Games Plus

[PZ]

I haven't played the game for a long, long time because they have not come out with the Games+ mode which allows one to start a new game with all your gear from a prior play. I do not know what their strategy is in deferring the release of such a patch, but all it does is keep people like me from playing the game and looking elsewhere for entertainment.

[Dweller_Benthos]

It's a definite advantage to have in a game to keep people interested. Generation Zero recently released a patch that allows new games where you start over completely, or carry over your characters, inventory, weapons, etc into a new game where the story is reset to the beginning. I haven't tried them yet as there's still a bit of crashing going on, but I was thinking I'd like to do the story over and how to go about it and now there's a way to just start again but not at zero.

Not sure why more games don't do this, it doesn't seem like there would be a ton of dev time needed for it. Reset story, keep inventory, how hard is that? I bet for most major games there are hacks or w0#k arounds to get it to do that, so why not officially?

[PZ]

I totally agree - this should be an option built into the code rather than releasing it as a patch. I'm rather confident that they think they will make more money somehow by doing it this way.

[Dweller_Benthos]

If the bean counters had their way, games would be a monthly subscription and you'd get the pistol the first week, the rifle the second, and so on. Game passes and the like are really coveted for bringing in a steady revenue stream. They want that so badly but know they have to balance between that and what the player base will tolerate. Fallout 76 has the subscription that gives you some extras but at least you can play the game all the way through without needing it.

[PZ]

I think I'll stop gaming (new games at least) when they force gamers to pay a subscription. I'm willing to pay one-time fees, but definitely not a time-based subscription 

[Dweller_Benthos]

It would be different if the game were free or very low cost to start, like less than $5, then there was a subscription to get more, if you wanted it. But like in the case of Fallout 76, it's a full-price game that they then expect you to pay a subscription for, well maybe not expect, but they would really like it if you did. The benefits for it are not that great if you ask me, the only thing I would want out of it are the unlimited storage space, and they make that free once a year for a week, so I just wait until then, and dump all my junk in the unlimited storage to free up my regular storage, and try not to pick up everything that's not nailed down. Unless you're into building huge camps, which are also limited unless you've got the subscription, there's not a lot you really need to hoard in this game. About all I need to pick up are ammo supplies and stuff to repair guns and armor with, everything else I can ignore.

We'll see how Starfield turns out, if they make that subscription based too, I'll seriously think about skipping it. Of course, as with all games, I won't be playing until at least 6 months to a year after they launch, because that seems to be the safe point with games these days.

[fragger]

I'm willing to pay one-time fees, but definitely not a time-based subscription 

Same here, PZ. I'm not happy about that practice at all, especially if as D_B says, you've already paid for a fully-priced game.

Similar thing in the graphics software world. Adobe do the same sort of thing with their products, like Photoshop. This is why I'm still using the 20-year-old Photoshop 7, which was the last version they made which you could purchase outright, and then own in perpetuity. After that they started charging annual licensing fees for newer versions, which are far from cheap. Since P7 does everything I need it to, I have no desire to start paying through the nose for a newer version, even if it does have more bells and whistles. For what I do, the extra goodies aren't really worth the heftier fork-out.

@D_B It'll be interesting to see what happens with Starfield, yes. And I agree, about a six-month wait after release provides a reasonably good safety buffer.