Storytelling in Games Thread

[jubeh]

Im actually playing rocksmith and I can't stand it at all. You're right that it should be optional. Or maybe even have a reverse options where it gets harder as you suck more, like demons souls kinda did.

[CypressDahlia]

Actually, now that I think about it...observing how various games have handled 'difficulty', Clockhand may be onto something as far as retaining "experience" goes. A lot of games encourage players to try higher difficulties by depriving them of some part of the overall experience. Like when I was like 8 and playing SFA2 on one star setting, they'd never show me the goddamn endings and at the end it's like "why don't you try a higher difficulty setting? *trollface*"

Like is there any way to do this without condescending to the player? Cuz I think "normal" difficulty is generally crafted under the impression that the average player will flock to that difficulty, and therefore is made to show off how the developers wanted the majority of people to experience the game. Like, it's the "ideal" mode if you just want to feel complete playing a game. For example, on lower difficulties in MvC3, the CPU will //rarely// use team hyper combos, though that is an integral part of the game. So I think encouraging players to at least reach this level of play is good, I just don't see how it can be done without being a dick about it. Cuz honestly the only reason I decided to get better at fighting games is because those motherfuckers never showed me the goddamn endings--EVER.

And then there's the Outrun/Mega Zone method of branching levels, but that in itself is flawed as players who constantly choose the "easy" path will never get to experience the level design of the harder levels. So it's like...can we somehow encourage players to experience the harder aspects of a game (which are, undoubtedly, //part// of the game) without like...baiting them into doing it?

[jubeh]

Regarding difficulty--

I like games that support the player gimping themselves in some way. Like doing level 1 runs in dark souls, or using only the mega buster in megaman. Stuff like that. That way when you feel like you've mastered a game, you can really just make it as hard as you want. EpicNameBro fights in dark souls without a hud and without healing occasionally, just because. Note I wouldn't play without the hud unless you WERE doing no healing cuz you wouldn't know what item you had equipped.

[Inksprout]

To some extent games try to use achievements to encourage players to experience harder aspects of the game and push their limits. As far a I know though only really intense achievement hunters see all that much point or meaning in trying to get all the achievements. I think that having more meaningful in game rewards for beating achievements might further encourage 'lazy' players to seek out greater challenge.
Some players might just enjoy a game enough to replay it on a harder difficulty, especially with games that have a new game ++ feature where they can carry over weapons and Armour (though even without newgame++ I often begin replaying games on a harder setting).

[jubeh]

Interesting killscreen article on game difficulty

http://killscreendaily.com/articles/...oclassical-era

[Fenn]

Interesting killscreen article on game difficulty

http://killscreendaily.com/articles/...oclassical-era

Hang on brb, gonna go get me Ph.D. in English then read this.

In seriousness good article but for some reason I had trouble following it.

[CypressDahlia]

That's basically what I was saying about certain indie games: notoriety for the difficulty level of a game is just as big a selling point as graphics or realism or whatever. Games can be famous and cherished just for being balls hard. Ninja Gaiden was not an excellent game by any means, but its rumored difficulty made it an essential for every gamer's collection.

[GunZet]

I'm hoping Gaiden 3 is a lot better than that crapfest NG2. I swear, the sole purpose of that game was to show off the advancements in boob physics. And we all know DoA has that on lock.

[CypressDahlia]

The girl in Ninja Gaiden 2 served absolutely no purpose. Actually, she was anti-purposeful, like worse than "useless" in the sense that she actually made things harder for you than they could've been. Hey, I have to get to the top of the statue of liberty. You have a helicopter...but go ahead and drop me off right at the bottom so I have to fight my way up.