How bad is repetitiveness really?

[NecroWolf]

I read the NAG reviews for Darksiders and Dark Void and they both said that repetitiveness was a minus. Now, I'm not criticizing the reviews, all I'm asking is if being repetitive is as bad as we all make it out to be.

Let's take Darksiders(or similar games like God of War, Devil May Cry, etc) for example. There are only so many combos the developers can try to force you to remember and even then, there's probably one you'll use more often than the others. If the combat is smooth enough and the combos are cool, what's wrong with doing them over again, stopping when you get bored, then playing again later? Look at Assassin's creed. Yes, you do the same things over and over again, BUT the stuff you were doing hasn't really been done before.

Another example, shooters. The point of a shooter is to...well...shoot stuff. If a particular game makes shooting stuff fun enough, why do people complain when the developers give you lots of stuff to shoot. Like Dark Void, it's a shooter that gives you a fairly new way to shoot stuff. If the developers give you multiple opportunities to shoot in that new way, why do people complain about it being repetitive instead of saying "Oh wow, that's new. How nice of them to put in awesome feature X and then let me use it in the game so that I can see just how awesome it is"

My point is that games have been around for a while and as the industry progresses it becomes increasingly difficult to do something new. So, if a game has something new, why not just be happy that the developers wanted you to do something you've never done before as much as possible?

[dammit]

I think repetition only becomes apparent to the player when the storyline attached is weak at best and you're just doing the same thing over and over aimlessly. A good story covers up the fact that you're doing exactly what you just did.

[Karuji]

If you go 'Hey I just did this, and I don't want to do it again' then something in the game has just failed you. Or you have failed the game.

[Miktar]

Good game = repetitive tasks are not bad
Bad game = repetitive tasks are bad

Obviously, what's repetitive for one person, isn't for another. It's subjective, opinion.

Some people love Borderlands because it's repetitive nature is what appeals to them, and others find it boring because they don't want to do another fetchquest.

MMOs are a prime example of how repetitiveness can be good, or bad, depending on your personal preference.

[GeometriX]

I think it really comes down to how it's all dressed up, and I suppose, in that light, how much you like the dress. Dark Void was just plain ol' repetition though, of the same damn thing, too many damn times, with very little meaningful reward. I'm having the same problem with Star Trek Online. Sure, a game like Diablo is really just "kill, loot, repeat until completion", but it changes things around enough to make them interesting. That, and while you're performing the same actions over and over again, the purpose behind those actions is a little more interesting, like assembling an awesome set of items, or beating a super awesome boss.

I guess balance is important. I don't mind doing the same thing over and over if there's enough floating around the repitition to keep it interesting. Most Final Fantasies are a good example of this: the story and characters are enough to make me not want to kill myself every time a random battle gets thrown in my face.

[OllieTheDog]

I agree whith geometrix in a way because some times repeating certain aspects of a game in a series is nessacery like Modern Warfare 2 you had to bring back the same charecters beacuse it is a sequel

Like it is very easy to have two fps,s repeat itself or have very simaler charecters,plots and gameplay

[Beastinvader]

Originally Posted by Miktar

Good game = repetitive tasks are not bad Bad game = repetitive tasks are bad Obviously, what's repetitive for one person, isn't for another. It's subjective, opinion. Some people love Borderlands because it's repetitive nature is what appeals to them, and others find it boring because they don't want to do another fetchquest. MMOs are a prime example of how repetitiveness can be good, or bad, depending on your personal preference.

Thanx for explaining the "good and bad" about repetitive games for I have always wondered whats the point in repetitive games since developers (or gamers) sometimes confuses repetitiveness with difficulty

[dislekcia]

There's a difference between repetitive actions in a game and repetitive goals.

Repetitive goals are to be avoided, you want to always be changing the players current set of goals so that they can perform the same action for different reasons. One of the most useful game design abstractions to help you do this is the idea of 3 second, 30 second and 3 minute goals. Each one should be different for the player and each should change when attained.

So in a repetitive game like Diablo (thanks Geo) your 3 second goal could be "Run the fuck away!" or "get into a better position to kill this monster" or "pick up that item", your 30 second goal would be "Get to this part of the map" or "Stock up on healing potions" or "Man I wish I could identify that thing I just picked up" and your 3 minute goal would be "Clear the Arcane Sanctuary" or "Find Duriel". Those goals keep changing, even though the set of actions you can perform is rather limited.

In a game that players say is repetitive, the feeling of having "done this before" comes from having to do the same long sequence of goals. The less that sequence deviates from a previous sequence, the more repetitive it feels.

[B0r0m1r]

It's not about what you're doing the whole, it's about how, where and to who....