The What If Thread

[Frindis]

Sometimes we need some What IFs in our lives, so let's start a thread about it. This will be a gaming-related What If? and you just throw out some what ifs.

I'll begin:


What if Bethesda made a thief game? They already know a lot about stealth and lockpicking, it only seems to be the right way forward.

 

[Colif]

(hurts himself) what if the financial crisis of 2008 hadn't destroyed Ascaron Entertainment and they had been able to keep supporting Sacred 2 instead of going bankrupt. They had plans to release seasonal updates, we only ever saw one of them due to what was scraped together for Community patch. Christmas.

 

[DXCHASE]

What if Sierra kept making games. I would probably own their whole catalog

 

[Frindis]

@DXCHASE Then we would have seen even more insults from the legendary Mockingbird!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-6VRjwEYJA

 

[JCgames]

What if Sierra kept making games. I would probably own their whole catalog

They might not have, but deadelic and wajet eye more than pick up the slack. Toss in the longest journey, Syberia and there are a good 20+ games you should try

 

[Pifanjr]

I do wonder what would have happened if consumers had refused to buy microtransactions altogether when companies first tried introducing them. I imagine that the video game industry would have been significantly smaller than it is now. The big question is whether the games would've been better.

I think instead of the Free-To-Play formula we have now there would be far more subscription based games and/or services.

 

[Frindis]

I imagine that the video game industry would have been significantly smaller than it is now. The big question is whether the games would've been better.

One thing is for sure, we would not have seen games like Path of Exile. That game relies a lot on microtransactions through supporter packages and cosmetic items.

I'm sure the games would have been equal in quality to what we have now, but there would be far less, and way more expensive while being controlled by larger companies. Most likely we would have had fewer consumer rights and I would imagine platforms like Steam would have evolved into a far worse platform than what we have now.

 

[BeardyHat]

What if MMOs were still popular and hadn't been over taken by the live service?

Of course, we still have several kicking around, but most are concerned with engagement and making addictive, compulsive mechanics rather than focusing on making things fun and encouraging social dynamics.

I do think generally the age of the MMO has passed in a social context.

 

[Frindis]

@BeardyHat Hopefully Ashes of Creation might be that MMO that can turn things around. At least the game seems to have a focus on PvP with combating different nodes scattered around the map intensifying teamwork.

 

[Frindis]

What if Valve created Half-Life 3? Would it be good, would people praise it even if it sucked? I don't think it would have been any good because they would probably have tried to modernize it and in doing so making it into something completely different. Some games need to stay where they are in time.

 

[Johnway]

I'm just wondering what would have happened if CD project stuck the landing and got cyberpunk and was a smash hit and worked technically. ok, its done a lot to regain the positive opinions, but i think if they succeeded the first time i would think they might have gone down in history as the defacto gaming royalty on par with Valve possibly.

 

[January's Ghost]

What if E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 was a good game?

 

[DXCHASE]

What if nintendo started to allow its IPs to be used over multiple platforms and they do their own variation of a "gamepass" that works on pc.

 

[Pifanjr]

What if nintendo started to allow its IPs to be used over multiple platforms and they do their own variation of a "gamepass" that works on pc.

From what I understand, Nintendo doesn't even make their old games available on their own platforms.

 

[JCgames]

Ohh I got one.

What if gog released mech warrior 1-4 and all the dlc and extras, along with mech commander 1&2!

And irrational made freedom force 3!

 

[Zloth]

What if Alternate Reality had been able to keep going with their interlocking games? The games of the series weren't just following one another, they were meant to go together. You would buy The City, The Dungeon, The Wilderness, and so on. If you were in Wilderness and wanted to go back to town to sell, you would exit Wilderness via the city gate, the game would make a save, and The City would be able to load the save so you could sell your stuff at a shop there.

I'm dubious it could have worked at the time because technology was changing so fast, it would have been hard keep the first games working by the time the last parts came out. In today's environment, though, maybe....

What if Valve created Half-Life 3? Would it be good, would people praise it even if it sucked?

Would they have included a not-so-short video so you could catch up on what the story was doing twenty years ago?

What if E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 was a good game?

Now now, we have to have IMAGINABLE what ifs!

What if nintendo started to allow its IPs to be used over multiple platforms and they do their own variation of a "gamepass" that works on pc.

Nintendo would be making vastly more money.

 

[ZedClampet]

What if nintendo started to allow its IPs to be used over multiple platforms and they do their own variation of a "gamepass" that works on pc.

What if, instead of that, the Switch 2 comes bundled with QEMU or Windows on ARM? They keep the Nintendo stuff proprietary, but now you can also buy PC games from the Nintendo digital store? But not anywhere else unless you jailbreak it.

 

[Frindis]

Would they have included a not-so-short video so you could catch up on what the story was doing twenty years ago?

That would have been a good idea, could make it into a prologue before you start HL3. They did release HL2 dev commentary, so I have been using that a bit to learn more about the game. Pretty fun stuff and has a lot of details for each level/zone.

 

[Colif]

What if Blizzard never sold horse armour... though I see MTX already mentioned.

damn you Todd, why couldn't you make something good. Just once.

What If Rare hadn't been bought by Microsoft... that is more an old one from Nintendo 64 days, they made the best games.

What if the air speed of a Swallow wasn't determined by it being African or European

runs away.

 

[January's Ghost]

What if the cake wasn't a lie?

 

[neogunhero]

What if Volition kept making good Saints Row games and didn’t go the silly absurd route that started with Saints Row 3? If they kept the more realistic gang warfare themes of 1 and 2, they could have been much better GTA competitors, and that style of game would be a lot bigger and better than it is now.

 

[January's Ghost]

What if Volition kept making good Saints Row games and didn’t go the silly absurd route that started with Saints Row 3? If they kept the more realistic gang warfare themes of 1 and 2, they could have been much better GTA competitors, and that style of game would be a lot bigger and better than it is now.

I agree that Saints Row staying with the serious route might have been great, but we gonna fight if you're suggesting Saints Row 3 is a bad game.

 

[neogunhero]

I agree that Saints Row staying with the serious route might have been great, but we gonna fight if you're suggesting Saints Row 3 is a bad game.

Don’t fight me, it’s good!! I just prefer 1 and 2, I grew up with those games and have so many memories on them.

3 was very good, especially for co-op, and over the years I’ve grown to like 4 a lot more. It’s perhaps the most fun in terms of its gameplay. And I beat Gat out of Hell in like 5 hours so I don’t really remember much of it. Haven’t played the reboot… don’t think I ever will.

 

[January's Ghost]

Haven’t played the reboot… don’t think I ever will.

And you never should.

 

[ZedClampet]

@neogunhero Never played Saints Row 1 or 2. Three was awesome. Four went too far. The recent one was so good they were closed down, kind of like Yakovlev supposedly had his eyes put out by Ivan the Terrible, so that he would never make such wonderous things as St. Basil's Cathedral again.

****

What if you had to explain to Shakespeare that there was a movie called "Grand Theft Hamlet"?