What is it you look for in games (primarily) ?

Post by **CrackerJackMack** » 20 Jul 2009, 19:34

I've noticed a wide range of gamers here on WSGF ranging from the classic RPG'ers to twitch gamers. I was talking to a co-worker about game preferences and thought it would be a good idea to open the discussion/poll about it...enjoy!

Keep in mind, this is more of what you primarily look for in a game, even if you have been left unsatisfied by the gaming industry. I might have missed some and if so, I'll update the poll if it isn't already there. Naming convention is totally my fault :)

Cynagen · Post by **Cynagen** » 20 Jul 2009, 19:39

You know you make it extremely difficult to choose because I like all of those...

Examples (in order of response to poll):
Battlefield 2
Assassin's Creed
Neverwinter Nights
FEAR/Crysis
WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne
Rise Of Nations/Metropolis (FB game)
Burnout Paradise/Need For Speeds

And those are all games I have played and or still currently play.

Post by **CrackerJackMack** » 20 Jul 2009, 19:44

Hrm, you are right... but the poll didn't have an option to like "pick 3" or something. So I just phrased it up as primarily. Which to me, in my definition, would say "I get the most satisfaction from..."

But that is how I would see it. I did like most of those games as well, but if I had to say what I enjoyed the most was Battlefield 2 as I played online with my friends and dominated :) I enjoyed NWN and some of those others, but I couldn't say I enjoyed them as much as BF2.

Does that help any ? (and apparently I can't edit a poll once I've made it. Including typo's)

Soduka · Post by **Soduka** » 20 Jul 2009, 19:53

I like building shining cities/countries and then ruthlessly oppressing my people, launching wars, etc. So far not one company has made a city/country builder detailed enough to really satisfy me.

:D

whismerhill · Post by **whismerhill** » 20 Jul 2009, 20:26

a good tip for making polls
try to always include the alternative : "other" or "don't know" ... otherwise you "force" people to choose something which may not be that accurate to their taste and therefore bias the poll

I always have fun when I see a poll from a random company
"do you like our new product?" 1. yes 2. no
and so what ? "I don't even know what that product is you fucking moron !"
(sentence to be placed in context of course ;) )

so now my answer is :
I like them all you just have to get me hooked with a nice gameplay and/or a nice atmosphere ...

Post by **CrackerJackMack** » 20 Jul 2009, 20:36

a good tip for making polls
try to always include the alternative : "other" or "don't know" ... otherwise you "force" people to choose something which may not be that accurate to their taste and therefore bias the poll

Ugh, I aways forget that one!! Sorry about that :(

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 20 Jul 2009, 20:59

Cynagen has a point. I feel it's not so much how the game is styled, it's the quality of the content, replayability, effectiveness of AI, choices in weapon upgrades or types, various ways you can take out a target, solve a puzzle, etc. It's nice to be able to play a game that plays differently each time too. More and more devs are trying to pull that off.

It's hard to have a sensible story to follow if you divert from an intended path too much, so making things unpredictable in other ways is needed. That being said, I've yet to see too many games pull off the FPS/RPG hybrid theme well.

Nowadays all you can hope for are games that play without bugs and crashes, esp on the PC platform. Asking for better gameplay has taken a back seat to patch requests. It's as if it's not even a concern anymore. There's just not enough quality beta testing anymore.

Cynagen · Post by **Cynagen** » 20 Jul 2009, 21:16

Nowadays all you can hope for are games that play without bugs and crashes, esp on the PC platform. Asking for better gameplay has taken a back seat to patch requests. It's as if it's not even a concern anymore. There's just not enough quality beta testing anymore.

You know it's pathetic when you can sum up the status of the industry in one paragraph that just highlights almost all the worst qualities. The reason there isn't any half-decent beta testing, is for two reasons. Number one, they don't want to pay for beta testers to come in and play the game and tell them they have more work to do, thus adding to the mounting costs of writing these huge and ever more complex games. And number two, they don't want to beta with the public (even though that would be free and would net a substantial amount of bugs,) because they're afraid that people will just continue to use the beta if it's stable enough, and not pay for the game, or use the beta to figure out a way to patch the final version of the game for pirating. They don't want to give out too much of the core code in order to prevent early piracy.

Post by **CrackerJackMack** » 20 Jul 2009, 21:39

Options "None", "All", and "Some (explain below)" were added (thanks ibrin)

Post by **Abram** » 20 Jul 2009, 22:37

"All of the above". Nice option.

The storyis teh last thing i want in a game. Sure,it's nice to have a solid one with good voice-0acting, but if it has fun gameplay and nice eye-candy, that's enough for me.

Hey, whyisnt; proper WS support in there? That's somethign i look for as well.

Post by **CrackerJackMack** » 20 Jul 2009, 23:07

Hey, whyisnt; proper WS support in there? That's somethign i look for as well.

Touché! Though, I'll take that as an "understood" option since everyone here probably has TH or at least a widescreen :)

whismerhill · Post by **whismerhill** » 21 Jul 2009, 01:58

"All of the above". Nice option.

The storyis teh last thing i want in a game. Sure,it's nice to have a solid one with good voice-0acting, but if it has fun gameplay and nice eye-candy, that's enough for me.

Hey, whyisnt; proper WS support in there? That's somethign i look for as well.

well the topic is mainly about game types as I understand it...
WS support is more on the technical side & could apply to all.
plus who would seriously look for WS support first & foremost in any game ?

As for me, I choose/buy games for their content, hell I even play some 1024x768 only games !!

whismerhill · Post by **whismerhill** » 21 Jul 2009, 02:08

On the beta testing subject,

I feel like there should be more alpha & beta testing
though I can understand when you have spent $$$$ in a project
you don't want to spend more $ in beta testing when you're not even sure of the game's success
problem being when games are not patched at all or enough ...

that's why I think the game industry need a standard to apply to
like stardock's gamers' bill of rights.

Tanuki · Post by **Tanuki** » 21 Jul 2009, 02:25

Open worlds, breasts, powergaming, immersive, polished, atmospheric, non-multiplayer, update crazy - stuff like that.

Any of those may motivate me to buy a game but it would hopefully be a combination of most or all.

I would buy games with lasting comedic value if such games existed.

Cynagen · Post by **Cynagen** » 21 Jul 2009, 02:50

...breasts...

Wait wait... did you mean breasts as in boobs, or beasts?

Post by **Abram** » 21 Jul 2009, 03:20

Beasts with boobs?

Tanuki · Post by **Tanuki** » 21 Jul 2009, 03:31

Wait wait... did you mean breasts as in boobs, or beasts?

Stealth boobies. They are a subconscious risk assessment overrider. I am just more in tune with my needs than most.

Beasts with boobs?

I think you just outed yourself or something.

Frag Maniac · Post by **Frag Maniac** » 21 Jul 2009, 21:04

The only real thing that's truly important with the beta testing is having a good variety of systems to test with and the testers being experienced enough at gaming to know what to look for. When you consider how many people get rid of their old systems for next to nothing and that most of the dev team are likely the kind to continually upgrade to newer spec themselves, it shouldn't be that hard to just pay a handful of members on the dev team to do a little overtime and do it the F*** right for a change.

If the studio is strapped for cash, offer them other incentives or employee benefits instead. It's also a matter of just knowing what the heck you're doing in the first place. You don't see the better dev teams out there having huge problems releasing games in working order. Ultimately I think what kills quality beta testing anymore is pushy publishers that insist they stay on tight deadlines. It's all about releasing a lot of crap games real fast anymore, vs a few quality games at a reasonable pace.

Post by **MobsterOO7** » 22 Jul 2009, 00:09

I almost exclusively require a storyline I can get behind. If what I am doing doesn't at least make a little sense, then I refuse to do it.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 22 Jul 2009, 13:57

In depth storyline. Non-linear is best, but if a linear storyline is good enough, that'll be fine too. :)

I also like games that I can get lost in for hours, whether they have a 'story' or not (like GalCiv, Civ2, etc...)

I'm not a great fan of games that scare the shit out of me.

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