Man, that Hobby guy needs his genitals X-Rayed.
Remember folks, RPGs were designed from the beginning to be multiplayer. And Vampire is based on a pen and paper RPG, entirely built around multiplayer concepts. Removing multiplayer utterly destroys the very definition of the term "RPG" by providing players with scripted dialogue tree, and pre-built roles. As the father of RPG Gary Gygax said, the vast majority of video game RPGs aren't RPGs because you don't play a role you want, you play a role that is pre-written for you. Everything is scripted, like a Choose your own adventure book.
While the part about the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure thing is true with most games(big nod to BioWare on that), multiplayer lets you play a role better than single player games? I've played a few MMORPGs in the past, and several MUDs, and I can't really see where anyone would get the idea that you can focus on a role better than you can in games like Geneforge or Fallout.
specially if those quests could've been created by some mod tools, for endless replay value. What keeps NWN from being great to a lot of people? it's boring. Click and watch gameplay. What keeps the bulk of FPS games shallow? Lack of roleplaying's depth
What would make a lot of FPS games horribly unbalanced? A CRPG level system tossed in, that's what. Imagine being a level 12 Bulky Tank Grunt trying to protect the flag from a Level 20 Zoom Zoom Runner.
First-person games are my fav because I feel much more immersed in the game world than in a third-person game.
So sayeth those folks who have no imagination.
Multiplayer RPGs have all been piss poor so far, that's very true. But there are lots of reasons for this. First off, in pen and paper games, you're acting out the roles, which can be fun in itself. Online, your acting is merely text on a screen. Not nearly as charismatic or interesting, IMO. For this reason, having NPC party members who can provide scripted professionally acted dialogue can be much more interesting than human players who do nothing but "click-n-watch" with you. But Bloodlines doesn't have a party system, if i'm not mistaken. It's just you.
Okay, here's the funny thing. He's beating the pen-and-paper drums hardcore old skool, then he goes on to bitch about how you're only one character in Bloodlines. WTF. How many characters do you play in pen-and-paper? Most people just play
one.
Second off, being a party member, and not the party leader, can be boring in most multipalyer CRPGs since you're not making any choices. You're just "click-n-watching". The gameplay is sluggish, the combat is simplistic. But in an FPS, you're in the action. You got stuff to do. And with the Source engine, you have voice chat. Heck, Source was supposed to come with revolutionary new voice chat tech.. dunno what happened to it.
Meanwhile, your stats don't mean shit. Voice chat technology, while a nice thing to have, will most likely, in online role-playing will most likely result in:
- Bobolf the Prairie Elf: Hark! Hark! For sunder comes the lady of Rockspring Keep, and what wonderous delight it is for us to be here!
GrundleGuy37: Dude, you are such a fag.
And FPS gameplay isn't simplistic? You point, you shoot, you dodge. Every so often, you camp or run around looking for some object you might need.
But if it comes back, then we'll be able to hear localised voice chat that comes out of your player character's mouth, interacts with the local environment, etc. In other words, it would recreate the fact that human speech usually comes out of your mouth! Now THAT would be cool roleplaying, that's immersion.
Yeah.. Imagine how immersive it'd be when that hot, scandily clad wizard chick on your screen opens her mouth and it's really a gruff dude's voice that comes out.
