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Recycled themes in RPGs

Frozen

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
8,303
A mysterious plague, you are the chosen one, bad guy muwahahah evil because evil, attacked suddenly at the beginning, have to go from low in life to being awesome at lvl 30, find 4 McGuffins in random order before end game, black and white morality, etc. So basically your typical Pathfinder Kingmaker boring generic trope.

Why do you think developers cant come up with something more original in a story plot than always the same story elements or even lore propositions (like elves= enslaved Indians dwarfs-drunk Irish or Scotsman etc.). You might as well tied up 90% of different settings into one big giant one because there is little to no difference in world lore-conflicts are similar only names of places and factions fluctuate.

Why cant they make a game where you are pure evil and just want to see the world burn and torture kill and rape? Why do you always have to be the good guy? Or something other than being typical boring hero. Or low level stakes where killing A monster at the end as ordinary peasant is a big deal.
 
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Frozen

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
8,303
Don't you get bored playing the same shit over and over?

Its not like gameplay is any better-you have real time third or first person and RTWP and turn based.
 

howlingFantods

Learned
Joined
Jul 13, 2018
Messages
144
Location
Nose deep in stupid shit
Because the people who make games are obsessed with games.
They're so busy with games that they don't pull from sources outside of games for inspiration.
The result is incestuous. Games are born of games are born of games until the family lineage looks like this:

dharles-v-jaw.jpg
 

Naraya

Arcane
Joined
Oct 19, 2014
Messages
1,513
Location
Tuono-Tabr
Why cant they make a game where you are pure evil and just want to see the world burn and torture kill and rape?.

Hmm, maybe because people are not interested in being an edgy psychopath just for the sake of it? Maybe I'm weird but I never felt the need to rape or kill. Why do you think that normal=boring?
 

Frozen

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
8,303
Because it is. Games are form of escapism. If I want to be normal I can go outside.

Hmm, maybe because people are not interested in being an edgy psychopath

And this is simply not true. For instance one of the most fun thing in a GTA game is going berserk on NPCs
 

Swigen

Arbiter
Joined
Dec 15, 2018
Messages
1,014
Dig a little. You think the only comics are Batman and Superman? You think the only horror movies are The Conjuring and Saw? You think the only books are Twilight and Harry Potter? You think music is Lady Gaga and Kanye West? You think the only burger is McDonalds? You think the only sex position is missionary? You think the only pizza is cheeeeeeeeeeeeeez?!?!
 

Frozen

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
8,303
Wouldn't it be great to role play as a serial killer?

Ted Bundy: The RPG or Roger Elliot: The Thot Slayer

The possibilities are endless

Instead we always get this tooth fairy sword in the stone medieval BS
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Risk aversion. Not just the suits, but individuals and teams too. It's always easier to pull together a functioning story by relying on cliches.

Sometimes your vidgame story is written or modified in a hurry, the extreme of course being IWD2 (under 72 hrs, was it?). And it has to not just be a story but facilitate your project goals for gameplay, art, levels... most of which you may not know yet.
 

conan_edw

Arbiter
Patron
Joined
Dec 3, 2017
Messages
846
Grab the Codex by the pussy Pathfinder: Wrath
who would want to put that amount of work to just be shut down by Steam, GOG...etc?
 

Ăśstad

Arcane
Joined
Aug 27, 2019
Messages
8,485
Location
TĂĽrkiye
A mysterious plague, you are the chosen one, bad gay muwahahah evil because evil, attacked suddenly at the beginning, have to go from low in life to being awesome at lvl 30, find 4 McGuffins in random order before end game, black and white morality, etc. So basically your typical Pathfinder Kingmaker boring generic trope.

Why do you think developers cant come up with something more original in a story plot than always the same story elements or even lore propositions (like elves= enslaved Indians dwarfs-drunk Irish or Scotsman etc.). You might as well tied up 90% of different settings into one big giant one because there is little to no difference in world lore-conflicts are similar only names of places and factions fluctuate.

Why cant they make a game where you are pure evil and just want to see the world burn and torture kill and rape? Why do you always have to be the good guy? Or something other than being typical boring hero. Or low level stakes where killing A monster at the end as ordinary peasant is a big deal.
Because simple minded fools are the majority and they tend to buy games for various reasons, one of them includes escapism. Being le epic m'lady hero instead of being greasy wimpy unremarkable guy like irl interests them.
 

jewboy

Arbiter
Joined
Mar 13, 2012
Messages
657
Location
Oumuamua
GTA5 has sodomy. It's hard to come up with truly original story ideas and the story only exists to serve the gamey game mechanics whatever they may be. For action games and most RPGs that is essentially a murder simulation because killing is more fun than not killing generally. So I think playing a serial killer or some other evil sort of killer would actually work quite well for the game mechanics. Playing a saint who helps feed street beggars just isn't fun. Dunno how many of you have seen that movie Strange Days but in that movie the characters would record their perceptions of events that could then be played back by others. If that were real would you want to experience people engaging in saintly helpful nice behavior or would you rather experience the perceptions of murderers and rapists and violent thieves.

The movie showed a playback of crims holding up a liquor store and then getting chased by cops. That. Because it's interesting and exciting and fun. I cannot think of anything more boring than fetch quests or doing good deeds for the local community as in many RPGs. Destruction and murder is fun. Mass murder or genocide is even more fun. People make fun of Bethesda for giving you the option of nuking a city, but I actually think that is a good and underused game mechanic in general. An RPG where you played a terrorist with nukes would be great fun and it would be a lot more fun to play the terrorist than to play some anti-terrorist team trying to stop you. Ugh. Games aren't real and only retards think it matters whether you play an angel or demon in a game. It has nothing to do with real life. In real life being evil is not necessarily more fun than being good, but in a game it almost always is.
 
Vatnik
Joined
Apr 10, 2018
Messages
6,687
Location
Mouse Utopia
Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In


I wish there were more games with an evil protagonist, like this one. You could even do it with a boilerplate explanation - 'You made a pact with evil to escape death, and must now serve its goals'
 

Frozen

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
8,303
It's hard to come up with truly original story ideas .

I disagree. They just don't even try. You don't have to be breathtaking original even just a little tweak to generic things would go far but they don't do it.
I just roll my eyes when almost every fucking RPG has in early parts of the story some sort of plague as a bkg and quarantine and shit, that's like NID as fuck.
And i cant recall bad guy done right in almost any game ever, hes just a caricature villain with a mustache. If you had interesting antagonist its almost 50% of a good story in a game.
 

Frozen

Arcane
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
8,303
Only storyfags care.
I have to agree unfortunately.

If so, why have story at all?
Better have just random generated missions if gameplay is all that is important.
I say its BS and you cant truly immerse in a game without a story and if story is shit it makes experience less satisfying.
Its like saying fuck dungeon master in D&D session we'll just roll dices.
 

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