JJ86

Again, I'm sorry for any confusion about my original question, I'll post it again here and ask that you read it again carefully. If the second sentence confuses you in any way or you disagree, then skip to the main query of sentence 1 and 3. : Did you have any useful answer to the questions or knowledge from your game design experience that can enlighten people who may be interested? Is it ok if we leave this thread on topic?

Gromnir, obviously when I post to a game-related board and ask for writers, I am not asking for book-oriented writers. Comprende? There are many varieties of writers, but let us concentrate on game-related writers for now. And no, these writings are not pulled out of Google. I check Gamasutra regularly as well as Grandtextauto where things like this are discussed often. Stern and Mateas are very well known educators and speakers on video games and interactive media. Hell even Wired, Terra Nova, and Noah Sachs Report link to these ideas. I'm sorry if you aren't familiar with them but if you spent more time familiarizing yourself with the medium and less time trying to impress people with your style, you might be better served? Please do everyone a favor by not making such judgments? They only serve to turn simple discussions into nasty flame-wars. I think we can show some respect for the Obsidian people by not turning their forums into a battleground.

Sorry for the confusion and using concepts unfamiliar to some people but I was hoping to open up some discussion among people familiar with the concepts. If you are interested in learning rather than forming uneducated opinions, then I would recommend several sources of information on these ideas. The foremost academics are Mateas and Stern. A few of their more interesting and recent papers are found here: http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~michaelm/publications/SIA2000.pdf http://www.quvu.net/interactivestory.net/p...sSternGDC03.pdf Another good article can be found at Gamasutra by Randy Littlejohn (registration is required): http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20031029...lejohn_01.shtml These essays are probably beyond casual surfers but are definite reads if you are truly interested.

It's a commonly known and understood term. I was hoping for some insight from developers or writers. Thx.

What are the tools that writers use to fully map a non-linear story? Obviously several of the better RPGs like Fallout and Arcanum allow the user to create a different PC which drives the story along a different path. How is the multiple-path story written?

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/v...eloperId=58989/ Its usually better to check the facts than to make stupid statements. Phoenix, samm...

You have heard of Civilization? Its a game by Sid Meier. Very popular, etc, etc.

I love threads like this! It should have Jabba under the employ of the emperor as he tries to subjugate a planet of yoda clones. You have to play Lando after he is kidnapped and finds himself captive in a garbage chute on a star destroyer. You should be able to hijack the destroyer if you can escape and then jettison the crew. You have to trade robots between star systems to amass enough of a fortune to bribe Jabba's partner to sell him out.

I assume official word would be in this topic or on the main page. Looking through the posts, I see nothing.

I am curious. what kind of representation? Dunno it could be anything. In the history of video games there have been many types of graphical styles. Pick one. Think in terms of well done graphical styles in other media. Photo realism is not necessarily the best or scariest. A woodcut-style has an abstract-minimalist feel that lends itself well to horror. Use your imagination.

Hell Kitty has a point, there is no holy grail of game graphics. I'm sure if Silent Hill 3 used another type of representation very well then the effect would be the same.

Comparing innovations in design is different than comparing actual combat systems, lets stay on track here. The combat in RON was much more dependent on the speed of your reaction and not on strategic planning. The whole point of a strategy game is "strategy". Chess loses its appeal and ceases to be fun if played real-time.

When games lose the incredible flexibility and detail that text adventures had in exchange for pretty graphics, then something is very wrong. Border Zone had a incredible mood and detail to it even though it was stuck with the limitations of text. Even Fallout didn't lose text descriptions to enhance the game experience. When games abandon those descriptions and substitute the player's imagination with pretty graphics then the game sufefrs. The best graphics today can't compare with my imagination. So developers need to keep the player's imaginations active and functioning.

Eh, you can keep photorealism. For an RPG it really has no necessity. I think the way XIII went was refreshing, and is more fitting for a computer game than perfect details and shadows. Lets talk cel shading if we are talking better game graphics.

I am totally with Hades_One on this; magic turns me off. The only game I bought with magic in was Arcanum and that could have been better done without. I don't know why there is such a hardened association of fantasy and RPG. I hear the argument that the genre lends itself more readily to the role-playing experience. It's a ludicrous assumption and based only on the dungeon-crawling experience. Well, dungeon crawlers have been done over and over enough - what new is left to accomplish in the genre? The answer is nothing. When you stuff a genre into a tight niche it ceases to be interesting and potential new customers look only at the worst aspects of it. The only way to break free of those discomforting notions is to travel in an opposite direction.

Grim Fandango had the best and most polished use of music I have seen in any game. It was very high quality, in fact the entire production of the game was something to use as a model of how to create a great game. The graphics, sound, and gameplay interface were top notch. It surprises me when confronted by this game several years ago, that no developers have even attempted to mimic any aspect of its uniqueness.

K, this was funny.

You can design a game to work well in RT, but when it comes down to the quantity of enemies a user can interact with in RT vs TB, then TB will always win hands down. And not only the quantity, but the quality of that interaction will also be much higher. Compare the quality of combat of Civilization with the combat in Rise of Nations and it becomes apparaent. Rise of Nations was well done but the quality of strategy was much different.

Anything relevant to say?

Agreed, its a new forum. Lets bring some new ideas to the table. Why should Obsidian be BIS2?? For christsakes, the industry has been through this before. Why repeat the same mistakes again? People, this is the 21st century.

When game companies make sequels it helps to spell the death of a license. Nothing like repetition to kill a good idea. For some reason the marketing arms of games companies and movie studios like to force feed the same idea to consumers ad infinitum. Please lets get rid of this idea and move on.

TB is the best combat system if you want to play a complex battle. If all you want to do is shoot stuff and blow up people then play a FPS. Carsten doesn't take criticism well.

For christsakes, anything but fantasy! A historical RPG would be beautiful. Honestly I would like to see some developer go completely outside of the envelope and bring me a totally new direction for an RPG. It seems like things are kind of at a dead-end right now.

Redundant. Chill out Johnny, no need to start calling names.