Character variety and such is definitely a good reason to replay a game - I would agree. But, for me, the actual game and its content is probably the most important part - and I can't replay the same content 50 times in a huge CRPG just to see a few variations of builds or party members.
I do understand the appeal, though. We all enjoy different things!
To me, there are just too many games out there - and even if I sat down and played all day long from now until the day I die - I wouldn't be able to play all the good ones a single time all the way through. So, for me, the thought of replaying a single game 50 times is just out of the question.
But it's certainly interesting - and it sort of confirms a pet theory of mine about how early loves form our future preferences more so than almost anything else.
In fact, I think that's true for many aspects of human life. Adulthood is, in many ways, one long search for what we once had.
Anyway, I'm digressing!
Yes, it's great that you like starting threads, often with interesting topics. I'm never sure if they're just ways for you to confirm previously intended biases or not though.
Take this one, for example: "early loves form our future preferences more so than anything else". Sure, it sounds like something that is a theory, but what does it actually break down to? It suggests that young people are blank slates who will like anything? No, because if someone likes something when they are young then they probably also find things they don't like, this would be their natural personality, which, obviously, wouldn't change with age.
Take me & IWD, for example. Sure it was probably the first cRPG I completed, but was it the first cRPG I tried? No. When IWD came out I had the choice of that, Morrowind and Wizardry 8, for example, all three being completely different interpretations of RPGs. I found that I liked IWD the most. 20 years later am I going to buy the single character open world aRPG, the first person dungeoneering blobber, or the isometric party-based tactical movement game? Why would my tastes have changed? Why was it that 'first love' happened?
So what I'm saying here is that you seem to be implying that 'first love' is something maleable & that we then get closed minded as a result of wanting our 'first love', where as I think the reality is that we have preferences to begin with, that our minds are already closed from point zero.
It's not just cRPGs I prefer to be isometric either. Pretty much every game I've really enjoyed over the years has been isometric, regardless of genre. Or at least some kind of distance view of the player character.
Perhaps you're so blessed with the ability to enjoy everything (which I possibly doubt) that its more of a case of not being able to understand why everyone can't enjoy everything. But then you do note in that post how we all enjoy different things, so I don't think thats it. I think you've probably just overthought a specific idea and tried to fit facts to it rather than taken the facts and then tried to apply a theory?
