I mean come onea story as part of a game is good, having characters in game with, well character is good! But what is with the RPG thing? Its not the beginning and end of all games? I know i''m not that regular on this board but its all I ever see... resist flaming! resist [BANNERS]

RPG''s provide a sense of accomplishent to the player, more so than other genres can. You develop a character that as far as you know is completely unique. It''s a sense of ownership. MMORPG''s provide this to an even greater extent. Then they get to compare their character''s with others from around the world. Although RPG''s are not the only games that have character creation (Deus Ex comes to mind) RPG''s are the most popular medium. These games are just plain fun to play most of the time. Also most games (at least to me) come to mind as a story. RPG''s are just about the simplest to implement a fluent story-line into. A third point (from a programmer''s point of view)- They''re just plain easy to make.(easier than most othe genres) This make it the perfect game for newbies and the lazy alike
-Just my opinion though-

Use the WriteCoolGame() function
Works every time

It has actually been mentioned before. I once said "the Game Design board is the closest to an RPG board you will get to see on Gamedev.net". The reason is that there is just plain more to improve and discuss in RPGs, compared to other games. Other types of games are based around an original concept, whereas RPGs tend to lean closer to simulation, and those particular challenges are more open to discussion.
However, I certainly won''t discourage the discussion on other types of games. I think a lot of us here could use the perspective of someone NOT interested in RPGs as far as game design goes.


People might not remember what you said, or what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
Mad Keith the V.

So do I... I believe that any idea can be incorporated by RPG''s, so we need more people to think outside the square (well, ISO Tile ) that we have all been discussing in for the past year so that we can make some inroads on new developments.

Or maybe I am just looking forward to poaching some more ideas

(And this is the closest we are likely to get to an RPG board... Even Dave agrees, so he refused to open an RPG forum... I prefer it here because of all the history with the doc and all )

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - The future of RPGs Thanks to all the goblins in the GDCorner niche

Sorry but I just watched the matrix and its still buzzing around my head but this is the truth:

You need to free your minds and not be restrained by the rules imposed by the games industry

resist [BANNERS]

Besides, most of the ideas discussed here will work with RPGs, FPSs, or TPSs.

For example:

Discussions on damage affecting your fighting ability
How items work
How and when to fight baddies
Inventory system
Plots
Magic

All these ideas work in pretty much any kind of game that uses them. I have very little interest in RPGs, but the ideas work just the same with first or third person shooters.

E:cb woof!

quote: Original post by sEntiEnt

Sorry but I just watched the matrix and its still buzzing around my head but this is the truth:

You need to free your minds and not be restrained by the rules imposed by the games industry

Really? So what would your opinion be of an open ended sci-fi game with no real end goal where you control one person / vehicle / spaceship while managing a group through action, strategy, trade, conversation, and stealth?

Sometimes, you can free your mind so much that no one knows what the hell you''re talking about anymore. The genre ghetto actually is restrictive, but at least it serves to help communication. It also gives you guidelines, which are fine as long as they remain only that.

(Btw, I''m working on an RPeG: Role-Playing empire Game, which because it has no set goal or story should happily make RPG lovers everywhere barf.)



--------------------
Just waiting for the mothership...

Sorry wav... I had to... . And you did ask for it

Anyway, there is always the problem that in an open ended game that the player doesn''t have a goal to strive for. This would seriously impact on the fun element and the player would quickly leave the game... Oh... and

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - The future of RPGs Thanks to all the goblins in the GDCorner niche

More people can post about RPGs since RPGs aren''t a normal genre, they are a bunch of related games that all incorporate a wide variety of thing to talk about. So while I don''t care one bit about story I could post about interface issues. Other genres are for more hardcore and specialized players. While I''m very qualified to talk about RTSs most people here aren''t. On the other hand I don''t know the first thing about sports games and would be useless in any discussion about them. RPGs, well everyone can talk about RPGs, so that''s what gets talked about.

Also as MadKeith indicated RPGs need a lot of work. Other genres such as FPS have undergone some massive improvements in the last couple years and there really isn''t that much to talk about in terms of improvement.

Another reason is that RPGs tend to be single player. Other genres have strong multiplayer communities and that means they have forums with active users knowledgable in the game. So if I want to talk RTS design I head on over to ethermoon and talk with some of the guys there, often the designer will get in on the discussions too. When I used to play SC I used to hang out at a forum that was dedicated to making and testing patches to fix the game, we never did get a patch that worked but we had a lot of quality discussion

Actually, I disagree with your thing about RPG''s being single player. Mostly people have MMORPGs in mind... This is a MUCH larger community base than any other genre as far as I am aware. Isn''t that a great thing? But having a larger player base or a smaller player base still sets it appart from other genres, so I agree with you there.

Oh, and there is more COMMUNITY in RPG communities in my experience. Long live MMORPGs

-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft - The future of RPGs Thanks to all the goblins in the GDCorner niche