Off the beaten path

[UrgeNexus]

Well I plan on playing a good deal longer too but I don't think I'll touch 1000 hours. Games like Never Winter Nights, Sacred, Knights of the Old Republic are truly immortal (unfortunately the CD's they came in aren't) - brings back so many great memories. :)

I think Skyrim has better longevity with consistent play. Skyrim simply has so many things to do, whereas games like NWN and KotOR are structured stories with a beginning and end with limited freedom and replayablity. Don't get me wrong, KotOR is a much better game than Skyrim in almost every respect (I am not counting graphics and the like as it's simply not a fair comparison), but I can't play KotOR consistently over the course of a whole year without getting sick of it, as I have with Skyrim. I will almost certainly replay KotOR again some day, it's been years since the last time, but it's not the kind of game I can play over and over and over. When it first came out I played it twice, Light and Dark side, then left it for a while. Then occasionally dipped into it if I was feeling bored or nostalgic.

 

Skyrim on the other hand I've been playing fairly regularly since it came out, taking breaks to focus on other games as they came out. After quitting WoW and finding no other MMO that satisfied me for long, Skyrim took the spot as my go to game. With the sheer mass of content, the number of ways to build your character and with the aspect of roleplaying (Not facilitated by the game but simply through imagination) Skyrim has incredible longevity that more linear RPG's simply don't. Linear games will almost always tell better stories, but once they're done you've mostly seen what there is to see.

[bjeet]

I agree 100% about the longevity of Skyrim even without all the mods. The story in Skyrim isn't much to speak about and much of the environment and NPC interactions become monotonous later on into the game but its the ability to create varied characters and just run around the beautifully created outdoors that makes it a lot of fun to play for me.

[Brandy1123]

Vanilla Skyrim was old 30 days into its gameplay. It was worn out, mundain, repetative and predictable. It was blotchy and broken. It did however have a great community following.

 

Modded Skyrim, is much different.

 

Its still worn out, but has nice colorful cross stitches with new patterned fabrics. Its still mundain but now has the rare joyful flashes of excitement. Its Extremely repetative until you change it. Predictability is hard to overcome, but some randomness is introduced. Its look changes with each generation of modder working on and off the previous - smoothing out and repairing the gameflow and look. It still has a great community following and now an army of talented modders who keep this game alive inspite of Bethesda or STEAMypile

[bjeet]

I don't like STREAM. I want my games in boxes and bugs fixed before release. And I also don't like Gaming Consoles much.....good old reliable (and versatile) PC is my thing. Guess that makes a me a old timer. :sleep: Edited January 19, 2013 by bjeet

[UrgeNexus]

I don't like STREAM. I want my games in boxes and bugs fixed before release. And I also don't like Gaming Consoles much.....good old reliable (and versatile) PC is my thing. Guess that makes a me a old timer. :sleep:

The boxed copies of Bethesda games are no less buggy than the Steam version, what you get on Steam is what you would get in a store. I use Steam because it's convenient, why go out of my way to get to a gamestore when I can get the game faster and cheaper on Steam?

[AnimeOtaku102]

Honestly, Bethesda isn't famous for having highly polished products even before Steam, if anything Steam just makes patch distribution that much faster (not that Bethesda is churning out those patches at lightning speeds). There really isn't any difference between the boxed retail and online retail versions aside from the cloth maps (which nobody makes anymore), mousepads (which hardly anyone ever used, not to mention the quality. Oh, god, the quality. I still remember how the Arena mousepad smelled like a tire dipped in paint thinner), or other bits of paraphernalia that come with Collector Editions. If you're getting the CE, that is.

 

Personally I get a boxed copy because I know the owner of the local (independent) gaming store. I'd feel like a bit of a dick if I went "lol, nope, not going to give you business, buddy, you can't compete with an online retailer."

[bjeet]

Honestly, Bethesda isn't famous for having highly polished products even before Steam, if anything Steam just makes patch distribution that much faster (not that Bethesda is churning out those patches at lightning speeds). There really isn't any difference between the boxed retail and online retail versions aside from the cloth maps (which nobody makes anymore), mousepads (which hardly anyone ever used, not to mention the quality. Oh, god, the quality. I still remember how the Arena mousepad smelled like a tire dipped in paint thinner), or other bits of paraphernalia that come with Collector Editions. If you're getting the CE, that is.

 

Personally I get a boxed copy because I know the owner of the local (independent) gaming store. I'd feel like a bit of a dick if I went "lol, nope, not going to give you business, buddy, you can't compete with an online retailer."

 

Same with me. I've been buying at the same place since Duke Nukem 3D ( now that was a great game).....how time flies man. I'll get boxed copies of games as long as I play games (or as long as they are available) - rather silly some people say but there is a little something called loyalty. :yes:

[UrgeNexus]

Honestly, Bethesda isn't famous for having highly polished products even before Steam, if anything Steam just makes patch distribution that much faster (not that Bethesda is churning out those patches at lightning speeds). There really isn't any difference between the boxed retail and online retail versions aside from the cloth maps (which nobody makes anymore), mousepads (which hardly anyone ever used, not to mention the quality. Oh, god, the quality. I still remember how the Arena mousepad smelled like a tire dipped in paint thinner), or other bits of paraphernalia that come with Collector Editions. If you're getting the CE, that is.

 

Personally I get a boxed copy because I know the owner of the local (independent) gaming store. I'd feel like a bit of a dick if I went "lol, nope, not going to give you business, buddy, you can't compete with an online retailer."

 

Same with me. I've been buying at the same place since Duke Nukem 3D ( now that was a great game).....how time flies man. I'll get boxed copies of games as long as I play games (or as long as they are available) - rather silly some people say but there is a little something called loyalty. :yes:

Which is all well and good if you know the owner or have been going to that store for years. Neither is true in my case however, the gamestores that I can get to without it being a hassle are an EB Games and a Gamestop. I don't have any relationship with either, they are places that sell games and that's it. Buying them on Steam is more convenient, it's faster, cheaper and Steam doesn't insist on selling me things I don't need because it's store policy. Steam let's me buy what I want, when I want. Add the frequent sales into the mix, which range from "A good deal" to "Ludicrously cheap" and Steam is for me personally by far the best option when it comes to buying games.

[AnimeOtaku102]

Which is all well and good if you know the owner or have been going to that store for years. Neither is true in my case however, the gamestores that I can get to without it being a hassle are an EB Games and a Gamestop. I don't have any relationship with either, they are places that sell games and that's it. Buying them on Steam is more convenient, it's faster, cheaper and Steam doesn't insist on selling me things I don't need because it's store policy. Steam let's me buy what I want, when I want. Add the frequent sales into the mix, which range from "A good deal" to "Ludicrously cheap" and Steam is for me personally by far the best option when it comes to buying games.

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. If you don't have to worry about who you buy it from there are far more advantages to online retailers than brick n' mortar stores. Even one of the traditional advantages of boxed copies, that being selling it back as a used copy - is slowly being chipped away with publishers like EA packaging content as DLCs (free only for new copies) and Sony patenting systems to ban used games.

[UrgeNexus]

Which is all well and good if you know the owner or have been going to that store for years. Neither is true in my case however, the gamestores that I can get to without it being a hassle are an EB Games and a Gamestop. I don't have any relationship with either, they are places that sell games and that's it. Buying them on Steam is more convenient, it's faster, cheaper and Steam doesn't insist on selling me things I don't need because it's store policy. Steam let's me buy what I want, when I want. Add the frequent sales into the mix, which range from "A good deal" to "Ludicrously cheap" and Steam is for me personally by far the best option when it comes to buying games.

Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. If you don't have to worry about who you buy it from there are far more advantages to online retailers than brick n' mortar stores. Even one of the traditional advantages of boxed copies, that being selling it back as a used copy - is slowly being chipped away with publishers like EA packaging content as DLCs (free only for new copies) and Sony patenting systems to ban used games.

Used games may be good for consumers, but they are terrible for the industry. When a game is sold used, the retailer gets all the money, the publishers and by extension the developer get's nothing. So I don't see the phasing out of used games as being a problem, I don't think the reduced price is worth shafting the developer. I'm not judging people who buy used, I understand why people would and I have bought used in the past, but I don't like doing it. I don't like the idea of it if that makes any sense. At least with Steam sales Valve doesn't walk away with all of the money, at least not as far as I know.