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bioware writer wants fast forward button for games

Mastermind

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http://www.killerbetties.com/killer_wom ... page=0%2C3

If you could tell developers of games to make sure to put one thing in games to appeal to a broader audience which includes women, what would that one thing be?

A fast-forward button. Games almost always include a way to "button through" dialogue without paying attention, because they understand that some players don't enjoy listening to dialogue and they don't want to stop their fun. Yet they persist in practically coming into your living room and forcing you to play through the combats even if you're a player who only enjoys the dialogue. In a game with sufficient story to be interesting without the fighting, there is no reason on earth that you can't have a little button at the corner of the screen that you can click to skip to the end of the fighting.

Companies have a lot of objections, such as how to calculate loot and experience points for a player who doesn't actually play the combats, but these could be easily addressed by simply figuring out an average or minimum amount of experience for every fight and awarding that.

The biggest objection is usually that skipping the fight scenes would make the game so much shorter, but to me, that's the biggest perk. If you're a woman, especially a mother, with dinner to prepare, kids' homework to help with, and a lot of other demands on your time, you don't need a game to be 100 hours long to hold your interest -- especially if those 100 hours are primarily doing things you don't enjoy. A fast forward button would give all players -- not just women -- the same options that we have with books or DVDs -- to skim past the parts we don't like and savor the ones we do. Over and over, women complain that they don't like violence, or they don't enjoy difficult and vertigo-inducing gameplay, yet this simple feature hasn't been tried on any game I know of.

Granted, many games would have very little left if you removed the combat, but for a game like Deus Ex or Bioware's RPGs, you could take out every shred of combat and still have an entertainment experience that rivals anything you'd see in the theater or on TV.

Don't give a shit if it's old, this sums up Bioware's design philosophy perfectly: WE NEED TO CATER TO EVERY RETARD ON THE PLANET.

How long until Bioware actually implements her suggestion?
 

treave

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I don't know, just actually watch a movie or read a book?
 

easychord

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Hats off to her. She just invented the auto resolve button from strategy games.
 

Destroid

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Seem's like an alright idea, combats seem to be the main thing people complain about in RPGs these days.
 

easychord

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But they should just remove combat and replace it with a pony dressage mini game.
 
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To be fair to her, I wouldn't mind some sort of "fuck this shit" button to propel me through all the filler drek that is woven into most RPGs nowadays. Nothing sours me on a game more than it wasting my time with boring, unamusing content.

I mean, yeah, this is a hamfisted solution, and while it would certainly be preferable to have games that are rich in quality content, as long as 80+ HOURS OF BORING ASPIE CRACK BUY ME MOTHERFUCKERS! is a selling point of RPGs, they will continue to be filled with shit content to pad game length, so I'd at least like to be able to opt out of some of the shit, and be able to more painlessly access the decent content.

Also, while design ideas like this may sound stupid at first, they can actually be a service to gamers like us. Take for instance the SuperGuide system used by "nu-D" (a.k.a. modernized side scrollers) Nintendo platformers on the Wii. Basically, it's an option to have the level played for you if you fail 5 or more times in a row. Because this system is in place, the developers can make much more challenging levels, without having to dumb them down for a wider audience. Sometimes things like this can be okay.
 

Captain Shrek

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Honestly I knew this to be true for Biowhore fans.

The modern RP-gamer considers the gaming part an inconvenience. He/She/It actually wants a Real Life simulator to enact their gay porn fantasies but need to justify it with something the world considers intelligent and mature; hence the :decline: ,

Bioware has correctly ASSessed their audience and they are supplying what is in demand. :M
 

Mastermind

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Edward_R_Murrow said:
I mean, yeah, this is a hamfisted solution,

It's more than that, it's an abomination. Combat is pretty much 99% of the gameplay in Bioware games. She wants to turn games into movies. Except we already have movies. There's a difference between an option to get through difficult parts, and just fast forward through a game without playing at all.
 

Dirk Diggler

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So she just presses the fast forward button in the middle of a movie? I take it she also flips through the pages when a book gets boring?

What a numbskull, especially the way that she makes it 'about women.'
 
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I mean, yeah, this is a hamfisted solution, and while it would certainly be preferable to have games that are rich in quality content, as long as 80+ HOURS OF BORING ASPIE CRACK BUY ME MOTHERFUCKERS! is a selling point of RPGs, they will continue to be filled with shit content to pad game length, so I'd at least like to be able to opt out of some of the shit, and be able to more painlessly access the decent content.

Ok then. What new CRPG's last for 80 hours? And how about improving the combat/content instead of getting rid of it?
 

Antihero

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Edward_R_Murrow said:
Also, while design ideas like this may sound stupid at first, they can actually be a service to gamers like us. Take for instance the SuperGuide system used by "nu-D" (a.k.a. modernized side scrollers) Nintendo platformers on the Wii. Basically, it's an option to have the level played for you if you fail 5 or more times in a row. Because this system is in place, the developers can make much more challenging levels, without having to dumb them down for a wider audience. Sometimes things like this can be okay.

I haven't seen it myself, but I thought it was argued that it could also be more like a trainer to show you how it's done or a "this part is too hard - I'll try it again some other time" button. Not a "Combat is boring - let's get to the sexing part" button. Having that option would make me more annoyed because it's an easy way out instead of challenging me to get better - unless it's one of those things where only 0.001% of the population will be good enough for it anyway. Edit: and at that point, stick it in a super-duper bonus stage or something.

I mean, can't they try to make games, I don't know... better, before they give up? I can see what she's possibly saying about some women desiring choose your own adventure games with dialogue, but keep that fast-forward shit out of real games, please. It couldn't be some auto-resolve for combat with the possibility of failure either, from how it sounds.
 
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Even if you knew nothing about RPGs, you would know that Bioware games are SHIT when you see developers themselves wanting to bypass what makes 70% of their games.

Dirk Diggler said:
What a numbskull, especially the way that she makes it 'about women.'

You aren't saying that because you see yourself as one, are you?
 

Dr.Faust

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Dirk Diggler said:
So she just presses the fast forward button in the middle of a movie? I take it she also flips through the pages when a book gets boring?

Yeah what the fuck. "Too much dialogue, going to check if the next chapter has any detailed sex scenes."

Sounds like the person thinks every game should appeal to everyone. An idea so retarded only a video game developer could have come up with it. Just because you can skip all of the shooting in a shooter isn't going to make it more appealing to people who don't like that kind of games. In fact it'll only serve to weaken the whole experience for everyone.
 
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Mastermind said:
It's more than that, it's an abomination. Combat is pretty much 99% of the gameplay in Bioware games. She wants to turn games into movies. Except we already have movies. There's a difference between an option to get through difficult parts, and just fast forward through a game without playing at all.

Nah. The abomination is fighting the same damn, un-challenging darkspawn encounter ad nauseum in a boring series of corridors fifty times over. I honestly can't begrudge someone who wants the option to skip certain content in games to better be able to get to what they want to experience.

Is her stance a little...EXTREME? Yeah, certainly. But the core point is one I find little fault with. Don't force unwanted content on players.

Blackadder said:
Ok then. What new CRPG's last for 80 hours? And how about improving the combat/content instead of getting rid of it?

Like I said, I'd rather better quality content. The thing is, with most mainstream RPGs, I'm realistic enough to realize that, for a multitude of reasons, the median quality of content will be sub-par. And because of this, I'd rather have the option to skip to the good parts. Instead of fighting a bunch of trash encounters in Dargon Age: Whorigins, which have no narrative significance, and thanks to the setup of the game (what with regenerating health/mana/abilities automatically after every battle) have little to no gameplay significance, let me skip ahead to the boss fights and/or the fun encounters, while getting my dose of laughibly goofy Bioware writing on the side.

As for the 80 hours comment, it's more my dissatisfaction with raw game length as a benchmark for RPGs, especially in the mainstream, one that encourages the deluge of filler content we see in most RPGs nowadays, just to pad that all important length stat (insert dick joke here). Fallout 1 was slammed for being "too short" for an RPG, despite the fact that it is highly re-playable, and densely packed with good content. I have no doubt that one could spend 100+ hours derping around Cyrodiil in Oblivion...but really, how much fun is another marauder cave?

I know it would be great to have long, and thick content rich dicks games...but that's too panglossian an outlook. I'd rather focus on how to mitigate my suffering and maximize my enjoyment of games given the circumstances I'm in. Sadly, if I want my new RPG fix, there isn't a Knights of the Chalice every 3 months, I gotta make do with mainstream stuff sometimes, and a "skip button" would certainly help me in that endeavor.

Antihero said:
I haven't seen it myself, but I thought it was argued that it could also be more like a trainer to show you how it's done or a "this part is too hard - I'll try it again some other time" button. Not a "Combat is boring - let's get to the sexing part" button. Having that option would make me more annoyed because it's an easy way out instead of challenging me to get better - unless it's one of those things where only 0.001% of the population will be good enough for it anyway. Edit: and at that point, stick it in a super-duper bonus stage or something.

The way I see it, is that these sorts of things are more like safety nets that allow the designers to work with a little more leeway, try more adventurous ideas. With a system like this, it's no problem if a certain boss is too hard for 45% of the audience...they've got the skip button. Because they don't have to worry about dumbing everything down, they can make more challenging content. Check out Donkey Kong Country Returns...it's actually pretty difficult for much of the game.

For RPGs, this might make for less filler combat, since it forcibly obsoletes it. When players can just fast forward, no longer is it useful as filler to pad game length. It might even light a fire under developer's asses to make combat worth playing...stuff you wouldn't want to fast forward through.
 

Krraloth

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That's actually a very good excuse to work even less on the quality of the game if you ask me.

Think of the possibilities!

Combat will be only filter with some color swap and no need to even think about adding new difficulties and/or gimmicks to make it blandly interesting, why bother? There is the autowin button of fast forwarding, so if you don't like the retardedness you can skip it!!!

Awesome, I sense a potential marketing gem here.
 

Volourn

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"Combat is pretty much 99% of the gameplay in Bioware games."

Bullshit.


"Fallout 1 was slammed for being "too short" for an RPG"

By who? FO1 seems to get a pass for its shortness. I kniow, b/c every time a Codexcer whines about x game being short, I ned to remind that the loveable FO1 is amongst the shortest if not the shortest RPG ever.

R00fles!
 

Mastermind

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Volourn said:
"Combat is pretty much 99% of the gameplay in Bioware games."

Bullshit.

What else is there dipshit? Other than making potions to sell so you can buy more shit that helps you in combat, lockpicking chests looking for shit to use in combat and making traps so rogues don't have to be utterly shit in combat.
 

Serious_Business

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so this is what is has come down to

Mastermind said:
Don't give a shit if it's old, this sums up Bioware's design philosophy perfectly: WE NEED TO CATER TO EVERY RETARD ON THE PLANET.

Not really. I believe Bioware really believes that their writting is the main appeal behind their games. A lot of fans believe that too. It's not a question of dumbing down gameplay - it's a question that Bioware can't handle fun, balanced gameplay in a rpg. The shift has come from gameplay as main, story as flavour, to the direct opposite. In a game that focuses on gameplay, you'll skip or not pay too much attention to the story (who seriously reads all the stuff from a Might and magic game?) ; there the gameplay is shit, which strangely enchances the writing. Dragon Age, for example, is like a MMO with extensive writing, characters etc - awesome, right? If you want gameplay, go play the MMO - I'm here for the good stuff.That's right
 

Volourn

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"What else is there dipshit? Other than making potions to sell so you can buy more shit that helps you in combat, lockpicking chests looking for shit to use in combat and making traps so rogues don't have to be utterly shit in combat."

Puzzles, exploring, and dialogue. Oh, yeah, i bet you are one of those morans who don't believe dialogue is gameplay.l LMFAO
 

SkepticsClaw

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Skipping combat is all fine and dandy. Just make the game so you don't have to fight and can explore other routes to your goals.

A fucking *skip button* in combat?! That is the lazy, ham-fisted metagamey way of achieving the same goal. I feel like I hate it. I mean, do you gain experience if you skip combat? If yes, you just fucked the game and rendered your RPG mechanics pointless. If no, you still have to do all that boring fighting to progress anyway.

Whats worse is you lose those parts of the game are supposed to contribute to the narrative. The drama of facing off against some tough encounter or opponent is in the challenge it takes to overcome the odds and emerge victorious. That feeling is integral to the narrative, and also the kind of experience that is unique to a game. Allowing you to skip that would be retarded shit; it just suggests that actually playing a game - being challenged and frustrated and eventually triumphant - is somehow a secondary element.

Fuck that, I (dis)respectfully decline this offer
 

Dirk Diggler

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villain of the story said:
Dirk Diggler said:
What a numbskull, especially the way that she makes it 'about women.'

You aren't saying that because you see yourself as one, are you?
I'm saying that because bringing up gender in regard to how games should be designed is moronic.
 

Volourn

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not saying uia gree with her (I don't) but trying to pretend that men and women are the same (as opposed to equal) is retarted. There are two genders for a reason. It's because they are fukkin' different. And, the differences are more complex than cock vs pussy. FFS
 

SkepticsClaw

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Volourn said:
No, puzzles are long and boring and take too much thought. We'll just add a skip button so those who don't want to have to figure that shit out can just get on with the important stuff.
Volourn said:
exploring
What?! Gay boring shit, walking around everywhere opening chests. Should be a button to skip it
Volourn said:
dialogue.
What, big massive spreading dialogue trees where you listen to people moan on and on for hours about their problems and their girlfriends and blah blah blah? I just skip it usually.
 

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