While discussing the best way to beat Geek's Longplay record (76 hours, 80GB) on IRC, I started thinking about doing Fallout: New Vegas.

However, this game, along with several other modern RPG (and RPG-hybrids), feature choices that make quite a difference on the gameplay. In the Fallout games, you first have to select what type of character you play (heavy weapons, handguns, melee, etc) and during the story, you can alter the story quite significantly with your choices (F:NV have several quests that are only availabe if you side with certain factions, and you can't side with several).

This presents a problem for a Longplay, especially of an RPG, which is often long just for one playthrough. Doing several to get all the differences depending on choices would probably double the size and length of the video.

So, I was wondering if there would be any interest in doing a longplay "interactively". That is, before starting, there are a number of polls to let the viewers select the basic premise, and during the gameplay, at key moments, the viewers get to choose what path to take.

The latter part could either be done by publishing parts continuously during the playthrough, or by describing the situation (without spoilers, of course) in the poll.

I'm primarily thinking of New Vegas now, but there are other examples as well, such as the Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Infamous series.

I think this could add a new dimension to longplays, if people are interested in contributing. Otherwise, I'll probably just do it like I want. :)

This sounds Great, i would love to see that for a change from the average longplay on this site, i have an idea, if you have not already thought of it, you could save the game before making "Key" choices then, after you go through that part, later go back and pick the other way and record it, so then publish it as a path the viewer can take. Just an idea for you if you are approved :D

actually the choices involved are almost infinite. there are four sides to chose (NCR, Legion, House, and Wildcard). it would be dificult to show all choices.

i disagree, all he would have to do is, save at the point where he chooses a side, play through, then re-load after he is done with a part.

It is possible to play most of NV in a way that only forces you to make the choice very late, perhaps only adding ~2hours of gameplay per extra branch. I did this for my second playthrough, where I was just wanting to get the different endings, and I successfully left three options to the very end of the game, letting me choose between Legion, NCR and Wildcard with only one major quest left. It wouldn't be much harder to add House to those options, since it's very similar to Wildcard. However, there are two major problems with this approach.

First of all, it requires that you actually skip several optional quests, since they will influence your standings with the different factions, eventually making one or more start to hate you.
Secondly, it requires that you play very "un-RPG-ishly" in that you must make choices to keep your faction-standings as neutral as possible, and not what your character would do. Some people may not have a problem with that, but personally, I prefer to make my longplays as close to "movies" as I can, staying in character and showing off as much as possible of the game at the same time.

Also, this is only applicable to NV, since there are other "karma-games" that will not let you do this. For example, playing Infamous in some kind of neutral mode gives you the worst of both worlds, so you basically have to chose side at the beginning. On the other side, Dragon Age doesn't have any overarching karma-sides at all, instead you have to choose for each major plot-section whether to back side A or B.