game length, replay, and value

[Jason]

Fairly Applicable http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/ ... i-provide/

[Dave]

Ya, I finally beat FFTA2 on DS without knowing it (i just accepted the last quest mission and won) and then realized all my guys were 49 levels from the cap, andI didnt unlock any of the 'secret' characters - Vann , Penelope, Cid, etc or all the classes but now I'm just like.. bleh... before i probably would have cared.

[Jonathan]

I split this topic because I want to talk about it without junking up the Fallout 3 thread.

I am in the same situation as Dave, but seeing as how I never cared to unlock all the secrets and reach the level cap, my aging gamer personality manifests itself in a complete lack of desire to play anything with a story. I just cannot be bothered. And quests, man, I cannot handle quests.

[Alan]

I find that the more sidequests a game has, the less and less interested I become in the main plot. And then when I lose interest in the sidequests, I stop playing the game.

[George]

My enjoyment usually comes for experiencing new parts of the game (i.e., advancing the plot or getting new abilities), so once I've beaten the game once, most of the fun is gone. That means that games where it's easy to miss meaningful, optional content, or worse, where options are mutually exclusive piss me off. The first forces me to use a FAQ, and the second forces me to choose one part of the game to never experience. I'd like to see games with optional content giving you a quick way to experience any missed content after you beat the game. And I don't mean returning you to the game after you win like Fallout 2 and Myst. If I missed it once, I'm going to miss it again. I want to be able to click through a list of stuff I missed.

Using Fallout 2 as an example, parts of the ending are selected based on which quests you completed. After the ending is complete, I want it to tell me what I did that caused each piece and what that part of the ending would have been if I'd done other things. I want it to give me a summary of each quest and random encounter I didn't do and give me the option to play them by themselves immediately.

An alternative is that Lord of the Rings RPG for PS2, which tells you in each zone how many important things there are so you know you have more to do before moving on.

[Dave]

For reference, I was starting to get annoyed at Halo 3 by the last few missions. And that was a short game lol...

Last 'cool game' with a good story and didnt drag on: God of War 1/2

Only games Im looking forward to now that Ive shaken the MMO addiction is : Diablo 3 / SC2 / FF#... and hopefully not end up in MMOs again.

[Alan]

grind-based MMOs are pretty much evil.

[Jason]

The Force Unleashed was the last good game I played, and it had a listing like george mentioned, of all the things you missed on the level. Very useful.

[Vyrosama]

grind-based MMOs are pretty much evil.

MapleStory ftw! ....actually most Korean made MMOs are le grind....