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I think the suspension idea fails here, because in the case of run-and-gun vs. cautious, a player that prefers one style will always prefer that style, whereas
by Cpoll 7y ago
I think the suspension idea fails here, because in the case of run-and-gun vs. cautious, a player that prefers one style will always prefer that style, whereas a driver will sometimes want comfort and sometimes want performance.
> So if a game designer can allow multiple playstyles at once without big downsides to the main intended one, there is literally no reason not to do it.
There's always the downside of extra work, at the very least. Sometimes 'multiple playstyles' is a design decision, but that needs to be the case from the very beginning. And sometimes, the design decision is 'run-and-gun,' and everything follows from there. Games that try to do everything tend to do nothing well.
There's another disadvantage of allowing cautious play: Even players who would be having more fun running-and-gunning may identify (or misidentify) cautious play as optimal play. As a result, you've designed a game that works against itself by incentivizing players to have less fun.
Edit: kaoD said it better than me, in this same post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20663319 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20663319
- pbhjpbhj 7y agoDon't you find that just run-and-gun gets boring, you want a change of pace, to choose sometimes to do a section of a [FPS] game stealthily, sometimes dynamic, and sometimes just tank it? For me, it's good to force a certain style of play sometimes. One of the things I really liked about Deus Ex was that run-and-gun just left you overwhelmed at times, resources or floorplan could force stealth in some sections of the game.
- atoav 7y agoThis is in fact how most good games work: they force you to change strategies every now and then to avoid boring you to death with one scenario.
- Cpoll 7y agoTo quote myself: > Sometimes 'multiple playstyles' is a design decision That's Deus Ex. But it doesn't have to be Doom. A game forcing you to change tacks doesn't mean the same thing as it giving you options. And no, I don't necessarily think run-and-gun always gets boring, and you need to add stealth segments, or a car chase, or whatnot. You can keep it fresh without changing the premise, I don't think 'run-and-gun' is so narrow a definition that you need to change the pace entirely in order to keep it fresh. No-one ever levels this criticism at racing games, platformers, Tetris, etc. I get a bit frustrated when I'm forced to play a stealth section in an action game. They usually feel slow, forced, obviously scripted, and a lazy way of cleansing the player's palate. For it to feel any good, it needs to be a core design principle (see, for example, Metal Gear Solid), not a tedious half-level (before some inevitable scripted scene allows and forces you to exit stealth mode).