Probably could have worded the title a little better but anyhow. I was just thinking about some old classic games on the C64 and had some interesting thoughts. As most of us know a lot of these types of games just wouldn''t sell today due to their simplicity in design. A commericial product these days must take up nearly 660mb or more and have some stunning intro sequence (sad but true) and last aleast 10 hours to play <-- not exactly true but i hope you get my point. But back to the issue of game simplicity and chucking on the MMO backburner. The game that got me thinking was Firepower. Actually i think that may have been an Amiga game come to think of it but never the less the point hasn''t changed. Could these over simple but highly replayable games be brought up to todays commerical standards by adding in the MMO capacity to the game. When you think about it games like Diablo are simple in relation to these old classics and it worked not even being an MMO game. Or is it more a case that RPG''s are just the fab thing these days?? A designer doesnt need to know everything about code, they just have to have an appreciation for its limitations and how those limitations affect features they may wish to include in their design. - Drew

i think diablo simply got to the powermongers of this generation. I mean, in a world where people run into offices and blow people to pieces.. what other kind of game would appeal? Back in the day, it was all about quests and finding things. Not gorey battles in which the goal was to lop off someone''s head. Think back to the Zeldas. You swung a sword, hit something, it blinked and possibly died or got pushed back some. Nowhere in there was there blood and gore.
Today''s audiences want violence. We''ve grown up with it, and it''s something we expect now. Even baldur''s gate has sound effects which ring true with every sword hit.
The question is.. could a story with no violence ever possibly make it in today''s market? Look at Myst.. a stunningly cool game, but full of puzzles. Stupid people don''t get puzzles.. so they play diablo. Many people feel fried from work or school or pressures, they want a simple stupid game to play. Hack''n whack''n slash''n clobber''n such. Imagine if these people had to think!
So what the challenge is to do, is find a way to make a nearly mindless game, with no hack''n slash. Simple, eh?
Essentially, Red Alert and all those are the same thing, vieled. They''re all about killing the other guy. You don''t gain experience (your troops can become vetern.. but that''s not quite the same). But that''s the genre of the game.. although the mindlessness is still the same.
Have you found a game lately that you didn''t have to get a hint book for? Or haven''t had to find some cheat or trainer or something so you could beat it? If you ask me.. "easy" level is like most older games'' HARD levels. Hard level is impossible! It''s things like this that piss me off, shoddy AI. The AI can outthink you, outmove you, and just plain outdo you. It can switch weapons in less than a quarter of a second, with no thought to realism at all. It knows the best way to do anything. This is why MMOs are becoming big.. NO AI! there''s other people.. and they comprise the world. SO you ask me.. i''d make a big goblinoidss vs humanoids MMO game.. and let''s see what happens when you have MMO warcraft.. hehe just with better things in the game, and a first-player perspective interface, with stats and whatnot. LOL. THAT would be a game to see!
I''ll even go further to say that all players, once dead, should instantly regen back at some home base.. just like goblins do in MMO games now. And this way, there''d be some WILD goings on!

J