I regard "western" as a setting, as much as "tolkeinesque fantasy" "cyberpunk scifi" "modern urban" etc. While it''s possible that some settings may be better suited to certain genres of gameplay than others, in general, you can make just about any type of game in just about any setting. After all, I''ve seen pinball tables with a Wild West theme...

I think my very first post on this forum was about why no one had created FPS games in a historical setting before WWII and one of my examples was the western theme. I''d love to be able to play a Kit Carson scout, or one of the Nez Perce indians fighting off the 7th cavalry. Imagine re-enacting Wounded Knee. The historical aspect would easily lend itself to the more warlike genres of FPS and RTS.

As far as the western theme (not war) it provides a very open playing field since things were so chaotic then. I think that would make it an excellent candidate for a RPG style game as well. I remember playing an old PPRPG back in the day called Boot Hill (published by TSR) that was really fun. You could be whatever you wanted...an outlaw, a sheriff a pioneer, a prospector, and indian...whatever floated your boat.

All in all, it is a very neglected genre especially considering how popular it is the mainstream (or at least how popular it used to be).

One thing I see potential for is the idea of perception. The West was no exception when it came to the concept of fops, liars, pretenders, and outlandish individuals.

Simply based on outward appearances, a character can create a different effect. Where today, what papers you carry and what is on record play a major role, the opposite was true for the Wild West. Who you were could very well be who you could pass yourself off to be.

Different reactions could be elicited just on how you dress and of course, how you react. In short, your outwardly apparent character. Consider the fellow who sports an ivory handled pistol, wears a fancy vest, and carries himself with a certain repectability. Or how about some fop who wears a silly tophat, a gawdy pocketwatch, and an illfitting coat.

On the the note of getting killed with gun fights, you could rip off a piece of metal that you find near the railroad tracks, or you should only pick fights with less experienced outlaws, deputies, sherrifs, ect. With each fight you get a little more experienced on how to handle certian fighters. You could build up your shooting skill by entering tournements. You could win money that way to buy better ranged and quick draw weapons. Heck, you could also enter bull-riding tournements to build up your reputation with the townsfolk. If your a hero, then killing one person could be got away with. The people trust your reasoning behind your murder and call it an act of justice. You could win faction with different tribes of Indians and even have a sidekick if your lucky -- like the Lone Ranger.

I think the most important thing for a game like this to have is opportunities to do all of the things that Western heroes do in the movies. Your character must be able to: quick draw, jump from a rooftop to the back of a waiting horse, cheat at cards, brawl in saloons, drink a whole lot, smoke more than he should, die in the desert, ride a horse, patronize prostitutes, be featured on a wanted poster, uphold the law, be hanged from a tree, hang others from trees, rustle cattle, fight indians, befriend indians, hunt wild game, buy supplies, sell scalps, shoot guns, throw knives, lasso cows, tip his hat, bathe in mountain pools, etc, etc, etc.

It''s not the stories that make the West interesting, it''s the blank slate, geographically, legally, ethically and professionally devoid of structure. A world in which a person can become something wholly new, without being bound by convention or law. It''s the perfect opportunity for "civilized" people who have seen and studied the nature of humans to see how they would have fared at the dawn of civilization. If a bunch of modern-day people found themselves in a new, uninhabited world, what sort of society would they form? The Wild West. It''s the true Renaissance.

By the way, some good relatively recent Western movies are: (modern production values)

• Tombstone - Kurt Russell
  
• Silverado - Scott Glenn, Kevin Kline, Danny Glover, Kevin Costner
  
• Unforgiven - Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freman, Gene Hackman
  
• Bad Girls - Madeline Stowe
  
• Jeremiah Johnson - Robert Redford
  
• Maverick - Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Garner
  
• The Last of the Mohicans
  
• Quigley Down Under - Tom Selleck
  
• American Outlaws
  
• Dances with Wolves - Kevin Costner
  
• The Quick and the Dead - Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman
  
• The Jack Bull - John Cusack
  
• The Sacketts - Sam Elliot, Tom Selleck (little bit old)
  
• The Desperate Trail - Sam Elliot, Linda Fiorentino
  
• Lonesome Dove - Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover
  
• The Man From Snowey River - Kirk Douglas

[edited by - bishop_pass on December 15, 2002 5:46:13 AM]

You know, to add a little element of excitement that is seldom used in westerns, we could add a Kung Fu fighter in the mix. After all, in the real West some of the Chineese were fleeing their home country just to start a living. I know some of you may just think that Shanghigh Noon was just a fad, but it was still a very possable reality. I think that good faction may be exclusive to only a few though since the Chineese were treated like crap in those days.

Also, to make this game a little more emmersive, you would need dialog that matches the dialect of the time period and of each personality/class type. Imagine talking to an Indian brave that speaks only fragments of English as opposed to an Indian Chief who knows the language of his enemy. Lets also say you were conversing with an evil upper-class governer as opposed to a good-hearted governer.

I think that a game like this would really require more plot and gameplay than eyecandy though. Because if you think about it, a western would require a map of the whole world to get all the big cities and other stuff that makes an RPG what it is. Unless this is an alternate Earth that were talking about, the map for the west alone wouldn't work. You would have to recreate the world as it was in the late 1800's. I think that to have a western as a game, you need a linear storyline or an alternate-Earth map.

Yet, then again, why not base the game on the future where civilization has diminished to a pesudo-version of the old west? You know, the usual all the world washed away and all that was left was this large chunk of land in the Pacific.

[edited by - smiley4 on December 11, 2002 9:46:43 AM]

quote: Original post by smiley4
I think that a game like this would really require more plot and gameplay than eyecandy though. Because if you think about it, a western would require a map of the whole world to get all the big cities and other stuff that makes an RPG what it is. Unless this is an alternate Earth that were talking about, the map for the west alone wouldn''t work. You would have to recreate the world as it was in the late 1800''s. I think that to have a western as a game, you need a linear storyline or an alternate-Earth map.

You don''t need half the continent of North America to make it work. Different packages are set in different areas:

• The Tombstone package is set in the Sonoran desert and the maountains of southeast Arizona.
  
• The Mule Train package is set in Inyo County revolving around the small mining towns of the area in the Inyo Mountains and throughout Death Valley; towns like Cerro Gordo, Rhyolite, and so on.
  
• The High Plains package has as its setting Wyoming.
  
• The Sandstone package revolves around the canyons and cliffs of the Colorado Plateau in Southern Utah.

I'm just saying that in games like Everquest, Morrowind, AC, and Anarchy Online the appeal was that you could go anywhere and do anything. Thus, in all these games they had a land that was centered around an island or group of islands. The Old West, on the other hand, was located on an AREA of the contienant not a COMPLETE one.

If you have a linear-story format for the game (like in Deus Ex), or only have it based around a few famous towns (with a linking map view that uncovers where you need to go like in Persona 2 only without the turn-based stratagy), then it is understandable to the player if you can't go to a shoreline.

If you go with the alternate Earth scene, where the technology is like that of the Old West, and the names of characters and towns are based on famous western movies you can give the game more emmersiveness like in the style of a MMORPG. I'm not saying that you still can't make a good game if you don't build a whole world setting. I'm just saying that if you only base it around a few famous movies, you have to change your story tactics to include them all.

[edited by - smiley4 on December 11, 2002 3:07:19 PM]

[edited by - smiley4 on December 11, 2002 3:19:05 PM]