. every other roll i failed was more fun to stick with. (i was also prepared to scum the roll to get the jackets, but i succeeded on the first try)

I wish more games had both checkpoints and save states. I want to "live with the consequences" in most cases but if you die then you have to reload a save which makes it feel no different to reload a save to prevent a bad decision. It's like I'm being tasked with choosing the appropriate difficulty at every moment of the game.

I for one am very happy to see Steph's Booblins... BOGLINS! Boglins. Yeah.

I'm playing The Stanley Parable Deluxe Edition rn and [minor spoiler alert] I was oddly starstruck and had a strange sense of parasocial pride when I saw that they displayed the glowing review by James Stephanie (for the original) as one of their crowning achievements. Completely unrelated to the video but it was such a nice moment.

I'm generally not a fan of bras, but you make a compelling case with the boglins

I'm pretty sure the devs wanted you to be able to play the game how you want, without forcing you to start again.that's why they included: - Quicksaving in the middle of conversations - Multiple save slots per character - Karmic Dice -The ability to re-roll your class (along with stats an skills)

I was not expecting nor was I prepared for the braglins. "A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one."

The vast majority of my reloads are because I misunderstood what a choice meant. Not like "oh right yeah I set fire to a barrel of oil" or "oh no I shouldn't have mentioned his family", those ones are mostly unintended consequences that I could have seen coming but didn't think of. But there are a lot of cases where the button I press does something completely different to what I thought it did, like a dialog choice that I thought was an honest question turning out to be an insult or accidentally hitting someone instead of talking to them

I always thought "assisted ironman mode" would be a cool feature. You choose Ironman mode where saving is disabled except when quitting, but then the game gives you some extra boosts. It can give you chance of winning hopefully on par with playing it safe, but with that extra spice of danger.

Save scumming is simply a tool of the game. I like to suffer the consequences of my actions so I don’t save scum “bad outcomes” but I do save constantly because I don’t want to replay more than 30 seconds lol

Disco Elysium is a rare gem in that you’ll end up save scumming in order to fail a roll as the result will likely be hilarious.

I haven't seen a video from Stephanie for a while (thanks KZfaq & my memory?) but holy hell I have to say she looks absolutely amazing. Thank God for you for being an inspiration to us who are struggling with identity and acceptance.

Your way of playing BG3 is very similar to mine, though I also just have a self imposed limitation of no mid-fight saves no matter how long. It forces me to come up with better strategies and that’s what I enjoy. I love that the game allows for several different methods of approach based on preference, it’s great

All I'll say about save scumming is this: If you can handle the bad outcome, it might lead to cool scenes you never would have seen otherwise. If the outcome makes you so sad that you aren't even enjoying the game anymore, load that save; because the potential to see cool scenes won't matter if you stop playing before you get to them. Or just do what the hell you want, doesn't bother me.

More games should acknowledge and encourage save scumming as an integral part of the gameplay, IMO. I'm still blown away at how Undertale managed to make the practice of save scumming an absolutely integral part of its plot and characterization.

It's important to remember that ttrpgs are at their best when everyone is crafting a story together. Save scumming is one of the best tools to replicate that experience in a video game. If they didn't want us to craft our own experiences, then they wouldn't have given us the tools to do so.

Whether or not I save scum depends not only on the points you've covered, but also things like: - What does this cool-sounding thing that is totally out of character do? - Was that dialogue option completely different to what it looked like from the description? - Do I have the number of spoons right now that I've had for most of the rest of the game? For the most part, I don't save scum in Dwarf Fortress, because I like the idea of the landscape being populated with these fallen fortresses that have their own lore, and the game is deep enough that starting a new fortress can offer a whole new experience. But if I'm playing to wind down after work, and I tell them to channel out an area rather than carefully telling them which tiles to dig one at a time, resulting in a cave-in that kills ten dwarves and maims plenty of others, then I consider it self-care to save scum and not punish myself for the mistake. If I don't then I'm just going to avoid playing when I'm that tired in case I mess up again, which in turn makes me question whether I'm alert enough, which saps all the possible enjoyment out. I'd rather the fort fall because my mistake was genuine, or I knew I was taking a risk and it didn't pan out. That's what adds tension to the game for me. On the other hand, there are times where I'm glad I haven't save scummed. One of my favourite Crusader Kings II experiences came after I was ready to give up, because my small but growing, newly independent Duchy in North Africa was suddenly engulfed by an Aztec invasion that took over a huge area of both that continent and South Europe. At first I felt frustrated, because all my plans had been dashed, and hopeless, because my new liege's military power was too strong to rebel against. But that game has so many different options, and I was able to keep carrying on my religion in secret, eventually getting some of the Aztec rulers involved. When the group was strong enough it publibly declared its allegiances, which led to numerous civil wars and shattered the Aztec Empire. Even though at one point it felt hopeless, by the end of that game I was really glad I'd kept going, because that rollercoaster had much more fun, intrigue and variety than gradually accumulating power and snowballing into a powerful empire does.

Fun Sierra Fact! One reason Sierra games were so notoriously evil with its puzzles and consequences, according to Al Lowe, was that they realized they sold more hint books than copies for said games at times, so it became a backup income where copy protection had failed.

“How desperate for coping with their own irrelevance by gatekeeping others can people get?” The Gamers™: “Yes.”

Stephanie, you're a goddess and I love how happy and confident your vibe is nowadays, even if the games industry is still garbage. Keep it up, and stay strong! Keep em coming, my partner and I adore your work!

The difference with disco Elysium is that you are never completely blocked when you fail a roll. The game keeps going when you flub it and failing is often more fun then success

If other folks want their 40 hour story to end with, "rocks fall and everyone dies," they can. But I'm going to an actually satisfying ending.

Gotta love it when Steph devotes a video to a legitimate discussion among gamers that HASN’T gone horribly toxic (or at least not so toxic that the video can’t get away from it).👍

Not sure if you read the comments but I just wanted to say that you're my hero Steph. I'm in the games industry and trans and it's been very inspiring to see someone be so unapologetic and confident about their identity. I'm not really very confident in being out and I've really struggled this week but to watch you flashing your boglins with glee really gives me hope for my future. Thank you.

I love how deeply you believe in having fun while playing a game. And allowing yourself whatever tools you need to have that fun.

I, for one, must say, that Stephanie Sterling is looking absolutely amazing, and I have a lot of respect for all that does. Truly, thank God for her

Stephanie, your idea of braglins is simply brilliant. I was so mesmerized by the sheer ingenuity I had to rewatch that clip several times just to process the mere thought of it. Truly one of the fashion-forward minds of the century 🍷🧐🧠

I love save scumming. Wish I could do it in real life.

The smile on your face when you said "Braglins!" has added years to my life 🤗

Related to save scumming due to failing a check: I recommend checking out the game Hard West. There is an interesting mechanic where if you miss an attack with, say, 70% chance to hit, you get 70 points in a luck pool. You can spend those points on any roll to increase your success chance one-for-one. The end result is I'm not too upset about missing a shot that I had a good chance of hitting because that means later on I'll be able to boost a wild pot-shot into a certain hit.

This was by far one of the best videos you've ever done Stef! I was ROLLING at Savescumio and just the humor in general. Now, I am a perma-DM for D&D and I'll say that I like that Balder's Gate allows players to see different outcomes and to a degree steer their campaign. Cause D&D adventures are not short. However, I have a homebrew rule that I call: "Temporal Intervention" Where the entire party must unanimously agree/vote to have it happen, and they all must roll D20s and match or surpass a combined score (depends on how many are in the party). If they succeed, a Homebrew God of Time rewind time to an earlier point in the adventure (within reason. Typically had to be in the current session). However I throw in that "Rewinds can be tricky, echoes of the future may linger and alter the new present." (IE: Don't push it.) Depending on campaign difficulty I only allow this as a 1 - No More than 3 time thing. Making it a SERIOUS decision in itself. As someone who believes in fun. I added this as a "Continue" option should the party wipe (cause sometimes the Dice are utter bullshit), or should a player really, really, really, REALLY fuck up the campaign. That said... I don't see to big an issue with save scamming. Ultimately it's a player choice. See everything possible in every playthrough or make every replay something truly unique. Kind of like live service games...not everyone is going to be a min/mixer, tryhard, or casual.

I remember save scumming so much in Abe's exodus that I was stuck in a loop. I do not regret it at all.

Speaking as an XCOM Player. Every gamer has a unALIENable right to Savescum.

People who don't want to save scum are welcome to never do it, but it truly makes one a boob to try and hold it up as a moral imperative.

Lets not forget that D&D itself does not always need to be played by the books. There is an unspoken rule/agreement that DM's can use to make actions or choices that should not have worked still happen: The Rule of Cool Sometimes you can bend the rules a bit or allow for somethint to happen because it is thematic or would have made the story better. In D&D its a matter of the DM just saying "Sure, I'll allow it" but in things like BG3 its called Save Scumming. Enjoy what you purchased, enjoy the story you are creating with your character.

I absolutely love Project Zomboid, a game notoriously difficult, where it takes hours of real-life time to grind one skill up a single level, and ONE SINGLE MISTAKE will see you bitten by a zombie and that character lost forever, without even the option to savescum and undo that error. I also absolutely love Rimworld, a game where I can savescum when my favorite colonist loses her eye and redo the fight until she comes out of it as pretty as I want her to be by the time my colony has become a self-sustaining metropolis. I play games on their own terms, unless I'd have more fun playing them on my own.

Those Hero Forge stills were wonderfully done!

I save scum. I have absolutely ZERO shame 🤷🏻‍♂️🤣

I’ve been DMing for a group of people who were all first time players save for 1. We have been helping them make the more optimal choices but I have allowed people to go back on their decisions if they weren’t as fun as they thought they’d be. With important dice rolls, it’s of course not possible to change it but I’ve softened blows. It’s just more fun that way.

I'll be honest in the beginning I was listening with my phone in my pocket. As soon as Steph said they'll bring em out I started frantically slapping my pockets to find my phone.

I have proudly been "save scumming" since the Choose your own Adventure books. Dog earing a choice page and then picking the page that obviously kills you in a horrible fashion is hilarious and one of the best ways to enjoy the books.

I'm a Fire Emblem fan so save scumming is basically in my DNA.

I love that Sterling is focusing on the inherent flaws of tabletop D&D.

11:53 Man, I loved police quest, but jeez in the first one If you take the woman's phone number instead of giving her a ticket you don't realise you screwed yourself until a few hours later. In PQ3, I messed up by not taking the batteries for the torch in the first part of the game, and 4 hours later, it came back to haunt me.

My main reason for save scumming in a game like BG3: it helps my severe decision paralysis and fomo to know i can literally watch every scene play out in different ways. I'll ACTIVELY make bad decisions on purpose, so save scumming doesn't mean me trying to get the 'best' results (altho if that's why you do it, live your best life and more power to you, quing). For me it's just like "damn i wonder how it would have gone if i'd chosen x instead" and save scumming allows me to just watch that first hand without having to looking up 500 youtube playthroughs, find one that doesn't talk over the top of it all, skip through the videos and find the one that makes exactly the same diagloue choices i wanted to see.

It's never scummy to make good use of a game's inherent features.

Definitely depends for me. If it's something where I'm trying to role play and feel the consequences of my actions, I try not to as best I can. If it's something trivial, say I miss three headshots in a row in Fallout 3 and alert an entire enemy encampment, then I'll reload to be more stealthy.

I decided to live with the consequences of letting volo do his work. Totally worth it.

That smearing shit on your face bit is so great, I saw there was a way to go around it in a cave but found it just such a funny scene I had to do it

There are a few points in bg3 that feel really unfair in a context where you aren't savescumming. For example there's a sudden, un-telegraphed and extremely pivotal fight in act 2 that can wipe out about 6 important Npcs that will, if dead, cut a bunch of content later in the game with no upside - you could end up blundering into this fight with no resources as soon as you enter this area

I’m going to reload as much as I want and anyone that looks down on that is the real Scum, stopping ruining fun, you fun haters

Oh no, how dare you have fun in a way that isn’t the same as the way I have fun. You must stop that NOW

The easiest antidote to savescumming is to make failure as interesting as success. Getting the bad outcome shouldn’t hate you off from a story, it should be the entry point to a different one. More than a few games like, say, The Fist of Mars have a dark timeline branch that is more compelling and better-written than the success one. Ironman works in XCOM and co because I’m losing things for good keeps the game challenging and lets a story emerge. My preferred story path in Mass Effect is bleak timeline, where every story has to go the worst and you have to let each companion die unless they can die later in a more sad way, and that takes MORE work and care to set up than a win-the-most run. If failure just means you get to sit outside the gate watching the good story happen, forget it.

I've always tried to resist save scumming, but there are a few failures I can't abide. I HAVE to dance with Kim, and when he trusts me, when he *truly* trusts me, I CANNOT fail him.

I thought a lot about this recently with the genie at the fair. they even hyped up this encounter pre-release, how you can catch him cheating and he can turn you into cheese, or you can steal his cheating ring. but the first time I did it I didn't see him cheat. just failed a perception check (with a +8 to perception checks lol). it can be fun to lose. but it's not fun to just not experience something at all

I one day aspire to have such great bouncy boglins as you, Steph!

The braglins bit was freaking hilarious

So, I usually get wrapped up in ‘choice paralysis’ when I focus on how I ‘want’ an event to play out in a game I’m playing, trying to get an optimal output requires some save scum…However, in BG3 I haven’t run up against this too many times (saving deep gnomes is the exception, it was really hard and complicated lol) There are simply too many choices for me to feel inclined to save scum for one over the other, and I love it. BG3 has offered more freedom, which means I’m less constrained by the 2 or 3 Big choices we usually see in games. I don’t like to play with guides my first time through games (or often at all, really) I’ve also had a Ton of fun failing some random checks and laughing my ass off at the consequences… most of the time lol

I’m all in on Braglins. I’d pay for that pin up set without a second thought!

That's the thing about trpgs. The dice make things uncertain but in theory the consequences of your actions are based on the actions, not the dice results. As an example, you need to get past a guard you have several ways to do so. You could intimidate the guard. Sneak past the guard. Bribe the guard. Etc. Now, the dice will decide whether or not you succeed or fail, but the approach you took decides what the consequences of that success or failure will be. A failed intimidation might lead to combat. A failed bribe check might lead to suspicion and make subsequent stealth attempts harder. A failed stealth check might lead to the infiltration taking a long time or force a persuasion check to explain why you're hanging around. The idea is that the approach you take isn't just going to be determined by what your characters are best at, but also by the consequences that approach will have. You could genuinely get an interesting game experience out of a system where failure is impossible, just by accounting for the fact that even success has consequences. Successfully intimidating the guard means he might be coming back in the future with backup. Sneaking means the guard is still there, unaware of your presence, but remains an obstacle on the way out. Bribery leaves a trail that could see investigators pursuing you days after the event. And this is something that a video game is much worse at handling than a GM at the table.

My favorite “glad I couldn’t save scum” story comes from Dragon’s Dogma. I was doing a quest that had me looking for a powerful grimoire, and after finding it, it occurred to me that I could use the game’s forgery system to complete the quest and keep the book for myself. After handing the forgery over to the quest giver, I opened the grimoire up to see what benefits it had for me. What I didn’t know was that the grimoire was basically a single use magic bomb that I had just set off on a crowded city street. The grimoire vanished from my inventory, the guards threw me in prison, and I had to pay a bribe worth a third of the money I had received from the quest to buy my freedom. But it didn’t end there. Hours later I was fighting a particularly intimidating boss, when who should appear but the man who’d asked me to retrieve the grimoire. He was going to use the powerful magical tome to aide me in my moment of need. At least that was his plan. Seeing as the book he had was a forgery, his spell fizzled and he spent the entire fight standing uselessly on the sidelines while I struggled to defeat the boss all on my lonesome. After the fight, the grimoire guy very passive aggressively made it clear that he wasn’t angry, he just knew better than to trust people like me now.

Hit the nail on the head, save scumming is a very personal thing on whether it increases or decreases your enjoyment in that moment. The consequences of your actions can be quite fun! But not when you're on a completionist run and the consequences are you missing out on something, then the consequence of your actions is you get/have to do it again, which is still a consequence!

I love Scumdinger O'Rerollio, I hope Jonathan plays him in the movie/tv adaptation. Also glad to see you getting them out after all this time!

Also the point about your character being purposefully specced for something and wanting them to succeed at a basic task (aka strong character should be able to bust down a standard door, thief should be able to succeed with basic lockpick etc), is why i think so many newer tabletops have removed a lot of the excess 'useless' rolls for something ur character should actively be able to do. Something like Monster of the Week has a lot of steps in place to ensure if your character can shoot a gun good, and has no pressure put on them in the moment, then god damn they shoot a gun good, no need to roll. If your character can pick a lock good, then by god they do it. The game is focused more on outcomes, rule of cool, and roleplay over dice rolls.

It's funny how some people go on and on about "player agency" when a game doesn't let you do something, but then these same people go on and on when someone makes a decision that THEY wouldn't make. Like, make up your fucking mind already, either you want player agency or you don't.

Save scumming is a great way to explore alternative outcomes for any situation in Baldur's Gate

I never feel bad about save scumming. I am a dialogue eating fiend, and I want to hear everyone say everything if I can help it. I also don't have all the time to spare, so I'll take any shortcut I can in this power fantasy.

Was NOT expecting the "The Government Knows" cameo shot…

Sometimes I really just wanna see both outcomes. Sometimes it's "you're a fucking Druid. You have no business failing a nature roll!" Sometimes it's "Oh hell no. I'll take that outcome next playthrough, but not this one." But many times I'm just like "Oh, I'm gonna roll with this! I just gotta see how that's gonna play out!" (I did the same with the screwed up doctor. It rocked ass.) I hate the term "save scumming". Why not just call it "reloading"? It's because "save scumming" is a bullshit term used by gamerbros (tm) to make people feel bad about how they game. Those twits have no bearing on how I play and never will. Play however will give you the most enjoyment.

As a competitive Pokémon player, save scumming for good stats on monsters is just a part of the game!

There are some great reasons to save scum in BG3 that weren't even mentioned. Like when you intend to click on an enemy, but managed to be one pixel off because some asset was z-fighting and suddenly your fighter has decided to walk into a flanked position instead of attacking what you wanted them to.

Some of Sierra's adventure games were designed with Save Scumming in mind. The slot machine in Space Quest 1, for instance, is meant to be beaten by Save Scumming. The VGA remake adds an optional item to provide an in-game solution, but you can still beat it the old-fashioned way.

I think what you said at the end is important. It's how you're having fun. In the end, playing a game in a way that's most fun for you is what counts.

Save scumming is an ancient and noble tradition

I play Ace Attorney, I save scum like crazy

I personally like to try to be perfectionist in my playthroughs and the manual save helps with that (or other in-game tricks). I remember that I maxed out Fallout 4's attributes so I could have access to all the benefits and perks I wanted. Two references that I had in terms of tension and unpredictability were Darkest Dungeon and Mordheim: City of the Damned (both PS4). Every time my groups entered the dungeon and/or area in question, the game performed a frequent sadistic autosave and the amount of wrong (or dangerous/unfair) things that could afflict you were gigantic. Always restarted new playthroughs when one of the party members was knocked out or killed in combat.

I think the best way I've heard it put is that games need a special version of easy mode called "I'm 35 and have an hour to play this"

I was today years old when I learned that people get mad over save scumming. I value my time, and having to work back up to where I was before a difficult fight detracts from my gaming experience.

If you ever meet someone that seriously is upset with you for save scumming, you will also have met someone that needs to lay in some grass.

I tried playing with this no safe scum mentality, I just found out that gameplay-wise and story-wise I just robbed myself of fun stuff to do. Why would I risk sneaking into high-security area with juicy loot if I know for a fact that I will likely fail and will either go to jail or will become hostile to entire city? It's like in real life, imagine how much fun stuff you'd do if you knew you could always reload if it backfires

My local tabletop group has a rule, named for a guy we knew back in college who was prone to breaking 'anything said at the table unless otherwise indicated is in character' and making jokes that the incredibly powerful NPC standing directly in front of his character didn't take kindly to... and other such transgressions. The dice are the dice. That's the GAME. If you make a boneheaded decision or comment, you get a once per session 'OOPs, let's try that again.' Consequences matter, but if you missed some important part of the exposition, missed that your character was in melee before declaring you were going to sprint across the battlefield, etc, etc, you could rewind. But it had to be done almost immediately. "I sprint across the battlefield." "Okay, the 13 goblins surrounding you all get an AoO" "I forgot they were there, I would like to change my action." Fair game. "Hey, that thing I did at start of the session that set us on this path... can I... not?" was not. It's a decent enough rule, and keeps the story moving for the other 5 people in the room while still accounting for human error. However, that's table top. Where attempts to rewind just cause headaches for everyone involved. Unless you're playing in some kind of IRONMAN mode, there's nothing wrong with going back to a save. When Sephiroth blows up the damn solar system, and you didn't grab that 2nd ribbon, did you restart Final Fantasy VII from the BEGINNING? Finding some way to savescum in a hardcore/ironman mode is kind of against the principle of the thing. In any other circumstance than that, unless you're saving before every dice roll and loading until you get a success (XCOM savescumming until the 7 percent shot connects), I don't really see the harm. Even in the most extreme "repeatedly reloading until RNG breaks your way", you aren't really doing anything to MY experience. I still, personally, am confused, but in the same way I'm confused when witnessing people who are watching something they had been excited for but are splitting their attention between the movie and a half-dozen social media feeds. Not worth getting angry over, but still deeply confusing.

Lmao I paid for the game, I'll exploit it how I please