Early Access - Who Gets to be Awesome?
Added 2020-10-28 11:22:19 +0000 UTCWhen it comes to a power fantasy, should players have to earn the right to feel awesome and masterful, or should the game deliver that to players automatically? I explore this issue in the latest episode of GMTK.
Love ya
Mark
Comments
We've talked about the conflicting needs of laypeople and experts before, and I always relate to it. It actually makes me think of escape room design. See, escape rooms have a very prominent community of enthusiasts. These people have a really, really high skill level when it comes to puzzles and game flow. Escape rooms are often designed by these enthusiasts, and very often beta-tested on them exclusively. Which means escape room complexity and puzzle difficulty are almost always tuned to their high level. From my couple years' experience, guess who the most common customers at these things are? Wealthy-ish millennials looking for fun stuff to do. Parents entertaining their 10-year olds and bonding with their teens. Stoned haunted-house fans. Bachelor parties! I've run escape rooms for multiple companies, some better than others, and in my time I've observed probably 70% of groups coming deeply unprepared for the level of challenge waiting inside those things. But they won't change, because the enthusiasts are the ones writing the reviews and giving out the awards. Like video games, escape rooms NEED to use smart design to satisfy both parties. Someday...
Will Kommor
2020-10-29 03:50:24 +0000 UTCGreat breakdown of this topic. I've discussed many times why I typically don't like the various games. But I've never been able to put why unto words. As a fairly hardcore gamer, I can't stand when the fantasy is given to me (as you've so eloquently put it). But it makes perfect sense why design goes in the way it does... Especially for big studios with lots of money on the line and stakeholders to get buy-in from.
Logan Moore
2020-10-28 16:48:41 +0000 UTCGreat video and an intriguing topic. I recently finished 'Mirrors Edge: Catalyst' (thanks COVID) and it's one of those like Bayonetta in a way. You can "finish" the game relatively simply and with a low mastery - it makes you feel pretty awesome easily. But in doing so you're missing out on most of what it has to offer through its various speed runs and other challenges. I personally got more out of exploring the city and finding alternate routes that shaved a couple seconds off my time in a specific run than I did completing the story. That's another way to look at challenge too - there's something to be said for trying to best other players...or getting motivated to do better by seeing that someone else has done it even better than your best run.
Rich Stoehr
2020-10-28 14:22:33 +0000 UTCThis is an interesting topic. Personally I've always been more of the earn the fantasy type of gamer, and while I don't think all games are necessarily for everyone giving more options so games can broaden their public without alienating their player base is always good.
drixkarasu
2020-10-28 12:50:31 +0000 UTC
