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?
@Electronic Arts buys Popcap Games:
Buying other companies/teams that have potential is sometimes easier (and more profitable) to do.
Everybody does that: the “Narbacular Drop” team developed Portal after being hired by Valve.
@Microsoft: Only Master Chief in Halo from now on:
… so it’ll be a sort of Duke Nukem?
Dunno about this … if the location/universe is compelling enough, you can use different protagonists (see STALKER).
Then again, you have Serious Sam, Duke Nukem and Snake …
@PlayStation Vita dev costs closer to PSP
😛 yeah, they can’t afford to put a cell processor in it.
Jonah, the rear touch pad can act as a universal button.
@Netflix takes aim at usage based billing:
The fault lies with ISPs that don’t want to improve their infrastructure. At some point, while the existing ISPs increase fees, I can see new ones, with a modern infrastructure, coming in and killing the existing ones.
@Expert glitcher hired to clean up Modern Warfare 3?s multiplayer:
It’s hard to find all glitches … some of them get discovered months after release.
@QOTW:
Dunno. Define old. If 2001 is old, then “Codename: Outbreak”. Its game mechanics were more advanced than the graphics it had, so I can see a remake of it having a bit of success.
If you mean older than 2001, then I would go ahead and say none. The reason is that the game mechanics evolved in time, and older games may be a bit too bad in that department. As an example of that, see Doom => Doom 3.
And yes, I am choosing only from FPS-es, because that’s what I like best.
Only Master Chief – I’m glad about this decision. I bought Halo : Reach and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t the same as playing as Master Chief. Halo is very non-realistic, as I’m sure most people know, so when I played Reach and I found that defensive play was a better strategy, it took out some of the fun for me. I play on Legendary however so maybe the fact that I died easier made me more defensive. Nonetheless, I still think that playing as the last Spartan is really what makes the game.
Vita – I am going to agree with Jonah about the rear touch-screen, seems unnecessary and will only drive the price up. However, it could be used in many more ways that may make the system a big hit.
Netflix – If Netflix wants to make more money, good for them. They are a business and can do whatever they like with it. I can’t remember who said it but the existing customers will most likely look at the extra eight or nine dollars, shrug their shoulders, and pay the extra.
Glitcher Hired for MW3 – I’m glad that he has extra time to find glitches in the Multiplayer maps. The past couple games (excluding Black Ops) have been riddled with hacks and glitches that nearly ruined the online experience. Modern Warfare 2 was probably the game that suffered the most from it, so its nice to see that Infinity Ward is trying to take care of this one better. With that said, they did lose about half their staff during the year that MW2 was out, so patches for exploits probably weren’t to easy to put out. Back to MW3, even though he will find some glitches, there will always be new ones popping up for the year that it is out.
QOTW – @Herr Alien, I believe old was described as 1995 and older. I would like to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time remade. They did recently remake it, however the general consensus was that there wasn’t enough there to be a valid remake. I agree with that statement and I think it would be really nice to see this game done again, but better. I can always go back and play it on the SNES and still enjoy it, so I am not dying for a remake, but it would be nice.
On a side note, Zynga did make a play for Popcap.
Hiya Fellas,
First, for my buddy Paul:
http://www.allowe.com/Larry/troubleshooting.htm#Cauldron
Here it is, The Black Cauldron! I fully plan on committing several hours to enjoying this after I leave work. I’m sure my wife will understand. This is from Al Lowe’s website, and he was one of the game designers– so it’s legit! BTW Paul, Leonardo WAS the best turtle. So I can’t disagree with you on that!
For the QOTW- It’s funny. When Jonah first asked the question of the week, I thought “ZELDA!”, buuuut Paul already suggested it. I guess I’d like see a remake of an old “point and click” game I used to play on the NES called, “Shadowgate”. I’m not really sure how I would like to see this done, but with today’s technology (possibly Kinect) it might be a cool idea.
Or I’d like to see Rockstar do a remake of “The Oregon Trail”. That would be nothing short of ah-, wait for it, mazing!
There have been plenty of The Oregon Trail remakes. There’s a version on Facebook, the Nintendo DSi, Wii, and even Windows Phone 7.