- Blaxton
In response to "Killjoy" from The Escapist Forum: The job of the developer isn't an easy one here, Do they remove quick-saves entirely? Should they instead break up their game into 15 - 30 minute sections so that it can still be played by people without a lot of time? I'd personally be satisfied just to see more games implement Diablo II's hardcore mode. It would force the developers to make sure the game could be played successfully through without failure through intelligent planning and execution. It caters to both crowds in this, because I'm sure that there are people who don't want to deal with making a new character or starting over if they make a fatal mistake.
- TomBeraha
In response to "Killjoy" from The Escapist Forum: The core problem is that many video game engines simply don't have the room for the kind of creativity needed to save your neck in a bad situation. There are encounters in any given RPG where it's mathematically impossible to not take a lot of damage. Get rid of those. The player should always be able to think, fight, run, talk, or otherwise find their way out of an unexpected threat.
Precisely where to balance it is an issue, but I think you'll find more success in having a variable (user-specifiable) difficulty level, so that the player always feels no more threatened as they want to feel. Eventually they'll realize that quick-saving all the time is boring.
- Bongo Bill
In response to "Killjoy" from The Escapist Forum: I agree that designing games/levels that don't kill you every 5 steps is the way to go, but in conjunction you need a limited save system that makes sense and isn't exploitable. One of the most interesting save systems I've seen comes from Operation Flashpoint. The game has automatic checkpoint saves, but it also allows you one arbitrary savegame to use whenever you want during the course of a certain mission. It's a nice compromise... it can be used either as a convenience save (e.g. saving after you've spent a lot of time setting up the perfect ambush) or a post-"omg I just did an epic maneuver that I surely won't be able to pull off again" save, but either way it prevents quicksave/load exploitation enough to not remove the challenge of the game.
Of course such a system would probably only work for linear/mission-based games.
- te2rx
