Showing off a game at its hardest.

Specifically, trying to introduce people to a game by showing a video or replay of the game at peak difficulty; it doesn't have to be you playing.

Your thoughts on this? A flashy way to introduce people to a game or a genre, or Nightmare Fuel that simply scares newcomers from ever approaching the game even if it was on Easier Than Easy?  ^*

(If you've been on the fora for a while, you can kinda guess which games I have in mind here.)

edited 4th Dec '10 2:25:27 AM by TsundeRay

Depends on how good you are at it, really.

This is my favorite way to show of a game, incidentally.

My thoughts? It only works if you don't get your ass handed to you over and over again. I was trying to show a friend how I beat The Mysterious Figure.

Yeah, that didn't go so well. If you can do it well though, it's making them realise how badass you are at the game if they eventually play it. And quite possibly piss them off multiple times when they keep getting their asses handed to them.

I had videos in mind (think "THE HARDEST VIDEO GAME BOSS EVER!") but okay.

If it's a 2D shooter, I usually show the 2nd or 3rd stage of the game, on Normal, when things start to pick up. I've actually had someone be captivated by me playing RayForce on a decent run, which isn't exactly a bullet-dense game.

If it's Tetris: The Grand Master that I'm trying to introduce, well, shit. The only way I can illustrate my point is through modes where gravity is at instant-drop speeds; anything less will leave an impression that it's just yet another Tetris game.

edited 4th Dec '10 2:26:40 AM by TsundeRay

It depends on who one's audience is. If they're established-but-not-superhumanly-good/patient players, then sure, show them the super-secret bonus boss that would take them either a hundred hours of practice or a hundred hours of grinding to get to, let alone defeat.

If one's audience is new players, or people who haven't played the game at all, one should probably show them something more representative of the game as a whole; something that J. Random Newcomer could hope to overcome in his first year of playing.

edited 4th Dec '10 2:27:40 AM by SuperDimensionman

It depends on the individual gamer I've found. Some gamers like me will orgasm at the sight of a game on its hardest difficulty and be motivated to play it. Others will be disheartened and turn away. It's probably safer showing the normal difficulty setting.

edited 4th Dec '10 2:30:34 AM by Aondeug

I'm probably against the "show off the hardest boss on the hardest difficulty" approach mainly because while many people got into danmaku through YouTube videos (the few people who were willing to try instead of just running away from the genre), I had a more experimental introduction: I got into that sort of stuff as a result of going through a bunch of shmups, some recommended by friends—"oh hey DoDonPachi my friend's been playing this game, let me check this shit out"; this was back in 2004, a year before YouTube came to be.

If you don't know the gamer's taste then I am against that approach as it might needlessly intimidating. If you do know them well enough to wager that they would go "OOOOOH" at the hardest setting then go for it.

Depends on the audience. I'd imagine it's safer to use more reasonable difficulties though, because they might start thinking of the game as something that's not for them. Like, when I watch a video of someone beating Super Mario Bros 3 in 11 minutes, I think of the player as awesome but I don't exactly get a motivation to go replay the game.

"Scaring them away" is probably not how I'd put it, but you definitely run the risk of them not thinking of it as a game that people actually play.

This replay is probably my second proudest moment in my playing of the Touhou series.

For the most part, starting on Normal on a visually impressive level is a good idea, for me. It helps people get a feel for how the game plays, without seeing things get ridiculously hard. Plus, it's full of shiny bits for them to look at.

For some games, there's no real way to go about it. I've started a play of Rez, had people uninterested at first, then when they heard the music pick up around Security level 4, they came back and their eyes locked. Unfortunately none of my roommates are good at shooters, and Rez is deceptive in its initial simplicity (freaking later enemies that take multiple locks to take down!) But the game is about the experience, and the gameplay is a small but important part of the whole.

I like seeing a player navigate a hard level; it tells me, "someday, you too will be able to do the impossible!" But maybe it's better to show a representative level to most people.

I agree. That's why when I showed some friends of mine Touhou for the first time, I looked for a video of someone playing Perfect Cherry Blossom on Stage 4 Normal. People familiar with PCB knows that this stage is very pretty looking and has a decent amount of intimidation without it looking impossible. It also helps that its one of the longer stages in the series and the music is great. It worked, and now they want to play.

Well, my introduction to the Touhou Project (and its musics), instead of a weird remix of "U.N Owen was her?", was a genuine video of the actual music... With the difficulty level hacked into the stratosphere.

Well I think you should show what you think is the best mix of visual impressiveness and actual fun. Something that looks fun and actually is fun.

If the maximum difficulty the game provides at least looks fun and the player is enjoying it, so be it. One of the Twilight Princess block puzzle marathons, would be a bad example. Its annoying to play through and boring to watch even if the player got the whole thing memorized. The Twilight Princess bonus dungeon, especially on the second play through, would murder a beginner to the Zelda titles, but it would probably get them interested watching you rapidly apply different strategies in the face of giant rats, ice people, blizzard heads, screaming zombies and flying lizard knights.

Then on games like Nanostray, there really isn't much difference between the easy setting and the hard setting, or the first level and the last level. You'll get your ass kicked either way until you've memorized things and found a control scheme you like so might as well show the latter levels on higher difficult. It'll look more impressive.