Poll: RPGs; Do you prefer Perfection or an Authentic Experience?
- Thread starter StoneCutter
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I am an utter perfectionist. I reload ALL THE TIME in order to see all kinds of different outcomes, have everything go as I want to. Even if I look at a place my character probably wouldn't look like and it bugs me, I would reload.
I really do think the genre matters a lot, here. Some titles, there's no possible way to screw it up, or the story elements are so minor as to almost be a footnote. Borderlands springs to mind. Great game. Not too bad of a story, when you bothered to read it. Zero worries about "doing it right."
Others, like System Shock 2, you can definitely screw it up badly enough that the game is unwinnable, but because most consequences are immediate, and the penalties for making the wrong choice are a loss of precious, finite resources, I'm much more likely to do a natural playthrough (albeit with frequent quicksaves before fights) than in something like Fallout 3. I'd still plan a character build in advance though because god damn.
Others, like System Shock 2, you can definitely screw it up badly enough that the game is unwinnable, but because most consequences are immediate, and the penalties for making the wrong choice are a loss of precious, finite resources, I'm much more likely to do a natural playthrough (albeit with frequent quicksaves before fights) than in something like Fallout 3. I'd still plan a character build in advance though because god damn.
If you mean ACTUAL RPG's, like BethSoft's lot, Deus Ex to an extent etc where you play a role and follow it through then I let the dice fall and see what happens. I like sneaky types quite a lot in Oblivion, by far my favourite type to play (though orc with a warhammer was pretty cool). But if it goes tits up, say I miss the shot with my bow and instead of nailing him through the eye my arrow embeds itself in the guys arm, he starts screaming and a half dozen bandits are trying to get down my throat I don't panic and reload.
I fight, maybe I run. My guy has the stuff to deal with this, it's why I took those mysticism lessons back home and learnt invisibility, it's why I know where the traps are behind me. Fall back, draw them to me, let them hit those traps and die. Or of course, draw sword and shield and fight my way through them. So much more fun than following a script, it's great when everything works, no doubt about it. But improvising with a character is equally fun.
Levelling games like FF's are different, I try and do everything perfectly there because...well, I don't know, it's not my character, it's the game character and a lot of it for me is seeing how much content there is. I like hunting down sidequests and special bosses etc.
I fight, maybe I run. My guy has the stuff to deal with this, it's why I took those mysticism lessons back home and learnt invisibility, it's why I know where the traps are behind me. Fall back, draw them to me, let them hit those traps and die. Or of course, draw sword and shield and fight my way through them. So much more fun than following a script, it's great when everything works, no doubt about it. But improvising with a character is equally fun.
Levelling games like FF's are different, I try and do everything perfectly there because...well, I don't know, it's not my character, it's the game character and a lot of it for me is seeing how much content there is. I like hunting down sidequests and special bosses etc.
Authentic always. It just feels better to roleplay the character, making your experience in the game world a more personal one. It gives the illusion of your decisions being important and your time being worthwhile. Events around you feel all the more real, gaining depth and complexity in an RPG that would otherwise be shallow and meaningless.
However, the one time I did reload a save to change my experience was after Fallout 3's Tenpenny Tower quest. I sided with the ghouls, getting the residents of the tower to accept them as roommates. 10 hours of gameplay later I randomly wandered back into the tower only to find out that all the human residents were gone and their corpses dumped into some lowly basement.
It angered me enough to slaughter every living ghoul in the tower, then reload BACK an odd 20 or so hours of the game to make sure that incident would never come to be. The whole experience was alien to me. I've never really been that emotionally invested in a game before, especially not for inconsequential characters like NPC's. It's like I almost didn't care that I was throwing away all that work and quest completion and rare loot acquired for a silly in-game decision. Was I even still roleplaying at that point, or was perfection finally taking over?
Either way, I couldn't be more proud of my own hypocrisy.
However, the one time I did reload a save to change my experience was after Fallout 3's Tenpenny Tower quest. I sided with the ghouls, getting the residents of the tower to accept them as roommates. 10 hours of gameplay later I randomly wandered back into the tower only to find out that all the human residents were gone and their corpses dumped into some lowly basement.
It angered me enough to slaughter every living ghoul in the tower, then reload BACK an odd 20 or so hours of the game to make sure that incident would never come to be. The whole experience was alien to me. I've never really been that emotionally invested in a game before, especially not for inconsequential characters like NPC's. It's like I almost didn't care that I was throwing away all that work and quest completion and rare loot acquired for a silly in-game decision. Was I even still roleplaying at that point, or was perfection finally taking over?
Either way, I couldn't be more proud of my own hypocrisy.
I voted other purely because I do both, on my first run I will go with the flow and see how my genuine choices and actions affect the game.
Any runs after that will be more RP, perhaps aim to get the best possible route or aim to do everything as badly as possible and just play about to get what I want to happen.
Any runs after that will be more RP, perhaps aim to get the best possible route or aim to do everything as badly as possible and just play about to get what I want to happen.
The perfect example for this is Fire Emblem for me.
For those of you who don't know, any character (usually) other than the main character can die and therefore be completely excluded from the rest of the game and story.
I remember one of the main important characters dying early on in Fire Emblem DS due to a stupid tactical decision I made, I got a kind of mediocre ending because of it but I don't necessarily regret not restarting the level the character died as when it comes to these types of games, the authentic experience is so much more interesting. Actually having to be careful who you send to the front lines, who will get the kills, who will be sacrificed etc for me adds so much more depth.
For games like Metal Gear Solid on the other hand, I absolutely hate not going through a level like the professional agent Snake is meant to be. I feel like it ruins the experience if I am constantly getting caught, setting off all the alarms, and resorting to killing hundreds of enemy guards. All leading up to a cutscene where for the general or commander (or whatever) doesn't acknowledge that Snake has infiltrated their base.
For those of you who don't know, any character (usually) other than the main character can die and therefore be completely excluded from the rest of the game and story.
I remember one of the main important characters dying early on in Fire Emblem DS due to a stupid tactical decision I made, I got a kind of mediocre ending because of it but I don't necessarily regret not restarting the level the character died as when it comes to these types of games, the authentic experience is so much more interesting. Actually having to be careful who you send to the front lines, who will get the kills, who will be sacrificed etc for me adds so much more depth.
For games like Metal Gear Solid on the other hand, I absolutely hate not going through a level like the professional agent Snake is meant to be. I feel like it ruins the experience if I am constantly getting caught, setting off all the alarms, and resorting to killing hundreds of enemy guards. All leading up to a cutscene where for the general or commander (or whatever) doesn't acknowledge that Snake has infiltrated their base.
Whenever I play a game with a voiced main character I go perfection as it just feels like I'm playing someone else, It's not me doing that awesome scene, It's this random character I play.
So, voiced character=perfection and non voiced character=authenticity
And that is my opinion.
So, voiced character=perfection and non voiced character=authenticity
And that is my opinion.
Much to my dismay, I tend to go for perfection. It takes me a long time to complete any game, and I find I can't get through a game a second time (most likely because I strive for perfection the first time). Although, I can't exactly remember a game that I backtrack except for L.A. Noire. Unless you count the reloads when I misunderstand a dialogue option to mean ONE thing, but then he goes off on another line of thinking. Which... was kind of what I did in L.A. Noire...
I do roleplay, though. In open-ended games like Fallout and such, I usually do what my character would do, so maybe I am being authentic. All of the options I pick feel "perfect" to me at the time because I'm roleplaying.
I do roleplay, though. In open-ended games like Fallout and such, I usually do what my character would do, so maybe I am being authentic. All of the options I pick feel "perfect" to me at the time because I'm roleplaying.
I always play authentically the first time, and try for perfection on the subsequent playthroughs.
StoneCutter said:
Well, on one hand, I -want- to have an authentic experience; I just can't stand the thought of failure.
Gaming is the one place where I can just restart and it's like my mistake never happened. That's really hard to give up and that tends to be what I do.
I have both. I play authentically on my first playthrough but if the RPG really turned out to be one I liked a lot, then on my subsequent replays I start to aim more and more for perfection and getting as big a vareity of different choices as I can.
Greatest topic ever.
I tend to lean towards perfection if I am playing stealthily, and in Deus Ex HR I have been reloading often when things go awry, but not every time.
The first mission I was going to take out everyone non-lethal melee and get ghost. I reloaded so many times, and then there was some point where I got a little frustrated and said "F**K IT!!!" then proceeded to murder everyone and throw their corpses at walls and other enemies. I still regret it a little bit because I was so very, very close to the end of the level.
I am ALWAYS so conflicted on reloading for the way it "should of happened" or to just go with the way it did.
I tend to lean towards perfection if I am playing stealthily, and in Deus Ex HR I have been reloading often when things go awry, but not every time.
The first mission I was going to take out everyone non-lethal melee and get ghost. I reloaded so many times, and then there was some point where I got a little frustrated and said "F**K IT!!!" then proceeded to murder everyone and throw their corpses at walls and other enemies. I still regret it a little bit because I was so very, very close to the end of the level.
I am ALWAYS so conflicted on reloading for the way it "should of happened" or to just go with the way it did.
[quote\]
The first mission I was going to take out everyone non-lethal melee and get ghost. I reloaded so many times, and then there was some point where I got a little frustrated and said "F**K IT!!!" then proceeded to murder everyone and throw their corpses at walls and other enemies. I still regret it a little bit because I was so very, very close to the end of the level.
[/quote]
That's almost *exactly* what happened to me. I was out of stun darts and the guards were on to me, so I had to resort to the machine pistol.
I wonder if the developers plan out things like this...
The first mission I was going to take out everyone non-lethal melee and get ghost. I reloaded so many times, and then there was some point where I got a little frustrated and said "F**K IT!!!" then proceeded to murder everyone and throw their corpses at walls and other enemies. I still regret it a little bit because I was so very, very close to the end of the level.
[/quote]
That's almost *exactly* what happened to me. I was out of stun darts and the guards were on to me, so I had to resort to the machine pistol.
I wonder if the developers plan out things like this...