Patience, Grasshopper - On Long Load Times For Games

Thanks to GamerDad for its editorial discussing the thorny, still present problem of long videogame loading times. Although the author points out "It used to be worse than it is now. I do count some of my blessings", he still argues: "I know that optimizing load times is probably low on the list of priorities when developing a game... [but] if you load the game so quickly that no one knows it's happening, or keep it streaming in chunks to not interrupt the flow of play, the player will be far more immersed in what's happening in your game and less likely to ever put it down until forced to do so." In conclusion, it's even suggested that a return to game cartridges might be a good thing: "You just can't beat that instantaneous gratification of playing games you just plug in, turn on and play. When the capacity is there for today's games, a return to carts would make me one happy gamer."

Comments

Jak and Daxter ?

[noselasd]

Have people here played Jak'n' Daxter (or Jak II) on the PS2 ?
It features an enormous world, with many levels. And no loading time
between them. Roaming around the world, and among diffrent levels etc. is totally smooth.
Developers got a thing or two to learn from it.