Replays

How many times have we played a game, went all through the end, and then after the credits roll you want to pick it again and start from the beginning to experience all the thrill again?

Like when we watch a movie the second time we tend to pick more details and its significance in future events, perhaps if the game had many branches you may want to try another path, or maybe another character to try another gameplay style.

From the developer's point of view I think it is great if you can make a game that makes people want to play it again after finishing it, like a book you read once and later you get the desire to read it again, only this time it will be a new experience. But how can you achieve replayability?

Like I said before one way is to structure your game in order that it offers multiple diverse paths or branches in the story, this seems like the very obvious and simple solution to attempt to make your game diverse, but there are some pitfalls I think one has to be aware of: This may be prone to create a Golden Path in your game, that is, the creation of a path in which the player will get the most complete experience in the game, personally I am not very fond of Golden Paths, I think the player must get the most complete game experience of the game everytime he/she plays all acording to the choices he/she makes. One good example of a game with a Golden Path is KOTOR2 but I think that can be attributed to the hasty production the game had at the time, the first KOTOR on the othe hand did offer a rich experience no matter what path you chose.

Another way to achieve replayability is to offer different player characters (PCs) to choose, each with a different play style, one example of this last are the Diablo series, unfortunately to play with just another character offered little change in the main gameplay other than the different play style, another example is the online game Guild Wars (GW), modeled after Diablo, GW offered you a linear path with different character classes ussually it was your choice if you wanted to play another type to try it, until the introduction of the third campaign Nightfall, which actually encouraged you to play with other classes because of the introduction of heroes (party members that have access to all skills you have unlocked with any character you have).

The other type of replayability I think is the hardest to achieve, is the one that gives the player a memorable experience so that he/she wants to play it again, for doing that thet game must be truly unique in many ways, it's not enought if it was only a fun ride, the developer must pay extensive attention to every detail, music, design and story elements, or if the game has no story then the challenge and gameplay. In short: make a good game. (duh!)

Talk more about it latter...