I don't like linear RPGs

[buru5]

What do you want a fucking trophy? Jesus

 

[TemplarGR]

I tend to prefer good games.

That begs the question, do you like them because they are good games, or you think they are good games because you like them?

 

[Squid]

I tend to prefer good games.

Yeah, a good game is good regardless of it's genre or general setting. I don't hate open worlds or linear games. I hate it when they're done incorrectly. I have my preferences obviously but I don't outright just think a certain type of game will be better. It's how that game uses that design with other aspects of its game and doing that correctly.

 

[Safav Hamon]

I have my preferences obviously but I don't outright just think a certain type of game will be better. It's how that game uses that design with other aspects of its game and doing that correctly.

If an RPG is linear, then it's designed incorrectly.

 

[Sceptic]

Storyfaggotry can be substituted by reading books and watching movies.
Harder to substitute combatfaggotry.

Yes, but the specific appeal of storyfaggotry in a game is that your choices as a player can influence your understanding of exactly what is going on. Books can play with different layers of understanding, one of the appeals of Dune is that you as a reader have to piece together bits and pieces and hints to fully understand what's going on and more subtle things are never spelled out for you (this is done particularly well in God Emperor, as we've discussed in the book threads), I've also mentioned Lem's Fiasco as a great example of a kind of storytelling that engages your intellect as a reader more actively. But ultimately, due to the nature of books, every reader has access to exactly the same information, and the only difference is whether you do piece things together. But in a game, the way you play, the things you decide to do, can affect even what information you get access to, and it's a much more interesting way of engaging you in figuring out the story, because unlike with a book you may not be able to figure out certain layers at all no matter how clever or attentive you are because your own choices and playstyle have locked you out of certain critical information (or you have simply never found the information for whatever reason). Several games (some of them not even storyfag games) have done this to various degrees of brilliance, including KOTOR 2, PST, AoD, Alpha Protocol, Daggerfall and Morrowind, and yes, Fallout.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Safav Hamon

Oh, looks like i found your previous banned account, same shitty polls : https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/wizardry-vs-might-and-magic-poll.122138/

 

[octavius]

Storyfaggotry can be substituted by reading books and watching movies.
Harder to substitute combatfaggotry.

Yes, but the specific appeal of storyfaggotry in a game is that your choices as a player can influence your understanding of exactly what is going on. Books can play with different layers of understanding, one of the appeals of Dune is that you as a reader have to piece together bits and pieces and hints to fully understand what's going on and more subtle things are never spelled out for you (this is done particularly well in God Emperor, as we've discussed in the book threads), I've also mentioned Lem's Fiasco as a great example of a kind of storytelling that engages your intellect as a reader more actively. But ultimately, due to the nature of books, every reader has access to exactly the same information, and the only difference is whether you do piece things together. But in a game, the way you play, the things you decide to do, can affect even what information you get access to, and it's a much more interesting way of engaging you in figuring out the story, because unlike with a book you may not be able to figure out certain layers at all no matter how clever or attentive you are because your own choices and playstyle have locked you out of certain critical information (or you have simply never found the information for whatever reason). Several games (some of them not even storyfag games) have done this to various degrees of brilliance, including KOTOR 2, PST, AoD, Alpha Protocol, Daggerfall and Morrowind, and yes, Fallout.

Yes, I like games with a good background story, of which Morrowind is probably the prime example with the truth of what really happened to the Nerevar being lost. Also, the background story for SS2 which I played recently was pretty good.
So I like games with an interesting setting and good background story, but I don't care much for games being primarily a medium for story telling.

 

[Fowyr]

Roleplaying

Stop right there. Welcome to the ovens, subhuman.

 

[bataille]

Safav Hamon

Oh, looks like i found your previous banned account, same shitty polls : https://rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/wizardry-vs-might-and-magic-poll.122138/

Nope, punctuation is too different. All those spaces before punctuation marks and the lack of capitalization. It was half a year ago, too, and Silver Coin is not the one to grasp things too swiftly: after a few months of people pointing it out, he still writes 'should of' and 'ect'.

 

[Sacred82]

player agency would require a fucking huge sandbox. Like, making a frost resistant character or one who regenerates in water in Daggerfall was nice, but how the hell am I supposed to know where I'll find water or an ice monster?

At the end of the day, with non-linear RPG's, you just want to beat the game. You take quests that are suitable to your skills or offer the reward you can make best use of right now if you have that meta knowledge.

So the agency in non-linear RPG's comes down to factions and quests because you care about muh feelings of one NPC or another. Meaning you actually care about what text the purple haired snowflakes came up with.

 

[Falksi]

For me you can't beat the classic structure of linear start to get the player into it, semi-open 2nd act to add variety & give the player a nice sense of freedom & focus, & fairly open last 3rd with an obvious set of end goals to allow the player to lap up the entire game, and go back to see stuff they saw earlier from a different POV.

The best JRPGs nail this.

 

[Sceptic]

Yes, I like games with a good background story, of which Morrowind is probably the prime example with the truth of what really happened to the Nerevar being lost. Also, the background story for SS2 which I played recently was pretty good.
So I like games with an interesting setting and good background story, but I don't care much for games being primarily a medium for story telling.

I get you, but I also don't think that this use of the medium has to be restricted to just the background, though most of the examples I gave like DF and MW and Fallout fall into that. I think you could also use it to influence the narrative, like with AP and AoD, and come to think of it one excellent example is MotB with its multiple endings and multiple ways of doing things. I still see these as distinct from "games as a medium for storytelling"; there's more crafting of the story according to player agency, which is unique to games.

That said I don't disagree with you, especially because most games do approach story and gameplay as if they were opposite sides of the spectrum (I think it's a false dichotomy, but pulling off both together is so much harder), and gameplay does tend to get sacrificed in the name of cinematic storytelling.