Mad Max Dev: "Short" Games Behind Trade-Ins

[Shadow-Phoenix]

I've played every game on that list except Red Alert 2 and Generals (hoping to pick them up during the next steam sale) and the ammount of time for value you can get out of a good RTS is scary. I once put in 30 hours into one city in Anno 2070, not the whole campagin just one city in free play mode and Stronghold still holds my gaming session record at 8 hours straight.

God where are the good RTSs lately?!

For me I just started playing Anno 2070 about 2 weeks ago and I'm still trying to learn how to play the game and advance but it is fun for what it is XD.

I'd also recommend the latest C&C ultimate pack that has every single C&C game with it, although it's not on Steam it's still a decent buy.

And yeah I'm still hankering for a new RTS to play with PA on the border for Dec it looks like that's going to be my main RTS to look forward to for 2013 and I installed the Shock Therapy mod for Red Alert 3 which gives you all the units from the uprising expansion (Soviets can finally build Tesla tanks in the campaign and same goes for all other faction specific units making missions more fun) and it fixes the game graphically along with a ton of new maps and colours to pick =3.

That and they fixed the camera angle so I'd suggest if you still play RA3 to give this mod a try.

http://www.moddb.com/mods/shock-therapy

 

[-Dragmire-]

I would counter this argument buy offering up Portal as Exhibit A.

A very short game by single player only standards but one that is such a joy to play that I have revisited it three or four times. I could say the same for other games as well; Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Darksiders, Batman: Arkham Asylum, to name three; games that I keep coming back to not for what I haven't seen or done, but to enjoy the things I have done again.

I think the key word is replayable. Not going back to a game out of some laboured compulsion to see everything but because you want to REPLAY something you enjoyed before.

?

Was Portal released on it's own with a full AAA price tag? I think the point he was trying to make was about new AAA title short term trade-ins, Portal doesn't really conflict with his statement.

Love me some Super Metroid though, done in an afternoon and played every 1-2 years. A good quality game that hits a gamer's sweet spot is always replayable.

 

[Clovus]

While I definitely play a lot of games with long campaigns or "replay value" (Crusader Kings II, XCOM, Minecraft, etc.), I don't really see it as a positive thing that a game without those features will miss out on sales because of trade-ins. That can just encourage companies to pad the game time or attempt multiplayer when it doesn't make sense.

I think a good example is Journey. I guess it wasn't full price, but it was only a few hours long. There is not "game+" mode, but you can certainly do the story a few times. It was considered the best game of the year by a lot of people, but it doesn't feature a long campaign, a separate "mutliplayer" mode besides the drop-in co-op, or all that much replayability. I don't see that as a bad thing.

I think That Game Company has a relationship with Sony that avoids traditional publisher pressures, so they didn't compromise on their design. But, I could see that as a problem for companies with publishers who want them to attempt to do something to avoid trade-ins.

Short games with no replayability are just fine. Equating the cost to playtime is pretty dubious. I probably go more out of 5 hours of Journey then I did out of 35 hours of Kingdoms of Amalur.

The idea that a "good game is always replayable" is interesting, but I don't think it applies to everyone. If I'm the kind of person who trades in a game when I'm done, I would have traded in Journey. There's just way to much other stuff out there that I want to experience to take the time to replay a game a year later. I'd assume that your average customer feels that way too, as opposed to the type that posts on gaming websites. Replaying finished games is cool, I just don't think it's very common.

 

[weirdee]

corollary: games with great replay value fetch near new, or in certain cases of limited stocking, HIGHER prices than the original retail value, if they don't flood the market with an excessive amount of copies

 

[octafish]

Hmmm, I still bust out Charlie Don't Surf in COD4 every now and then. It is one of the best linear shooting galleries of all time. I think quality will always win out over quantity every time for me. Who wants to play a hundred hours of something like an open world Warfighter? First you need a good game and then you can think about length.
I'm out of the used game debate being on PC but as an outsider who pays bugger all for new games, the sooner you guys embrace digital and abandon used games the sooner you will get Steam type sales.

 

[piinyouri]

Obviously replay value is a subjective thing, but I personally would agree with his conclusion.
A game that has features or mechanics built in to facilitate further play throughs are almost always going to give the game a much longer life.