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Why Do We Prefer Sequels?
jayintune writes "2old2play has up an editorial about our love affair, as gamers, with sequels." From the article: "Sequels make us feel comfortable. Control schemes and gameplay doesn't need to be totally relearned. If you train to be a sniper in Halo 2, hopefully you will still be a good sniper in Halo 3. I still remember the disappointment I felt when they totally changed the light saber controls when Jedi Outcast came out. For an 'old school' player like me with many hours of practice, a new control scheme was just too much to relearn. A good sequel will retain mechanics to retain the existing user base and hopefully add new players as well."
Folk with unhappy childhoods crave consistency. Sequels (usually) provide consistency. The piece is run on a site for older, primarily US. gamers.
Next story: Tortoises run slowly.
I'm not sure I "prefer" sequels as much as that I am denied the opportunity to play new games by the overwhelming flood of sequels and ports released every month. I've always held it to be a tragedy that I am often denied the chance to play a game like Shadow of the Colossus because the store owner has decided to get a few more rows of the latest Madden game. I am quite happy to play a sequel of a game I have liked, Half-Life 2 for example, but I would much rather play a new franchise like Hellgate: London, or Mass Effect. Oh, and this may be off topic but come on! Is it that hard to have a Star Wars game without being forced to be a Jedi? I wanted to be Han Solo as a kid, not Luke Skywalker.
Ninjas use italics.
In some cases it's the story, but sometimes it's just the gameplay. Mario Kart didn't have much of a story on the SNES, but it was fun as hell multiplayer, and it's still fun as hell two versions later with some friends sitting around the Gamecube.
I'm as much for innovation as the next guy, but there's nothing wrong with building on a successful formula or continuing a successful franchise.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Aside from story-related stuff, a game sequel would be better described simply as a software upgrade. Generally speaking, most sequels do exactly the same thing other software upgrades do:
- correct bugs
- improve the user interface
- adds more options
Actually, the line between console games and software has already started to blur. if you look at some of the games already out for the Xbox 360, you can perform minor upgrades of your own choosing with them, adding new characters, models, weapons and textures from a growing list of options available via Xbox Live. Future titles will eventually allow you to gradually add entirely new levels/worlds to explore, instead of making you wait a year for a simple repackaging of the same game engine with different data included on the disc.
Of course, this could eventually backfire on the end user, where if you "buy" a game from a store, it's only the game engine with a couple token levels packaged in with it, requiring you to download the rest of the game from the internet in small chunks at a collectively higher price. There's talk that the next Gran Turismo title for the PS3 will actually do just that... requiring you to purchase each car or track separately.
8==8 Bones 8==8
The one thing that got me about Supersize Me was the fact that he drank the large/supersize cokes. Don't drink the soda, and your sugar consumption will drop by 90% or so, unless there's ridiculous amounts of sugar in the hamburgers.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.