I am starting to think that roleplaying is actually quite difficult in rpgs.
Some are kinda linear - e.g. in wow everyone does the same quests with the same results (even if you get to choose which quest to do when). Only difference is whether the quest giver says "great paladin" or "great mage" when he addresses you... In fact because of all the ganking at questgivers (this was before bgs) and the group hurrying you I've been skipping on the reading of the quests...
In WOW the role bit of roleplaying is your role in a raid - a healer, a tank, or the one who dies a lot... It's all about the kills and the loot, in varying proportion depending on the player.
Now thinking of Oblivion which I also play - again the quests are all the same (correct me if i am wrong) and its just the time when you do them that changes. There are some with multiple choices at the end... but half of those still end up in the same place. And the discrepancy in value of rewards forces me to check both routes and save and then pick the "right one", which is the one with biggest reward.
The whole levelling just gets in the way too. How about instead of the player picking which attributes to raise they are done automatically in a way to suit the playstyle (mages gain more mana, warriors strength, etc), kinda like they did with skills. But remove the numbers completely from the player. In fact - why does the player have to progress that much? Give him better items, more effective and efficient spells - but leave him as a human being.
As for decisions and choices - of course ideally there'd be wildly diverging paths to take depending on your choices... but who's going to make a game where the player will only see 10% of content...
Sorry about the disjointed rant... But what do you all think about immersive storylines and roleplaying and the way they are done in rpgs.


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