Thought provoking post
This post made me think - when was the last time I required all those save slots. I used to save (real save not quick save) all the time after every major happening in the game.
Over the years I stopped caring so much (I.e. - less anal retentive now) so I only use the quick save.
The only exception lately was stalker where I’d save before moving from level to level because sometimes it would crash and then I’d be forced to trek all the way from my last save.
I made this a multiple choice poll, but if you select ‘I only quick save’ then don’t check the other options.
There are times when playing RPGs where I tell myself to save more often. Especially those which offer distinct branches down multiple paths, (like the The Witcher).
But I’m usually too lazy to go to a save screen, thus f5 and I’m done.
This depends entirely on the game/genre. For example, in RTS games I never save mid-mission unless I have to quit the game and do something else. In FPS games, I quick-save quite a lot, but only because so many of them seem to be balanced around the ability to endlessly retry individual encounters. In RPGs, I save before major events like boss fights and entering new areas, but I’m not keen on reloading old saves and trying alternative paths, so I only keep one save file plus one backup and alternate between them, reloading only if I get a Game Over screen.
I usually just quicksave, unless the game doesn’t have a convenient quicksave-anywhere function.
Mind you, this has bitten me in the ass a number of times by deadlocking me into an unescapable situation. Citizens demand autosaves.
I chose a bunch of those options, but only because I save often and always in new “slots” (never overwrite, unless there’s a save limit). My reasoning has to do with getting around potential game glitches (and in RPGs, reload in case of death), not for reverting to try a new path or similar. I typically end up with hundreds of saves in most RPGs that allow them. NWN2 was crazy, though, since the save file size was so huge. I easily racked up gigs of hard drive space with those saves!
I’m Mr. Quick Save with my only exception being in games where I might have a couple of different sessions going (like say FM 2008 where I have a Brazilian League and another save with my Dutch League game).
At least two, and I save alternatively with either one of them, plus the quicskave option. Too many crappy games with savegame corruption (hello, Messiah) have forced me to use this trick. I also tend to save and make a new savegame before any major decision (in RPG for example).
This poll is too limited :)
On games where there is quicksave/save anywhere, I save when I remember, outside big action sequences.
I also play consoles - most of the shooters have save anywhere. Overlord has no concept of death, only temporary defeat.
The autosave there is sufficient. You only have to drag yourself from the tower to retry, with more minions.
It depends on the game type. RPGs I try to save before doing something that might get me killed, more often idfthe game CTDs a lot. i tend to use 3 slots- the pld granfather, father son principle… In strategy games I save before quitting and tend to use just one slot. I reload from the auto save if the game crashes.
I think this is why I’ve become so addicted to the Mysterious Dungeon line of console games. While the old roguelikes like Nethack and Rogue were all about having a single save file and then going even further by DELETING the save file on the death of the character (hence the concept of “Permadeath”), the Mysterious Dungeon games work in a clever compromise between this and the modern game’s concepts of death without an real consequences (Puzzle Quest, sadly, bringing this to an all time low, IMHO). If your character is killed in the dungeon you lose all of your carried equipment and experience levels. Your character is still free to try again, you don’t have to repeat any of the game’s plotpoints or storyline, but are free to just give it another go from scratch (or possibly with some backup equipment you’d already stored away). So you aren’t REALLY starting all over again from nothing but death is made VERY annoying.
It does depend on the game, but I tend to be a compulsive over-saver. I once used up all of a PS2 memory card with FFX saves (all 99 slots! yay!). Do I ever go back more than one or two saves? No. If I had a reason to, I’d probably quit playing the game entirely…I don’t like playing large chunks of content over again. So really I ought to just keep two or three saves and save over them regularly, but in practice…well, it depends.
I appreciate games with good autosave - with The Witcher, it autosaved anytime I changed areas after updating my journal even minorly. And unless I was wandering around the swamp, that was plenty. So I only manually saved in the swamp and when I was quitting for the night and that worked really well. Most games aren’t so smooth.
And yes, the NWN2 (and NWN1, for that matter) enormous saves bit me too.
I quicksave a lot, more in games with insta-death mechanics (e.g. snipertown). I make a real save every couple of hours, or at the start of new level in level-based games. Sometimes I’ll save before and/or after major in-game events, particularly those involving exclusive plot branches or difficult gameplay sections. I also keep a couple of real saves around as a fail-safe for glitches and game-breaking bugs.
If it’s an FPS I hit the quicksave key almost every five seconds. I don’t really save in anything else unless I am about to quit, or if something is too boring for me to risk repeating.
There is no answer for after learning my lesson? I pretty much start every game with a very lax save policy, up until the point I die and autosave doesn’t cover my tracks very well. Then I get paranoid and start saving every new room or whatever. This is mostly for FPS and RPGs. Adventure games rarely have irreversible death points and RTS games are over quickly enough I don’t have much lost if I get wiped out.
