do you think that if a bunch of little extras/ nuances are added to a game, they would help extend the longevity of the game? things like: (not all of these features will make it into the final build of the game, but as it stands this is the ideal feature list for the project) water/raindrops splashing and soaking clothing on a model realistically (lowers the alpha value of the "dry" skin to reveal the "wet" skin underneath. white clothes can create the wet-tshirt look) ik for things like shoelaces and hair and loose equipment straps ejected bullet casings smoke (particles) as they spin and tumble out of the ejection port, and they whistle as they fall more than 10 feet fire actually burns, as in chars the burning object and in conjunction to burning animations (parts break off or shrivel) and scaling eventually burn up models EAX effects pitch-shift the sounds of bullets flying by, so along with the 30+ sounds for them we have an almost unlimited variety! also allows us to simulate heavy rounds flying slower than normal rounds. models actually make eye contact, their fingers actually touch the triggers of their guns, the clasps of their equipment, the pins of their grenades, the keys on security keypads, their feet actually touch the steps of stairs. bumpmaps change based on conditions, such as when out of breath (low on stamina) the bumpmap changes to that of one with raised veins in the temples/wrist/ etc. in cold temperatures the same principle is used for things like goosebumps, and, as much as i hate to admit it, raised nipples. (oh come on, we''ve been working our asses off for 2-1/2 years! the crew is all male, give us a break. it was good for a few laughs.) another note on temperatures: weapons jam(b?) more easily in cold weather, overheat more easily in hot weather. models "sweat" in hot temperatures, with the use of specular maps (again changing from normal greasemaps to sweaty greasemaps) and particles animated bumpmaps for wakes in water. we initially had problems getting bumpmaps to work with specular maps on transparent water, but we fixed it. hair has bumpmaps as well, for kinky textures, etc. dog/k9 unit''s fur stands on end when agitated dogs drool when their stamina is low can hear players breathing around you, especially when their stamina is low cold weather= steamy breath (particles)and shivering (polygon offset and extrude in slight intervals. pretty convincing.) facial animation consisting of a bunch of 2-6 frame animations for vowels and consonents with transition frames. can be used in conjunction to a text-to speech editor, supplied with the game. sounds a it awkward with player''s names, but since players will only be able to create their own names in multiplayer and this is an optional feature it shouldn''t matter too much. modeled teeth and tongue and innards of the mouth to accomodate such animations eax effects, which is pretty standard nowadays anyways and the list goes on but i''ll elavfe it at that. do you think all these little things will help keep the game alive?

Eye candy does not replace gameplay.

Documents [ GDNet | MSDN | STL | OpenGL | Formats | RTFM | Asking Smart Questions ]
C++ Stuff [ MinGW | Loki | SDL | Boost. | STLport | FLTK | ACCU Recommended Books ]

Um, yeah, i know that.

Along with good gameplay, if these features were incorperated into a finished game would the player say something to the effect of "wow, how come i didnt see that before?"

A game with that amount of feature creep would surely get dropped by the publisher after the first 10 years of development :-)

Helpful links:
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way | Google can help with your question | Search MSDN for help with standard C or Windows functions

I think it can help sell the game more, but I don''t think it would increase the longevity. I think gameplay is the biggest factor(maybe the only one) in the longevity of a game.

---
Make it work.
Make it fast.

"Commmmpuuuuterrrr.." --Scotty Star Trek IV:The Voyage Home

not all of the worlds computer together will be able to play that game...

I say just one thing... Gameplay makes the game!

If you add a bunch of cool but useless features you will lower the every-day-joe''s performance like hell! And low framerate on a game definitly interupt the gameplay. Making it alot worse...

The effects belong in visual demos, not in a fun playable game... Of course it''s always nice to see something really cool in a game (Red Faction: glass breaks, things physically damaged ... Morrowind: the water effect and so on)... But it doesn''t make the game (Although I do emit it''s fun to just walk around on the glasshouse level in RF )...


I just wanted you to be aware of performance issuse that can arise and that can ruin the whole game! I Praise all fun games that has no real graphical stand-outs... A boring game trying to make it through visual effects... I''m not saying your game is boring at the time (I have no idea about that), but you get my point...

/G

I would say gameplay is a root factor in how long a game lives...

But the little extras can play a part too.

For instance, in EverQuest, the rainstorms did little to affect gameplay except reduce visibility. Not a huge tactical effect since you''re just running around looking for creatures to engage, anyway.

But the thunder and the sound of the rain had a soothing effect, and just added to the pleasantry of the experience. Had that not been there, it might have seemed too monotonous sooner. Although for me, it eventually felt monotonous anyway.

I agree. Eye candy cannot make a better game. A lot of games today try to use gimics to try to make the game long laster. For instace Red Faction, they tried to make the game last longer by letting you blow up terrain. I played the game for about 7 hours (Thats all it took to pass) then never played it again. Also we have Max Payne, they foccused almost all their power on eye candy. If you have ever seen this game it looks almost realistic. I played through it twice, never to touch it again.