Greetings fellow humans!
This piece will be the final post for Literature (Link) 220.
Humble Beginnings
To start off, the game that will be examined is Saints Row 2 (Link). I know that this most likely doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone as I’ve mentioned this particular game multiple times while in class. But there’s a reason for that: Saints Row 2 has done everything right to ensure that it is a creative and economic success. Volition, the game developing company who created Saints Row 2, has included many options and features to expand the enjoyment and engagement of the player. This post will examine what Volition did to make the game such a wonderful success. Specifically we’ll look at the multiplayer options in Saints Row 2 and find out whether such options were a vital part.
A Biased Word of Warning
Before I write anymore on this topic, I must share that I am completely biased toward this particular game. In a word, I love it. For the majority of my lifetime, I’ve been a gamer. Whether it was friends at the arcade, family time on the weekends playing board games, or messing around on a old 286 computer (Link), gaming has been a way of life. Further, having owned and played many hundreds of various titles for consoles and the Personal Computer (PC), it could be safely stated that I am no amateur gamer. Yet, in the past couple of months since playing with Saints Row 2, I’ve had more fun that I have in a very long time. Sure, I’ve enjoyed many of the other titles and they each have presented a challenge but Saints Row 2 was different. What made it so?
Volition – the Act of Willing, Choosing, or Resolving
To start off let’s talk briefly about the developer company, Volition, Inc.(LINK) Volition is no stranger to game developing. Its roots began back in 1993 as Parallax Software, maker of the popular Descent series. Parallax Software (Link) eventually split into two companies one of which was Volition, Inc. Volition was later purchased by the mega gaming publisher THQ and still continues to this day as a THQ subsidiary. All of this boils down to the fact that Volition is no stranger to game developing, having developed many other critically acclaimed titles such as the Red Faction series, The Punisher, the Summoner series, and now the Saints Row series.
What’s In the Game?
Saints Row 2 was created in a non-linear (Link) “sandbox” world with light roll-playing (RPG) elements. Essentially, players create a completely unique, personalized character and then go anywhere and do anything in an extensive fictional city called Stillwater. The storyline and side missions are highly entertaining and certainly designed for the adult gamer. The side missions and activities are many and varied including base jumping, helicopter, plane, and jet flying, drug running, ambulance and fire truck missions, fight clubs, mayhem destruction missions, demolition derbies, boat and car racing, streaking, insurance fraud, and many others. There’s even an amusing mission where you drive a septic truck and spray sewage on pedestrians, homes, and businesses to devalue property. The list goes on and on but what makes all of this unique is that each and every single player mission can be played with a friend.
Maniacal Multiplayer
The multiplayer is where Saints Row 2 really shines. Imagine doing all of the above missions in a free-roaming environment with friends. Specifically, Saints Row 2 four specific multiplayer options: Cooperative, Gangsta Brawl, Team Gangsta Brawl, and Strong Arm. (Link) The Cooperative option is simply playing through the entire single player game with one other friend. Gangsta Brawl is a free-for-all mode of mayhem and destruction across the entire city of Stillwater with Team Gangsta Brawl being identical except there’s multiple teams vying for supremacy. The last multiplayer mode, Strong Arm, pits multiple teams against each other to complete various missions and be the first to earn $100,000. What makes all of these options unique and fun is that the game itself never takes itself or the story very seriously. As such, humor is spread liberally throughout each step of gameplay.
Nothing but the Facts
All of this creates a few questions: How vital are these various multiplayer modes to the critical success of Saints Row 2? Are they even important at all? And if these multiplayer modes are indispensable, which option is played the most? To find the answers to these questions, fifteen random individual gamers were queried. The first graph asked the players why they play or would buy Saints Row 2. Out of the fifteen, twelve stated that multiplayer was key in the decision to enjoy the world of Stillwater.
The final graph simply asked which multiplayer option was most important to each player. Ten responded that Cooperative gameplay was most important to them, three said Strong Arm, one for Gangsta Brawl, and one for Team Gangsta Brawl.
All of this data conclusively leads us to the idea that cooperation and social interactions were vital to the success of Saints Row 2. However, fifteen Saints Row 2 game players are a small microcosm of the whole gaming community. What do others have to say?
Prototype - An Example of What Not to Do
Take for example a new game recently released by the title Prototype, a large “sandbox” style game set in New York City. Originally Prototype was supposed to incorporate multiplayer options including a cooperative mode. Eventually, those options were eliminated in favor of polishing the quality of the single player story.
Discussing this decision on a news posting amusingly titled “Prototype’s Multiplayer Gets Cut and We Bleed”, forum members voiced dismay. Many even went so far as to proclaim that they would not be purchasing the game at all. The following is a small sampling of the comments:
Anticrawl @ Mar 30th 2008
“Yeah with the dozens of other must buys this year Prototype really won’t be missed, already erased it from my list. Singlplayer only games just don’t cut it for the 60 dollar price point anymore…”
MrMuggs @ Mar 30th 2008
“Multiplayer is why I buy games versus rent. If I can play through it and then I’m finished with it there’s no need to own it. I’ll maybe rent this, play through it and then return it…”
dylan @Mar 30th 2008
“I agree w/MrMuggs, this just became a rental at best, I was really hoping for co-op.”
James @ Apr 1st 2008
“That is a Mack truck full of fail. Off my “might buy” list.”
Prototype was released June 9th and thus too soon to tell whether or not the game is a success. Based upon customer commentary though it would appear that multiplayer has become an integral part of gaming.
Conclusionary Thoughts
According to GameRankings.com, Saints Row 2 garnered overall score in the eighty percentile, a considerable rating. The conclusion we can all draw from this is multiplayer is indeed vital to the economic success of games. Conversely, games that do not have multiplayer are lambasted and at most rented but not purchased.
mic success of games. Conversely, games that do not have multiplayer are lambasted and at most rented but not purchased.
As an added treat here an additional video! Cheers!
Great job. I loved that you did some research to support your hypothesis.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you supported the multiplayer importance by contrasting the success of Saints Row 2 with the failure of a single player game.
I worked on creating a "relational aesthetic for video games" and I think Saints Row 2 demonstrates it, at least according to what you have said.
After I saw your rough draft for the game, it made me want to try the game too.
Nathan! i love the way you threw this all together!
ReplyDeletei had been wanting to see how this would turn out since you first emailed me about it. I am glad it worked out for you.
This was really well thought out and its okay you were biased towards SR2. Imagine how biased adrian and i were while analyzing Halo 3.
But really good job.