Increasing a game's replay value

[Renmiri]

That is one thing I don't understand about the gaming industry!

They should make it easy for us gamers to customize/ translate the game. It's like ringtones, or the Sims stuff a bunch of determined/ talented gamers can help make the game so much more fun for the rest!

On X the characters spent the entire game without saying Tidus name to let you customize his name, which was silly IMHO. You can't costumize names on XII and you don't hear anyone complaining. I do hear people complaining that Fran's accent is annoying, or that Tidus voice was. Some others think the English voices were as hot as fire ;)

Why not give us the standard English / Japanese voice soundtracks but make it easier for people to change it to Spanish, Polish or Swahili ? Or to Spoof (like this hilarious Yu-gi-oh spoof (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0mdjSUM2OE)) ? Sure, don't let people sell it, but let people use it on the privacy of their own home. Same thing for some repetitive songs, like the battle themes. I do like the ones in X, X-2, XII, etc.. but after 300 battles it kind of starts getting on my nerves. Why can't I change it to "We will rock you" or to the song I'm in the mood for today ?

I bet that would increase the games replay value by 1,000 and it's also quite feasible now that the PS3 and other gaming engines have hard drives and net connections

Well, that's it for my rant... :}

[Old Manus]

I think the only thing left needed to be said is STOP GIVING US STUPID CONCEPT ART, WE REALLY DON'T GIVE A DAMN WHAT THE LEVEL LOOKS LIKE, WE JUST PLAYED IT IN FULL 3D AND WITH GUNS.

[bipper]

Wanna mod a game?

buy a PC :D

[Slothy]

Wanna mod a game?

buy a PC :D

I'm agreeing with Bipper. I must be running a fever or something...

But seriously, I don't see this happening with console games. Ever. It's much easier to mod a game on the PC, especially when the developer opens up the source code to the general gaming public to tinker with. That, and there are already numerous development tools available to people on the PC, many of which are free for that matter. You've also got the fact that programming for a PC is fairly familiar to most programmers. As far as say the PS3 or Wii are concerned, there isn't exactly an over abundance of homebrew dev tools for either. The PS3 has some hope since it can run Linux if you want to install it on there, which does open up the possibilities for running homebrew games, but modding, well, I can't see that happening without getting your hands on a games source code and a dev kit. Two things would be console developers don't have easy access to.

Maybe I'm talking out my ass on this one, but I don't see console game modding happening without companies at least giving access to the source code for their games, which isn't likely. Even in the PC community, few games ever cultivate a huge mod community. If the trend were to carry over onto consoles, I think it would hit the 360 first since developing for it is essentially like developing for a PC, and Microsoft has been very good about giving people some fairly easy to use, and flexible development tools.

With all that said, it'd be nice if modding started to happen on consoles. The mod community for Half-Life not only kept the game popular for years, but resulted in some of the best FPS games and concepts going, and the same can be said for HL2 now.

[Shoeberto]

Yeah, if you want mods, go with PC. Can't do much about that with console games.

(well, not entirely true; there's lots of ROM hacks for old console games out there. But more than likely you'd be playing those on a PC anyway so it's almost moot to mention.)

[Discord]

Hmm... well, editing the sound-track of FFX would just destroy the whole atmosphere. Imagine if you play it for the first time, get tired of the battle themes and install that mod. All goes well, until the very end when Yuna tells Tidus how much she loves him, while, due to some witty developer's sence of humour, the background music changes to "She fucking hates me! Tla-la-la".

As for modding, some games, once again on the PC, allow you to do that. You get developer kits and so forth. GTA for one, allows you to load your MP3s so you can listen to them while driving a car -in-game-.

[Tavrobel]

Wanna mod a game?

buy a PC :D

You win for life. Consider this a free pass to a seal toward ultimate gaming ownage.

[bipper]

what if the seal clubs me? Would I be Russian?

[Discord]

what if the seal clubs me? Would I be Russian?

You already are one.:love:

[Rostum]

As Bipper and Hsu said, your best bet is modding PC games. There's generally a huge community in every place you look on the internet that can help support you in learning and creating mods for a wide range of different games and their engines.

[Markus. D]

cept Guild Wars and a few others in relation to PC.


I "think" it is still to be figured out what program created it.

[Mirage]

New game plus satisfies me.

[Zeromus_X]

Multiple difficulty levels, different scenarios, and 'New Game Plus' and similar options generally are all I desire when it comes to adding replay value.

[Mirage]

And multiple endings.

[Renmiri]

Well like I said, obviously it is a moot point for older platforms.

But on the PS3 you have a hard drive ant wireless net. I have downloaded memory cards from my PS2 to it. I have downloaded system updates on my PC and uploaded in it.

Why not a new soundtrack ? Or at least some mp3 to play at specific places ? Or a translated script ?

Translations are a big thing! You native English speakers can not imagine how much difference it makes to be able to understand the game screens and dialogs. Or you do. Imagine being able to buy all kinds of japanese games that aren't released here, thanks to no company willing to fund the translation. Now all you need is a couple of game fanatics willing to do so.

Like WARMECH which translated the entire FFX-2 Last Mission script. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to download his translation and play the Japanese Version of the PS2 Last mission on your Playstation ?

Gaming companies are bent on bringing new games that sell millions of copies. They aren't willing to spend time translating older games, even if 200,000 people would like it, it is still not enough for them to spend money on it.

That is why I think they should make it easier for gaming fans to do some translation and customization. Because we play and care for their games long after they have moved on to bigger and better things

[Tavrobel]

Well like I said, obviously it is a moot point for older platforms.

There's emulators. That's why you get a PC.

Ohh, and if you are going to mod FFX-2, please make it so that it doesn't suck.

[Rostum]

That is why I think they should make it easier for gaming fans to do some translation and customization. Because we play and care for their games long after they have moved on to bigger and better things

I think a lot of it would be to do with copyright issues as well as licensing issues. And the fact that up until just recently, there hasn't been the technology to add further customizations to console games. That may also include the time and money the developer would have spent making those options available - it would most likely not be feasible.

The PS3 is still fairly new, so I wouldn't rule out more customization in games later down the track when developers create more games and get the hang of developing for the PS3.

[Formalhaut]

What a nice topic about REPLAY VALUE. Well, X-2 had New game+, a great replay thing, X had the Aeon and Tidus name redux, which I really like. But other than that, nothing much really. We need more!

[Renmiri]

That is why I think they should make it easier for gaming fans to do some translation and customization. Because we play and care for their games long after they have moved on to bigger and better things

I think a lot of it would be to do with copyright issues as well as licensing issues....
Yeah, that is part of my point. It is just too messy for someone to do it commercially, i.e., to sell a "translation package" for an old game.

But for dedicated fans to exchange it "open source" like Sims and ringtones would be fun.

The PS3 is still fairly new, so I wouldn't rule out more customization in games later down the track when developers create more games and get the hang of developing for the PS3.

I hope!!!

[JKTrix]

Yeah, about modding stuff, PCs are the way to go. It's been said many times.

As far as custom soundtracks, that's something that Xbox has been doing since the beginning. Several games on Xbox 1 allowed for custom soundtracks, and now it's a standard feature on the 360. You can use custom soundtracks to override the BGM in any game.

Rip CDs straight to the 360's harddrive, stream it from a networked computer, or plug your iPod straight into the 360's USB ports, and you can play that music through the 360 and into your games. Even control it from the menus.


With the PS3's latest update, you can stream media from a networked computer. Perhaps in the future some games will allow you to have custom soundtracks, if the system itself doesn't provide something like the 360's 'play anywhere' feature.

Edit: Unrelated, but the PS3's latest update also completely upscales all PS1 and PS2 games if you're using HD. I remember you talking about FFX looking better on your PS3, now it should look even better if you have an HDTV. The stuff won't actually be very crisp like real HD, but it's better than image stretching.

[Renmiri]

Wohoo! Yeah, I just got the 1.80 upgrade, can't wait to test it :D