DLC and playthrough permutations

[Walsingham]

Very simple thought:

 

Fallout New Vegas essentially supports multiple playthroughs by your political affiliation. one could massively increase the array of playthrough permutations if the DLC bolt ons varied in playthrough by the skillset the character coming into them possessed.

 

That is, for example:

 

NCR, Legion, Indy, Evil Indy, Followers becomes NCR/shooter, NCR/thief, NCR/trader and so on.

 

Thoughts?

[Kaftan Barlast]

Most people, like me, only play through a game ONCE. Doing something like that means catering to a minority of consumers, even though its quite a vocal and dedicated bunch.

[sorophx]

my mind can't compute

[Niten_Ryu]

Great for hardcore players like me... but terrible idea financially as hardocre players like me might be very stingy and might skip DLC anyway if it's not "Episodes from Liberty City" quality. Masses probably finish game only once (if at all) and thus select only one faction. They certainly would not buy DLC if it was faction specific.

[Slowtrain]

Most people, like me, only play through a game ONCE. Doing something like that means catering to a minority of consumers, even though its quite a vocal and dedicated bunch.

 

 

That's probably because most games suck and don't even reward the expenditure of time required for a single playthrough, let alone multiple playthroughs.

 

If games were BETTER and rewarded multiple playthroughs, then people would play them multiple times.

 

THe truth is, developers and especially publishers don't want you to play the same game over and over again, they want to get you in the doors tio buy the game, but them they want you to hurry up and finish that game and buy a new one.

 

One of the advantages of DLC is that is does give a publisher incentive to invest in and develop a single game over time, thus potentially leading to a more complex and richer gamepay experience for the consumer. That's an ideal state and unlikely to happen, but you never know.

[Walsingham]

I disagree on two points:

 

1. Who is so fething stupid that they buy a game for about 40 bucks, and then only play it once? That's like buying a whoel cake and only eating one slice!

 

2. Quality encourages you to play. Quality also encourages you to buy the game again.

 

Three points

 

3. More importantly, when you have enjoyed a game and the next in the series is coming out, surely you wheel out the old one and give it another go? It bridges the gap, so to speak, and sets the tone.

 

Four points

 

4. Or am I the only person here who considers shelling out a bunch of bucks for a game to be a big deal. I mean 35 quid will buy you a pretty decent single malt, and I'd say that shoud last you about six hours, which is often a single play through in some games. But I buy a game instead because an Obsidian game will give me about 120 hours.

[mkreku]

I bought Mass Effect a year ago or so. I still have not played it and I don't think I will either.

 

How's that for fething stupid?

[Tale]

I play lots of games only once. Especially the poorly paced ones (lets front load all the boring stuff, YEAH) or the ones that merely aren't that good. There's no sense replaying a game if it's not worth the time to replay it.

[Volourn]

"That's probably because most games suck and don't even reward the expenditure of time required for a single playthrough, let alone multiple playthroughs.

 

If games were BETTER and rewarded multiple playthroughs, then people would play them multiple times."

 

Nope. The averga egamer does not play games (barring sports games and other MP games) more than once./ It has very little to dom with quality of said game but more to do with time and looking for the next cool thing to play, and the majority don't finish it.

 

As a fun example, I had a friend buy FO:LV, and he loved it yet didn't finish it. That may be anecdotal evidence, but it's backed up by game companies' research and hardcoded facts.

 

Don't mistake your own 'hardcore agmer experience' with the 'average gaming joe or jane'.

[Enoch]

I disagree on two points:

 

1. Who is so fething stupid that they buy a game for about 40 bucks, and then only play it once? That's like buying a whoel cake and only eating one slice!

 

2. Quality encourages you to play. Quality also encourages you to buy the game again.

 

Three points

 

3. More importantly, when you have enjoyed a game and the next in the series is coming out, surely you wheel out the old one and give it another go? It bridges the gap, so to speak, and sets the tone.

 

Four points

 

4. Or am I the only person here who considers shelling out a bunch of bucks for a game to be a big deal. I mean 35 quid will buy you a pretty decent single malt, and I'd say that shoud last you about six hours, which is often a single play through in some games. But I buy a game instead because an Obsidian game will give me about 120 hours.

For my part, time is usually at a greater premium than money. Replaying games is all well and good, but nearly every game is at least somewhat less satisfying on the second go-round. And at some point, the decline in the satisfaction one gets from one particular leisure activity is going to lead a person to switch to a different leisure activity (or, god forbid, more time spent working). The game's purchase price is a sunk cost at that point-- increasing the perceived value that I get out of that expenditure is nice, but it doesn't make a game any more fun. Now, the price of a replacement leisure activity might be a barrier here, but in the current era of plentiful cheap retro games, netflix instant movies, and the like, it's less of a barrier than it used to be. (Hell, who doesn't have a backlog of games they've been wanting to play, movies/shows they've been wanting to watch, and books they've been wanting to read?)

 

My general rule of thumb is that I stop playing a game when I decide that I would be having more fun starting a new game of Civilization instead.

Edited February 23, 2011 by Enoch

[Malcador]

I usually replay games often, but the only block I have is some sort of prescient fatigue half way through a replay. Happened on my third run through DA

[Gfted1]

Ill only play a game once and I havent finished one since BGII+Expansions.

[Kaftan Barlast]

I replay strategy games and other types of games that arent story-based. I will do multiplayer aswell if its good, but replaying single player is just too much of groundhog day for me. Ill just try to get absolutely everything I can out of the game on that playthrough instead.

 

 

I bought Mass Effect a year ago or so. I still have not played it and I don't think I will either.

 

How's that for fething stupid?

 

You're not only stupid, you have poor taste aswell.

[Gorgon]

I much prefer games tailored for ONE playthrogh where you get to experience most of what they game have to offer. I just finished Mass Effect 2 and was disappointed in the number of limitations they put in your way. A whole light side / dark side dichotomy going on with no option for special dialogue responses unless you were either a consistent psychopath or a tree hugger. Very limited skill tree, every power that was actually different had to belong to another class. etc.

Edited February 23, 2011 by Gorgon

[Slowtrain]

I bought Mass Effect a year ago or so. I still have not played it and I don't think I will either.

 

 

Out of curiosity, what prompted you to buy it in the first place? Did you find it at a really good price that you justcouldn't pass up at the time?

[Slowtrain]

Nope. The averga egamer does not play games (barring sports games and other MP games) more than once./ It has very little to dom with quality of said game but more to do with time and looking for the next cool thing to play, and the majority don't finish it.

 

As a fun example, I had a friend buy FO:LV, and he loved it yet didn't finish it. That may be anecdotal evidence, but it's backed up by game companies' research and hardcoded facts.

 

 

SUre, but that's not a commentary of gamers. Its a commentary on the games.

 

People enjoy revisiting the things they enjoy: they read their fave books over and over, watch their fave movies multiple times, collect their fave tv shows on dvd etc.

 

If people aren't replaying games or even finishing them once, its because the games aren't rewarding players for spending their time doign so.

 

Don't mistake your own 'hardcore agmer experience' with the 'average gaming joe or jane'.

 

Not really a hardcore gamer though.

[Tale]

You have an account on a game developer's forum. I recognize you. You're a hardcore gamer.

[Raithe]

Some games do cry out for replay value.

 

I mean I've replayed Deus Ex, Vampire Bloodlines, Hitman and a bunch of others multiple times over the years...

 

Then there are a few other games (generally the rpg ones) where although the main storyline is always the same, you get some quite different content on the journey through that story depending on certain choices. Which can push me to try replaying them to see just how much of a different feel it is to play as another class/sex/race etc. Although then if I don't really notice much difference I might not actually push myself to finish those playthroughs..

 

Of course, I go through batches where I don't pick up any new games for ages, and then a bunch might come out in a short time-frame that make me pre-order or pick them up straight away.

[Slowtrain]

You have an account on a game developer's forum. I recognize you. You're a hardcore gamer.

 

 

meh.

 

I turned in my hardcore gamer's card some time ago.

 

I find this forum much more interesting than playing any of the actual games. lol.

[Enoch]

People enjoy revisiting the things they enjoy: they read their fave books over and over, watch their fave movies multiple times, collect their fave tv shows on dvd etc.

Some people do. But some other people would rather explore something new than repeat something familiar. Or they reserve repeats of past favorites for long intervals, when they can regain a glimmer of what it was like to experience that particular work for the first time.

[entrerix]

anecdote time: my mom watches more movies than any person I know. Is she a hardcore movie fan?

 

i don't know! she barely remembers what she has seen, she has average taste AT BEST, and she NEVER rewatches something she has already seen.

 

She also reads 2-3 books a month, and will never, and has never, re-read a book. even her favorites.

 

I imagine that there are other people like her, some of them are gamers. Are they the average gamer? I don't know. I don't have a clue what the average gamer does. I only talk to people who don't play, who barely play, and who play a LOT. Nobody seems to play "medium" amounts of games in my experience.

 

what would be medium? i don't really know, maybe 6 games a year? hard to quantify. what is a wow gamer? amiserablepileofsecrets.

[Volourn]

"Not really a hardcore gamer though."

 

If you replay the same game over, and over, and over again youa re definitely a hardcore gamer.

 

if you feel the need to post on gaming forums for YEARS about games, you are a hardcore gamer.

 

Everyone who posts here is a hardcore gamer. There is no disputing it.

 

 

Also, i don't go around reading my fvaorite books, watching my favorite movies, or even listenting to my favorite songs (though I'll listen to them if I hear them) non stop.

 

 

 

 

Casual gamers play for fun, and they'll move on to the next kewl thing.

 

People claim that WOW is for 'casual gamers' but it ain't. Casual gamers likely played it for a couple of months and moved on even if theyn liked it. Hardcore gamers who liked it are probably still playing it.

Edited February 23, 2011 by Volourn

[Tigranes]

Sometimes I feel that we are trying way too hard to account for and understand/analyse the 'casual gamer', to the point that we self-deprecate our own opinions and perceptions and experiences and devalue ourselves as a demographic.

 

By the way, sometimes it's not only replay value as it is fulfilled, but the knowledge that a game is open ended and COULD be replayed for different outcomes enhances the experiences for gamers, and it entices them to play in the first place - so it is with several of my IRL friends that are now playing FO3/FNV for the first time. They're loving the fact that it's so massive and they can go around and there aer choices & consequences, even if they doubt they'll end up finishing their first playthrough because they're just not used to holding on to a game that long.

[mkreku]

Out of curiosity, what prompted you to buy it in the first place? Did you find it at a really good price that you justcouldn't pass up at the time?

Yeah, I found it really cheap somewhere and figured I might as well buy it. But then I remembered I hate Bioware's excessive hand-holding, their habit of not letting the player interact with the game world at all, their linear corridors of levels, their cheese mainstream characters, their Star Wars rip-off stories, their fake freedom of choice, their constant recycling of ideas, etc etc. Bioware just doesn't do games for me. They contain nothing I want, except great graphics. And boobs.

[Walsingham]

Out of curiosity, what prompted you to buy it in the first place? Did you find it at a really good price that you justcouldn't pass up at the time?

Yeah, I found it really cheap somewhere and figured I might as well buy it. But then I remembered I hate Bioware's excessive hand-holding, their habit of not letting the player interact with the game world at all, their linear corridors of levels, their cheese mainstream characters, their Star Wars rip-off stories, their fake freedom of choice, their constant recycling of ideas, etc etc. Bioware just doesn't do games for me. They contain nothing I want, except great graphics. And boobs.

 

I'd say that was fething careless, not fething stupid.