My Top Ten: Game Conventions
What are the ways that game developers have of making us play?Published 11/09/2009 at 13:00 by colossalblue
Related stories (more)
My Top Ten – More Annoying Things [38]
My Top Ten: Things That Annoyed Me [47]
Top Ten: Server Downtime Survival Tips [31]
My Top Ten – More Annoying Things [38]
My Top Ten: Things That Annoyed Me [47]
Top Ten: Server Downtime Survival Tips [31]
- Number of Lives – This is a hang up from the arcade days. Publishers couldn’t have you slipping your 10p into an arcade machine and then sitting on it all day (thus not getting anyone else’s 10p). They gave you three goes for your money. Like the three balls you got to hurl at those coconuts they glue to sticks at the fair.
- Continues – Another hang-up from the arcade days. You’ve run out of lives, oh no! All is lost. You can’t be bothered working your way all the way up to level 8 again so your coins are staying safely in your pocket. But wait! What’s this? Give us another of your shiny coins and we’ll give you another three lives and let you restart from the level you died on.
- Hunter/Hunted – slightly less obvious but it has been in video games since Pac Man. You know the way it works: there’s an enemy you can only run from, they’re unbeatable. Any contact will result in your untimely death. Until you grab the big pill (or rocket launcher if you prefer modern analogies) and then you can go back and slay that formerly-indestructible foe!
- Item Collection – Alright so you’re good at a game, you’ve beat it. You know how to beat it again. So you probably don’t want to keep playing, right? Well, how about if we tell you that you haven’t actually beaten the game until you have collected 100% of the collectibles. We’ve even hidden some collectibles that don’t actually benefit you in any way; they’re just things for collecting. So we can make you play for longer. Keep playing.
- High Scores – You know when you put money in an arcade machine? Well, you’re not just paying to play a game. Oh no, you’re buying into a competition. In order to make their games as “sticky” as possible, developers added this mechanic to make their games have a competitive edge. The purpose was no longer to beat the game with no continues. You had to finish at the top of the leader-board. I was a prolific arcade high-scorer, look out for me, my initials were AAA.
- End of Level Boss – Nobody likes repeating the same set of tasks over and over. Game developers caught on to this quite early and gave us bosses to mix up the way a game plays and give us a sense of building up to something and winning a larger battle. That way we didn’t even seem to notice that as soon as that boss was dead we were right back into the same limited set of repetitive actions in the next level. We were always working towards that next boss though.
- Storyline – I’m not totally sure when this got added into games. I certainly don’t remember there being any gripping narrative in Asteroids, Pac Man or Arkanoid. As gaming “grew up” developers thought we needed a reason to play them. So they told us that we were saving the world. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve saved the world. In fact, I’ve even saved other people’s worlds from time to time and I don’t even live there!
- Safe Zones – From the areas in Space Invaders where you got cover from the alien onslaught to the gargoyles in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Game developers have long-since added areas to their games that we can duck into for a bit of respite from the hectic world-saving. Handy if you need to scratch your nose.
- Infinite Ammo – Quite often you only get it on your most basic weapon but from a developer’s point of view it makes perfect sense. You get a weapon that doesn’t run out so you always have something to throw at the enemies and the developer has one less thing to count. Win-win.
- Multiplayer – From the earliest days of video gaming we’ve had multiplayer. Pong, Bomberman, Street Fighter, FIFA, Call of Duty 4. What would these games be without that moment when one developer turned to another and said “fancy a game of this… together?”
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
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Radboud | 11/09/2009 13:11
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hehehe lol.
Yeah but AAA are my initials too
Gastos84 | 11/09/2009 13:15
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The regenerative health has destroyed Medi-Kits and Lives, which is a shame because it does add an extra level of skill to games.
Also, where are the end-of-level bosses that don’t have a repetitve attack pattern. 5 minutes into a Boss fight you’ll learn their next move and bingo! You are done.
mugsybalone | 11/09/2009 13:26
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Always nice when those end-of-level bosses had a handy glowing weak spot to blast away at
Raen | 11/09/2009 13:35
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It’s really depressing that I thought that was gonna be things like “E3 ‘09 was a particularly good year” and that I would of enjoyed that post.
a inferior race | 11/09/2009 13:49
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Thats what I thought this was gonna be.
Raen | 11/09/2009 13:51
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It’d be awesome! I think the E3 when the PS3 was announced maybe?
Jamie Solo | 11/09/2009 17:29
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Thats what I thought it would be to with Game Conventions. Shouldnt it really be inventions?
kevatron400 | 12/09/2009 10:12
Don't call him Kevatron400.
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At least you can recognise that you’d be depressed by a post like that. It’s the first step to recovery. :p
rht992 | 11/09/2009 13:36
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i’ve never thought of a top ten based on anything like this.
I miss numbers of lives and continues now that you’ve mentioned them. COD4 destroyed ‘em
I still collect items especially on RPG’s and hay! who doesn’t play multiplayer
a inferior race | 11/09/2009 13:51
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Lives and continues were gone long before COD4 came out. Resident Evil 1 didn’t have continues. Final Fantasy 1 didn’t have contnues.
mynameisblair | 11/09/2009 13:41
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Yeah.. these are basic guidlines every game should follow.
Tuffcub | 11/09/2009 13:53
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I honestly thought that this was going to be a list something like “Tokyo Game Show 2005, PAX 2008, Cologne 2009″ etc!
kevatron400 | 12/09/2009 10:13
Don't call him Kevatron400.
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Then you’re as cool as Raen! I’m glad it wasn’t a post like that, as it was a really good read!
powerslave | 11/09/2009 13:57
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I hate the end of level bosses, who have more health than you. When their human. Why!
iNsAnE_gAmInG | 12/09/2009 11:15
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Haha yeah it is rather annoying but they’re sometimes good. I’d take preference to a shocking discovery or a cliffhanger though to end the level.
jimmy-google | 11/09/2009 14:00
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Never liked end of level boses – always kind of felt like a cheap way to get a good climax for a level without being very inventive
everybodysinging | 11/09/2009 14:24
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the worst by far is ITEM COLLECTION…Prince of Persia, Prototype, Bioshock, Batman AA, mostly every game ive played recently has had some form of item collection in it forcing you to play on…
nickert0n | 11/09/2009 14:31
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I love it, right now in going through AA collecting every leftover riddle (post completion of the game) and I still have allot to collect in inFamous that I just save for days whenI feel like exploring and dinking around in a game.
Kevling | 11/09/2009 14:34
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Nice read, enjoyed this one. Reminds me a lot of an article I read on Gamesradar this morning, talking about Pac Man being light years ahead of its time… it was the first survival horror, had feminine appeal, side quests, open world, cut scenes, humour and power ups!
It’s a good read
http://www.gamesradar.com/f/why-pac-man-was-light-years-ahead-of-its-time/a-20090910155446802094
yogh_wayne | 11/09/2009 17:19
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Another classic game convention (one that often drives me crazy):
- Time limits. You want to take a break while collecting those shiny (but heavy) coins, or would prefer to wait until that pesky enemy goes food shopping? No way – get your ass to the finish line now!!
BetaGhast | 11/09/2009 19:18
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god damn i hate time limits, i hate them most in games that dont have them, then all of a sudden “QUICK GTFO OF HERE YOU HAVE 1 MINUTE OH SHI-”
hate hate HAAAATTTEEEE time limits
BetaGhast | 11/09/2009 19:20
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Then again that’s also because i lose my sense of direction when im pressured into doing something quickly..
Can we have an edit button down here?
legalisemurder | 12/09/2009 15:21
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Have to agree with you on that.Time limits,escort missions and muscle bound cretin heroes are my least favourite things in games.
Manorhowze | 12/09/2009 01:33
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I like the point about the storyline. I am curious as to what would be the first game to include a story, and by that I mean a plot as opposed to, that big monkey in a posing pouch has the princess, now jump over the barrels and go get her.
kevatron400 | 12/09/2009 10:17
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Great read! I’ve missed top tens (not necessarily saying they’ve been absent, but I have, so I can’t be sure!). The moment games gave up on lives and continues was a good one in my books. I wonder what the first game to do that was. I think I remember Abe’s Oddysee behaving like that.