There's a funny thing I find myself doing in my latest ToEE run: I actually enjoy just hanging out in Hommlet. Now before too many monocles get dropped, allow me to explain.
There is an appeal to having "down time" in RPG's. We've all done it: spending time just admiring your characters, making sure you've talked to all NPC's even if they're not giving any extra quests, etc. I don't mean 'sperging out about finding every little nook and cranny in the game, I mean just slowing down and contemplating how much you enjoy the game or just "getting into the moment".
The Village of Hommlet was by far one of my favorite AD&D modules. That has a lot to do with my willingness not to just skip over all the boring FedEx quests in the town while playing ToEE. But it's more than that. There's a thing called "bench racing" when you're talking to car nuts -- guys who are into building up and tuning muscle cars or are into some other kind of backyard racing often enjoy the act of bragging to one another or just comparing notes, etc., sometimes even moreso than the actual activity itself. A lot of their time is taken up simply talking about their craft and hobby. I think that applies to playing CRPG's, sometimes, too. If there's enough atmosphere in the game to sit and enjoy, or enough depth to the characters, or, in my case, an appreciation of the source material beyond that which the computer adaptation provides, it can be fascinating just taking a few extra minutes to let things sink in, for lack of a better term. Kind of like bench racing.
This is also often true of certain MMO's, as well, but we won't get too far into that discussion.
Suffice it to say that for me, sometimes half the fun of playing a decent- to good RPG is that down time, the calm between encounters, the planning, even if that borders on LARPing, and the anticipation of what's up next. Bad- to horrible CRPG's, like Dragon Age 2, are simply not capable of inciting these kinds of feelings, because they're far too shallow and insipid of games to give a damn about.
I'm certain I'm not alone in this.
There is an appeal to having "down time" in RPG's. We've all done it: spending time just admiring your characters, making sure you've talked to all NPC's even if they're not giving any extra quests, etc. I don't mean 'sperging out about finding every little nook and cranny in the game, I mean just slowing down and contemplating how much you enjoy the game or just "getting into the moment".
The Village of Hommlet was by far one of my favorite AD&D modules. That has a lot to do with my willingness not to just skip over all the boring FedEx quests in the town while playing ToEE. But it's more than that. There's a thing called "bench racing" when you're talking to car nuts -- guys who are into building up and tuning muscle cars or are into some other kind of backyard racing often enjoy the act of bragging to one another or just comparing notes, etc., sometimes even moreso than the actual activity itself. A lot of their time is taken up simply talking about their craft and hobby. I think that applies to playing CRPG's, sometimes, too. If there's enough atmosphere in the game to sit and enjoy, or enough depth to the characters, or, in my case, an appreciation of the source material beyond that which the computer adaptation provides, it can be fascinating just taking a few extra minutes to let things sink in, for lack of a better term. Kind of like bench racing.
This is also often true of certain MMO's, as well, but we won't get too far into that discussion.
Suffice it to say that for me, sometimes half the fun of playing a decent- to good RPG is that down time, the calm between encounters, the planning, even if that borders on LARPing, and the anticipation of what's up next. Bad- to horrible CRPG's, like Dragon Age 2, are simply not capable of inciting these kinds of feelings, because they're far too shallow and insipid of games to give a damn about.
I'm certain I'm not alone in this.