As an example lets look at 007 “Goldeneye.” They give you two levels that you can play all of the other levels are “locked” in otherwords you can’t play those until you beat the proceding level. Then there our two bonus levels that you cannot play until you beat all of the levels on the skill of 00 agent.
Man it took a year and half of my life off and on to beat that game to get to the “bonus” levels. I wouldn’t of spent near that much time if they would have let me just “try” all of the other levels first without completing the previous ones before I could do so. Anyway what is the point making you go though all those levels just to “play” futher ones unless they are just trying to waste your time. I mean you already payed for the game they got your money why do they want your time?
Example no 2. “Excitebike” on Nintedo 64 same thing as “Goldeneye” you got to beat one round before the let you on knew tracks. BTW this game is “awesome” besides this one problem of not letting you play any level you want anytime. I feel just like Jeremy McGrath flying high then jamming into a turn.
Anyway, this has really been bothering me because it seems like these games are trying to “steal” your time on this earth. Why? Is this a conspiracy or what?
People like games to last. If I had access to all the features in Perfect Dark (which you should definitely get if you liked Goldeneye) right off the bat, I probably wouldn’t play it much more than a week. There are games I played incessantly until I discovered the cheat codes - I would almost always get bored with them within a week.
BTW, I recently got a PC game, Crimson Skies (which is very awesome) that allows you to skip a level after failing it a few times. I have only exercised this option twice - once on an obstacle course race that seems unreasonably hard and on another level where I could complete the primary objectives, but would always be too damaged at the end to face the last wave of fighters. I see this feature a lot in games recently, I think it’s to help with players getting frustrated with the game and giving up on it, but I think it could also lead to people never getting the full enjoyment from the game.
But what do they care they already got your money why not give you total access to all the levels.
I tried “perfect dark” loved the guns and the layout did not like the control setup(liked that you could change it like 007 to the solitaire mode could not figure out how to do on “perfect dark”) and I could never figure out the object of the game. I just ran around and shot people there were no goals that I understood.
I think this is the best feature of these games. When I spend money, I’m going to make sure that there is a certain level of replayability in that game. If I can’t play it over and over, and still love it, or still have things to find, then I’m not going to buy it.
That’s why I play GoldenEye, Perfect Dark, Diablo, Diablo II, etc. I know that the makers of the game are set on producing a quality product that I can completely waste my time on. And when I want to waste my time, I REALLY mean it.
All the control modes available in Goldeneye are available in Perfect Dark, though I am at work and can’t tell you exactly how to access them, I know I found it without the instruction manual (I use the 1.2, not sure if it is Solitaire, it is the one where the C buttons control movement and the stick orientation). It’s in there, don’t blow off PD just because you couldn’t find the option. 8^)
Um, I missed part of your post…the Solo Missions have lots of objectives, on the higher difficulty levels as many as 9 per level. Do you have the RAM expansion? If not, you can only play the multiplayer variants of the game, which sounds like what you are describing.
If they only wanted to sell you one game, then they might give you all the levels. But if they want you to become a lifelong customer and keep them in business, then they want you to become obsessed with and addicted to their game until you feel a sense of accomplishment when you complete it. And then when you go buy your next game, you think “Acme makes some really intense games, I played the last one for months, I’ll get their next one too.”
I never had any interest in games and about a month ago I installed Red Baron 3D. I play ocassionally only to realize I am no darn good and just get shot down by the enemy. So this gets me thinking… do I really need a machine to add to my frustrations? OTOH if it were easy I’d get tired in no time… OTOH, why would I waste hours upon hours on building skill to win at this game? Sounds like a huge waste of time… like golf.
Maybe games just don’t attract me. I have wondered if playing Red Baron against other humans instead of against the machine, would make it more interesting. For now I find the game quite uninteresting.
Something like 17 different endings and 6.022*10[sup]23[/sup] different characters to find. Plus, it’s an RPG, which means that it takes something like 60 hours to beat the FIRST time around. I can easily put 4 times as much into it just to find everything.
It’s a wonder I manage go do less important things, like work, or go to class.
So many office workers wasted so much time playing “Tetris” in the late '80s that there was a rumor afoot that claimed “Tetris” to be part of a KGB plot to destroy American productivity. The “boss screen” was the clincher. Little did they know that we American office workers don’t actually DO anything, so no productivity was lost.
I gotta agree with Badtz. It’s to increase the longevity of the game.
I’m somewhat of a “hardcore” gamer. I’m too young to have heard of the Intellivision or Colecovision–but I’d like to start collecting more ‘antique’ consoles once I have enough room to keep 'em somewhere.
Video games, especially in cartridge form like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark–cost a hella lotta money. Therefore–it’s beneficial for the developers to try and produce the best possible product they can to keep the gamers playing to both gain happy customers, build up a good reputation, and to help set a standard.
Rareware (The company that made Goldeneye and Perfect Dark) has a pretty good standing in the industry. So they had a pretty high expectation to live up to when they made these games–and so far, they’ve been pretty successful. Goldeneye has enough features to keep a hardcore player going–but is easy enough to play through otherwise to keep a newer gamer happy.
All games are time-wasters. Just that games like “Goldeneye” are for the action, “Chrono Cross” games are to keep yourself busy for months on end, and “Tetris” games are usually just to break up the monotony of a boring day.
-Ashley
(The funniest line I ever heard someone say was when he commented on loving a game so much he wanted to ‘ram it up the cartridge’.)
It depends on what it is. I really liked Tomb Raider, but I still have’t finshed TR2 even with cheating. I prefer to cheat when I play as I figure, who the hell goes some place with out ANY weapons? no one with a brain. I usually play games like Lemmings anyway or games that don’t go on and on like TR if it takes me 2 years to finish it.
