Your type of games

[adc.]

Please don't muck it up, I want to see which games do you guys prefer.

 

Probably, I made a few mistakes and inaccuracies in the poll, but you get the picture right? So yeah, don't mind it.

 

Personally, I prefer singlelplayer games over multiplayer because lag that's why, plus you can't pause/save the game. During a raid, your mom tells you to throw the trash, and then your whole party gets killed because you forgot to say brb or whatsoever. You can't save a game if you'll attempt something stup- "irrational"

 

I prefer stories and combat. An excellent story will immerse you in the game far more than the others, to me, it is the very frame of the games I prefer, without it, they would fall into pieces. Combat comes next because repetitive and unchallenging combat will make you want to throw your laptop/PC out of the window.

 

Roleplaying games, why? Because I see a lot potential in myth and magic. Jeff's games because, wait, why is it there? ofc, he owns this forums.

 

Forgiving type, with a steady and stable challenge. The Witcher 2 was quite an example of it. A dark plot because it's so awesome.

 

Ok, so I had a limited time to post this thing, since our review will come in a few hours, I hope you guys appreciate it.

[nikki.]

Okay.

 

I voted 'Singleplayer'; 'Story' and 'Game Mechanics/Gameplay', 'Yes' and 'No'. I picked the latter two options because I felt those questions were kind of... weak. There are more types of games than those you listed in #3, whilst the answer to #4 is half mechanicy/gameplay-y, and half plot, so it was unclear what you were really asking.

[keira]

Yeah, I opted not to answer as these questions were much too narrow in scope.

[Edgwyn]

My second pick for the type of games would be turn based strategy (e.g. Civilization).

[Alorael at Large]

I like single-player games and multiplayer games. I do not like my RPGs to be multiplayer and I don't think competitive games would really work without the multiplayer.

 

Stories are great, but you don't need one with great game mechanics. And I'll forgive some pretty lousy mechanics if the story is compelling enough. I don't think gameplay and combat are really separate; often the combat is the gameplay. Planescape is the big exception here, but again, it's carried by story. Graphics are nice and all, but distinctly secondary, and I'll take ASCII if the game merits it.

 

I like a variety of games.

 

Your last question mixes mechanics and plot. I'll take any plot as long as it's good and any mechanics as long as they're fun and fit the game in question. I don't need hack and slash combat in my deep philosophical exploration of the human condition. I don't need puzzle mini-games in my hack 'n slash.

 

—Alorael, who mostly prefers games that choose an identity and embrace it. Not everything benefits from multiplayer. Not everything benefits from single-player either. No need to shoehorn much of a plot into your game purely about high-intensity platforming. No sudden, unnecessary tooth-gnashing horrible platforming in a story- and choice- driven adventure.

[Nephil Thief]

Games that let me mess around with the mechanics and add stuff. Mostly mechanics-related stuff. Most of the fun of Angband (IMO) comes from being able to do this.

 

Being able to write one's own plots would also be cool, but I've yet to find a game engine that lets me do that easily.

 

(But I'll create my wire-biotech-fu BoE scenario some day... Some day... Maybe when the game gets embedded Python scripting support. IOW, when I'm starting to turn bald.)

 

As far as characters go, I used to enjoy putting myself in an RPG character's shoes, but that kind of ended when I figured out I could write.

 

...

 

BTW, I have to throw in a word about the idea that moral ambiguity in games == progressive: I don't think the one necesssarily implies the other. Progress is (among other things) showing characters as flawed human beings, not making every single one a monster.

 

IOW, I think there's a difference between not having any heroes and actually fighting the myth of heroism.

 

Edit: granted that fantasy RPG "adventurers" tend to be fairly monstrous sorts, that particular issue has been beaten until dead and then some.

[adc.]

Yeah, I opted not to answer as these questions were much too narrow in scope.

Too.

 

Much.

 

Agreed.

 

I didn't have the time to make up the questions, my apologies. Although I didn't want to lose this tempting-to-post ideas of mine inside my head.

 

I could have listed them down, and improve them, but time would fade away.

 

YEAAHHHHH SINGLEPLAYER!!!

 

The poll is so bland -.-

 

By game mechanics/gameplay, I wasn't so clear about this and hard to explain too. So it kinda depends on your definition.

[Goldengirl]

I like board games, which is generally the extent of multiplayer that I care to put in. The veil of ignorance shields some pretty despicable behavior in which the player is both fully present and fully absent in any given situation. That's true because I also play FPS when I get an itchy trigger finger and feel like being beat by a bunch of thirteen year old kids with more skill at shooters than I'll ever have.

 

I like lo-fi games, which have a unique ability to strip down all the mechanics and just tell a really good story. Game developers like Gregory Weir (the Majesty of Colors, Looming) and Daniel Bermengui (Today I Die, I Wish I Were the Moon) both come to mind as the creme de la creme. Pixelated art and simple controls that have some powerful messages. I almost universally love all of the games on Casual Girl Gamer's list of games that make you think. A long-time favorite (that I wish still showed up on these forums *grumble grumble*) is play-by-post RP's. The World of Avernum, an abortive Geneforge faction RP, and others have filled my time with great writing and good fun. I was a NationStates junkie too, once, where I roleplayed constantly on the International Incidents forum as a fascist nation. There are rare times I miss it, but I just don't have that time anymore.

 

I also like more flashy games. Fable: The Lost Chapters is my immediate connection, a game of sunk a lot of hours into. It has some cool ideas and a few interesting side quests; the main plot is fairly cookie-cutter. A lot of its most interesting features don't ever get fully explored, I think, which is a shame. Nevertheless, it's pretty, it's stimulating enough, and it's fun. Unfortunately, not a lot of games like this get made anymore for PC, so my list here is a lot shorter.

 

I'd say Jeff's games fit a nebulous region in between the two worlds. It's polished enough to not really be lo-fi anymore, but at the same time it's decades behind the big studios. They are high-end lo-fi games and low-end flashy games. I love the world-building ideas, I'm generally interested in the plot though it can be mundane, and I find the occasional gems of character development and humor worthwhile.

 

I also like games that are purely mental exercises. I'm an undying Myst fangirl, and I also enjoy strategy games while almost always hating their plots. Age of Empires, StarCraft, even WarCraft back in the day all filled many an empty afternoon.

[Callie]

I pretty much only play Jeff's RPGs and 4x strategy games, along with a few other game like Half-Life and EV Nova. My favorites are Alpha Centauri and Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword. I have Civilization V and its expansions, but the game seems to be about filling up different buckets while dominating the strategically inebriated AI (Hey look! The player has a SAM missile unit coming my way! Let's attack it with low-flying aircraft!).

[Xaiya]

This poll is bad. Polls in general are almost always bad anyways, though.

 

That being said, I like a variety of games and a variety of settings. I will happily go from sniping stupid AI to lodging fireballs at other stupid AI. Occasionally, I will do that to stupid people as well, but my brain never cooperates with me when I play in PvP, so it's usually stupid me being sniped or whatever. Thus, I'm more inclined to play games that are either single player or PvE (where I proceed to solo most things anyways). I lean more towards games where you actually control your character rather than click once and gleefully watch your character perform the action, but obviously as I'm posting here, I do like the occasional turn-based stuff. I'm more into the mechanics in games I play, but good stories are definite bonuses.

 

Sadly, most games (that aren't competitive) tend to get too easy too quickly. I have a horrible tendency to soak up absurd amounts of knowledge in the game early on and proceed to abuse every bit of it to destroy everything. If I don't, I feel like I'm wasting something based on the game.

[Khoth]

How am I supposed to answer the last question if I found Dark Souls easier than Witcher II?

[Zummi]

no romance option i rate it geneforge3/geneforge2

[Necris Omega]

Ultimately my favorite type of game is an RPG with massive player created custom content options. Your Elder Scrolls, your Neverwinter Nights, and your Spiderweb Blades of _______ games.

 

Wish I could find something more recent - Skyrim's aging fast, Neverwinter Night's is Ancient (and its sequel a crime against gaming), and Blades of Avernum never took off like its predecessor, sadly...

[adc.]

How am I supposed to answer the last question if I found Dark Souls easier than Witcher II?

 

Take the bad as choice.

 

I find DS2 balanced, but it took me a few dozen times to remake a new character, learning the mechanics and combat of the game.

 

The only thing that disappointed me in DS2 was some places stuttered really bad for me, and if you play with a mouse/keyboard, how the hell are you supposed to know what to press? What's LS up or something, A is enter which is very far, so I installed a better keymap, but then, I find myself in a dark world with no hope of survival, and that's exactly what's DS2 is.

 

The combat is the best by far, you can dual-wield, use only one hand in either left or right, charge attack thing, dodge roll etc. it's cool, but I don't even know what the zombies were called, or where I'm supposed to go, I don't even know what's their world called.The time I reached a flight of stairs going downward, my fps went down so low that the game crapped, then I quit.

 

Ultimately my favorite type of game is an RPG with massive player created custom content options. Your Elder Scrolls, your Neverwinter Nights, and your Spiderweb Blades of _______ games.

 

Wish I could find something more recent - Skyrim's aging fast, Neverwinter Night's is Ancient (and its sequel a crime against gaming), and Blades of Avernum never took off like its predecessor, sadly...

 

I would recommend DA:O, DAO was a nice game actually, the story was amazing, but I hated the combat. Click an enemy, use an ability and watch your character do all the fun, similar to KoToR.

 

Skyrim was a decent game, but the combat really turned me off, real-time it is, but all you could do is spam the same buttons. The faction stories were great especially the DB and Thieves' Guild, I find the main questline well-made, but it was somewhat typical; a guy in some prophecy about to kick a villain's behind.

[Little Fyora]

Good old complex and unforgiving RPG's with excellent storylines, abundant replayablilty and the ability to create a horde of deadly mutant monsters.

[Vexivero]

Skyrim was a decent game, but the combat really turned me off, real-time it is, but all you could do is spam the same buttons. The faction stories were great especially the DB and Thieves' Guild, I find the main questline well-made, but it was somewhat typical; a guy in some prophecy about to kick a villain's behind.

 

Maybe it was because I played Morrowind on the PC and had tons of user created mods as opposed to Oblivion and Skyrim on the 360, but I found Morrowind to be way funner than both. Except Oblivion's intro, that has to be coolest start to a game ever. Even so, I spent about half a year creating 3 level 81 characters for Skyrim. Afterwards, I swore I'd never go back to that game cause I wasted way too much time playing it

 

Typically, I'm a fan of RPGs over anything else. Lately, I've been addicted to Halo 4 online though. In the past few months I've maxed out their ranking system and got a SR130. IMO Halo online is way funner than COD.

 

—Vexivero, who is a fan of all games. It was once said "To truly pwn, one must pwn at all games".

 

—Vexivero, who also cannot wait for Pure Pwnage The Movie.

 

—Vexivero, who thinks if Alorael ever saw this signature, he would probably cringe.

[Necris Omega]

I would recommend DA:O, DAO was a nice game actually, the story was amazing, but I hated the combat. Click an enemy, use an ability and watch your character do all the fun, similar to KoToR.

 

Oh, like 99% of fans of the Genre I've done Dragon Age. Honestly? I find it to be horrendously overrated. The story is cliche', and the combat is painful and clunky.

 

[Ogre] I"MMA GONNA PUNCH YOU!!!!!

[Me] *Moves to other side of screen... other side of map... *

[Ogre] RAAAAAAAAAAAA----!!!

[Me] *Leaves region, leaves timezone, leaves country.*

[Ogre]AAAAAAAAAAA--!

[Me] *Makes sandwich, takes nap, goes to the store, takes shower.*

[Ogre]---ARGH!!!

[Me] OW!!! WTF!

 

In any case, it really doesn't have the same level of custom content as the other games I listed so I didn't include it.

[adc.]

(snip)

 

I never really liked Dragon Age, aside from the story, I got to the point where I got Morrigan and I quitted, I couldn't take the combat anymore, I never liked those types.

 

I love turn-based combat, but not with OTS. I also love real-time, but not with the camera high above your character (like some MOBAs). A real-time combat with OTS is great, same to the overhead camera with a turn-based combat (Jeff's games)

 

If you're no fan of DAO, I would recommend KoToR, same (OTS, turn-based) combat, but the story is just too good, the only part I hated in the game is although you're a Jedi, you can still use blasters, mines and grenades, and if you're a first-time player, DO NOT invest too much in the blasters.

 

Woah, I'm ranting about combat.

 

Maybe it was because I played Morrowind on the PC and had tons of user created mods as opposed to Oblivion and Skyrim on the 360, but I found Morrowind to be way funner than both. Except Oblivion's intro, that has to be coolest start to a game ever. Even so, I spent about half a year creating 3 level 81 characters for Skyrim. Afterwards, I swore I'd never go back to that game cause I wasted way too much time playing it

 

Welcome to my world, I actually find Fallout 3 about thrice as immersive as Skyrim. The rooms cost twenty times as that of Skyrim, prices aren't a joke, and if you're starting a new player, picking up bottles and tin cans then selling them will actually help. That's why I felt some sort of hate for the Elder Scrolls series, although, I haven't played Morrowind.

 

Good old complex and unforgiving RPG's with excellent storylines, abundant replayablilty and the ability to create a horde of deadly mutant monsters.

 

>Play as a Shaper in GF1

>Talk to the servile that tells you to kill the leader of the Awakened (Ellrah was it?)

>Steal the Discipline Wand

>Slay him with the wand

>Run away from the keep using your action points, whilst letting your creations tank you

>Escape the island

 

I did that, and survived, weren't it for the demo locking me in some areas, I could have seen the ending.

[Mistah Q]

edit- delete

[Vexivero]

Welcome to my world, I actually find Fallout 3 about thrice as immersive as Skyrim. The rooms cost twenty times as that of Skyrim, prices aren't a joke, and if you're starting a new player, picking up bottles and tin cans then selling them will actually help. That's why I felt some sort of hate for the Elder Scrolls series, although, I haven't played Morrowind.

 

Hah, hate is a strong word. Fallout 3 was definitely a fun one too though, in fact long after I beat the game I kept playing it to kill the enemies as they respawned at certain areas. Just rest 3 days and go back to the same areas and kill the same guys. The only problem with RPG games is it's tough in the beginning and scavenging stuff for money is great, but once you reach a certain level it becomes pointless and money is worthless. I remember gold being useless in Oblivion once you hit level 25 or so, and same with Skyrim. I think I ended up with 3.5 million gold for my main character just cause I scavenged everything. Even Fallout 3, I remember storing all the best items in that starting town and still having more than enough money left to buy whatever I needed. Same with Borderlands and Assasin's Creed as well.

 

I would definitely try Morrowind, in my opinion everything about it is superior to Skyrim and Oblivion. Except the gladiator arena in Oblivion, that was the best

 

—Vexivero, who is a fan of the gladiator arena. That was probably the funnest part of Oblivion. That, and the Dark Brotherhood Quests.

[Tridon]

Not sure what combination to check off to get to management/business simulation.

[adc.]

Not sure what combination to check off to get to management/business simulation.

 

One of the poll's flaws, yeah. Editing it would be too late now.

 

Plus strategic games like Civilization and Wesnoth, forgot about that.

[Luca]

 

Hi Jeff.

[Rya.Reisender]

The options in the poll are really not so good, it would probably be better to have no poll at all and just let people reply. =p

 

 

So I will do just that:

 

 

1. Singleplayer mostly. Sometimes when a game is very very simple so even my father can understand it, I enjoy playing it together with him. Would require a local multiplayer or LAN support, though.

I don't really like multiplayer when I'm playing with people I don't know. Only exception are MMORPGs because there my goal is to actually make friends.

 

 

2. Generally I'd claim that people DO care for all aspects, just how demanding they are in each aspect is variable.

 

For me it's:

 

Graphics - I prefer 2D graphics. I'm usually fine with everything that's 8-bit or 16-bit-looking. I also prefer top-down square-grid-based over isometric (that's pretty much 2.5D already). However, sprites should be displayed as slighlty from the side (so you can see the body) instead of fully top-down (just seeing the head and shoulders).

Another style I really like is 2D sprites or photorealistic backgrounds.

What I don't like so much with graphics is when a game has a rotatable camera. That often ruins it for me. That's why I generally try to stay away from 3D games. However, there are a few exception. I see the appeal in some first person games as first person perspective is interesting for immersion (Shining in the Darkness, Legend of Grimrock, Mirror's Edge, Portal 1&2, Might&Magic). I prefer square grid movement in first person games more than free movement.

So yeah there are quite a few styles that I like and I wouldn't consider myself as a person who thinks graphics are important. But it can be that graphics completely turn me away from a game. Graphics were also the reason why I never bought any Spiderweb games until they appeared on Humble Bundle. But now after playing several, I must say I enjoyed them despite the graphic style.

 

Music - It's not even in your list but for me, music is the most important aspect of a game. It's not even conscious, but I noticed that all my favorite games have also my favorite OSTs, so music actually seems to be the main influence on how much I like a game. Again the actual taste is quite relevant here. I prefer two style of game music. One is the melody-driven music... as in all melodies are memorable and you totally want to whistle along them and remember the melodies even years later. The other style I like is trance-electro style (think of Valkyrie Profile). I'm more into electro music than classic so anything electric is a big plus.

What I don't like is most of the modern music in big titles that is just "epic noise". It sounds important and strong, but it's just missing anything notable. After playing the game I already forgot about it again usually.

In Spiderweb games the lack of music was probably the biggest turn off for me while playing, I do have to say that the music that plays on the start screen is actually pretty good in all the titles I played. Spiderweb games are a bit different, they don't have notable melodies, but they do have "music" in the sense of town noises and cave noises and so on. I wouldn't neglect that because it certainly helps building the mood. In fact, I tried playing Spiderweb games while running my favorite electro music in the background and it actually proved to be a mood killer. So the decision to not have music actually isn't such a bad move after all for this type of game. However, it's not what I REALLY love. Still better than epic noise in AAA titles, though.

 

Gameplay stuff - You put combat as a separate think but I think that belong in here. There are two things that are important for me regarding the gameplay: Combat (including character growth, stats, monster stats, everything that belongs to part of the strategic combat decisions as well as the actual combat gameplay) and exploration. If the game has good combat that is both fun and requires me to think a little without being overly complicated (I call it: "Simple, but hard") and a great sense of exploration, it has good chances being a game I really love. This has almost the same imporance as music does.

 

Story - That's quite a difficult topic as well. From my thread "I hate towns" you are probably aware that I'm not the fan of reading dialogues AT ALL. The best games for me are games where the whole story is maybe 20-50 lines of dialogue and not more. Does that mean story is completely irrelevant to me? Close, but not quite! The real challenge is to have only 20-50 lines of dialogue and still have a great story. I want to feel important, I want to feel that what I'm doing is what I actually want to do. I also want to feel immersed, that I'm that hero. There have been so many RPGs lately that had such a generic plot and setting that I just wasn't interested in playing them at all. Though I guess the major factor is still the exploration. As long as there is strong sense of exploration, I don't really need any story. I go into a mountain area and see a hole in the stone wall leading to a huge underground cave? I go inside just to explore it! I don't even need a story. There doesn't need to be a lost child who went into the cave that I have to save. My motivation is there anyway. Exploring caverns that haven't been made by humans but most likely washed out by water. Going in there... it's exciting! Who needs story or quest for that? Pah.

Honestly I'm always suprised how many people say they think story is important for games, because for me it's as unimportant as graphics are.

 

These days I'm missing the good old games where you just pressed the start button and started playing. No text at all! If you wanted to know why you are jumping from platform to platform and shoot robots you actually had to read the story section in the manual. Story is totally inflated... every single genre has it. I can't even play a shoot 'em up anymore without the guys in my spaceship constantly talking, da hell.

 

 

3. What type of game I prefer most? As in genre? There are a few, and they are very different. I even surprised myself by liking genres I didn't expect to like, heh.

 

So here are the types I like:

 

A) Strategy RPGs (US term is TRPG)! Not just any, but pretty much exactly what Shining Force is. Simple to play, simple rules, very quick menu navigation and yet still hard. There are a few others I like like for example Vandal Hearts. But I don't like those that focus on item management, have permadeath or have "no-name characters" that you just randomly generate. So I don't really like FFT and most Nippon Ichi games too much. Fire Emblem... is close but the permadeath and item management ruins it for me.

 

JRPGs - but just a few of them. Most just have too boring gameplay and lack of exploration for me to enjoy. Most JRPGs I enjoyed can be easily summarized by developer: Sonic Team, Camelot, tri-Ace, tri-Crescendo, Akitoshi Kawazu. If the game is not by any of those 5, it's very likely I didn't like the game. I did like FFVI and FFVII, though, but not the other FF games, maybe it can also be narrowed down to one developer, but I never really followed the staff member movements within Squaresoft.

 

C) WRPGs - Even less here that I actually like. The problem I have with WRPGs is mostly: Too much text; they aren't really RPG but feel more like shooters; too complex to learn how to play (or the controls just suck). Why I still like the genre is that the sense of exploration and immersion is often better in them than in JRPGs.

 

D) Horror games - That one surprised me. As child I played a few but they were hard, unforgiving and scary. I hated them. I completely stayed away from them. Until a friend talked to me which went like "You should play Silent Hill 2" "I don't like horror games." "Trust me, just play Silent Hill 2" and then I rented it at a game rental store and man I loved that game so much that I had a phase over 1 year in which I only played all the horror games there are. I must say horror games are pretty hit or miss for me, I either love them or I hate them. I understand why that is... I hate horror games that are hard and about combat, but I do like horror games that are easy (at least have a difficulty setting!) and focus more on being scary without really utilizing the threat of death too much. Also: Puzzles

I guess I have to correct what I said in 2. actually. The main reason why I like horror games so much is because the way the story is told is SOOOO much better than in any RPG I've ever played. Only horror games ever actually got me to care what is written in a book I find on a shelf. So the reason why I don't care for story in RPGs is rather because they all just suck.

Horror point & click adventures also belong in here.

 

E) Speed platformers - As in all platformers that focus on you rushing through the stages. Mostly Sonic games, but there are a few others.

 

F) Shoot 'em ups - I prefer horizontal ones, mostly Thunder Force II-IV I guess, but there are more. The only vertical shooters I ever really liked were Touhou (whole series) and Ikaruga.

 

G) Unique puzzle/arcade games - Basicaly they are all their own genre so it's hard to describe other than mentioning them by name... here are few examples: Portal 1&2, Super Hexagon, Savant: Ascent, Bleed, Reus, Super Puzzle Platformer.

 

And that's all. Never really liked games of other genres.

 

 

4. What types of game mechanics I like most? Well I think I've covered most above already.

Summarized:

- difficulty should be "simple, but hard"

- a good but simple combat system (or other "challenge system", not all games have combat after all)

- large scale SRPG-like battle scenarios (want to emphasize this because it actually might be my favorite type of all)

- great sense of exploration

- quick play (aka "I come home from work and just want to play something for 5 minutes to relax")