It's been less than an hour since I registered. I've spent most of that time reading posts, but it's still been less than an hour. I have some questions. I am going to be called insane, or idealistic, or a dreamer, but I am just after an honest opinion. If you could buy a toaster, and that toaster was guaranteed to work for the time you owned that toaster, would you buy the toaster? If the toaster was more expensive than other toasters, possibly even twice as much, but that guarantee was solid, would you still buy the toaster? If you had the opportunity to buy a game, let's say an RPG, that promised you the ability to continue playing it, not replaying it, but actually playing it with the same character so long as its creator was in business, would you buy the game?

I'd ask for them to explain that odd promise.

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Original post by wolf_shade If you could buy a toaster, and that toaster was guaranteed to work for the time you owned that toaster, would you buy the toaster?

No, I never use a toaster.

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Original post by wolf_shade If the toaster was more expensive than other toasters, possibly even twice as much, but that guarantee was solid, would you still buy the toaster?

I'll pretend this about a product I might want and not a toaster...
It depends on a few things. Is the lesser quality product still of reasonable quality? How much does the lesser quality product cost?

Assuming you're talking about a game, I hate nothing in a game more than I hate bugs. So if you had a relatively bug free game and a policy stating that you would fix any bug I found within a week, or refund the price of the game, then I would be your loyal customer for life. No joke.

As for price, good games these days can cost 50 bucks. I don't know that I'd be willing to pay double that. $100 is a lot of money to shell out for one game. If in addition to excelent quality (meaning no bugs) your game was very fun, and had excelent replay, then I would concider buying a $100 game instead of two other games on my wishlist, but that's a big if. The only games I could see myself shelling out that kind of money for are Metroid and Zelda games. Even then, that's a good chunk of change. I would probably be willing to pay a little more though, say $60-$70 for a game that matched Metroid/Zelda in quality and fun.

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Original post by wolf_shade If you had the opportunity to buy a game, let's say an RPG, that promised you the ability to continue playing it, not replaying it, but actually playing it with the same character so long as its creator was in business, would you buy the game?

This would not be a selling point for me, but rather icing on the cake. It wouldn't affect my decision to buy, but it might make me willing to pay just a tiny bit more if I did decide to buy.

Guild Wars promised me this. It's great, I completed it in just over 100 hours and havent played it since. I'm certain that was in their business plan!

[For those who don't know Guild Wars is an almost-a-MMOG with no subscription fee but constant content updates and expansions like a MMOG]

Personally, no. I've been cheated by game promises before. I'm still stinging over the "Multiplayer Patch Coming Soon" in Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri-- and that was over ten years ago!

As a customer, I don't know you. I don't know your financial viability, but I do know that your success will be dictated by market forces. If you're making an RPG, it is regretfully likely that you're making yet another medieval RPG, of which there are endless varieties, many of which I can buy for low cost (<$20) or get free.

I'm a customer who barely gives a damn about graphics quality, and even story just needs to be enough for me to shape the world and give me purpose. More than anything I want inspired non-traditional (e.g., non-combat) gameplay alternatives and non-traditional (e.g., non-Tolkein ripoff) settings. I don't know if I'm in the majority, but I put my money where my mouth is, supporting products like Spider Web Software's Blades series (a ROMAN setting) and the Escape Velocity games from Ambrosia simply because they're different.

Without details, the most likely product offerings that I can guess you'd have would be more costumes, more monster meshes, and larger worlds. But these are ultimately hollow if the game plays the same. I'd be psyched, however, to have you prove me wrong.

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Original post by wolf_shade If you could buy a toaster..... If you had the opportunity to buy a game....

Yes to the Toaster. No to the game. A toaster is a product sold to do a job. Assuming is does that job then fine. If it lasts a lifetime as well then that is great.

A game is entertainment. The important thing is how entertaining it is not for how long. Creating new content and staying fresh and interesting is very hard. You may well be able to make a fun game but to keep on remaking and remaking and reinventing to keep it entertaining? Just because the game is still running doesn't mean it will still be fun. You might be so pig sick of the game that you lose the ability to be creative.

In addition, from a business point of view, this would have to be a subscription based game because you couldn't keep it running indefinitely just based on one off retail sales.

Do you speak of the legendary uber RPG? The one RPG to rule them all? The RPG that can be all things to all players? Does it feature the endless quest for the end of bordom? Would it contain the uber sword +10,119,657? And the even more uber sword +10,119,658?

Would I buy such a game? - Um...thats a big fat NO!...but I encourage you to develop it all the same, I could use competition of that caliber ;)

The problem with that is exactly that you'd be playing the same character for as long as you had the game. To do this you'd have to keep the game format the same in order to carry over or keep the character. The player will ultimately get sick of your game.

There are a lot of people (especially in the Help Wanted forums) who would like to make one game which never ends, usually an MMORPG. Playing a never ending game may sound good to them, but sounds like a nightmare to me.

So, no, I wouldnt pay for it. [smile]

I'm with the others - NO.

I want a good quality fun gaming experience that I can play through and enjoy, and perhaps replay (potentially recieving some altered outcome if you like). Your game will get boring after a certain period of time.

Thank you for your responses. If more would like to respond, feel free to do so. You've given me the feedback I was looking for. I am curious if there's anyone who would be interested in the concept.