Are we all slaves to exp points?
Monday, July 19, 2010One of the most basic things about game design is rewarding the player for the effort. I came into this train of thought when I played Super Mario Galaxy 2, like the first one I can’t seem to stay interested and end up playing other games before I finish it.
Rewarding the player
I think the problem here lies with rewards and the satisfaction of completing a level. Maybe I’m just a slave to the typical rpg-escue elements of gaining experience points for your efforts. In Super Mario Galaxy the only reward you actually get is the 1x star number to your total stars after you complete a level. That might have been enough for me when I was younger but not anymore. It’s not like the game has a great story to keep you interested, the gameplay is the best you can get from a platformer but I really like platform-games going hand in hand with a great story, why should they not?
A couple of days ago I started playing Batman: Arkham Asylum again and yet again I notice just how high quality that game is: story, narrative, gameplay, graphics, sound, music. They take a core-aspect of fighting and make it fun, rewarding and really satisfactionary. You feel awesome playing as Batman, fighting as Batman and sneaking as Batman.
They created the greatest and most accessible yet complex fighting/hand-to-hand combat mechanic this century on top of that they got a experience points system which multiplies if you can keep the combo up without getting hit or distrupting the flow. It’s genius in every way. This is the standard we’re dealing with today people, satisfactionary and rewarding gameplay. What would happen if Assassins Creed II got experience points? Different bransches? I sure as hell would like it more that’s for sure.
I won’t deny it, I’m a slave to experience points. More often than not they make it so that we try harder, become more competative and the functionality makes every part of gameplay more rewarding BUT it should go hand-in-hand with good gameplay, then it becomes brilliant.
I hope more game developers takes a look at Batman: Arkham Asylum because Rocksteady Ltd knows gamedesign that’s for sure.
Yes , i m addicted to games where are exp points , where i can improve my skills and get some grate things. When it comes to games where is no reward system its really hard to stick to them they get boring really fast. And i think that s only because people lack of exp points in real life.