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11-02-05 12:59 PM
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Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - General Gaming - Open Ended or Plot Set in Stone? | |
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Do you prefer open ended games or games with a set series of events?
I need a firm plot to work with!
 
6.2%, 1 vote
Open ended games rock my socks!
 
18.8%, 3 votes
I like games with some room for creativity, but still a set plot.
 
43.8%, 7 votes
I love all games.
 
31.2%, 5 votes
Multi-voting is disabled.

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Snika

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Posted on 07-25-05 08:04 AM Link | Quote
Examples of choice 1: Super Mario series, Zelda series
Examples of choice 2: The Sims series, Sim City series, Sid Meier's Pirates!
Examples of choice 3: Pokemon games, Black and White series
Example of choice 4: All of the above.

I think I prefer playing open ended games with a plot and just plain open ended games the best.

Its fun to have a basis to work around with, like Pokemon, and stray away from the story for a bit by catching some extra furry friends.

But, sometimes I enjoy being thrown into a game where the story is to make your own story, like with Pirates! and The Sims 2.

Although I own a bunch of firm plotted games that I like, they just don't make my day as much as open-ended ones.

=P Snika
alte Hexe

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Posted on 07-25-05 08:12 AM Link | Quote
It depends. A COMPLETELY open ended say...Mario game would blow goat nards. But a set plot Sims (play until Sim One stops Sephiroth) would suck.
Colleen
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Posted on 07-25-05 08:16 AM Link | Quote
There should be a beginning and an end to most games, but I'm not a huge fan of linear games made these days... so semi open-ended with a start/finish would be my preference.
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Posted on 07-25-05 08:18 AM Link | Quote
Completely open-ended games like the Sims and such don't hold as much appeal to me, so I'm going to agree with Colleen on this one.
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Posted on 07-26-05 01:09 AM Link | Quote
Super Mario 64. You can go to any level you want, with some restrictions that force you to follow the plot (you need to beat Bowser on the main floor before you can beat him in the basement). That was awesome.
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Posted on 07-26-05 03:18 AM Link | Quote
Let me do whatever I want (Somewhat), but let there be a plot.

Games without a plot just... no

I need a reason to play the game
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Posted on 07-26-05 05:27 AM Link | Quote
If I want a plot, I'll read a book. My favorite games have a very generic plot or no plot at all.

Not to say that I don't like plots in games... I voted I love all games.

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Posted on 07-26-05 10:22 AM Link | Quote
I go for all games, I like different kinds of games and can't decide which one I prefer.

I play lots of games with plots like Mario and some other games because they are easier to understand unlike reading a book.

Opened ended games, my favorite would have to be Animal Crossing. I still haven't got tired to living with animals in a village that you can do whatever you want to it. I still find myself pulling out weeds, selling crap to Tom Nook, and writing hate letters to animals that I hate. I've owned the game since 10/24/02, 3 days after my 13th birthday. I'll probably get the DS version that's suppose to come out on 10/04/05 at my local Gamestop.

I can't come up with a good example with #3 yet.

Well that's all I have to say.
Snika

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Posted on 07-26-05 10:53 AM Link | Quote
Animal Crossing was a pretty neato open-ended game, but its one of the few games that I thought had too much open-endedness and not enough to do. Hopefully Nintendo will fill that void in Animal Crossing DS.

=P Snika
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Posted on 07-26-05 10:03 PM Link | Quote
I like open-ended plots myself, for a couple reasons (there has to be a beginning and end to the game though):

:: There could be multiple endings to the game, which would obviously keep you playing it alot longer than if there were only one. Even if there was only one ending, which is highly unlikely in itself, the plot could branch at various points in the game, provided you meet certain requirements, like having specific characters in your party or something else

:: If you get stuck at a point in a closed-plot game that's too difficult to get past, you're pretty much stuck there to practice at it, until you manage to get past. In an open-ended plot, if you were to get stuck at a certain point, you could very well have the choice to ignore that part, and go on to something else.

Closed-plot games are still fun, as long as they have a good / interesting storyline, and aren't really easy to beat
witeasprinwow

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Posted on 07-27-05 12:05 AM Link | Quote
Originally posted by Snika
Examples of choice 1: Super Mario series, Zelda series
Examples of choice 2: The Sims series, Sim City series, Sid Meier's Pirates!
Examples of choice 3: Pokemon games, Black and White series


No offense, but there are much better examples of open-ended games than that. Pokemon should be up there with Mario and Zelda as well. Sure you can go back to previous areas whenever you want, but your progression through the game's areas follows the same order every time. A better example of choice 3 would be Neverwinter Nights, where you are let loose in one area and are free to interact with the area however you want, but you must complete certain pre-defined objectives (Usually involving killing something) in order to move on to the next area. Because of that certain interactions are pointless (Attacking some NPCs, for instance, is pointless because they are central to some important plot event and are thus made invulnerable). Deus Ex is another example like that.

The GTA series is fairly open-ended. There's a plot and order to the game, but it's entirely optional. The plot is advanced by doing missions that you can take at any time, and the rest of the time you're free to run around the game world.

I think the best open-ended game ever might be Ultima 7: The Black Gate. It's really a landmark for "Sandbox" environment games. It's the earliest game that I can think of where you can steal or move anything, interact somehow with every little detail of the environment, kill anyone for any reason or no reason at all (It's even possible to kill all the plot-central characters, thus making the game impossible to complete, although it takes some special effort), go anywhere you want at any time (There are land-based obstacles but it's not hard to find alternate means of transportation), and basically just fuck around and have fun. The game's plot can be pursued at your leisure, or alternatively, not persued at all.

Other big landmarks include the three games in the Elder Scrolls series (Arena, Daggerfall, and Morrowind; I can't wait for Oblivion). Daggerfall is fucking huge, and I propose it is almost impossible to navigate the entire world by foot. Some of the areas are generic, and the random townspeople just walking around the street are boring, but the sheer vastness of the game makes up for it. The plot is based on a series of quests, which you can complete at your own leisure. Morrowind was more personal and less vast. They attempted to make one very interesting place instead of having a vast world with only a few points of interest. I think it was a step forward, but it still had it's own problems. Many NPCs were still pretty bland. Oblivion sounds like they finally got it figured out; Like I said before, I can't wait.

I find it interesting that one of the games that is most often praised as one of the best open-ended games was actually developed as a rather closed-ended game; I'm talking about Super Metroid. Yes, you can get a lot of the items in different orders and skip a lot of the items entirely, but the large majority of that is due to the use of glitches and bugs that were not intended to be in the game in the first place. Without the use of any glitches or bugs (Especially the mockball) you have very little control over the game's order. You can go back and pick up all the expansions in whatever order you like, but even they have an order in that you were intended to need certain ability items in order to get certain expansions.

In case you haven't guessed, I'm a huge fan of open-ended games. Not to say I didn't enjoy good old-fashioned close-endedness back in the day, but I think all games should have at least some degree of open-ended story and "Sandbox" elements in them.


(edited by witeasprinwow on 07-26-05 03:07 PM)
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