Interview Brian Fargo discourses with GameSpot

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Bard's Tale (2005); Brian Fargo; InXile Entertainment

<A href="http://www.gamespot.com">GameSpot</a> has an <A href="http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/rpg/thebardstale/news_6076237.html">interview</a> with <b>Mr. Fargo</b> which is basically about <A href="http://www.inxile-entertainment.com/">inXile and Bard's Tale</a>, naturally. Here's some about the game:
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<blockquote><b>GameSpot:</b> About the game. Bard's Tale is considered a classic computer RPG, but the last game in the series was initially released in 1988. How are you addressing the challenge of bringing back a long-dormant franchise, and how will you adapt it to work for both a console and a PC audience?
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<b>Brian Fargo:</b> The Bard's Tale filled a gaping hole at the time of its release. It was the first first-person dungeon game that had color, music, and animation, and it really captured the essence of the old-school role-playing games. Obviously it is a much different world today now that we have console systems, and users have less tolerance for the need to keep copious notes, mapping out levels by hand, and only being able to save games in one location.
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We love the concept of the Bard and his music, we love the area of the world that the Bard's Tale existed, and we love the good old-fashioned dungeon-delving in looking for secret doors, magic mouths, traps, etc. However, after making RPGs for nearly 20 years, I believe there is so much more to accomplish than just leveling up, getting better items, and taking on the dragon.
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Of course, we will all have all those great RPG mechanics, but we need to get way beyond the shining hero who is happy to get the green key for the green door. While this will exist on console and PC both, it is a more intelligent RPG than most of the standard fare. People who play RPGs will appreciate the cause-and-effect-type situations we have created and the more human nature of the characters. We want the Bard to react to situations like a real person would, not the mindless hero who wants to save the world because he has been told to.</blockquote>
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I think the bigger cliche would be <i>You're the hero who gets sent on a small task and ends up tripping over the larger, more daunting task of world saving</i>. How many CRPGs have used that one?
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Spotted this on <A href="http://www.homelanfed.com">HomeLAN Fed</a>.

 

[Voss]

React to situtations like a real person would?

Gibbering in terror and running away?

Honestly the shining hero concept has a lot of potential to it... if people were willing to go beyond the two-dimensional cliche. Though when was the last time we actually had a shining hero in a game (or a book for that matter)? Its definitely more 'the humble background guy trips over a little incident and save the world' thing that characterizes the genre today.
Either that or a 'you can play EVIL, now this is REAL ROLEPLAYING' - after all the gritty bits have been taken out, of course.

Maybe its time to move beyond good and evil. Stop playing in the sandbox, as it were. Create complex situations that don't necessarily have right or wrong answers, but always concequences, and no ghosts of developers sitting in judgement as you play the game.

 

[axel]

Maybe its time to move beyond good and evil. Stop playing in the sandbox, as it were. Create complex situations that don't necessarily have right or wrong answers, but always concequences, and no ghosts of developers sitting in judgement as you play the game.

That's one thing I would like to see in games, no more "this is good and this is bad" Kinda like that Junktown ending that was cut, helping Gizmo was evil but had a good ending and vice versa with Killian.

 

[Seven]

Maybe its time to move beyond good and evil. Stop playing in the sandbox, as it were. Create complex situations that don't necessarily have right or wrong answers, but always concequences, and no ghosts of developers sitting in judgement as you play the game.

That's one thing I would like to see in games, no more "this is good and this is bad" Kinda like that Junktown ending that was cut, helping Gizmo was evil but had a good ending and vice versa with Killian.

You do realize that Killian did go on to dispense his own brand of shot-gun-frontier justice; this was kind of disappointing all things considered.