Personally, I dislike the ''roleplaying bigots'' who say "hey, it says -roleplaying- on it! That means you have to get into amateur dramatics and pretend to be the person you are playing! You can''t put any of -you- into the game, you can''t try to talk to any of these people on your MMORPG about real life as that would be out-of-character..." etc etc etc.
Sure, ''roleplaying'' in the extreme sense can be fun, and I do it myself on occasion. But personally, I think that running through a dungeon with potions and a sword is putting myself in a sufficiently different position to real life that I don''t need to additionally validate it by only saying what that character would say, only slaying what that character would slay, and so on. ''Partial'' roleplaying, as mere escapism, can be just as much fun.
(NB. I don''t try and spoil other people''s fun: if they are heavily roleplaying, I go along with it. I am just against those who try to tell me how I should play my game, just because that game happened to acquire the RPG title.)
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RPG's - When is There Too Much Role Playing?
I think you are using "roleplaying" as "real life" in at least some of your last post. It is definitely a stupid idea to go around dressing up and acting the role, but you say that you wouldn''t ever be in the situation of running through a dungeon. The thing about roleplaying: You play someone who represents yourself IN a particular situation, and you have to make the decisions you believe that you would. It isn''t saying that you would ever be in that situation, just the concequences if you would...
I think I have ranted enough
-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)
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I think I have ranted enough
-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)
Check our site:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~dwarfsoft/
Check out our NPC AI Mailing List :
http://www.egroups.com/group/NPCAI/
made due to popular demand here at GDNet :)
Author
To sum it up, it is better to leave the game open enough to allow the player to decide what the player character is like, but not too extreme ala Omicron: The Nomad Soul (bad spelling, I know). So it is up to the designer to motivate the player to do certain tasks (save the village, save the damsel, save newspapers, etc). Unfortunately, it is difficult to put in motivation in a way that at least 95% of the players will take the carrot. When do you draw the line and magically teleport the player into Hell''s Dungeon as opposed to letting the player walk there?
Depends on how much is there along the way to Hell''s Dungeon, and why the player is playing the game.
In some of the game compies I''ve worked at, there''s a strong notion of "consumable experience." That is, it''s assumed that the gamer wants to play throught the game and be done with it. This justifies, to the producers, limiting replayability, alternate paths, etc.
So, I think if you think it''s a good ideas to get the game over with after a certain amount of time (maybe pacing and story depends on it) then you would want to transport them. But, if the focus of the game is less accomplishment (ala beating Foozle) and more something that''s continuous (random combat encounters, exploration, etc.) then you want to leave the pacing in the hands of the player.
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Just waiting for the mothership...
In some of the game compies I''ve worked at, there''s a strong notion of "consumable experience." That is, it''s assumed that the gamer wants to play throught the game and be done with it. This justifies, to the producers, limiting replayability, alternate paths, etc.
So, I think if you think it''s a good ideas to get the game over with after a certain amount of time (maybe pacing and story depends on it) then you would want to transport them. But, if the focus of the game is less accomplishment (ala beating Foozle) and more something that''s continuous (random combat encounters, exploration, etc.) then you want to leave the pacing in the hands of the player.
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Just waiting for the mothership...
You don''t force the player into hells dungeon, you give them the portal and tell them to use it. "You can lead a horse to water, but you can''t make him drink". If they aren''t going to go there, then they probably didn''t feel secure enough and probably didn''t want to risk going down there until later. Never "forcefully" move the player more than what they would be expecting...
-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)
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-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)
Check our site:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~dwarfsoft/
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http://www.egroups.com/group/NPCAI/
made due to popular demand here at GDNet :)
Author
I was being a bit extreme, but some RPGs are like that, they prod instead of dangling a carrot in front of the player to get them to go to certain locations or worse, never allow them to go back to previous locations.
A good model appears to be the model taken by ''Privateer'' where you could follow the plot if you wanted too, or not. You give them option quests (or paid missions ala ''Privaterr'') that take them into more dangerous parts of the map. Really important quests might involve a timer, just for a change of pace, that the player needs to accomplish a task (assasignate the leader of a tribe before he makes a speech. But how do you balance the quests to keep the player from complaining about too many of this kind or too much running due to a clock?
A good model appears to be the model taken by ''Privateer'' where you could follow the plot if you wanted too, or not. You give them option quests (or paid missions ala ''Privaterr'') that take them into more dangerous parts of the map. Really important quests might involve a timer, just for a change of pace, that the player needs to accomplish a task (assasignate the leader of a tribe before he makes a speech. But how do you balance the quests to keep the player from complaining about too many of this kind or too much running due to a clock?
I can just see a town with "wanted" ads that the player applies to for quests. They can just decide whatever they feel like doing at the time. That''s it... This goes in the doc 
-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)
Check our site:
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-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)
Check our site:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~dwarfsoft/
Check out our NPC AI Mailing List :
http://www.egroups.com/group/NPCAI/
made due to popular demand here at GDNet :)
This question has nothing to do with the cliched dramatic nature of the actions. A good scene in a diner carries all the impact of a firefight if handled properly. Ok, I know- *duh*. BUT the main question is: How much meaningful choice/control does the player have in the situation?
This touches on what was mentioned earlier: if someone is out of food, foraging becomes a *very* interesting pursuit. I believe this is because the choices one makes there are meaningful: good choice=you live. bad choice=you die. If you are at the inn and presented with twenty alcoholic beverages, all with the exact same qualites in game terms (except price, very common in CRPG), there is no *real* choice hence no gameplay hence boredom, hence the onset of brain decay and atrophy (or something like that), if the game consists mainly of these kinds of choices. Even if they are used only sparingly, the question is: Why Bother? Does anyone remember the king in Dragon Warrior? (countless other console RPGs as well)
"Do you take this quest?" Yes or No
"No."
"But you must!""Do you take this quest?" Yes or No
"No."
"But you must!"
etc ad nauseum
Meaningless choices like that take you right out of a game. But don''t be fooled by dramatic sterotypes. I''ll take a good round of Root Beer Tapper (look it up at your local mexi-mart, kids)over a Final Fantasy random fight anyday.
-ciao-
This touches on what was mentioned earlier: if someone is out of food, foraging becomes a *very* interesting pursuit. I believe this is because the choices one makes there are meaningful: good choice=you live. bad choice=you die. If you are at the inn and presented with twenty alcoholic beverages, all with the exact same qualites in game terms (except price, very common in CRPG), there is no *real* choice hence no gameplay hence boredom, hence the onset of brain decay and atrophy (or something like that), if the game consists mainly of these kinds of choices. Even if they are used only sparingly, the question is: Why Bother? Does anyone remember the king in Dragon Warrior? (countless other console RPGs as well)
"Do you take this quest?" Yes or No
"No."
"But you must!""Do you take this quest?" Yes or No
"No."
"But you must!"
etc ad nauseum
Meaningless choices like that take you right out of a game. But don''t be fooled by dramatic sterotypes. I''ll take a good round of Root Beer Tapper (look it up at your local mexi-mart, kids)over a Final Fantasy random fight anyday.
-ciao-
Well, maybe if you have it automated up until the point that it DOES become interesting. That way the boredom is taken away (because it is automatically handled) and the fun part is still there (ahh! Gotta find me that bloody apple.... time is running out!). Just a thought 
Oh yeah, that "But you must.." thing would really suck!
-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)
Check our site:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~dwarfsoft/
Check out our NPC AI Mailing List :
http://www.egroups.com/group/NPCAI/
made due to popular demand here at GDNet :)
Oh yeah, that "But you must.." thing would really suck!
-Chris Bennett ("Insanity" of Dwarfsoft)
Check our site:
http://www.crosswinds.net/~dwarfsoft/
Check out our NPC AI Mailing List :
http://www.egroups.com/group/NPCAI/
made due to popular demand here at GDNet :)
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