What makes a great RPG?

[EgonSpengler]

Here's a great example of what I was talking about earlier, where an RPG doesn't have any option for being unable to overcome a challenge and progress, you're just stuck, you've wasted hours of your life, and if you're enough of a glutton for punishment to want to continue anyway, you have to reload an old save. From the IGN review of Pathfinder: Kingmaker:

I fought too many battles in Kingmaker on repeat. My characters weren’t poorly designed or built, because I still found myself powering through many encounters well enough. My worst defeats, the kind a tweak in strategy or methodology couldn’t save me from, came from being ground down by long dungeons and hordes of enemies that applied “permanent” debuffs that could only be removed by resting. Without rations, there is no resting in these labyrinths, and watching my very limited supply of rations dwindle became a doomsday clock. I stayed in some dungeons for hours, slogging through the same encounters and situations, dying again and again, only to conclude that I just didn’t kit out properly or bring enough supplies. Thus, I had to abandon all progress and load a save where I could re-provision before giving it another go, wiser and considerably more annoyed.

Ugh. "Considerably more annoyed" sounds like an understatement. My stomach hurts just reading about it.

 

[Akka]

Now the question is : why the eff didn't the guy simply left the dungeon to re-equip and went back in ?

 

[Ajidica]

Without knowing anything about the game, I would presume that one couldn't exit and re-enter the dungeon; or that he burned through enough consumables in getting to the point he realized the fight wasn't beatable it would be economically infeasible to leave and attempt the dungeon again.

EDIT: Also, for me at least, I'm no longer a college student. For video game playing I got maybe an hour after work and a couple hours on the weekend. I don't have time to waste times only to later realize I need to approach the entire situation differently. (That's what higher difficulties are for.)

 

[Broken_Erika]

A great RPG has good artwork

 

[Arakhor]

I haven't yet been in a dungeon in Kingmaker that you couldn't leave and even your capital is only going to be two days' journey away.

 

[Akka]

And you don't need to get back to the capital, any clearing allows you to set up camp (in fact, that's the only way to enjoy companion banter ).
The main point of "homebase" is rather to be able to sell all the junk you're gathering.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

EDIT: Also, for me at least, I'm no longer a college student. For video game playing I got maybe an hour after work and a couple hours on the weekend. I don't have time to waste times only to later realize I need to approach the entire situation differently. (That's what higher difficulties are for.)

I don't really enjoy casual gaming at all. If all I had was 1hr a day for video games I'd probably quit altogether. it just doesn't seem worth it to me. feel like I cannot play a game if I'm not personally invested. this doesn't even apply to games.. I just have this destructive: "I'm gonna do it properly or not do it at all" mentality

 

[Kozmos]

I kind of feel the same, it doesn't feel like it's worth playing unless I have at least 2 hours to burn, but when I burn those two hours on videogames I feel like 'man you burned 2 hours on a videogame when you could have done something more productive'. It has become a lose-lose for me.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I don't really enjoy casual gaming at all. If all I had was 1hr a day for video games I'd probably quit altogether. it just doesn't seem worth it to me. feel like I cannot play a game if I'm not personally invested. this doesn't even apply to games.. I just have this destructive: "I'm gonna do it properly or not do it at all" mentality

I can't play most PC games during the week. If I can't give it, like, 4 hours, I don't even want to start it up.

 

[Lexicus]

I don't really enjoy casual gaming at all. If all I had was 1hr a day for video games I'd probably quit altogether. it just doesn't seem worth it to me. feel like I cannot play a game if I'm not personally invested. this doesn't even apply to games.. I just have this destructive: "I'm gonna do it properly or not do it at all" mentality

As Ajidica can attest, I also do this

 

[cardgame]

spends two hours looking up game tweaks and mods

plays for 45 minutes

 

[Broken_Erika]

spends two hours looking up game tweaks and mods

plays for 45 minutes

*runs over from the nexus mod sites
Amateur! I've been averaging a ten to one hour tweak to play time lately.
*returns to scouring the nexus for more weapons armor and clothing mods

 

[Lexicus]

*runs over from the nexus mod sites
Amateur! I've been averaging a ten to one hour tweak to play time lately.
*returns to scouring the nexus for more weapons armor and clothing mods

chrast man

See, this is why I don't use mods to their full potential: I've had some nightmare experiences where it took hours to get the thing working properly. So I try to just use simple mods that don't change the game all that much. That's the case with Skyrim: apart from the Frostfall set of mods and the weather mod I use, all the other mods I use are basically cosmetic. And the weather one is just mostly cosmetic.

 

[AmazonQueen]

chrast man

See, this is why I don't use mods to their full potential: I've had some nightmare experiences where it took hours to get the thing working properly. So I try to just use simple mods that don't change the game all that much. That's the case with Skyrim: apart from the Frostfall set of mods and the weather mod I use, all the other mods I use are basically cosmetic. And the weather one is just mostly cosmetic.

Its why I haven't replayed Morrowind recently
Would take me days checking which mods I used to use were still available, finding out which newer ones were better etc
Then I'd have to do some mini-playthroughs testing them, deciding if I liked them etc
Maybe by Xmas I'd be ready to start a proper playthrough

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I kind of feel the same, it doesn't feel like it's worth playing unless I have at least 2 hours to burn, but when I burn those two hours on videogames I feel like 'man you burned 2 hours on a videogame when you could have done something more productive'. It has become a lose-lose for me.

I can't play most PC games during the week. If I can't give it, like, 4 hours, I don't even want to start it up.

As Ajidica can attest, I also do this

spends two hours looking up game tweaks and mods

plays for 45 minutes

*runs over from the nexus mod sites
Amateur! I've been averaging a ten to one hour tweak to play time lately.
*returns to scouring the nexus for more weapons armor and clothing mods

Its why I haven't replayed Morrowind recently
Would take me days checking which mods I used to use were still available, finding out which newer ones were better etc
Then I'd have to do some mini-playthroughs testing them, deciding if I liked them etc
Maybe by Xmas I'd be ready to start a proper playthrough

support group WHEN?

 

[Manfred Belheim]

Bikini armour.

 

[Mouthwash]

This looks to be useful:

I'm sorry, this video is years out of date. This is apparently now the ultimate guide for modernizing Morrowind (updated as recently as yesterday).

 

[EgonSpengler]

support group WHEN?

We'll all be too busy playing PC games. Maybe we could do it inside Fallout 76, or something.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

You know what's even worse than wasting time looking for mods ?
When you come home from work and want to relax with video games, but aren't sure what you want to play and just stare at your steam library for two hours because you just can't make a decision.

 

[AmazonQueen]

You know what's even worse than wasting time looking for mods ?
When you come home from work and want to relax with video games, but aren't sure what you want to play and just stare at your steam library for two hours because you just can't make a decision.

You know whats even worse than that?
Chronic restartitis when you grow to hate the first 2 hours of a videogame because you've played it so many times due to your inability to stick with one character.