Saint of Killers

Austrians speak German. " <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No they don't....It's very similar, but it's not the same...

Okay, first, have you EVER played Fallout? I mean, Fallout is repetitive???!!! Let's see: In Diablo, you can: Be a warrior of some sort; Kill things; get things. Ooohh. So many options...Oooh. So the dungeons are random...Wow... Still, the dungeon changes, and what do you do? Be a warrior, kills things, get things. Click,Click,Click...Items change, whoaaa...What happens, Warrior, kill, pickup. Kill,pickup,kill,pickup. I'm sorry, that's not an rpg. Someone who puts RPG on the cover of such games should be liable for a lawsuit. Let's check Fallout, shall we. In Fallout you can: Be a diplomat of sorts, be a gunman(insert woman you you like), be a fist fighter, be a sneaky thief, be a scientist of sorts, be a wilderness survivor. In Fallout, it matters if you are a man, a woman, if you're smart, dumb, lucky or unlucky, agile or not, perceptive or not, strong or weak, etc. EVERYTHING changes SOMETHING in the game. In Fallout, you can complete a quest in more than one way. You don't always have to kill, pickup,kill,pickup. You will have access to different quests depending on a number of characteristics you possess, items you have, people you've talked, actions you've taken, and so on and so forth. And you never have to go from dungeon A to B to C... You're free to roam. In short... You. Can. Choose. Thus...Fallout = RPG. That's what this thread is about. Roleplaying. Now, mind you, I'm not judging people's tastes. Far from it. I'm not an exclusively rpg playing guy. I like variety. But I'm judging games like Diablo 2 by the standards of an rpg. You see, if you say Diablo is an rpg, well, then Diablo sucks sour frog ass. if you say it's an action-dungeon-isometric-fantasy-game, or whatever, cool, it's great, it's succesfull, and I would never spend a single penny on it. That's what I meant by comparing it to fighting games. If you judge a fighting game by any other standards than those of fighting games, the conclusion would be it sucks. Finally, what I mean is that I don't want to be deceived into buying a game thinking it is one thing and realizing it's nothing like that. If you can't roleplay in a roleplaying game, it's not a roleplaying game. That should be easy to understand.

Yes, in the future, maybe a near future, games will be fully made with audio, no text for conversations. They will be graphically equal to movies. Fully 3d, fully interactive. But that's in the future. We are concerned about now. And now, it's not every game developer that can pump a hundred million dollar budget into a game. Every one likes games when they come pretty, neat and with crystal clear sound. But I'd rather turn up the volume on concept art, gameplay planning, writing and storytelling, than just make prettier games. There are lots of beautyfull games with great sound that are just plain boring, lame, unappealing and downright suck. Well, my money's not going there.

People still play the Fallouts because every time they do they do it in a different way. Different character, choices, exploring, whatever. I know that's why I do it sometimes. People play Diablo because ... I don't know. Perhaps some people won't get bored doing the same simple task over and over and over.... Kinda like autism. But hey, whatever suits you, kid. What's worse is actually comparing the two games as if they were alike. Might as well compare Fallout with Tekken 3, or Street Fighter. Might as well compare it with Pac-man. There are a lot of people that still play those games. But the reasons are worlds apart. And comparing games with women.... No, man, just no. Please. Try better arguments.

Has anyone here watched 8mm? That movie with Nicholas Cage? I always thought it would be great to set an rpg story in the real modern day world, where an ordinary fella ( like you and me, in the real world ) would get involved in something that took him/her deeper and deeper into this dark secret world behind the curtains of day-to-day life. Some sort of detective/thriller/horror story. Or just plain adventure. Instead of huge gunfights every corner, you'd get to use cunning, stealth, interaction, investigation, and sometimes kill a bad guy, get into fistfights, run like hell from some psycho. Fights would be really a matter of life and death, something really scary, dirty and dangerous. Like in real life. A story that could actually happen to anyone of us... And it could contain humor, relief, heroism, character improvement, you name it...

Truth. But let's not forget the topic here. Someone mentioned Diablo. Can you really call that crap a c-rpg? Well, I can't. The Fallouts, Baldur's Gates And Torment where the best examples of rpgs I've played so far. The first two, for reasons everyone knows. Torment, even though is a one-character game, showed great creativity by the fact that one character could have so many personalities, and the choices you made actually changed the character, the story (in a sense) and your relation with the npcs. Choice, change and consequence are the essence of a good rpg. That's why Fallout has die hard fans that are still playing it. Even though the graphics are old fashioned and out-of-date, compared to todays games, there's one thing it has that no other rpg has quite matched : A non-linear structure held together by a great, great story. That's it.

You do remember that they have to pay the voice actors, and they do it based on the amount of work they have to do. At least, that counts in the advertising world ( I work with advertising, including radio spots and video production). Imagine what "amount of work" means when we are talking RPG. Like in Baldur's gate, it would be nice to have options when choosing the character's voice, for a few battle crys and orders during exploring. That, along with the "important conversations" and the party npc and enemy talk, would suffice, in my opinion.

Well, well, well.... Obsidian entertainment then, huh?! Figures. Anyway, you guys probably don't remember, but I've been following your footsteps since the good ol' days of Fallout. "Sigh" Good to know the tradition of the Black Isle is a die hard. Kudos to you, Obsidian dudes. May you live long and prosper. And make us some great c-rpgs. Or we will call Governor Arnold. hehe Kidding. Anyway, does it mean we can finally trash Interplay? Spit on their porch for all those stupid decisions that ruled out games we would have loved and, instead, created some crappy versions of every-other-game-out-there? I'm confident you won't get the same easy-money, oldest-profession-in-the-world like approach to creating games as those scumbags did. Don't let us fans down. Power to the people!! Oh, and what CAN you tell us? We're desperate here! Desperate I tell you...