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[filetemo]

After reading the data Bioware made public that states a huge portion of customers never finished ME2 and DAO, it seems inevitable that from now on, all bioware games are going to be shorter, more streamlined, with a voiced protagonist, with less companions, less romances and more DLC.

It's the only thing that makes sense from a financial standpoint, sadly

I'm still in shock that several thousands of gamers never finished either game. And as they say, their money is as valuable to Bioware than that from us fans who roam the forums every day and finish several playthroughs.

Because, more romances, longer gameplay, several origins, and depth of RPG gameplay do not add to the sense of perceived quality to those people who doesn't finish the game, because they never got to feel those anyways.They never played other romances or other origins, yet they paid for the game and many of them are willing to buy a sequel.

Why developing content people does not play? it's better to release it as DLC since rabid fans are going to pay extra for it and people who does a single playthrough and never finishes it wasn't going to experience it.

And this is not a rant on console users. Many PC players never finished DAO and ME2.

Maybe the main quest of DA2 will be short and intense, for players not to lose their interest and get bored. Or maybe it will be longer so there's less optional quests that many people wasn't going to play anyways.

So this days, developers have a new challenge. Make players complete the games they buy, and make sure developed  content is played by everybody.And in a branched-story decision-heavy game like bioware does, that can be aserious headache and money bleeding issue.

Discuss away

[John Epler]

Addai67 wrote...

the_one_54321 wrote...

In Exile wrote...

the_one_54321 wrote...
I'm rather stunned that someone would not want to finish these games. The only thing I can think of is too short an attention span.

Or it could just be taste. For every 9 ME2 or DA:O playthroughs, there are 10 games I could barely head 10 hours in.

This is also beyond me. The list of games that I have purchased that I did not have an interest in finishing is a very very short list indeed.

I'm the same way.  Just not that much of a gamer that I "need" to finish a game just because it's there.  Story-based games are the ones I'm driven to finish.  I would have quit DAO, too, except for Alistair and the damn rose.  With Fallout 3, I had to find Dad.  And so on.  But people have lives, it's not like they're obligated to finish a game.  If they buy games anyway, why is this a bad thing for developers?  Someone who drops cash on a game without thinking much about it is a pretty valuable consumer to have.

Well, maybe as a publisher. But as a developer?

Developers put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into the games they make. While some people like to say we're lazy because we didn't put feature X or aspect Y into our game, the fact remains that for the last 5-6 months before a game reaches certification - most people are pulling 10-12 hour days and coming in on weekends. It's a labour of loves, and we're more than willing to put the time in because we believe in the product we're creating. And, most importantly - we want to show it off. We're like new parents - 'who wants to see pictures of our baby? Oh, that's a picture of when we stayed until 2AM in an alcohol and caffeine-fuelled madness only to figure out a simple and yet touching way of doing that scene in under an hour'.

We don't want you guys to just buy our game, play for an hour and then put it aside. Yeah, sure, we'll get the sale - but that's not the point, really. We don't want people to buy our games so we can buy gold-plated ponies and jetpacks. We want people to buy our games so we can keep making games. We love what we do, and we want people to play through them and then talk about them afterwards. We want you to go up to your friends and say 'Oh man, did you get to that part yet where that thing happens? I'm going to be honest, I cried like a baby.'

It's easy to dismiss us as being all about the money when we make decisions people disagree with. But if we were all about the money, I'm fairly certain most of us wouldn't be in the games industry. We do this because we love what we do, and we put everything into the stuff we make. We put it all on the table, lay it all on the line - whichever cliche you want to use. And we want you guys to see it, to experience it, to feel it. It's not about people buying our games, playing them and then moving onto the next. Never has been, and I wager it never will be for most of the people I work with.

So to end a somewhat rambling rant - you're right, in the end, you're not obligated to finish a game. Heck, I've got a massive backlog that I really need to pay some attention to someday. But we want you to finish the game. Because we put a lot of ourselves into the games we make, and we want you guys to experience that.

[John Epler]

the_one_54321 wrote...

JohnEpler wrote...
We want you to go up to your friends and say 'Oh man, did you get to that part yet where that thing happens? I'm going to be honest, I cried like a baby.'

That's actually a pretty tough standard to hold yourself to. I think it's only happened to me twice, ever. The endings of DA:O and ME2 were really intense and/or emotional, but I wasn't anywhere near tears.

In general, I don't expect everyone to cry. It's meant more of a general idea - I want people to feel emotionally attached to the characters and to what's happening in-game. I realize not everyone's as big of a softie as I am