Deft Beck
Member
"Quality of life" in the context of video games refers to features or aspects of game design that ensure that players have a smooth gameplay experience and do not get burnt out as fast.
As an example, I liked the idea of the journal in Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green, which chronicled whatever you were doing and then showed you this upon reloading your save. This allowed the player to pick up where they left off right away, instead of having them remember what they were doing, in case they had not played in a while. In larger RPGs, this would be a great QOL feature.
For RPGs centered around grinding for levels, it might be interesting to see an RPG with an auto-grinding feature. So, in lieu of grinding, you could pay in-game currency and expend in-game time to run on a treadmill or train in a gym to gain levels. Or, if this seems like it is antithetic to actually playing the game, perhaps it does not distribute skill points or unlock skills (ala Pokemon's daycare feature).
Of course, there are many games which allow players to save time by paying real-life currency to speed up a process or unlock content right away. But that seems like it would break the immersion of the game and could lead to more egregious practices of exploitation towards players with tendencies to overspend on these sorts of purchases. By having it be contained within the game world, it would be less exploitative.
What sort of quality of life features do you wish were present in more games?
As an example, I liked the idea of the journal in Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green, which chronicled whatever you were doing and then showed you this upon reloading your save. This allowed the player to pick up where they left off right away, instead of having them remember what they were doing, in case they had not played in a while. In larger RPGs, this would be a great QOL feature.
For RPGs centered around grinding for levels, it might be interesting to see an RPG with an auto-grinding feature. So, in lieu of grinding, you could pay in-game currency and expend in-game time to run on a treadmill or train in a gym to gain levels. Or, if this seems like it is antithetic to actually playing the game, perhaps it does not distribute skill points or unlock skills (ala Pokemon's daycare feature).
Of course, there are many games which allow players to save time by paying real-life currency to speed up a process or unlock content right away. But that seems like it would break the immersion of the game and could lead to more egregious practices of exploitation towards players with tendencies to overspend on these sorts of purchases. By having it be contained within the game world, it would be less exploitative.
What sort of quality of life features do you wish were present in more games?