Hey guys, thanks for the great replies, they're definitely some great tips/considerations that provide greater insight into the current game systems we have that we often consider standard. My apologies if there have been topics on this before here - I guess I not only wanted to see opinions about the topic but also to explore and interact with them further as well. I’m doing this because, well, I’ve an important question to be answered in one of my personal game projects involving saves as well as questioning the current and most common methods of implementing game saving that are out there.
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Quote:Original post by zer0wolf
I sure don't like having to replay through an entire level just because well, I have to go to work or get some dinner for my daughter.
Quote:Original post by Telastyn
Having to play the same easy bit over and over just to try the one hard bit you failed at last time is annoying.
Quote:Original post by Chrono1081
There are a few titles I havent bought because of a shitty save feature. As "hardcore" as some people want to make it by making you use save points vs save anywhere this pretty much completely limits the game for some people. Some people can only play 10 - 15 min at a time. (I am one of those people) and need the ability to save anywhere.
Quote:Original post by domhnall4h
Pretty much, while unlimited saves offer an easy way to "cheat" for the player, it is a necessity. In the real world, people work. They have kids, pets, unlicensed nuclear accelerators, and other issues.
Being forced to replay a section because I had to quit mid-game and had no option to save frustrates me. I doubt most normal people are much different, since it wasn't anything but a bad design flaw that prevented them from walking away.
I agree that the leave-&-save-anytime feature is definitely something that one has to consider when making a game these days, especially now when more types of consumers (the old, the young, and everyone in-between) are playing them. I immediately thought of the ol’ analogy of comparing books/novels to games - because modern non-casual games now are so intertwined with story telling, it would indeed make sense to have some sort of "Bookmark" system to suspend your progress and return to it on a later date.
But, what if a FPS game such as
Half-Life implemented such a bookmark/suspension system in their game, while also
only providing limited saves in the form of checkpoints before every major confrontation (such as before every major battle), much similar to how some games give you save points right before a boss battle? Wouldn’t allowing you to personally quicksave each time you make a kill in such a battle and reloading those save files whenever you die ruin the entire cumulative battle experience? Wouldn’t this go against the original intent of the big battle itself, to which was to provide a challenge to the player to see how well they could cope in a situation with many enemies at once in a certain length of time?
Now I’m not trying to make a case of hardcore vs. “softcore” or even casual vs non-casual here with the issue of the save systems, for a game using limited saves can still have its gameplay be played by non-hardcore or even casual gamers, as long as the challenge was catered to them (to which is most commonly provided by the “Easy, Normal, Hard” difficulty level settings you see in games). What I am trying to see is whether or not having limited saves can bolster one’s experience with a game, to which part of it is caused by the tension/adrenaline or sense of survival provided by the increased sense of challenge, to which can cause a player to become more engaged with the game, much more akin with the level of tension/uncertainty you have with Multiplayer games.
If the fear of loss/death became more elevated in a game, wouldn’t that cause the player to become more engaged with the game? In this case, it is much more than digitally stored “lives” that decrement when you die, I’m talking about the player losing part of his/her labor (time and energy) to which he spent into the game, whether this is about achieving a certain amount of progress, or for the case of MMORPGs to which this sense is applied very similarly, losing a few character levels or items to which you worked really hard at.
[Edited by - Tangireon on June 25, 2008 1:23:38 PM]