Nagul Singh R
What makes a video game replayable?
INTRODUCTION
What makes a video game replayable? Replaying a game means drawing the player back into exploring its universe much more. For a game to be replayable, it has to be playable. So now we ask the question, what makes a video game playable? Is it the graphics? Is it the gameplay? Is it the storytelling? To understand what makes a video game playable, we must realize that everyone has distinctive tastes in genres and game styles.
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A replayable game seems like another way of saying it's a great game, but it is not. Replayability is its own element. There are great games that aren't worth replaying; on the other hand, there are games that aren't so great but are incredibly replayable. A big chunk of the replayability of each game falls into three categories: novelty, creativity and evolution. To achieve a higher replayability rate, there are things to avoid, such as staleness, stagnation and inhibition. It is hard to avoid these properties; hence every game displays some of them.
NOVELTY
The novelty of a game is the ability to keep players engaged by providing new content as it's played for the second time or more. If replaying the game means playing a completely different game, then yes, it has a very high replayability rate. The developers must provide enough content and structure it so that the players can not see it all in the first run. There are many ways to achieve novelty, but the most common are branching paths, procedural generation and multiple playable character styles.
Branching paths are the most popular method, but it is not all about the dialogue trees and narrative structures. Optional tasks such as sidequests and mission branches that allows players to change the main storyline are one of the best ways of branching paths. In a retro game called "Star Fox 64", we observe that almost every mission has an optional side objective that decides the next phase. The success of previous missions can affect upcoming missions and unlock additional characters to support you. The discovery of the different paths makes each play stand out, allowing you to play the game multiple times before you've experienced all of the content available. Games with multiple endings fall under the same umbrella as "Star Fox 64", giving the player an excellent reason to replay the game.
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Novelty can also be delivered through unique character classes and character builds with unique mechanics that change how the player plays the game in the run-through. Simple combat classes such as short-distance melee-focused brawlers and knights vs long-distance mages and archers. Using a skill tree to change stats, weapon stats, equipment skills, and other stuff allows players to customize their character as much as they want. Another method is mixing in new content through environments and items. Procedural generation can be a great way to do it, especially if playing the game once means it doesn't go through all possible options.
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Hades is a game that gives its players unique challenges by randomizing their dungeons, scenarios, encounters and items. Each challenge uses the same game mechanics to feel familiar but forces players to adapt to the unique circumstances they're given. Some playthroughs will provide a bounty of great items while others not so much; still, each run is always striking enough to be unpredictable and novel. That unpredictability makes this game immensely replayable.
STALENESS
Staleness opposes what novelty provides; instead of branching paths, you'll find restrictive linearity; instead of customizable characters, you'll end up with characters engraved in stone. These properties don't necessarily make the game worse, but if it aims to be repayable, then it's a concern. Games with one storyline that cant be altered aren't as easy to replay. For example, in the Halo series, the games are fantastic, but the story is just as it is. Once you've played it, you've seen it all.
Cinematic action games such as Uncharted can be just as limited, and it is done this way by design. The designers of those games weren't aiming for replayability in favour of their more cinematic gameplay. They chose to make a good but less replayable game.
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Branching narrative structures can also make their way into staleness with false choices. Options that don't alter the storyline will disappoint the player once they realize it. Telltale's adventure games set up major decisions that seemed to impact the story. Still, if you replayed the game, you quickly realized that all choices were just an illusion. For many options in those games, no matter what choice you picked, you often ended up in the exact scenarios. The illusion was shattered and retroactively soured the game players may have enjoyed for its branching paths
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CREATIVITY
Creativity, Where novelty comes from the game, creativity comes from the players. Games allow players to run free with the tools they are given to make their own fun and then return to create something completely different. This is where open-world games, simulations, and sandboxes shine.
The more self-contained flavours of creativity appear in sandbox games. They provide the players with open space and the freedom to develop their goals. Minecraft and Terraria are the golden standards. The developers for both games have added bosses you could try taking down or weapons and armours you can craft. Still, you could make a giant statue on your private island, make your own farm or program a calculator in Minecraft. The games are designed to have players create their own stories, and the randomized world design can qualify for infinite adventures.
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Simulations and management strategy games such as Rollercoaster Tycoon, Sim City, and The Sims, fall under the same umbrella. They set an end goal of creating a thriving theme park, city, business, or home, but they don't provide you with ways to get there, and it is entirely up to you. Since you are making your journey, it is effortless to have a different playthrough when replayed.
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INHIBITION
Inhibition is when players aren't given the right tools to express themselves. Some games have good opportunities but do not encourage the players enough to explore them. One big issue comes with dominant strategies; if one combo set or an item is overpowered or more mighty than the rest, it removes the need to come up with new creative ways to solve the problem. Suppose a game has an item that players could abuse to get through the game. In that case, the developers may need to add a system like limited resources to help discourage using the exact solutions and get the players thinking creatively.
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EVOLUTION
Evolution is the fun of getting better at a game over time. This creates replayability with a give-and-take style as the player needs a little form of dedication, and so do the developers. Competitive multiplayer games are a straightforward method to get players coming back again and again to hone their skills. A good multiplayer match will unfold a different scenario every time. With the right design, this will make the game infinitely replayable.
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Chess has remained replayable for more than 1,400 years with the same rule set, and it is more popular now than ever. Video games do not need to be as timeless as chess to stay in this category. As a game's meta grows over time, either due to the player getting better or the developer adding new rules, it evidently makes the game much more replayable. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, and Team Fortress 2 have historically succeeded in getting players to come to replay the game thanks to the changing meta.
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Single-player games can use tools from the evolution category too. Highscore and leaderboards have been used since the arcade era to make the game more replayable. Getting on the leaderboard with the highest scores in the community allows players to see how good they are and how much they need to improve. They also get bragging rights to share with their friends.
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INTRENSIC AND EXTRINSIC REWARDS
Intrinsic and Extrinsic rewards, this term is applied to the game as a whole. Intrinsic rewards exist within the game, such as items, new levels, challenges and stories. Meanwhile, Extrinsic rewards live outside of the game, such as money or other types of bonuses. To fully understand this, we need to ask a question when playing a game, are we doing this activity for itself, or are we doing it for some other reason?
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For example, I've played Grand Theft Auto Online to race around in cool cars with my friends. Still, the activity of earning in-game money to buy vehicles wasn't engaging after a while. Instead, I had to go through it because it offered something else that I wanted. So the problem is that i was playing to get in-game money to afford vehicles, not the game as a whole. This remains primarily intrinsic as the rewards are mainly within the game itself. Meanwhile, the part where I get to play with my friends and brag about the newest and fastest car from the latest update is entirely extrinsic.
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CONCLUSION
So after considering everything that I've explained here, we can see that replayability in a video game is something that the developers add through novelty, something that players cultivate through creativity, or evolution by which both developers and players bring life to the game. Staleness and inhibition in video games are like thorns on a rose; we can't remove them entirely but can trim them out with effort.