The formula

Hi all, second post.

I'm going to go into a bunch of different games in this one, so SPOILERS if you think you might ever play them. I tend to keep fairly generalised but still, it's there. I'm going to tell you a little bit about the formula I take with the games I'll be talking about in this blog. So games with heavy RPG elements, RPG's themselves and anything that involves choice of character, both development and personality, and plot.




Cost/benefit analysis
When I play a game I tend to weigh up everything that I want to get out of it.

I want a character that's powerful, but never too powerful, the game still needs challenge and I don't want him or her to turn into generic overpowered badass that can do everything.
Nothing pleases me more in some games where I'm (my character) too weak or unskilled and have to go away and come back later, provided that it's not just an arbritary mark.
Sadly a lot of games have the "you need X [skill] to [action] this [person/object]" which feels more like number crunching, and even my beloved Fallout 3 suffers from this.

Surprisingly Bioshock's hacking game did this well. You didn't NEED hacking implants to get through, but damnit if they didn't help. I'd love to see that in other RPG's, where the difficulty is nearly insurmountable but still doable. Make it a balance of attractiveness, wanting to open something early, but potentially wasting time, or failing because it's too hard.




Gaol'd by the goal
An example I can think of is in New Vegas. There's 9 implants that you have to pay for, each one offering a slight bonus to your character. However, in order to get all 9 implants you yourself need 9 endurance, which is set at the start of the game.

Ordinarily I'd never put 9 endurance into a character, but I want that character to have all those implants, call it collectors fetish. This is kind of a problem/choice scenario, where it's a problem in that I'm solving "wanting the implants" by having 9 endurance, but the benefit and the cost are about equal. Sure my character has all 9 implants, but the cost of having to invest so heavily in 9 endurance means my character will never be able to do certain things, such as his skill rate might be a little lower. This is kind of a problem/choice scenario, where it's a problem in that I'm solving "wanting the implants" by having 9 endurance, but the benefit and the cost are about equal. So it's more a choice as it doesn't really impact much more than my obsessive collector personality.

So yeah, my goal in New vegas was to get as many perks as possible, so 9 endurance fascilitated that.

Roleplay to win!
Additionally, I like to roleplay my character. Often I'll bend the roleplay around the game mechanics (similar to above), and let the plot and the availability of certain aspects help  to reflect upon that character. This requires research and planning often, as nothing infuriates me more than choosing a type of character to play and then have either plot or mechanics come back around and bite me in the ass.

There are always going to be some limitations on a game, as greater choice makes a lot more work for the designers. Take Deus Ex. If you wanted to play a pacifist that uses words not weapons, well good luck. Even if you take the non-violent approach and tranq your enemies, there'll still be moments where killing really would be the easiest option, and it doesn't always make sense to stick with a rigid character role.

So maybe my JC wasn't a cold-blooded killer, but when he's ambushed he'll hapily take out a sword and pistol over the tranq gun, it's self defence. In short, the character needs to be organic and realistic, and fit into the world and react according to the events that happen.

I tend to play a game twice. Once as an exploration, where I'll play it on the easiest setting and get through it the fastest way, find out what's available. The second time as I actually want to play it. Sometimes I can get around this requirement with a bit of wiki-searching and walkthrough reading, but I also want to enjoy the game as the plot unfurls.

Nothing is forbidden
I'm also not above using mods and console commands. Take Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. Buggiest game ever unless you get the unofficial patch.
I'm also a fan of playing the Tremere character, a vampiric bloodmage. However, at the start of the game you're not actually a part of the local Chantry, the magic school, so why do you start with a level in Thaumaturgy, their spells? Who the hell taught it to you? I sell that point (through console) and reinvest the exp somewhere else, until such a time as my character would have had access to that ability.

Similarly with Dragon Age Origins., when you unlock a class specialisation, you can immediately take that on any future playthroughs. But some of them make no sense. How did your closeted mage (see Zevran) learn to be an arcane warrior, an ancient and forgotten art while locked in the mages tower? I wouldn't add that specialisation until after the point at which it would normally be unlocked.



It's all about balance
Game designers have to balance plot with mechanics, and the best games are those that marry the two well together. However, the inherent choice in plot needs to be steeped with reward. If you have 2 choices, one with a reward and one without, you'll take the reward, even if it wouldn't necessarily fit in with what your character normally does, That's a basic problem. That's why both options need to be more-or-less equal, so that the choice exists.

This is why I'll normally play a good character, because the evil ones close too many doors or loose too many benefits.

Additionally, if the aim of the goal is to complete it, the priority of getting EVERY reward drops. I won't neccessarily sell out my friends for more money, because I'm already a rich bastard. The worth of the reward comes into things as well.

I think you'll probably have an idea with the basics of "The Way I Play". I'm going to pick a game, one that I'm familiar with and can talk about in relative length. Not too much nor too little, and that will be my starting point.

Until next time.

Steve