Poll: What gives a game replay value?

[Koganesaga]

Something were the story really arcs, and the world changes based on you decisions. Something similar to fable where your choice actually effected how the world developed, like were you save the town and it prospers or you kill everyone and it becomes a cesspool. Now take that and make it extreme, make the endings completely different, not some crap were it all leads to the same place and you just make a different choice for some after game stuff. Make it something like instead of killing the final boss, you instead serve him and turn on your employer, slaughtering innocent towns and destroying everything you once fought to protect.

 

[Generator]

Honestly, it's a combination of them all. A game has to flow smoothly from one segment to the next, so gameplay, story, and everything in between are all equally important. That's not to say that any of these factors have to be all that complex, as long as you feel like there's a reason to keep playing. For example, one of my most replayed games of all time is MediEvil: Resurrection; the gameplay isn't innovative and the story's pretty obvious (albeit, quite funny and entertaining), but something about it just works: everything clicks, I guess you could say.

Also, extras are great for replay value, but they need to be relevant to the course of the actual game: as much as I loved looking for Blast Shards in InFamous, it stopped being fun when it stopped boosting my battery cores. Side missions should have especially worthwhile rewards. Majora's Mask did a great job of this because, although not every mask that you got was useful, it still felt like collecting them was relevant to the story, and just plain interesting to do.

All in all, it's hard to nail down exactly what makes a game fun to replay, as it's different for each game, as well as for each player. But hard work shows, and a well-crafted game that offers up all of the above poll options is honestly the most likely to garner a second playthrough, no matter who's playing.

 

[Lolth17]

Where's the 'all' button in your poll? Cuz that's the correct answer

Although for me personally, it would be story and writing that captivate me the most.

 

[Danpascooch]

Just make the game as fun as possible so that people want to play it again, there is no single aspect that makes a game replayable in my opinion.

But you need to leave enough of an impression so that people will remember it when they are looking for a game to play, if they don't remember it, they won't replay it

 

[Amondren]

What I like in replay value is fun game play such as Saints Row 2. another good game that i liked that i replayed a bit was Heavyrain i think that you love it or hate it i loved it so i replayed

 

[capin Rob]

I put down great visuals, just to sound like a PS3 twat, But in all seriousness, it has to be the story, the story makes the game. Period

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

I voted "Other," because if it's a fun game, it won't matter what else it has, it'll be replayable.

 

[Ieyland]

For me, choices in a game. I'm this tough, goody-two shoes in Mass Effect. But in the second playthrough, I want to be a bloody asshole, what do you wanna do about it, huh!?

Also probably in Oblivion, there are a lot of other choices you can make in the sidequests, though never any important ones. You might even feel the urge to play another type of character halfway through your first playthrough.

Fallout 3? Nuke or no? Some reload a save game to see what happens with each choice, but sometimes you have to play until the end of the game to see the consequences. I started another playthrough when Liam Neeson told me he was disappointed in me.

And in Left 4 Dead? What's better than killing zombies with your friends. It's always great when they get mauled by the tank while you make your escape. Or when he gets smoked two steps away from the escape vehicle.

 

[YouCallMeNighthawk]

multiple endings does it for me. as i have to see them all. Could youtube them but that's just ... pointless!

 

[The_Healer]

Achievements.

GIVE ME THEM NOW!

 

[oppp7]

Something to work for and achieve. Why wasn't that an option? Graphics are never the main reason people play games.

 

[Auric]

Id say multiplayer.

Ive yet to play a game (Aside from multiplayer), irregardless of how epic it is, that i have bothered replaying. I just cant do it.

 

[Deathkingo]

I had this all concluded that it was totally in the customization, or the ability to make game-changing choices, and then I saw this:

Not nessercarily, look at DOOM.

I despise you and your genius.

 

[NotAPie]

Multiple endings, a very interesting story does it for me.

 

[9NineBreaker9]

I feel like the game needs to be able to be approached different ways in subsequent playthroughs, and the player needs to be able to find the means to do so. Me, I enjoyed playing through Dead Space long after I had memorized where all the Necromorphs spawned just to try those fights differently or with different weapons. In RPGs, (even JRPGs), I tend to play the main character differently or follow different stories (such as taking the opposite moral path or something).

Giant landscapes make subsequent playthroughs extremely tedious, but are handy for making ONE GIANT playthrough.

Shooters generally provide few methods of approaching a situation - at the most, GoW might provide you with 2 routes. Beyond that, you're looking at multiplayer or... other cover spots?

For me... the ability to just enjoy the game again, and to find another way to play it. Maybe its in unlockables, maybe its in altering stories, maybe its in exploring previous untouched elements or sidequests, or just as simple as choosing different weapons. The story definitely helps (especially if you can pick out elements you may have missed the first time), but, so long as the gameplay is good and allows for the player to derive multiple methods of play, listening to a mediocre story again is perfectly fine.

Everything else just needs to be bearable

*Is looking forward to his Persona 4 New Game+*

 

[Amalith]

Replay value means one of four things for me: Good multiplayer, Sandbox, Procedural Generation, or Mods.

It only needs one for replay value*.

Good Multiplayer, I keep going back and playing it, there are no end conditions to killing other people, you just keep playing new matches.

By sandbox, I don't mean open world, I mean Garrys Mod, Dwarf Fortress, Minecraft, and other creation games. An open world allows me to play longer, but I still get sick of the gameplay faster than I am including in replayable.

Procedural Generation. The weakest of my replayables, because I was going to use Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft as my examples, however they are also fully open into what you will do, so I put them under sandbox, despite DF being quite different from Garrys mod style sandbox. Nethack also goes here, which is cool.

Mods. I've played Oblivion a lot, always deciding to play it again because of some cool mod that looks awesome. Valve is my favorite company because of their modding community (many source mods are better than full priced games). I keep coming back to Mount and Blade, especially after seeing something in their forums I had to download and try. All of these have modding communities that change the game drastically.

Of note, multiple endings aren't enough for me to replay a mostly linear game, and I find achievements pointless.

*the game has to be good in the first place of course

 

[Regiment]

A game is fun to replay if you can skip anything that wasn't fun the first time around. That's why fighting games, for example, can get away with less unique content than, say, a 40-hour JRPG. You get to do only the fun stuff, as many times as you like.

(Obviously, you don't want to intentionally add stuff that wouldn't be fun, but early-game scenarios can be fun once and tedious the second time.)

Poll-wise, customization is always a plus.