Tailor-Made Games

I have talked before about how gamers demand games to be made with individual tastes in minds. How they wish developers would ask them personally and make a personal game with everything they like and without the things they hate. Of course, it is impossible to meet those demands. With millions of games, it is not admissible to develop a game with every single potential buyer in mind.

That is why when we talk about tailor-made we refer to something made specifically to meet one single buyer needs and/or taste. And that is why those things are usually way more expensive to do. So, gamers, as we already know, will not pay the extra costs (at least most of us) and developers and publishers will not take a hit in their profits for it. The best they can do is to permit the player to tweak some aspects of the game to better suit their tastes.

This was the best they could do back then...

Most games had a simple difficulty selection option. More skilled players would select harder settings to keep the challenged. Less skilled gamers or gamers who just play for story would be able to put an easier setting so they could still be able to enjoy the game. Except that not all games gives you this option, and today it seems a more frequent happening than before.

See, I play more because of the game' story than anything else. I love the option to set the game on easiest difficulties. Therefore I would be able to see the story unfolds till the end. See, I have a lost of unfinished PS2 games, mostly RPGs, because I would just give up if the game start punishing me for daring going too far. I have no patience to repeat that same sequence of events because I made a single mistake or don't have the exactly levels they ask me to do it. In my PSone years, I had a great friend to do it for me.

That little guy in the back made me finish all games.

See, with a Pro Action Replay or Gameshark, I could change the game for my skills and tastes. I would usually try my hardest to play the game without the codes, but when the game become too difficulty (or, in the case of Xenogears, the number of random encounters becoming enraging) I would pop a code and adjust everything. I would avoid the invincibility code, preferring an all weapons or an one-battle level up code. So, I would still need to use my skills to finish the games but would not have to have lightning reflexes to do it.

Mass Effect 3 will come with options for players who hate combat or hate storytelling. What should be a great  idea is being received by many people as an horrible thing. They question that gamers shouldn't being able to choose how to play the game. A friend of mine sometimes says about playing the game 'the right way'. The right way is the way where you are enjoying the game. If you are not enjoying the game because it is hard or the battle is uninteresting or the story is boring, than you should not have to be punished because that is not the way you must play.

I think it is funny how gamers can get up in arms because of completely optional features. I think it is because they feel that by giving those options to other gamers, their own achievements would be lessened. 'Yes, I finished the game in harder and saw the amazing ending of that game, but that other guy just disabled battles and saw it too. I got screwed here!'. No, because you shouldn't care about how others play their games. It have no real effect upon you, except maybe your bragging rights.

Since trophies and achievements were introduced, I miss the old days of cheat codes. I don't care about finishing games in the hardest setting. I like to enjoy them. I don't care how others play their games and I believe nobody should care. Especially when it is all optional. Just choose what you like. It is not that hard.

Because if I choose redhead FemShep in my game, it will NOT change your Shep. Really.