Poll: Is the age of replay dead?

[Charley]

I find myself hoarding games - I have a bunch I'd like to think I'll replay but I never ever do. Bayonetta's the only one I've picked up a second time in at least a year, and only because the replayability is in the hilarious difficulty ramps - keeps it challenging.

 

[theownerer]

Well ive never been very strong on replaying games but recently I finished Bayonetta 3 times and did both playthroughs of borderlands but thats a bit different.

 

[MurderousToaster]

I'll play through something again if I like it enough. That just doesn't happen very often with most games these days. I have given MW2 a second runthrough (on Veteran), and I did rather enjoy it. But a lot of games these days are either too short to be worth it or too long to bother.

 

[The Heik]

I was thinking to myself the other day about how i rarely play my games more than once through now. This meaning replaying through on the same difficulty setting, or replaying simply to revisit the story. I don't know if it's that now i have better access to money, or if it's the rapid release of games, or maybe it's that the achievement system has us all brainwashed into moving to a new game as fast as possible.

I don't know what it is, but there's only been a few games from the last 2 generations that i've felt compelled to play through more than once; but i always find joy in hooking up my psx/n64/snes and replaying some of those games from ages ago.

Dear God I hope not. If one is simply going to play through it once, then one might as well just rent it for a week, and then there goes the entire gaming industry. There's still some games worth replaying eg. Mass Effect 2 or Oblivion, but generally the trend seems to be more on the multiplayer aspect of gaming.

 

[McHampton]

It's true games really don't last like they used to, unless they have multiplayer. The last game I bought was Assassin's Creed 2, and since then I've rented maybe 20 games, none that I really thought about buying afterwards. I wouldn't even rent them again.

Of course that's gonna end whenever I get off my ass and go out and buy Yakuza 3.

Now looking back at the PS2 era, I still play those games. Seems like I play the Onimusha trilogy at least once every 6 months, if not more.

 

[Songbird-O]

I have a fair amount of games, and I tend to go through them slowly. Some games just don't have replay value. But I'm always open to replaying games. I'm replaying a few as we speak. I'm playing Fire Emblem 7 for the fifth time, and I think I've gone through Luigi's Mansion around 9 times. I've played most of my older games at least twice.

 

[joshthor]

no - games i have replayed recently: half life 2, mirrors edge, mass effect, dragon age, portal, braid (like 50 times.... i am trying to get a 35 minute speed run - fastest so far is 36.23)

 

[Exeloth]

Publishers would prefer you rent than buy "used." They actually get money from rentals. As far as they're concerned, every "used" purchase is the same as a downloading the game.

Since making something with staying power exponentially more difficult than squirting out mediocrity, the less staying power the game has the more money the publishers make.

So yea, "replay" is dead. The best we can hope for is online multi-player, and unless you really really like dry, dumbed-down counterstrike clones, you're fucked there.

Um, I wouldn't call Team Fortress 2, Dystopia, or Halo CounterStrike clones. Does CounterStrike have teleporters? No. Does it have you jacking into cyberspace and fighting in the real world as well as there? No. Does it have many gamemodes that anyone can customize as well as the same for its maps? No.

I would call them counterstrike clones, dystopia was even made on the same engine. As for your examples, throwing in a few gimmicks but having the same core gameplay is what I would consider a clone. Also you can change game modes (RPG leveling up for example) and create maps in counterstrike so I dont know where you were going with the last one.

OT: I'm going to have to agree, nothing quite like going back to some Eternal Darkness on the cube.

 

[Fire Daemon]

I'm replaying through LoZ: OoT while also playing more recent 360 games. I find that some time needs to pass so that when you do replay a game you aren't just going through the motions of finishing it. So nope, the age of replay isn't dead it's just that right now the newly released games are still too new to replay.

Achievements/trophies and things like that probably help the replay value. I've gone through Halo 3 a few times for the skulls and over secrets and some games like CoD4 I play again for those epic and awesome moments.

 

[Craftybonds]

I was thinking to myself the other day about how i rarely play my games more than once through now. This meaning replaying through on the same difficulty setting, or replaying simply to revisit the story. I don't know if it's that now i have better access to money, or if it's the rapid release of games, or maybe it's that the achievement system has us all brainwashed into moving to a new game as fast as possible.

I don't know what it is, but there's only been a few games from the last 2 generations that i've felt compelled to play through more than once; but i always find joy in hooking up my psx/n64/snes and replaying some of those games from ages ago.

Dear God I hope not. If one is simply going to play through it once, then one might as well just rent it for a week, and then there goes the entire gaming industry. There's still some games worth replaying eg. Mass Effect 2 or Oblivion, but generally the trend seems to be more on the multiplayer aspect of gaming.

Renting doesn't kill the industry, it helps it if anything. Games tend to not make a whole lot of money past their first few months after release, after that, most everyone is just buying then retrading used copies of games. This is why companies (IE; Capcom) tend to re-release games frequently, for that extra boost in sales. Renting helps the industry by purchasing very large quantities of games upon release, when there is a high demand for games, renting companies buy in proportion to that demand. Gamefly, for example, will buy a quantity of a certain game, proportional to the amount of people who have that game in their queue prior to release.

DLC only strengthens the idea of profitable renting. I can tell you right now, that i've spent at LEAST 300$ on DLC from games that i've rented this year alone. Hell, i can't even use that DLC after i return the game, but i still buy it if the core game was good enough.

Of course, after a few months pass, aside from the profits off of DLC, renting services are just as profitable as buying and selling pre-owned video games (for the industry, of course)

 

[WolfThomas]

I've barely got enough time these days to finish a game once, let alone a second time.

 

[The Heik]

I was thinking to myself the other day about how i rarely play my games more than once through now. This meaning replaying through on the same difficulty setting, or replaying simply to revisit the story. I don't know if it's that now i have better access to money, or if it's the rapid release of games, or maybe it's that the achievement system has us all brainwashed into moving to a new game as fast as possible.

I don't know what it is, but there's only been a few games from the last 2 generations that i've felt compelled to play through more than once; but i always find joy in hooking up my psx/n64/snes and replaying some of those games from ages ago.

Dear God I hope not. If one is simply going to play through it once, then one might as well just rent it for a week, and then there goes the entire gaming industry. There's still some games worth replaying eg. Mass Effect 2 or Oblivion, but generally the trend seems to be more on the multiplayer aspect of gaming.

Renting doesn't kill the industry, it helps it if anything. Games tend to not make a whole lot of money past their first few months after release, after that, most everyone is just buying then retrading used copies of games. This is why companies (IE; Capcom) tend to re-release games frequently, for that extra boost in sales. Renting helps the industry by purchasing very large quantities of games upon release, when there is a high demand for games, renting companies buy in proportion to that demand. Gamefly, for example, will buy a quantity of a certain game, proportional to the amount of people who have that game in their queue prior to release.

Ok so people renting a game at one sixth of it's original price is good for the gaming industry? You may want to rethink that. If the average game is rented out at one sixth of it's retail price (roughly 10 bucks), then 6 people have to rent that one disc in order for the company to get the price they originally intended. And since a single disc can be rented out by multiple people for a cheaper price, then fewer discs are sold in in both the short and long run. Fewer discs sold means less money for the company, hence it damages the gaming industry.

DLC only strengthens the idea of profitable renting. I can tell you right now, that i've spent at LEAST 300$ on DLC from games that i've rented this year alone. Hell, i can't even use that DLC after i return the game, but i still buy it if the core game was good enough.

This is more your personal spending habits than trends as a whole, so don't use yourself as a template for society. A person who is only renting a game is unlikely to spend extra cash on upgrades that they can't use for more than a few days, as it would be a near complete waste of money. Imagine this: you rent a car for a day, and it has has a dvd player installed in it. Would you buy some dvds for it even if you yourself didn't have any means by which to watch it otherwise?

 

[Craftybonds]

Ok so people renting a game at one sixth of it's original price is good for the gaming industry? You may want to rethink that. If the average game is rented out at one sixth of it's retail price (roughly 10 bucks), then 6 people have to rent that one disc in order for the company to get the price they originally intended. And since a single disc can be rented out by multiple people for a cheaper price, then fewer discs are sold in in both the short and long run. Fewer discs sold means less money for the company, hence it damages the gaming industry.

Uh, what? You're speaking like Nintendo, Microsoft, etc is renting games directly to the customer.

A renting company has to get their games somewhere in order for them to rent them out to people. I think that you're trying to argue that a rental company buying 10,000 copies of a single game doesn't help the industry.

 

[Eggsnham]

I don't like to replay games, not unless there's a but-ton of replay-ability, like 'New Game +' or you can only get certain items/weapons from replaying the game etc.

I also consider going prestige in MW2 to be replaying the game. That being said, I haven't prestiged yet, because I don't like replaying shit (when I hit 70 on the PS3 version, I probably will prestige, though).

 

[Auric]

Ive yet to replay any game, with exception of FPS games of course, no point getting tf2, playing one round, and quitting

Except part of dragon age, but i got bored at the first 1/4 of my replay.

Even oblivion, morrowind and that, i just couldn't bring myself to play after i finished the main quest.

 

[bjj hero]

Publishers would prefer you rent than buy "used." They actually get money from rentals. As far as they're concerned, every "used" purchase is the same as a downloading the game.

Since making something with staying power exponentially more difficult than squirting out mediocrity, the less staying power the game has the more money the publishers make.

So yea, "replay" is dead. The best we can hope for is online multi-player, and unless you really really like dry, dumbed-down counterstrike clones, you're fucked there.

I disagree, if your game has replay value then the player is less likely trade it in. There are quite a few games I still replay. Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Endwar (Multiplayer, Ive been through about 5 world wars with different factions), CoD4, Viva Pinata, Civilization, Blood Bowl, Army of two. They are just this generation.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Well, over the last two years, I haven't been replaying nearly as much.

I think it's mostly because I graduated from college and have a real job now, though. I can afford a lot more games now, but I don't have as much time to play. So, fewer replays.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

well it depends on what you mean old...there are tons of games i go back and replay, that are within the past few years, such as Gears of War, Dragons Age, Mass effect (1 and 2) and oblivion is a long long long game..so i think that is somewhat deserving of replayability, and final fantasy xii i beat that 4 times and ffxiii im sure ill beat that at least 3 times from how much im enjoying it