The Gaming Fountainhead

[wijg]

One of my favorite books is The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. It is about a creator, something I think everyone should strive to be. The word fountainhead itself conotes the idea of a source of creation. I would like this post to be an amalgamation of everything that we love about video games. What aspects of games draw you into their world? Or what notion do you think is incredibly simple, yet most designers ignore? What have you loved about games past and what do you want to see in games ahead? Let's create a reference guide for designers who want to look into the minds of gamers and see what their wishes are.

 

[wijg]

I shall start. One of my favorite aspects of game design is character customization. I love it when games give you many ways to make the character your own. While I haven't yet made the leap into MMORPGs, I hope to soon with WoW, Diablo 2 provides the best example of depth in character customization. The vast skill tree system, with not only an impressive number of skills but the ability to deeply invest in each one, allows the player to create a unique character each time through the game. The modifier system for special items leads to almost limitless variety in the equipment you could find. Often times, I would play Diablo 2 without advancing through the game at all. My only intention would be to see what cool new stuff I could find. Such depth also increases replay value. While Diablo 2 epitomizes character customization, even simple approaches add depth to a game. I liked the addition of appearance options in Halo 2. My friend who owned the Xbox took it upon himself to create my character giving me the impressively intimidating pink armor with pink heart insignia, along with an equally fear inducing moniker. However, I made the character my own, inspired by pink armor poster child Donut. Anyway, in summation, to any designer that might accidentally read this: character customization makes any game better and can make good games legendary.

 

[kurruption]

Customization indeed increases a games replayability. It's been almost a year since it came out but my brother still plays the wwe Smackdown VS Raw game for ps2. He's created numerous characters, stables and belts. As for me there is nothing like a good story. Numerous times have I played a game that playwise is great but the story doesn't interest me. It's like having no goal, you work because you know in the end you get paid, so where is the big payoff on some of these games???