I don't play FPSes, but of RPGs I've played FF7 3 times, Vagrant Story 3 times, and Crono Trigger twice. And some of the Harvest Moon games, if you count them as RPGs. I've also played some adventure games and Super Metroid twice.

From reading all of your posts, it seems to me that the replayability of a game depends on the source of it being a good game. (as a side note I think that some of this applies to a certain extent to books, etc.) If the story is beutifully set up, and most of your enjoyment comes from the plot, then there will be less replay value. If, however, the fun the first time through comes fromgameplay mechanics, then it is likely that the player will go through again, just for the feel of the game. You might enjoy a game for the content of it's world; that will tend to give more replay value, becuase it's not something that can be resolved, like the plot. Once you've resolved the plot, then there's a limited amount of fun to be extracted from it.

I personally prefer games like Perfect Dark that I play as much for it's unique weapons as I do for the plot. For games like starcraft, the plot if fun once, but I play online much more, because of the gameplay. I don't play RPGs, so I dunno about them. Games like Nethack are a special case: I play for gameplay for a while, but once in a while, I get a little plot out of it, becuas I make it to somewhere I've never been before.

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Original post by NIm From reading all of your posts, it seems to me that the replayability of a game depends on the source of it being a good game. (as a side note I think that some of this applies to a certain extent to books, etc.) If the story is beutifully set up, and most of your enjoyment comes from the plot, then there will be less replay value. If, however, the fun the first time through comes fromgameplay mechanics, then it is likely that the player will go through again, just for the feel of the game. You might enjoy a game for the content of it's world; that will tend to give more replay value, becuase it's not something that can be resolved, like the plot. Once you've resolved the plot, then there's a limited amount of fun to be extracted from it.

While this is partially true, please don't consider this to be an argument that games don't need to have wonderful stories. Many of us don't buy or play games which don't have a good story, and games with interactive stories that are different each time you play can have a huge amount of replay value.

Of course! story is an important element of gameplay! Evn a static story is good. I get tired of too many games with no story. Story is an important element of game design, just not one which promotes replayability. YOu don't however, read a good book over again because it had a good story(unless you believe you were unable to fully appreciate the story the first time, which is often the case for me), but because you want to go back to that world.

Dynamic stories, OTOH, are a completely different animal. They allow you to go back and, in a sense, to have a different story with many of the same qualities as the first. I consider that good replay value. I seem to have missed htat in my last post.

If I can't replay a game somewhat it stays on the shelf. With exceptions to Final Fantasy and maybe some very cheap games. When I see expensive games that are 5 hours long, with shitty controls and no replay, I grin a few months later when I read that no one played it.

I just picked up From Russia with Love, and I can use it as a good example. It allows me to replay past completed missions, and I get a rating on time and proficiency that I can try to beat. This adds replay value without having to have a replayable game normally. More games shoudl have this.

I wish I could replay GTA missions without starting a new save.