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?
The anonymous source is running around with a bunch of neat rumors, such as a LittleBigPlanet release on the PSP but the one that may hit home most with gamers is price cutting. The PS3 has been around for a few years now and hasn’t budged on the price tag; they’ve had fire sales on obsolete products (smaller disk drives mainly) but no official drops.
Hey guys. I’m back from commenting retirement forced to do so once again by your grim opinions on my favorite console 🙂
@Vita
The Vita isn’t going anywhere. While I already said that I partially agree with Jordan that there is no constant flow of exclusive games, I still can’t say that this means that there is nothing to play on the Vita. Especially now with the cheaper version and the PS4 Remote Play, people will think again about buying one. Heck, if Jonah is considering getting one… maybe… By the way – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:PlayStation_Vita-only_games sure, there is crapware there but there’s at least a dozen perfectly good, big games.
I also think Borderlands 2 isn’t really a system seller but it’s a well-known title that will make people look at the Vita and I believe that once you play it for a while, you realize how good of a system it really is for on-the-go gaming.
@PSNow
Obviously, people will,in general, not pay a subscription to play PS1 games, but PS3… I bet there are many people who would rather sell their PS3 and get PSNow for PS4 than keep the two consoles. It’s obvious to me that Sony shouldn’t be aiming at the latest releases to be available via PSNow. It’s going to be tough but if they play it right, they might be able to pull it off. I wonder if the games people own digitally will be available via PSNow for free… Also the ones obtained from PS+.
@QOTW
I didn’t really introduce anyone to video gaming. However, I convinced two friends to get a PS+ subscription for their PS3. I guess this counts. I also introduces some friend to board gaming and we meet regularly to play but this is easier since it’s intrinsically a more social activity.
Hey guys,
Don’t have too much to add this time but I’ll answer the QOtW.
I think I can say my wife and I introduced our daughter into Gaming. She loves to play Minecraft, Sims, Fable, and some other web based games.
Great show guys and keep up the good work. I also like it when you have 3 man team going with Paul or Dan.