I''ve been playing TIE Fighter again. I was disappointed that they didn''t implement iMuse on the Collector''s CD. In any case, I''ve been having a good time with it. However, there are some aspects of the gameplay that I found to be strange, even though when I was playing the game way back when, I really didn''t give them much thought: * Sometimes, when you are trying to line up a craft you are firing at, the controls just absolutely refused to line up the craft solid, as if the orientation had some gimbal lock problem at that point or something. But it happened too often for me to think that it was a math problem. It almost makes me think that the designers put it in there purposely just to introduce a strange qwirk to frustrate you and hence suck you deeper into the game. I would like to log on to the Totally Games forum to ask this question, but I can''t register right now. * If you are reloading your warheads with a support craft, you can hit your throttle while you are being reloaded and fire the missiles off. You will continue to be reloaded until your missiles hit max capacity. So you could fire missiles indefinitely until you allow max capacity to be reached, or the maximum number of fired missiles was in the playfield (at which point you had to let the missiles fully reload). This was great for when you were fighting capital ships. Later, I had to refuse to use that tactic to have the satisfaction of knowing that I could actually beat the missions without cheating like that. A couple others: * Diablo 2''s gem in the chat room (you know, Gem Activated, Gem Deactivated, Perfect Gem Activated), etc. For the longest time, players theorized and asked about what this gem did. And all that Blizzard said was that it was working as intended and exceeded their expectations. In my opinion, all it did was feed the gamer''s need to create their own mythology about the gem, which only served to suck them deeper into an already addictive game with mystic subject matter. Marketing genius. * I seem to remember a secret area near the end of Quake 2, where you entered a room and it showed you a strange string of letters for a few seconds and disappeared. I never found out what they stood for. * At the end of Doom 2, there was a howling head of John Romero inside the large demon face. The question I''m asking is, is it necessary to put things like this into a game to more deeply feed a gamer''s need to make something special out of a game? And do you see this trend in games today, still? I would imagine it is still happening on console games, but not on games designed primarily for multiplayer. Except maybe the MMORPG''s. What''s your take, and can you give any examples?

You did remember the easter eggs They can be used to reward the player and to make them remember these moments so it''s probably a good marketing device. I don''t mind them if used appropriately.

Some games have put in artificial restrictions to help the gameplay and that''s ok if it doesn''t frustrate the player. For example in Deus Ex the rifle scope moves randomly to make it harder to shoot something. You''re rewarded if you find scope stabilizer. Those that don''t find one will have a bit harder I guess but still not too frustrating. Maybe that extra difficulty makes the gameplay more left to chance which is nice at times. Kind of keeps monotomy out.

quote: Original post by Waverider
* If you are reloading your warheads with a support craft, you can hit your throttle while you are being reloaded and fire the missiles off. You will continue to be reloaded until your missiles hit max capacity. So you could fire missiles indefinitely until you allow max capacity to be reached, or the maximum number of fired missiles was in the playfield (at which point you had to let the missiles fully reload).

DOH! Man I wished I would have known that. I always give up on Totally Games Star Wars games because I hit an impossible wall about midway through. Although, I''m not sure this is quite intentional. I saw something like this in I-War: You''re not supposed to have a capsule drive to travel to different star systems near the beginning of the game. But you''re given a mission to capture a coporate Maas tug. Most people remote link to the stolen ship, dock with it, then carry it back. I remote linked with it, docked with myself, and flew back using the remote link. I then discovered that this lowly tug had a million dollar jump drive!!!! I could go anywhere I wanted, as long as I was docked.

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* Diablo 2''s gem in the chat room (you know, Gem Activated, Gem Deactivated, Perfect Gem Activated), etc. For the longest time, players theorized and asked about what this gem did. And all that Blizzard said was that it was working as intended and exceeded their expectations. In my opinion, all it did was feed the gamer''s need to create their own mythology about the gem, which only served to suck them deeper into an already addictive game with mystic subject matter. Marketing genius.

I think this works supremely well when it''s part of the story. Star Control 2 spawned a ton of questions and fan fiction by failing to explain certain very curious species. One, for instance, disappeared entirely (the Androsynth) and evidence implicated a strangely speaking other (the Orz).

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* I seem to remember a secret area near the end of Quake 2, where you entered a room and it showed you a strange string of letters for a few seconds and disappeared. I never found out what they stood for.

You have to be careful of the "whatever factor" here, tough. People may have taken this seriously because it was id.

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* At the end of Doom 2, there was a howling head of John Romero inside the large demon face.

And you had to go through *hell* to get it (uh, pun unintended). Another good example was finding Sam and Max in Jedi Knight.

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The question I''m asking is, is it necessary to put things like this into a game to more deeply feed a gamer''s need to make something special out of a game?

I think when it''s part of the game''s mythology and fiction, I think it''s cool because it makes the game larger than itself in small ways. But you have to make sure that it''s just not a silly easter egg, unless silly is what you want players to remember you by (which is fine, if that''s the goal).



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Just waiting for the mothership...