Bluebottle
Erudite
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2005
- Messages
- 1,182
I’ve been reading through a lot of the threads round here of late (things are slow at work) and feel that I’m beginning to get an idea of what you guys think about the genre as a whole. The “Philosophies of RPGs†thread summing this up most concisely. One thing, however, struck me that I’m having a little bit of trouble working my brain around.
I agree, for the most part, with all of the points put forward so far, with the usual minor differences in terms of emphasis of certain features. There does, however, seem to be one slight discrepancy in the form of how highly I rate Ultima VII, and also how little it seems to fit my own priorities for a good rpg.
--It follows a linear plot and, except for a few simple side quests, some gambling in Buccaneers Den and generally tormenting NPCs there isn’t much to distract the player away from this for any length of time.
--It doesn’t seem to allow much in the way of character customization beyond ‘paper doll dress up’, which (granted) is a lot of fun but can’t really be classed as defining a character. I used magic on-and-off with most of my characters, but never really noticed if this had any affect on my magic skills improving at a faster rate ( I have a habit of letting the computer worry about my stats., probably picked up from UVII, with it being the first RPG that really hooked me). Even if it was the case that my magic skills increased at a greater rate with focused use, did this make any difference beyond simply killing something with a sword and killing something with a fireball?
--There wasn’t much feedback from the world. Your decisions don’t really alter much and NPCs don’t seem to react to your actions so much unless you go totally psycho and start a massacre or kill Lord British (in which case they all swarm you)
Now it seems that most people here seem, like me, to regard the game quite highly.
So, my question is how does UVII fit in with your ideal of what constitutes a decent RPG?
Is it not an RPG?
Is it the exception that proves the rule?
Does it get special dispensation for being a bit old?
or
Am I a cretin who needs to go back and play through the game again, this time with my eyes open?
I agree, for the most part, with all of the points put forward so far, with the usual minor differences in terms of emphasis of certain features. There does, however, seem to be one slight discrepancy in the form of how highly I rate Ultima VII, and also how little it seems to fit my own priorities for a good rpg.
--It follows a linear plot and, except for a few simple side quests, some gambling in Buccaneers Den and generally tormenting NPCs there isn’t much to distract the player away from this for any length of time.
--It doesn’t seem to allow much in the way of character customization beyond ‘paper doll dress up’, which (granted) is a lot of fun but can’t really be classed as defining a character. I used magic on-and-off with most of my characters, but never really noticed if this had any affect on my magic skills improving at a faster rate ( I have a habit of letting the computer worry about my stats., probably picked up from UVII, with it being the first RPG that really hooked me). Even if it was the case that my magic skills increased at a greater rate with focused use, did this make any difference beyond simply killing something with a sword and killing something with a fireball?
--There wasn’t much feedback from the world. Your decisions don’t really alter much and NPCs don’t seem to react to your actions so much unless you go totally psycho and start a massacre or kill Lord British (in which case they all swarm you)
Now it seems that most people here seem, like me, to regard the game quite highly.
So, my question is how does UVII fit in with your ideal of what constitutes a decent RPG?
Is it not an RPG?
Is it the exception that proves the rule?
Does it get special dispensation for being a bit old?
or
Am I a cretin who needs to go back and play through the game again, this time with my eyes open?