I'm genuinely asking because I'm certain there is a limit before customization options become a bit much. I don't have an opinion other than when the customization options get in the way of gameplay. The best example of this is MW2's multiplayer, you could choose your killstreak, your deathstreak, your perks, how you want to be seeing your target before he dies, and what you want out of a woman. It sounds great, but unfortunately some of those options broke the game and made it very unfun to play.
When Are Customization Options Too Much?
- Thread starter cojo965
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What options broke the game? Elaborate please.cojo965 said:
Anyway, I don't believe there really is a limit on customization options, but if you're referring to actual gameplay options, that's a different story. I say it can go as far as it wants, but it has to keep balance with all the other options.
I haven't played the game you talk for,but I think the more the merrier.
Serious Sam 3 had WAY TOO MUCH options,but if I wasn't interested or didn't knew what an option was changing I didn't bothered changing it.
The chances to find an option that you care about though,are more if there are more options in general,so I say it's a good thing to have many options.
Serious Sam 3 had WAY TOO MUCH options,but if I wasn't interested or didn't knew what an option was changing I didn't bothered changing it.
The chances to find an option that you care about though,are more if there are more options in general,so I say it's a good thing to have many options.
Like the perk that allows the player to switch classes mid-game and how noob-tubers could get an infinite amount of grenades down-range. The nuke killstreak could cancel out any amount of winning your team was exerting at the time. I remember a time when my team had quite clearly won a game of sabotage when the nuke countdown began and what was the last thing seen before the bomb killed everyone? The enemy objective detonating.EmphaFish said:
In my opinion, never.cojo965 said:
I want to micro-manage every single damned aspect of any and all characters I ever play. Down to individual tooth length.
And I'm not even joking.
Then your problem ISN'T with the customization itself, but rather the stuff you can pick out. Customization itself doesn't break games, but if some of the options are overpowered, yeah.cojo965 said:
MW2 isn't very balanced anyway. It's about as balanced as a fat guy on a small boat on a windy day.
Great analogy, but when you consider the deadline CoD's developers have because of Activision demanding that a Call of Duty be released each year, they probably don't have the time to make sure all the options work before release. So they probably had too many to go through.SomeLameStuff said:
It's not EVERY year. It's every two years. You're forgetting that Infinity Ward AND Treyarch are taking turns at making CoD. And they're not changing much in the game anyway, it IS basically copy and paste and tweak.cojo965 said:
Lol, they didn't even make it past the guns as far as working out balance is concerned. Terrible, terrible game.cojo965 said:
OT - I don't think you can ever have to much customization, at least i've never seen a game with too much. The more we can change to they way we want, the better imo.
I was just thinking about that earlier. CoD multiplayer (at least in the early MW era) liked to bill itself as "class based." But with create-a-class, it pretty much became "Pick your favorite rifle and sidearm" Not really balanced...
Point taken though it is worth noting Treyarch with Black Ops 2 seems to be taking the step that Infinity Ward made with CoD4 by going to the future. By the way I think I have a better definition for what I'm talking about is if you are spending more time in customization menues than playing the game, it is worse if those options have stats like in Borderlands 1 I have not played 2 yet.SomeLameStuff said:
It actually ended up not having enough, because you still couldn't make the sun blinding and dust clouds go away.Stavros Dimou said:
But it does offer the answer, it's too much when you can't make heads and tails of it.
More options need to be accompanied by more definition, better segmenting, smoother transitions,... it's not just about throwing buckets of options at people, shit needs to make sense.
Guild Wars 2 makes MW2's customization look like amateur hour. Customizable skill trees, different perks for classes, dominant hands and playing style, craftable armor/weapons, character creation, colors, guild-specific patterns and sets...there's never anything wrong with more options for players who want to feel like they're creating something unique.
Your title pretty much sums it up OP.
There is never too many customization OPTIONS.
I suppose its sort of like spore (yes ik the game is crap, didnt live up to its potintial) you can customize EVERYTHING in there, but you dont have to if you dont want to. There are plenty of preset options for you to choose. You CAN if you want but when is too much and u dont wanna bother you dont have to customize.
Its sort of like Saints Row 2 if you think about it. Male or Female? Muscles? How skinny? Flat? Curvy? Color eyes? Color hair? Nose size? Nose length? Nose depth? Noze bridge size? Nostril size? Nose tip tilts up or down? Nose extends out how far? Is the nose placed closer to the eyes or lips? The options are all there for you to change but you dont have to if you dont want to. Same goes for clothing shops in the game, instead of letting you buy something like "Upperbody wear" that consists of one item for you to perchase that may contain multiple layers you cant control they instead give you bras, undershirts, shirts, and coats/suits all of which can be worn one on top of the other in that order. (ps guys can have bras too!)
No there is never too MANY options. If anyone beleives that 50 different sliders for changing something like your nose is too much I challenge you to play a game where your forced to play a preset character (like vindictus or team fortress 2) and think of just how different you would look if you could but change just one part of your face in the most miniscule way. There may be 1000 people who look just like you running around that game world but atleast you have less of a flared nostril.
There is never too many customization OPTIONS.
I suppose its sort of like spore (yes ik the game is crap, didnt live up to its potintial) you can customize EVERYTHING in there, but you dont have to if you dont want to. There are plenty of preset options for you to choose. You CAN if you want but when is too much and u dont wanna bother you dont have to customize.
Its sort of like Saints Row 2 if you think about it. Male or Female? Muscles? How skinny? Flat? Curvy? Color eyes? Color hair? Nose size? Nose length? Nose depth? Noze bridge size? Nostril size? Nose tip tilts up or down? Nose extends out how far? Is the nose placed closer to the eyes or lips? The options are all there for you to change but you dont have to if you dont want to. Same goes for clothing shops in the game, instead of letting you buy something like "Upperbody wear" that consists of one item for you to perchase that may contain multiple layers you cant control they instead give you bras, undershirts, shirts, and coats/suits all of which can be worn one on top of the other in that order. (ps guys can have bras too!)
No there is never too MANY options. If anyone beleives that 50 different sliders for changing something like your nose is too much I challenge you to play a game where your forced to play a preset character (like vindictus or team fortress 2) and think of just how different you would look if you could but change just one part of your face in the most miniscule way. There may be 1000 people who look just like you running around that game world but atleast you have less of a flared nostril.
Honestly if they made a game that was just about customizing and dressing your characters to the nth degree it would probably sell very well. And they could just keep adding new costumes etc. as paid DLC!
Oh wait they already have that, its called Playstation Home!
And Littlebigplanet. And Dragon's Dogma. (both of which I own)
Seriously though I love customization. My favorite Ratchet and Clank games are the ones with the customizable ships.
I literally spend like an hour making my first character in Elder Scrolls games. Skyrim pisses me off due to the poor level of customization compared to Oblivion, and Fallout even more so.
Its pretty disappointing that my character in Oblivion looks so much better than anything I could POSSIBLY make in Skyrim, on the PS3 anyway.
Though it does make creating the same character for a new build easy as I only have to tweak a few things from one of the fugly presets. Unfortunately my Breton female will always have giant brow furrows and a height deficit because rather than give me a height slider or making every race uniform height they chose to impart completely arbitrary differences even between the sexes of the same race. Then they made your walking speed height dependant.
Telling me I can't play as a stunted orc or a giant kajiit kinda breaks that whole "play how you want" selling point. Also telling me I can't have a nose that doesn't look like it was carved from a tree, or hair that looks like its even been washed, or a character that isn't a flat chested dwarf with Gordon Ramsey's forehead kinda takes the wind out of my sails.
I'd settle for allowing me to have 'red' hair witout a mod. I supposed pink and green would be outlandish in your magical fantasy realm as well.
I'm the kind of person that will use something in a game just because it looks cool, or because its customizable rather than the most useful. i.e. the cape in Symphony of the Night that you could change the colors on.
But the shoes that added a tiny bit of height to Alucard is where I drew the line lol.
Oh wait they already have that, its called Playstation Home!
And Littlebigplanet. And Dragon's Dogma. (both of which I own)
Seriously though I love customization. My favorite Ratchet and Clank games are the ones with the customizable ships.
I literally spend like an hour making my first character in Elder Scrolls games. Skyrim pisses me off due to the poor level of customization compared to Oblivion, and Fallout even more so.
Its pretty disappointing that my character in Oblivion looks so much better than anything I could POSSIBLY make in Skyrim, on the PS3 anyway.
Though it does make creating the same character for a new build easy as I only have to tweak a few things from one of the fugly presets. Unfortunately my Breton female will always have giant brow furrows and a height deficit because rather than give me a height slider or making every race uniform height they chose to impart completely arbitrary differences even between the sexes of the same race. Then they made your walking speed height dependant.
Telling me I can't play as a stunted orc or a giant kajiit kinda breaks that whole "play how you want" selling point. Also telling me I can't have a nose that doesn't look like it was carved from a tree, or hair that looks like its even been washed, or a character that isn't a flat chested dwarf with Gordon Ramsey's forehead kinda takes the wind out of my sails.
I'd settle for allowing me to have 'red' hair witout a mod. I supposed pink and green would be outlandish in your magical fantasy realm as well.
I'm the kind of person that will use something in a game just because it looks cool, or because its customizable rather than the most useful. i.e. the cape in Symphony of the Night that you could change the colors on.
But the shoes that added a tiny bit of height to Alucard is where I drew the line lol.
The way I see it, the only time it can ever be too much is when it comes to online matchmaking.
In the old days it used to just be a matter of choosing a map to play on that everyone would like. Some people might love a weapon that everyone else hates, and that could cause friction in a match, but no biggie. Then we get characters with distinct advantages, perks, upgrades, car class type, hardcore/survival modes vs arcade modes, allow/disallow spectator cam, death cam, respawn time, assists on or off, friendly fire percentage, punkbuster or no, etc etc.
I love my games having as many options as possible, but I always imagined if a game like Perfect Dark or Timesplitters was online on the PC, there'd be SO many options you'd NEVER be able to find an online match that caters to all your tastes.
Thank god for multiplayer bots, eh?
In the old days it used to just be a matter of choosing a map to play on that everyone would like. Some people might love a weapon that everyone else hates, and that could cause friction in a match, but no biggie. Then we get characters with distinct advantages, perks, upgrades, car class type, hardcore/survival modes vs arcade modes, allow/disallow spectator cam, death cam, respawn time, assists on or off, friendly fire percentage, punkbuster or no, etc etc.
I love my games having as many options as possible, but I always imagined if a game like Perfect Dark or Timesplitters was online on the PC, there'd be SO many options you'd NEVER be able to find an online match that caters to all your tastes.
Thank god for multiplayer bots, eh?
never, more otions are always better, especially graphics options, some people dont like having aa on.
really ate it also when developers decide t o not allow the players to lower thhe grapics, or make them higher, we dont all have the same type of pc.
really ate it also when developers decide t o not allow the players to lower thhe grapics, or make them higher, we dont all have the same type of pc.