Qizx said:
Really?
I mean most of the games I've played I absolutely consider a fantastic use of money.
Skyrim? 200+ hours (I didn't buy at full price but assume I did) = 3.33 hours a dollar.
Fallout NV? 100+ hours (Also didn't buy at full) = 1.7 hours per dollar.
Let's compare this to a nice dinner out with the lady. I'm looking at dropping around 100 dollars for a 2-4 hour experience. Video games by their nature tend to be one of the best bangs for your buck.... Ok screw these new AAA games that cost 60 and you finish in 10 hours.
Morgoth780 said:
What would have made those games (or any game) worth $60 in your opinion? Since you mentioned me3 I'm assuming that length would not be it. For you, would a game just have to be utterly perfect?
Hope you don't mind, I'm gonna try to answer you both with one post as your comments are similar.
Short answer, something along the lines of the Holo Deck from Star Trek, if I'm honest. Despite what we say about immersion and the like, I'm never not aware I'm playing a video game, so I'm never really all that invested. I loved Skyrim, I loved Fallout New Vegas but there were times the power would go out during a storm and I'd lose 4+ hours of gameplay and it wouldn't bother me. I just shrug and put the controller down, content the contents are still there and I really haven't lost much.
The overall problem I have with these games, Mass Effect 3 included, is that the roll-playing is so limiting. Sure, we have 5+ dialogue options every conversation, none of which is something I'd say! For all the hullabaloo about playing the character, there's never a chance to get to know the character on a human level. I mean my Skyrim Imperial? Does he like lemonade? What does he do during his days off? What's his favorite cheese?
Or Shepard! What's his favorite movie? Beer? Night club?
Or whatever my character's name was in New Vegas? Did he actually like Cass and want to romance her? Why did he just take a single no without trying to woo? Did he like whiskey or vodka more?
The games were immersive within severe limitations. You could never go out for a night on the town in New Vegas and get black-out drunk and punch a robot in the face. You know, things you
would do in a 50s/early 60s version of a post-apocalypse Las Vegas.
Yes, these games were long, but they were very repetitive without many chances to characterize my characters. And yes you could have a head canon over all those things, but it never meant anything in the game. The only way you get to know your characters is writing a God damn fan fiction about them. Yes, you
could eat cheese in Skyrim, but it never meant anything. You never got into a debate with Lydia over the best kind of cheese, or mead. It was always "I am sworn to carry your burdens, yadda yadda..." After 3-5 dialogue lines per character, there was never anything new.
I basically beat New Vegas. Some 400+ hours, did all the quests, met all the people, killed all the deathclaws. But I wanted to play more! I wanted to talk with people about their day, to do something
anything new. But nothing ever happened. NPC #000912Cass would never say anything new, ever again.
Something like a holo deck from star trek were
you are interacting with the world, were
you can respond to and get responses from the NPCs/AI in realistic ways, to make it feel real and thus immersive and thus worth while...
that would be worth paying full price for.
P.S. Sorry if I'm rambling...