Variety, Creativity, and More!

Unlike many gamers, I get tired of games very quickly, even if they are good games.  I have a hard time sticking to one game long enough to complete it.  If the game is good, I'll eventually go back and play it again, but I'm also one who doesn't like going back months or even years later and play a saved game if there is any kind of story in the game... I always start over.  This makes me careful about what games I buy because $50 for a game that I play for a week and put down is rather expensive.  It means that I have to really look at what games offer and whether they are going to hook me long enough to make that $50 be worth it.  And I know there are many others out there who are in a similar situation.  That doesn't really mean developers should try and cater to those of us who have a hard time sticking to a game when most gamers will play the game over and over if it's good.  However, offering things to make those of us who have difficulty staying with one game enjoy the game enough to actually stick with it will not only help us, but it will help all other gamers to enjoy the game more as well.  So, in the end, even though we're a minority, catering to us helps everyone.

That said, what would make it so we're interested in a game longer and more likely to purchase it?  As the title of this blog states - Variety, Creativity, and More!  It doesn't matter what the game is if it offers these things.  A game that is dull and just like everything else out there is not going to be as enjoyable for players as a game that offers variety, creativity, and more.

Variety
Variety is important in most genres.  Most players don't want to do the exact same things over and over again non-stop.  They want some variety in what they do and the variety increases both enjoyment and replayability.  If you were to play a MMORPG game that only has 1 kind of quest (e.g. kill so many creatures), players will get tired of it very quickly unless there's something else to do to help alleviate that constant repitition.  However, if the game instead had 6 (or preferably even more) types of quests (kill, collect, escort, find, diplomacy, trade, etc), the game then becomes that much more enjoyable because it reduces the repitition.  Sure, you're still going to be repeating those 6 types of quests, but that's much better than repeating only 1 kind of quest over and over.  The variety, even only a little bit, will make a game more fun to play.

Besides quests, variety is important for other things as well.  What can you do in the game - just one or two things, or a lot of different things?  Is the game linear, or does it let you do some of your own things as well?  Are your choices forced upon you, or do you get to make choices and do those choices affect the game?  Do you have various choices of characters (if the game has characters) and/or can you customize your characters?  Is the game the same every time you play it, or does it change?

These are just a few ways that you can add variety to a game and make it more fun for players.  It also helps to keep players interested in the game by offering something new or different now and then instead of having to do the same thing over and over again.

Creativity
Creativity is a must in any game.  All games should show creativity and not just look like a copy/paste or cookie cutters of other games already on store shelves.  Too many games these days take a game already made and change a few things and call it a new game.  Casual games are notorious for this, where you see one game made and then half a dozen sequels from the same company that don't change anything except the graphics and story.  Then other companies create the same game on their own based on what the first game did and it ends up the same way... the same game with just a different look to it.

Even among the non-casual games, we often see the same exact gameplay with a different set of graphics and story.  Obviously, if you make a game in a specific genre, you have to follow certain "rules" for it to be that genre.  However, you can switch things up a bit by adding something new or different or unexpected.  You can even make some changes to those genre "rules" and still keep it within that genre.

Games that show creativity are often remembered much longer than cookie cutter games.  I can name various games from 10 or 20 years ago because of their creativity, among other things, and yet I couldn't list off all of the search and find games I've played in the past 6 months, for example.  So, number 1... be creative and not only will people like the game longer, but they are more likely to remember it years from now and are more likely to recommend it to others as well.  Creativity can double sales.  It could increase sales even more than that.  Lack of creativity causes the game to stagnate.

And More!
So what is this "And more"?  It's simply that... more.  Games that are very simplistic are fine and can be fun to play... for a short time.  They work for casual gamers, but even they can get bored of a game after a little while if it's too simplistic.  Of course, making a game too complex tends to get players frustrated more than making the game more fun to play.  You need to find a middle level that works for your game.  Would some players like statistics in the game?  Would some like more control over creating/customizing their character?  Would players like more different puzzles in a puzzle game?  Would players like more dialog or choices?  Would players like more units or buildings?  Would players like more weapons or armor or loot?

There are many questions you can ask when making a game and the questions depend on the genre and the game itself.  You need to find out what would make sense and if you can make it work and if players would like it.  The trick is to find things that some players would like (it doesn't have to be all players or even most players) and making it fit in well with the game.  If it's something other players won't like, you need to determine if the good outways the bad when adding it, or if it's possible to have it optional so it doesn't affect players who don't want it without affecting gameplay.

Many, many decisions... game development isn't as easy as it may seem.  However, players really want to start seeing improvements to games being developed.  Few genres have had many games come out that were anything more than standard in the past 5-10 years.  Before that, there was a lot of variety and creativity in games and everywhere you looked, developers were coming up with unique ways of doing things to make their games stand out from the crowd.  That just hasn't happened much in recent years and players are getting tired of the same thing all the time.  And if players in general are getting tired of it, those of us who have trouble staying interested in games for long periods of time are getting even more tired of it.  I have hundreds of games on PC and Wii and I often still cannot find a game that I actually feel like playing.  That should say something about what we're seeing these days.

So to all of the game developers out there... please offer us Variety, Creativity, and More!