I feel like I’ve been here before. In fact, I have! But the first time I didn’t have nearly so much experience. I wonder if this will change anything.
Many games offer a New Game + option, a new save file with all the stats and equipment earned in an old one. What does it mean when a player takes their first steps in the same boots they took the final steps? With the year coming to a close and a new one ready to start just after it, let’s take a look at the beginning of the yearly cycle from the view of its end.
How is replaying a game different from playing a game for the first time? Does the subtext change when a hero is slaying basement rats at level 99 or does it just make it easier to whoosh through the plot? Does New Game+ offer new any challenges or is it just an afterthought? What about you, player? Are you any different when you return to a game’s beginning having seen the end? Does nostalgia enhance the experience or were you better off with fresh eyes?
We want to hear about the beginning after the end. In an age of endless cliffhangers and reinventions, what is it like to be where you’ve been before? Tell us about the New Game+ file that changed how you saw a game, or how that game closest to your heart falls apart with a mature look. Tell us about how your seasoned D&D character fared in a brand new campaign with brand new players. Have games as a whole changed with the experience gained in old cycles? What do we make of remastered classics? Are they a form of + to the New Game or does the gloss break the spirit of the old game? What has changed more in the last few years? Games or players? What does that mean? In short, we want to know what novelty looks like from the perspective of experience.
We’re accepting blogs until December 31th. You can see current submissions here:
Use this code to embed the links in your blog, if your publishing platform allows iframes:
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Please email us your submissions or tweet them to @MarkFilipowich or @critdistance with the #BoRT hashtag. Happy blogging!
Rules of the Round Table
- Blogs of the Round Table is not curated. If you write it, we’ll publish it, as long as it’s connected to the topic and has been written specially for BoRT or up to one month prior.
- This BoRT post is the home of the discussion: as I receive new submission blogs, we’ll update the ‘BoRT Linkomatic’ so new blogs are reflected on this page immediately. We’ll also use the @critdistance Twitter account to post regular updates, so follow us!
- Your duty as a knight of the round table is to leave a comment on a blog to which you respond with a link to the response piece, to give them a ‘right of reply’. Keep the conversation going.
- If your work contains potentially disturbing content, please include a suitable warning at the start. Use your common sense.
- You can submit as many articles as you like throughout the month, and it doesn’t matter if they are commercially published, paywalled or available for free. We will need a transcript for paywalled content to be approved.