Zoe Mode lead designer Fraser Simpson wonders if devs should welcome back lapsed players
It's pretty easy to finish a video game today, it's just a matter of putting the right amount of time in, the game keeping your interest for long enough to allow you to finish it. What happens if you don't though? Should the meticulous design of something like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow support a play style other than 'play every night or every other night, start to finish in a week or two'?
I was a victim of this over the holidays this year - I was playing a few games in the run up to christmas (Castlevania one of them - and I think it's great by the way), then... it's the holidays. Back to Scotland for two and a half weeks. When I picked up Castlevania again in mid-January, I was useless at it. Fair enough - I'd be noticeably worse at a lot of things if I didn't do them for a couple of weeks, but in the case of some games, this can leave me in a difficult position where I can't engage with the game at all. It's a barrier.
I'm not proposing that games are too difficult. Like I said, it's pretty likely that people complete games nowadays. What's a problem for me (and according to the 30-something-as-average-gamer stats, I am the norm), is that I'll follow the difficulty curve of a game, building on what I learned yesterday; perhaps delving slightly deeper into a more complex control system, only to put the game down for a week (because us 30-somethings have things to do, ok?), and be faced with the nightmare challenge of being inserted back into the game at a point way above my skill level. Actually, I'm not just talking about the difficulty curve, it's the story, orientation, familiarity with the sheer availability of options open to me, and even more on a game-by-game basis.
This is exactly why Ninja Gaiden II has sat gathering dust on my shelf for 2 years. I loved it. I worked late for a week, or there were a few gigs on or I went on holiday or something. I can't go back - I hit a spike and didn't play for a while, now I'm still at that spike and unable to backtrack to get good at the game again. I feel like I'll have to actually start again if I'm going to progress. So, there are now 2 obstacles between me and the enjoyment I was getting from Ninja Gaiden II while I was playing it regularly; my inability to play the game (and I've tried to pick it up again, but at that point there's nowhere to go, nowhere to re-learn) and the time I've already spent that I'll need to spend again.
You could say that films share that same trait, but a film is 2 hours out of your life. It's really no big deal to watch it again. Going back to the start of Ninja Gaiden II is a lot more work than watching a film from the start again because the phone rang halfway through and you got caught up in something.
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Books? Yeah, books are a better analogy - you'll spend 8 hours reading a book, which is about how long I can expect to play a game for unless it's special. But in reading a book, you're only really concerned with story, characters, setting. After a week away from the book you were reading, if you've re-familiarised yourself with those elements, then you're free to continue. There's no muscle memory, there's no skill element. I still know how to read, I still know the language.
Games really are something else. We're at the point in the life of video games as an entertainment where many people from many demographics can be considered 'gamers', but generally speaking, we still make games for the dedicated, those who can learn with the game and stay in it. We rarely welcome back lapsed players.
I don't know how this gets solved or if it ought to be (maybe it's just part of what makes games a unique experience), but it is a reason why I feel I can't go back to a lot of games with expansive stories, controls and abilities evolve and deepen with the time line.
If only a small percentage of players will finish a game, then perhaps that's because we don't support this kind of situation (which I imagine is fairly common). We're determined to encourage people to start playing our games but perhaps we don't do enough to encourage them to come back.
@ Fraser - I find myself in a similar position. Games could perhaps have a self timing check.
eg. when the last game was played/run. Subsequently, if its more than a week to months, the game could adapt its difficulty level towards the gamer or treat it as a newbie and adopt a feedback loop.
Should said gamer end up killing its opponents or acing the game level, the AI can adjust its difficulty level to be - just right (according to the desired difficulty the designers desire)
I am over 35 now and have very little time to play games these days (0-2 hours per week). I mostly play random Flash games since they are short, fun (frak graphics), plentiful, and mostly free. I still have old computer games (Crysis 1, World in Conflict, C&C3:KW, etc.) to resume and finish. I also have new ones like game demos, betas, and Minecraft. :( My gaming play moments are short life too since I don't want to play more after playing them like arcades, Atari 2600 games, etc. In fact, I still have fun with old games from those days through emulators, remakes, etc. :(
This is why I enjoy the Fallout 3 so much: while there's definitely an overarching story to remember, there are little vignette stories scattered all over the wasteland that you can just drop into and enjoy. I very quickly reached the stage where I could handle any enemy the game threw at me, and after that it was about exploring in my own time, and enjoying the self-contained tidbits each on their own. The "Antagonizer" adventure was a perfect example.
Sad but true.....
There are so many games that for one reason or another, I had to stop playing for awhile. Then when I tried to get back into it, it was tough.
One solution would be to have a separate tutorial section that you could play to get back into the game, and another would be a story recap of events so far. but in the end, would the development time for that be worth it for a few players that would utilize it?
I agree with Antisquark on Fallout 3, and it's the same with New vegas. Bethesda's style games allow you to jump in and play after you havent touched the game in a long time.
I still jump into Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 from time to time.
I am a musician and I am dedicated to music and games and it's my life and without them I can't brethe.......practical mind is the best way to go that way you have more fun rather than just moning that you can't play a game that fits around your busy time.
Castlevania lords of shadow is a master piece in its own right and its these games that deserve to praised.
I am a musician and I am dedicated to music and games and it's my life and without them I can't brethe.......practical mind is the best way to go that way you have more fun rather than just moning that you can't play a game that fits around your busy time.
Castlevania lords of shadow is a master piece in its own right and its these games that deserve to praised.
Well put indeed!
I've been thinking about this one a lot recently, as someone from a "solid JRPG background" it's very odd that I haven't actually played a JRPG in years! The thing is, between trying to freelance as a game developer, study Japanese, and actually cling onto a social life, 80 hours is simply a time investment I can't make...
I lie however when I say I haven't played a JRPG in years; I took time out a while back to play through "Half Minute Hero", a game that both takes me back to years of pouring whole weeks of summer holidays into JRPGs, distilled into a few minutes of chapters easily small enough to complete in the time it takes to get from one subway station to another.
The spiritual sequel to this, Jikandia: The Timeless Land, takes this one step further, allowing the player to input how long they actually want to spend playing the game, and auto-generating the content based around this timeframe, a really great concept for the busy gamer.
I consider myself a "core gamer", but one that hardly ever plays core-games. I'm certain I am part of a demographic with this, and not alone. Perhaps the solution to this "lapsed gamer" problem can come from the exploration of new mechanics such as those seen in the above two examples?
Bioshock was great; great in that it both satisfied my desire to play a "core game", but also providing an experience I could complete in a week, a couple of hours a night, and shelve afterwards. But I can't really think of another game as of late that has struck this balance so well.
