bekolay.org

"This will exit from the game and return you to the Title Screen. All unsaved progress will be lost. Are you sure you want to continue?"

This is the prompt I just got from DJ Hero. A lifesaver at times, but in this case I'd just loaded up the game, gotten distracted by some internet tomfoolery, and quit the game without pressing a button.

There's no reason I should ever get this prompt. Auto-saving is the standard in most of these games, so why scare me for no reason?

If I have committed to letting a video game to take over the task of saving my data on a regular basis, perhaps the point when I hit "exit game" would be a stellar time to do an auto-save. Maybe add in a "quit without saving" option to cover your bases.

For some games this doesn't make sense, I get that. If I'm quitting out of Fallout 3 because my character is stuck between a table and a wall (which, you know, happens) I probably don't want to save. But if I've just done a manual save and not exited the menu, there is no unsaved progress to lose.

On more than one occasion, the "unsaved progress" prompt has come up and I've thought "well shit, I'd better go save then." But there is no way to save. The game is unsaveable. And yet the next time I start up the game, I'm back where I was before -- this shouldn't happen! It's gotten so bad that in most games that don't have an obvious SAVE HERE DUMMY option, I'll do the first bit of the game, then quit out and see if I can continue.

Oh, and listen, Rock Band 2, I get that if I quit out in the middle of a song I won't later be able to magically restart in the middle. That makes sense to me. I don't really consider those thirty seconds of YYZ progress, so it's cool.

My point is that I never want to see the "unsaved progress will be lost" prompt ever again. Game developers, you have some options:

• Just save for me, I already told you you could, goddamn.
• Give a "save and quit" and "quit without saving" option. You may name them differently if you wish.
• Keep track of if there actually has been any unsaved progress. Maybe tell us what it is we'll lose.
  E.g., "Warning: This will exit from the game and return you to the Title Screen. Those twenty times you lost to the same stupid boss will be lost. Are you sure you want to continue?"
• Innovate