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In an age nobody has much time, its incoerent to demand time and effort in your game design decision
Interesting
Member UncommonPosts: 972
In an age nobody has much time, its incoerent to demand time and effort in your game design decisions.
OR one, OR another.
Or you are developing a game for people that dont have much time. Or you are developing a game for people that have much time.
You cant do both.
You cant expect to simplify the game under the excuse that people dont have much time, and AT THE SAME TIME, design the game in a way that people have to spend a lot of time to progress.
Decide yourself. Or you make a game for a target audience that has time, or for a target audience that doesnt have much time, and this means no fucking boring repetitive uninspired quests/grind/collect materials/get xp/gear pointless hypocrite threadmills...
If you come up with "nowadays people dont have much time" card, you better make the game entertaining since the first 10 minutes or get the fuck out of the industry.
This whole "people dont have much time" is getting overused. Developers use it all the time the way it fits them best.
But when its time for that to benefit players = demand of entertaiment without prior time investment, where are the developers? Hiding under their "customer support forums" walls.
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Comments
The lack of time to play wasn't really an issue for me until lately. In being burnt out on MMOs I decided to try a different type of online experience. One I hadn't really given much if any time to do before. I started playing FPS. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on the PC and Goldeneye 007 and Call of Duty: Black Ops on the Nintendo Wii. The interaction with other players (team mates and/or enemies) has been interesting but what has really grabbed me is that I can honestly jump into a game, play, and then leave. I can play for a few minutes to a few hours and still feel satisfied.
While FPS have a ranking system they are generally usually small. Different guns handle differently. How well you do can easily come down to skill or just luck at times. Unless I'm dealing with single player RPG I don't think I have any patience anymore for the leveling systems developers put in MMOs. They are massive time sinks in the end. They are there to keep you playing so you pay more over time. So you become attached to some character so you keep putting more time into it. People play games like Call of Duty or Super Street Fighter 4 or Madden or StarCraft 2 or Diablo for extremely long periods of time because they are simply fun. There is no artificial system in place that makes it seem "you need to play more" that I can tell.
Leveling has been made easier in MMOs over the years but that doesn't change how much time these games actually require out of you. It did take me a while to realize this really was the case. Especailly if you want to see the most interesting aspect of the content. It's debatable if it's worth it or not. The presentation of games have just been altered.
Only session length is an issue with "having enough time", and whether you DO or DON'T have enough time you can enjoy a game with 10-60 min sessions (vs. the 60+ sessions that certain activities like raiding or long dungons require.)
The real issue is people want to be efficient with their time. Games which demand excessive timesink without much to show for it are consequently not popular. Because whether you DO or DON'T have plenty of spare time, you always care about spending your time efficiently.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Well ... Minecraft was made for both sides of this coin. You can play for hours, hours, hours or days, days, days working on something huge and intricate or you could play for 15 minutes, if that's all the time you had.
People have time if they make time. It's as simple as that.
Also, not everyone works 80 hours a week, parties every hour of every second, wants to go out every day, all day, or has children that need constant attention.
There are plenty of people who have time to do what they enjoy, and if that's play games, then yea...they have time for it. Games are a hobby, and people make time for their hobbies.
And really, there is no reason someone can't get time, unless their responsibilities in life are overwhelming (job + children + family + side projects). And even then, they need some rest and play time.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
This.
People who "never have time" are most likely pretend-busy more than they are actual-busy.
My mom works A LOT, so she literally doesn't have time for anything, so there are people who really don't have time. Yet even she, overworked and overstressed, can make time (even if that time is limited) and even takes a few hours to relax after a hard days work.
Then there are people who are pretend-busy, "Oh I'm always so busy! I never have time for anything!" These people actually have loads of leisure time, they just pretend that picking up a biggulp at 7-11 or going to the grocery store for the 3rd time today or listening to their 5th girlfriend's 3rd drama experience or doing their nails and make up for 5 hours before going out to Taco Bell-- is vital to their existence...nay...the WORLD's health!
Perhaps the worst of them all are the young girls who never stop texting and whine about how they are always being texted so they never have time for anything. IN their eyes, texting MUST be replied to, or ELSE!!!! Too important to turn off your phone and MAKE time for what really matters.
Some people claim to always be busy, and yea it's true-- they're busy vegetating doing absolutely nothing. That takes a lot of work out of them.
If being a developer means being quiet, mature, well-spoken, and disconnected from the community, then by all means do me a favor and believe I'm not one.
Agreed- it's an absolute copout when players say they don't have time for whatever extended activity is in a game. MMOs were built on content that was difficult and took time to complete. Instant gratification gamers will never be satisfied.
The simple tric is to offer gameplay for people who have time and people who have no time.
Win a daily BG in 20 minutes and get conquest points...
Go for a BG Conqueror title by playing 10 hours each day for 12 consecutive weeks and cap 1200 WSG flags...
Both are on offer with smart/succesful designed games.