Do you think this is a good idea? You are living in feudal Japan. In your mountain town, you hear that the Portugeuse have come to Japan. Even if they are helping you trade, you still hate them. But, the spirits are angry at you for showing such hatred. They decide to not kill you, but give supernatural powers to those that oppose you, and to the lands. Still, you must kill the Portuguese invaders. Scott

Just one very vital question;

- How would You as a designer go about to make the player hate these portuguese "invaders" enough not to question why everybody are against her?

Without such a motive, this game will be just another frag''em all game to the player, and you might just as well throw any story in the bin.



Richard Olsson
maxed@johnbauer.org

Seems like the player is pretty stupid if you ask me. The Portugese are only helping by trading. If trade was bad, you wouldn''t do it as a nation.

The hatred seems to be racist in nature, another fault. And finally, you disobey the wise "advice" of the spirits. Unless this happened historially (I don''t know Japanese history), why did you decide to do a story like this.

--Vic--

sounds a bit like shogun (the book)

It sounds like you're wanting the player to learn some kind of lesson about hatred, rather than the game entertaining and rewarding the player's hatred.

I've played games where my superiors have hated an enemy and told me to perform a mission to fulfill that hatred, yet my position on it is ambiguous. At some point in the story, I get to make a choice about where my devotions really lie, and my superior suffers some kind of fate. Maybe that would be a better way to let the story make hatred a character in the plot.


[edited by - Waverider on April 18, 2003 12:35:08 PM]

quote: Original post by Village Specialton
They decide to not kill you, but give supernatural powers to those that oppose you,

The spirits are angry at you for showing hatred yet they reward you with powers to carry the hatred out? Maybe you should give us a few more details about the plot.



Atlas
Developing Genetica, a tiling / seamless textures generator

Ok, there are a few malfunctions with your idea, as i see it at least. The concept is this, if i get it right.

You grow up a portugeuse hating mountain man, and the spirits (lovers of all erotic latino dancers) are in turn pissed at you for your racism. So they give magickal prowless to your friend george acrost the street, who is pissed at you because you slept with his wife. So now you are being chased around by these magickaly enhanced, sleep deprived morons, with there own reasons in squashing your very existance.

I think we need to go over the plot. Give yourself a reason for hating portugese, and give the spirits a reason for defending them. IE: The Portugese government destoryed your family, which was REALLY the spirits who took possession of them. This thickens the plot, because your very enemy is not really the port''s, but the spirits, but your dont realize that at the beginning. In fact, thicken it even more, by giving a reason that your family pissed off the spirits.
In addition, the spirits should not be giving there power to everyone, who relentlessly wants to kill you, Perhaps this could be a particular cult, or divine order, of these spirits. See if this helps?

RICKY

whenn copy nd pastee get rigghht the first time/
whenn copy nd pastee get rigghht the first time/

I think the biggest problem with the story line is you would have to come up with a VERY good reason for spirits of your land (ancestors or what ever) to give powers to the invading Portuguese.

Roof Top Pew Wee, Trade isn''t always good. Take a look at the how the American Indians got screwed when they sold New York for a few shiney beads.

quote: Atlas,
The spirits are angry at you for showing hatred yet they reward you with powers to carry the hatred out? Maybe you should give us a few more details about the plot.

Read the orginal post again. The spirits are giving the powers to the invaders, not you.

Kars

Kars,

My bad.

Atlas
Developing Genetica, a tiling / seamless textures generator

My understanding of "trade" is a continual exchange of things for money, or a barter system. Not a one time deal. I doubt the portugese would sail to Japan for a one time purchase, unless of course the Japanese are selling their land, which isn't likely.

So obviously, this is a relationship that the Japanese have had time to investigate and realize if it is worth continuing or not. If you don't want to trade, you just say no.

The issue would be more interesting if rather the Portugese demanded trade or else they would attack. So the Japanese are forced into exchange that they don't like. That's a different story. But just because they come down to trade this for that, well, doesn't seem like good enough reason to want to kill them. Although, I sometimes do want to kill the telemarketers that call me all the time

--Vic--

[edited by - Roof Top Pew Wee on April 18, 2003 5:37:59 PM]