Unlockable content? Or everything up front?

[GSZX1337]

For multiplayer games, FUCK UNLOCKABLE CONTENT! It's annoying when you buy/rent a game to play with your friends and then you find out that most of the characters, maps, tracks, cars, etc. need to be unlocked.

For Single Player games, I don't really care. I'm going to be on my ass for hours on end, might as well give me something to work towards.

[Reprise]

To those that say no with regards to multiplayer games, what about if content can be unlocked by playing multiplayer? Doesn't it make the playing experience more interesting and exciting when you unlock new things? Is that seriously just me? Am I the only one that thinks that it adds a multiplayer experience with a bit more depth than the usual "lets pick a player, beat/shoot the crap out of eachother, oh look one of us won".

I don't know, I'm trying to think of examples here. But what about games like Timesplitters 2? Or the Worms games that didn't suck? F Zero GX?

For me, it could give multiplayer experiences more of a purpose and we'd all get excited when we unlocked new stuff.

[irixith]

To those that say no with regards to multiplayer games, what about if content can be unlocked by playing multiplayer?

If the majority of games implemented this type of system, I'd be behind it. It's the need to slog through single player to open up the stuff in multiplayer that I find annoying. People come over and it's like 'yeah, sorry, I didn't sit down and unlock all the tracks so uhh, have fun'. :p

[GSZX1337]

To those that say no with regards to multiplayer games, what about if content can be unlocked by playing multiplayer? Doesn't it make the playing experience more interesting and exciting when you unlock new things? Is that seriously just me? Am I the only one that thinks that it adds a multiplayer experience with a bit more depth than the usual "lets pick a player, beat/shoot the crap out of eachother, oh look one of us won".

I don't, I'm trying to think of examples here. But what about games like Timesplitters 2? Or the Worms games that didn't suck? F Zero GX?

For me, it could give multiplayer experiences more of a purpose and we'd all get excited when we unlocked new stuff.

When you have multiplayer unlockables, there's often a balance problem. (TF2 when they first added extra weapons come to mind.)

[Reprise]

Haha what about taking it in turns playing the single player mode? I used to find that fun (depending on the game).

Hey maybe it's just me though.

[irixith]

Haha what about taking it in turns playing the single player mode?

I find trying to get people to do that is like pulling teeth. Me? I don't care much, but other people aren't interested in doing it by themselves or watching someone else do it. Must be a today thing.

[GSZX1337]

Haha what about taking it in turns playing the single player mode? I used to find that fun (depending on the game).

Hey maybe it's just me though.

Are you talking about taking turns in SP to unlock stuff, or just taking turns in a single player game? If it's the former: it depends on the game and how the unlockables affect the game*. If it's the latter: hell yeah, I do that all the time.

*That's my view on this topic in a nut shell.

[Reprise]

Haha what about taking it in turns playing the single player mode? I used to find that fun (depending on the game).

Hey maybe it's just me though.

Are you talking about taking turns in SP to unlock stuff, or just taking turns in a single player game? If it's the former: it depends on the game and how the unlockables affect the game*. If it's the latter: hell yeah, I do that all the time.

*That's my view on this topic in a nut shell.

Well a bit of both I guess.. Depends on the game really. If it isn't fun to do it and people are uninterested, then it doesn't work.

In my experience growing up though (I'm an adult now and don't really play multiplayer as much as I used to), I had quite a lot of friends that would enjoy taking it in turns playing single player, whether it be games like Zelda, Shenmue etc, or games where we did it to unlock stuff (missions on Soul Calibur, erm Worms 3D I think. Can't think of any other examples right now*).

*Edit: Metropolis Street Racer, Virtua Tennis.

[swiftzx]

Sigh...I guess I'm part of the minority. I'm too lazy to spend time to unlock everything because my favorite characters are sometimes the ones you have to unlock. At least you don't have to unlock Ryu

[CRTGAMER]

Unlockable content is great to renew a game with more to discover.

At least until the point of Action Replay frustration.