To kick this week’s study off, we were asked to consider two questions:
- What do you look for when choosing a game to buy or play?
- What keeps you engaged with your favourite games over a long period?
My answers now are likely to be very different now to before I got married and before I had children as time is a rare and precious commodity these days, but here goes…
What do you look for when choosing a game to buy or play?
Immersion has to be one of the biggest reasons for me. I like games where there is a really good narrative component but, unlike most books that offer a linear path through the storyline, I find games that offer multiple threads and side quests great fun to play. The Assassins Creed series, Fallout 4 and GTAV story mode immediately spring to mind. I do recall once buying a copy of a LucasArts game that was a linear walk through one of the StarWars film’s plots and absolutely hated it the lack of freedom to roam and play as I wanted, so much so that I’ve never bought another LucasArts game since.
More recently I’ve really enjoyed playing free-to-play games (because I’m a tight-wad!) like World of Tanks and EVE Online. I think that’s mostly down to my love of the advancement mechanics found in realtime strategy games like Command and Conquer, StarCraft and Age of Empires. There’s also a certain amount of satisfaction in beating a pay-to-win player with a free account.
Lastly, I’d have to say word of mouth and recommendations but that’s more of a deciding factor rather than discovery. My children have been quite the opposite and are heavily influenced by YouTube celebs.
What keeps you engaged with your favourite games over a long period?
Sticky mechanics like tech trees and advancement, providing it’s not too ‘grindy’ are a big factor. I also like bigger, open world environments to explore and uncover new quests and story arcs. I’m not so interested in the ‘collectable’ mechanics one finds in games like GTAV although I must confess to grinding through whole lot to get to 100% on that game.
I also keep returning to games that receive regular updates or run events. Wargaming are masters at maximising this and I got quite addicted to World of Tanks because of the events they ran and the ability to win better vehicles and upgrades by completing them. As a free player that really helped to level the playing field.
In summary, the stickiness for me stems from new challenges and keeping my interest alive together with a sense of accomplishment.
Conclusion
This wasn’t something I’d ever really thought about before and, if I’m honest, with new methods of selling such as the Xbox Game Pass, I’m driven more by the cover art and gameplay videos now than I ever was before; price doesn’t even factor in that equation.
Several of my peers commented on price point — there being an definite upper limit to the amount of money individuals would be prepared to spend and this varied greatly from person to person, no doubt driven by personal circumstance as much as by need, want or conditioning.
It would be very interesting to hear your thoughts on this as well. Leave a comment and let me know.
Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash
