Replay Value

[Marcus Wolfe]

AOEIIITWC and I just got back together.

I found that the uniquer civs, namely the natives were very fun to play.

[TheTerminator2004]

Problem is, if you've played Morrowind and/or Oblivion, you're not likely to find anything else that comes close in terms of replayability (at least in my opinion). I think Oblivion is the most re-startable game ever made, with Morrowind a close 2nd.

 

I've only actually played all the way through Oblivion once... I've started several games, but didn't get very far with them- once I knew all the quests, I found it got a bit dull.

 

As for KOTOR, alas, I've never played it, although I'd like too. The most replayable game I've ever played has to be Golden Sun- I've completed it sixteen times to date, and played part-way through many times more. I probably know just about almost every secret there is. I would probably have played GS2 almost as much, but it got stolen while I was on holiday, so I can't really say for sure.

 

I also found Civilisation 4 to be very replayable- the variety of civs, units and techs, the complex gameplay, and the huge plethora of mods have made me play it again and again.

 

Company of Heroes is pretty replayable, because of the variety of tactics you can use- it is a good idea to flank the enemy, or keep your men in cover, and to place defenses in strategic locations, and that makes it far more fun to play than Age of Empires, although admittedly harder.

[Povuholo]

As for KOTOR, alas, I've never played it, although I'd like too. The most replayable game I've ever played has to be Golden Sun- I've completed it sixteen times to date, and played part-way through many times more. I probably know just about almost every secret there is. I would probably have played GS2 almost as much, but it got stolen while I was on holiday, so I can't really say for sure.

Golden Sun FTW :P

 

I completed it 3 or 4 times I think.

Maybe you'd be interested in my quest mod (loosely) based on the golden sun games?

 

Quest for the Elements

 

Now we're at it, being able to mod a game also increases its replayability. Don't know why I forgot that one :happy:

[Marcus Wolfe]

Indeed, why not?

Let's not forget that fighter games have INFINITE replay value.

[ninja_lord666]

Indeed, why not?

Let's not forget that fighter games have INFINITE replay value.

You mean you don't get bored killing the same enemies over and over and over and over? Even after you've gotten so good that you can breeze through easily, you still are entertained? When all the challenge has all but vanished, you still find it exiting? I find that hard to believe.

[TheTerminator2004]

As for KOTOR, alas, I've never played it, although I'd like too. The most replayable game I've ever played has to be Golden Sun- I've completed it sixteen times to date, and played part-way through many times more. I probably know just about almost every secret there is. I would probably have played GS2 almost as much, but it got stolen while I was on holiday, so I can't really say for sure.

Golden Sun FTW :P

 

I completed it 3 or 4 times I think.

Maybe you'd be interested in my quest mod (loosely) based on the golden sun games?

 

Quest for the Elements

 

Now we're at it, being able to mod a game also increases its replayability. Don't know why I forgot that one :happy:

 

I did download it a while ago, but then my computer broke, so I haven't had a chance to play it yet. Its going to be one of the first mods I install when its fixed, though :)

 

Indeed, why not?

Let's not forget that fighter games have INFINITE replay value.

 

You mean you don't get bored killing the same enemies over and over and over and over? Even after you've gotten so good that you can breeze through easily, you still are entertained? When all the challenge has all but vanished, you still find it exiting? I find that hard to believe.

 

Fighting games are quite replayable (at least, Soul Calibur 2 is), but thats partly because of all the things to unlock- you want to keep playing so that you can buy that new sword for Link, or to get another costume for Raphael. Once you've finally done all that though, it does get very boring.

[Marcus Wolfe]

Which is why you don't exactly play it everyday.

Maybe 4 times a week.

Enough to keep yourself skilled.

If that gets boring, try some different characters.

If you play with all characters, try harder AI.

If AI is already at max, buy a new game

[Peregrine]

Adding true replay value to a single-player game is essentially impossible. Even with tons of content, branching storylines, etc, you're still dealing with a fixed amount of things to do. And in the case of branching storylines, you aren't really re-playing the game, you're doing it all for the first time. Sure, you might dust off the best single-player games occasionally for another run through, but that's a pretty rare thing.

 

So there are four options:

 

1) Devote tons of effort to expansions and/or encourage a strong modding community. While this can extend the life of the game considerably, again, you're not so much re-playing it as playing a new, but very similar, game for the first time. And this is much easier said than done. Expansions cost a ton of time and money to produce, and the high degree of luck involved in getting a strong modding community makes it too unreliable to count on as a developer.

 

2) Add deathmatch-style multiplayer, with the constant innovation and differences of human opponents keeping the experience unpredictable. And I don't mean literal deathmatch, things like RTS games, Diablo and its clones, etc, all count. The important thing is that each round of the game is short and competitive. Competitive is obvious, you need motivation to keep playing, improve your skills/strategies and crush your opponents.

 

The short duration is less obvious, but equally important. Consider a game with cooperative multiplayer, like Neverwinter Nights. The co-op multiplayer has limited replay value. Since your opponents are all computer-controled with a fixed set of encounters, you're essentially playing a single-player game. After a round or two, you've seen it all and the replay value is gone. Additionally, there is the factor of how difficult it is to organize people. Finding a Diablo II boss run game takes a few seconds of searching, and a few minutes of gameplay to finish. There's no difficulty of organizing the game, and you can play for as long or as short a time as you like. Compare this to the difficulty of finding a group of people to spend long hours playing through the co-op game, without long breaks, starting over, people going on ahead, etc, and the difference is obvious.

 

Note that Neverwinter Nights did have good replay value. However, this is because of the modding community and expansions, not the game itself. Each new expansion/mod had limited replay value, but there was a constant supply of them to keep the game new and interesting.

 

3) Appeal to the compulsive-gambler type, and design a game that encourages addiction. Take a look at Diablo II, many MMORPGs, etc. All of them have features like endless experience grinding and random (and un-tradeable) loot that make the primary strategy for success "spend lots of hours playing the game". You don't need to have a ton of content, deep gameplay, or much of anything else, really, if you can convince your players to spend 16 hours a day killing the same boss for a .00001% chance of dropping the Sword of Pwnage +1000. Though it does require a bit of upkeep, occasionally too many of your addicted players manage to reach the highest levels and get the best items. At this point, you need to edit a few database entries and add the Sword of Pwnage +2000, motivating your addicts to keep up the boss runs.

 

The existence of the term "EverCrack", "my boyfriend/husband loves WoW more than me" support groups, etc, prove this is true. I know of several people who dropped out of college because of WoW, and I came dangerously close with Diablo II. I have a friend who, as a healthy, heterosexual, 20 year old male, decided that he would rather have WoW than sex and a girlfriend. And all these people are paying your subscription fees month after month after month. From a purely financial perspective, it's a winning strategy. From a creative perspective, it's an abomination.

 

4) Say "screw it", drop the single-player entirely, and make an MMORPG, preferably with an emphasis on dynamic content and player interaction. While a game like WoW can succeed based on the addiction factor, the best answer from a creative perspective is to make a truly dynamic world. For example, in EVE-Online, the storyline is just a bit of backstory and lore to provide a setting for the real story: players and the organizations they create, the wars they fight, etc. Right now, alliances with thousands of members are fighting over a region of space. Endless discussions fill the forums, arguing whether Band of Brothers is getting too close to total domination, whether Goonswarm are annoying childish idiots and need to be podded back to the stone age (they do), the latest big scam/betrayal, and countless smaller conflicts down to my prefered specialization of solo piracy. And none of this will ever happen again, miss it and you don't get another chance. Whatever the future holds, you can be absolutely sure that it will be new and different and worth staying in the game for. As a developer, as long as you keep the game balanced, the servers stable, and new players coming in, your replay value is just staggering.

[Marcus Wolfe]

Dude, why aren't guys like you making videogames?