Starting a new game in EarthBound has a WOW factor of about 7, by my count.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbu6ewGCmTI
Starting a new game in EarthBound has a WOW factor of about 7, by my count.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbu6ewGCmTI
the awesome factor. turn the wow elements into a, where a=1+.01w
(f[a]*h^[a])/d, where a = 1+.01w
Let's work out one of my old favorites. For anything I bought more that once, I'll use the most recent purchase as the price.
Legend of Mana (PS1)
f = 75, h = 30, w = 6 (the intro cinematic/attract screen, boreal wolf, entering the bejeweled city, unlocking blue dragon, raging pain and raging fury)
d = 25
working out a = 1.06
(75[1.06]*30^[1.06])/25
(79.5*30^[1.06])/25
(2385^1.06)/25
3803.10/25
152.12
Compared to the Skyrim math above, the end number is kinda pathetic, even with the higher wow count. That said, this is the most recent purchase and playthrough of the game, and I know I sunk way more hours in it back the day.
There are some holes in the concept, unfortunately, but I can't see a good solution without pulling out stuff that would be needlessly complex for something like this. The overall biggest is the purchase price, since that is the final function of the formula and therefore the 'most powerful' but can still have a great deal of variance from person to person. Using the above example, I know that I paid the full $40 or whatever when it came out, and since I was an idiot and tried to clean the disc with alcohol a month or two down the line, forcing a repurchase at or near that again. Somebody else with a bit more savvy and patience could have gotten the game for $20-$25 at the time, without accounting for stuff like thrift stores or yard sales.
RPGs: Proof that one you start done the dork path, forever will it dominate your wallet's destiny.
One Christmas I got Golden Axe 2. That morning, I went to play it, manged to finish the whole thing the first time I turned it on. Kinda killed the mood for me that year. Even the first GA had more for me when I got that.
Conversely, the first 360 game I got (other than the packin Kungfu Panda/Lego Indiana Jones set) was Fallout 3. I got the 360 2 days after Thanksgiving, Fallout 3 the day after that. I was still having a great time playing Fallout 3 a month later when Christmas and New Years rolled around.
There are good short games out there. Sometimes wrecking even a good short game can leave a bad taste in your mouth, especially if you wanted to play it for half of forever. Anticipation can be more fun than possession.
RPGs: Proof that one you start done the dork path, forever will it dominate your wallet's destiny.
And if I wasn't playing it, it'd be zero. If I wasn't so attached to this username I'd change it. Square Enix has been pretty sh*t for a very long time.
But no, the comment was more like a reference to another comment I made about being naturally good at just about everything I play, search the latest pages of the LRG thread.
Yay for Squeenix and it's never-ending quest to be just like the villains in their games (FF7 and Robotrek come to mind).
Anyway, any more ideas out there about the formula and the ideas behind it? Mine was kinda recursive, but I wanted to keep things relatively simple.
RPGs: Proof that one you start done the dork path, forever will it dominate your wallet's destiny.
As far as short games go, sometimes it's best to "leave them wanting more". Portal is a game that comes to mind. It's fairly short as far as games go and when it's over you want to keep on playing. But at that point it's already started to get repetitive. If it was any longer it would just ruin the whole thing.
"Game programmers are generally lazy individuals. That's right. It's true. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Since the dawn of computer games, game programmers have looked for shortcuts to coolness." Kurt Arnlund - Game programmer for Activision, Accolade...