Is anyone else sick and tired of unlockable content in games?

[firehawk12]

there are somethings i think work well when locked. i bought SF4 and was very sad to learn that i had to unlock all the extra characters by playing though with the other characters.

now, i would be fine if it meant i could just keep re-using 1 character to unlock them all. but i dont want to have to play as zangief or dhalsim to unlock a guy. so as it stands, i have only unlocked sakura and dan. i dont plan on unlocking anyone else, it's not worth my time. so in that sense, i am done with SF4.

gating player progress is tough to design. do you let players get everything at once (knowing that some may play the game so much that it posses a hazzard)? is it okay to stagger somethings out, knowing that some players will only be able to play the game at certain times and end up missing out on all the rewards?

it's not easy, and there is no one right answer. it's all situational. it's also, in terms of achievement design, relatively new ground. i'd like to think achievement design is improving.

What's funny is that in SSF4, they just had everyone unlocked right at the beginning. Which I guess is a good thing because if you're going to charge 40 dollars for an update, I think they'd have the courtesy not to make you grind through the game (with that ASSHOLE Seth) just to unlock dudes all over again.

Fighting games are always a special case though... especially since no one really plays the single player modes anymore.

 

[darthraidr]

fighting games are a special case, but no more so than the above complaints about music games.

i'm fine with unlocking cosmetic things for a character in a fighting game. i'd much prefer to have all the characters unlocked in a fighting game because it makes it that much easier to just play the multiplayer with friends...

another solution, single player has characters locked, but multi has everyone unlocked.

of course another problem is explaining how or what is getting unlocked. if the "?" icon said, "beat game as Ken to unlock Billy" that would at least allow players to focus their attention.

 

[firehawk12]

Well, with fighting games you still want to practice the new characters, so you'll be forced to do that stuff eventually.

I totally forgot about music games though. I'm sort of glad that the designers have since discovered that no one buys their games for the "campaign" nowadays.

 

[Rett Mikhal]

Yes, at the end of Prime you get a short, few second long teaser for the next game. Your point is defeating itself, you don't lose out on anything siginificant story wise if you don't finish it to 100%. Metroid is actually a great example, because it's an inherent part of the forumla to have a percentage counter and to give little extras to people who unlock everything. How could you not expect that with Prime?

Fusion equally does not give you any real story information for different completeness. It does give you different images of Samus depending on your completeness levels, same as all the other Metroid games.

Allow me to clarify.

I was speaking of the experience I had. When I bought Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion, I had no idea what the endings were or that there were different endings. But, the game guides and other people spoke of them and hinted about them, and that it was important. I tried my best but lost patience for the damn time limits and gave up, then gave up on the series if they really expected the fans to devote themselves that much.

Now, I know that you are correct and the extra ending doesn't really matter, and the endings to Fusion are all just her getting more naked (I could go on for hours how much I hate the fact Samus becomes more and more a sex symbol, didn't she used to be the powerhouse in armor that didn't even indicate what sex she was? But I digress, that's a topic for another thread. Parenthesis ends now).

When I learned that, I was upset that I put in a few more hours trying to get plot I thought was locked away when in reality I was just trying to unlock useless things that other people may care about, but I don't. So the Metroid series is pretty dead to me for a variety of reasons. I was OK with slightly different endings, but the game instruction book flat out lied to me in both those games.

As for your other question, it isn't always an option to say "No, I won't play this" because sometimes they apply this to my favorite game series. Metroid used to be one, and even my beloved Lufia series got bogged down in collect-a-thons and time limits to unlock secret endings (admittingly, it was after the so-so third installment and most of the fans lost interest).

You know, I realize now a lot of the reason I hate unlocking stuff is because 90% of the time it's based on a stupid arbitrary time limit and I can't stand that. Ironically, I'm a patient guy, and rushing me, making me lose patience, makes me angry and frustrated. I wouldn't mind doing challenges like a shooting gallery or something that takes real finite skill that unlock things, not just following a FAQ with a lot of quick saves, or something that takes too much time, or otherwise just feels like a chore.

I can't think of any games like that off the top of my head, but I'll get back to you. All I'm saying is if I have to collection 100 or 10,000 more useless fucking McGuffins, I'm going to snap.

 

[Reverend]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'll take unlockable content over paid micro-DLC any day.

 

[SPCTRE]

There are a couple of examples of unlockable features in Mass Effect I would like to mention that (IMHO) make for a much richer experience and provide long-term motivation:

Several achievements reward the player with ingame bonuses, for example:

• +5% XP bonus after completing the majority of the quests and assignments within one playthrough
• reduced ability cooldowns for a specific squad mate after completing 45 assignments with him or her
• increased shield strength after taking down 250 geth enemies

Also, there are "vanity rewards" such as exclusive gamer pictures for XBL for completing playthroughs on Veteran and Insanity difficulty.

Rather than having to grind for arbitrary goals to unlock essential game content, the game rewards players (especially the ones who are in for more than one playthrough) with nice-to-have goodies.

Would you view that as "annoying unlockables" as well?

 

[firehawk12]

Well, a lot of them were arbitrary "kill x with y" tasks or the troublesome "complete most of the game with z" achievements meant to force you to play the game three times.

It's kind of strange that they scaled those rewards back in ME2 though.

 

[SPCTRE]

Well, a lot of them were arbitrary "kill x with y" tasks or the troublesome "complete most of the game with z" achievements meant to force you to play the game three times.

They were indeed. My point is, the rewards were designed to be completely non-essential from a gameplay and story perspective, but very rewarding for players that are in it for more than one playthrough.

It's kind of strange that they scaled those rewards back in ME2 though.

Which is one of the few things about ME2 I found disappointing.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

I don't know, it depends what the unlockable content is. If it's something really cool, like an awesome cameo character or a neat secret level, I don't mind so much. However, if it's something that should already have been unlocked from the beginning, like (as you said) a create-a-character mode, that's when I get frustrated. Also depends on how fun the game is and how ridiculous the requirements are. I don't have Internet at home and my number-two controller is broken, so often as not unlockables are all I have.