I remember a day when old RPG games had either a level cap or a definite ending. From Pool of Radiance to Secrets of the Silver Blades to Final Fantasy the game had a final boss or stage and often had some type of level cap. Today, gamers don’t want it to end, they’d rather have the option to wonder around aimlessly or completing minor quests in order to soak up every ounce of money they spent on the title.
Now even Bethesda is saying “we’ve learned our lesson” from the whiplash of ending their game title and capping levels. Gamers want to go back and re-try content they missed, they want to run side quests and talk to everyone in the world they want to grind themselves to über powerful levels and become a god in their fantasy world. Can you blame them?
You can’t really blame them for wanting to maximize the content, although it’s slightly more evolved than RPG’s of old. Perhaps it was World of Warcraft and other MMORPG’s that brought us to the stage in life where we all want to squeeze every last RPG dime out of the title. As a kid I wondered the world of Hyrule and covered every tile of graphical color, burned every bush, bombed every stone looking for all the content. However, even Zelda had an end with scrolling credits – you didn’t just land on a platform with your master sword and a dream.
Other titles have used level caps to limit you and draw you into the next release of the game. This was popular in the D&D world because the game is designed to target specific levels of difficulty. They may only allow you to gain level 10 because the enemies are no tougher than level 13, allowing the challenge to be good but not overwhelming. If they allow you to get to level 50 they’d have to design the game so all the enemies grow powerful along with you — that’s not always a desired result.
Final Fantasy is a popular franchise that typically allows you to grow infinitely powerful depending on how much time you want to spend repeat killing the same enemies. Gamers aren’t always into the grind, they just want to grind “enough” to make the challenges a little more do-able.
Today, however, with larger storage capacity, larger development teams and the desire to build more value into your gameplay experience titles have dozens of side quests and sub-plots that are totally optional. The result of so many sub-quests results in a player who is much more powerful at the end of those quests compared to a player who sticks to the narrow path of the main plot. So, games much grow dynamically challenging to keep the fun per dollar high.
Do you like your RPG’s to have a definite end and a high but capped level?
This week’s episode is the final episode before E3, and next week, an outtakes episode filled with Dr. Who and Game of Thrones discussion will run. After that, we’ll have some serious E3 2013 discussion, especially about what happens with Microsoft and Sony in particular.
@GameStop vs. Deus Ex
Paul, Deus Ex are two separate words.
As for the news item itself, well, we talked already in the forums. Just one thing I want to say: they should have pulled the game from the shelves right at the beginning, instead of taking out the coupon.
That’s tampering with a product, so I agree with Paul.
@Origin EULA:
Jonah pointed it clearly, the new formulation says absolutely nothing of what they will or will not do.
If this is not an excuse for pirates, then I don’t know what is …
Paul, the question is, once you have the power to access a lot of customer information, what will enforce a corporation to only do “the good thing”?
Yes Jordan, you can call me Mr. Alien.
And Jonah, the reason my sister liked UT is because of the flak cannon: she loved shredding enemies to pieces with it.
@Are you interested in Epic Mickey 2?
No. Sorry, just can’t see myself jumping from STALKER/Doom 3 and the likes to Epic Mickey 1, 2, 3 or 999.
Paul, Jonah doesn’t dismiss your opinions. He dismisses any opinion that doesn’t fit with his. So yeah, he’s a bit of a bully.
Still, while he doesn’t agree with some of the stuff that I write, he still gives voice to my comments (although now it seems to be Jordan).
Jordan was right, this kind of conflicts do give the show some charm.
@ Flop vs. Failure:
The two terms are interchangeable when it comes to the subject at hand. Heck, one of Miriam-Websters’ definitions of flop is “To fail completely.”
@ Who has one console?
If you count current-gen consoles, I only have one. If not, then I still only have two, the other being a PS2. The Wii never managed to grab my interest outside of its initial scavenger hunt craze to find one. (Which I didn’t.) The PS3 was out of my price range long enough for me to skip over it, and the bulk of the people I play with are either mainly or only 360 owners, as well.
@ Episode 227’s Question:
I used to dream of DDR, and still see stepcharts in my head while listening to music daily. Now that I’ve been watching some MLG videos, I’m dreaming about being there and wondering what the heck I’m doing.
@ Epic Mickey 2:
Possibly, as the first seemed to have interesting concepts, but I never got to play it, as I don’t own a Wii. I would think about picking up a sequel if it comes out for the platform I own.
(And, yes, I know that askewed isn’t a proper conjugation of the word, that’s kind of the point.)
Is this where I send my hate mail for VGRT?
haha.
not sure what that was about…
Paul sounded like he was PMS-ing pretty bad…
get that guy a Midol! stat!
funny show, with lots of good info, and, though
I hate to admit it, the arguing makes it even more entertaining…
He’s like your Bababooey or something.
anyway, thanks for the info & laughs!