Interview The word 'RPG' can scare people off Mass Effect

[Lonely Vazdru]

the word "RPG" can scare people off from playing a game because they think it's going to be boring.

Actually, this has become quite true. At least for me.

 

[Ladonna]

You're either trolling or optimistically naive. The more you combine multiple genres the less in depth you can be in any genre. If you spend time making game X an RPG, an FPS, and RTS, AND a dating sim then you spread your resources to thin to make game x any good at any of those. For instance, Planescape: Torment had absolute shit combat but great dialog and plot - any wonder why? Then cross that with ToEE that had great combat but shitty writing, dialog, and plot. You have to have focus to make anything worthwhile, the more general and all-encompassing you make something, the less it is of anything.

Why shouldn't they merge the FPS with RPG genres? The more FPS-RPGs they sell the more FPS-RPGs game companies will be willing to finance.

That is all they do now. Except the RPG part is consistently watered down ever further.

 

[Pliskin]

You're either trolling or optimistically naive. The more you combine multiple genres the less in depth you can be in any genre. If you spend time making game X an RPG, an FPS, and RTS, AND a dating sim then you spread your resources to thin to make game x any good at any of those. For instance, Planescape: Torment had absolute shit combat but great dialog and plot - any wonder why? Then cross that with ToEE that had great combat but shitty writing, dialog, and plot. You have to have focus to make anything worthwhile, the more general and all-encompassing you make something, the less it is of anything.

Why shouldn't they merge the FPS with RPG genres? The more FPS-RPGs they sell the more FPS-RPGs game companies will be willing to finance.

Yr confusing game development with Trickle Down Economics. It doesn't work that way. Most games --- much like the entertainment industry in general (books, movies, music) --- aren't looking to break new ground in quality, they're looking to turn a profit by copying other product that sells. Count on more and more Halo / Mass Effect / Fallout 3 clones in the future.

I'm reminded of a scene in a movie called "Rolling Thunder", were the protagonist --- a former Vietnam War POW --- is asked how he managed to survive all those years of torture.

His reply: "You learn to love the rope".

 

[PrzeSzkoda]

I don't care one whit what they call it, as long there's some really extreme collar-grabbing action and RK47 does a let's play of it at the prestigious Codex magazine forums, so that I don't have to play it myself (he'd probably have to move it to General Gaming, tho').

 

[Torquemada]

I wonder of HG or Torquemada can somehow draw an analogy between the growing blandness of games and the 'multikult'...

I can do it effortlessly : the multikult wants to see the whole world as a single, uniform block of consumer units. It's destroying the barrier of nations and cultures, to sell the most goods to the biggest audience possible. It will accommodate the different level of butthurtness of each culture and sell to everyone. For that goal it has to create the blandest products the mind can conceive, for anything more than bland might not do well in one part of the world.
What kind of ""restaurant"" (oh the lulzmanity) can be found on nearly all the countries of the world except for the most extreme shitholes ? McDonalds. The shittiest food recipes are the ones that are sold everywhere. McDonald is the ultimate "product" of the mentality that goes behind what is happening to RPGs. McDonalds can be found from the Kwa to Saudi Arabia. Motherfuckers from all over the world eats that shit. Eat shit, a billion of flies can't be wrong.

We still have a bit of time left before Biowhore and the others get it "right" though. They have yet to reach the level of blandness required to win the most idiots they can from all the cultures possible.
I think Nintendo knows more about this level of dullness than all the other games companies combined.

 

[Morkar Left]

They admit to be making a "cinematic" shiiter for consoletards and are scared to label it as an RPG? This is definitely an incline.

This!

 

[Jaedar]

Oh Bioware.... how far you have fallen.

 

[Talby]

Why shouldn't they merge the FPS with RPG genres? The more FPS-RPGs they sell the more FPS-RPGs game companies will be willing to finance.

Because you're gay, that's why.

 

[Korgan]

PROUDLY
CONTRIBUTIИG
TO
THE
DECLIИE
OF
THE
HATЕD
IMPERIALIST
PSEUDO-ENTERTAINMEИT
PROPAGANDА
ЫРШЕ

 

[Murk]

Why shouldn't they merge the FPS with RPG genres? The more FPS-RPGs they sell the more FPS-RPGs game companies will be willing to finance.

Re-read my posts, I guess? If companies keep financing the higher selling FPS-RPGs, the less actual RPGs we get. They haven't been aiming for high quality games, they've been aiming at diluted releases that sell well for calculated marketing based reasons.

 

[bobo_monkey]

RETARDO LAND SHOOTERIES YOU FOR 9999 DAMAGE!

RETARDO LAND SHOOTERIES YOU FOR 9999 DAMAGE!

THE DINGOS ATE MY BABY!

IT BELIEVES! IT DIES!

HELP ME OBI WAN YOUR MY ONLY HOPE!

MEDIC! I'M HIT!

POP CULTURE, MASS EFFECT AND OBSCURE 80'S GAME QUOTES HITS YOU FOR 9999 DAMAGE!

 

[Hoaxmetal]

This is fuck up, man. If he'd say same thing while looking me in eyes I'd punch him for plainly being a dumbfuck.

Heather Rabatich is female.

Damm, who let woman do the talking. Ok, I'd punch HER.

 

[Dionysus]

Re-read my posts, I guess? If companies keep financing the higher selling FPS-RPGs, the less actual RPGs we get. They haven't been aiming for high quality games, they've been aiming at diluted releases that sell well for calculated marketing based reasons.

If there's an appetite for whatever you consider to be an "actual RPG", then someone will fill it. And it's not as if anyone was rushing to drop tens of millions of dollars on a classic RPG formula before Ultima Underworld came out and ruined everything. OK, I'll admit that they put a lot of money into the CGI for those Final Fantasy games, but I doubt that anyone here is interested in that sort of thing.

Personally, I've always enjoyed FP action-RPGs. I prefer Bloodlines, System Shock 2, or Deus Ex to ME, but I'd take any of them over another generic shooter like Gears of War 2, etc...

 

[MetalCraze]

Except Mass Effect's gameplay is exactly like the one in Gears Of War. It's like every UE3 game is just a mod for GoW, doomed to be a shitty looking twitchfest with awful cover system.
But ME manages to be even dumbed down as a shooter - remember that time when even arcade shooters had placed damage instead of head/everything-else? Something never seen on consoles to this date (it's funny how consoletarded magazines were amazed how some shooter had shell casings dropping on the ground - a console shooter of 2009 mind you)

 

[Rhalle]

Mass Effect has top shelf voice acting, facial rendering and cinematics.

In every other way it is mind-numbingly mediocre.

Story, level design (oh god level design-- it is the opposite of HEAVAN), combat mechanics, GUI and interface, the unabashed copypasta of everything outside the main mission...

And on and on and on. It's hideous.

 

[JarlFrank]

I'd rather have pure shooters and pure RPGs instead of this half-assed mishmash crap. Sure, hybrids can be good if done well as SS2 and DX show. But all of the modern ones base their hype on "ITS LIKE AN RPG BUT ITS ALSO LIKE A SHOOTER SO ITS LIKE TWO GAMES IN ONE AND LIKE TOTALLY REVOLUTIONARY LIKE YOU KNOW AWESOME!!!!!"

Also, I wouldn't call Mass Effect either an RPG or a shooter. I'd call it a cutscene-watching game with short periods of minigames in-between.

 

[Gylfi.Fenriz.Conquests]

Good stuff. We got the female version of Todd Howtard

Or is Todd the female version of a crapbag?

 

[bat_boro]

ITS LIKE AN RPG BUT ITS ALSO LIKE A SHOOTER SO ITS LIKE TWO GAMES IN ONE

So basically, it's like the RPG and the FPS MADE A BABY!?

 

[Dionysus]

I'd rather have pure shooters and pure RPGs instead of this half-assed mishmash crap. Sure, hybrids can be good if done well as SS2 and DX show. But all of the modern ones base their hype on "ITS LIKE AN RPG BUT ITS ALSO LIKE A SHOOTER SO ITS LIKE TWO GAMES IN ONE AND LIKE TOTALLY REVOLUTIONARY LIKE YOU KNOW AWESOME!!!!!"

Yes, some action RPGs are better than others. Not surprisingly, some "pure RPGs" and shooters are better than others. If there are good and bad games in this little niche sub-genre, then it's just like every other category.

This sort of argument is only good if you have the balls to be consistent and trash DE and SS2 along with the rest. Because you can use the same argument against them. This is what the critics said when those games were released.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Mass Effect had also a cool galaxy map.

 

[Murk]

If there's an appetite for whatever you consider to be an "actual RPG", then someone will fill it. And it's not as if anyone was rushing to drop tens of millions of dollars on a classic RPG formula before Ultima Underworld came out and ruined everything. OK, I'll admit that they put a lot of money into the CGI for those Final Fantasy games, but I doubt that anyone here is interested in that sort of thing.

If game developers are busy filling in the areas that sell well instead of the areas that are designed well, then no... no they won't. Squaresoft actually made some very interesting games in the PS1 era that I still love - they don't anymore because their entire business model has taken a page from EA's, rehash the big AAA shit that sells well. Hell, they even made an announcement on this. So instead of getting big ass companies that in their success might think about making a unique game, we get generic BS that's trying harder and harder to turn into an action movie. Anyway, my primary argument was that mixing two game types that have opposite gameplay styles (player skill based vs. character skill based) results in a game that requires a lot of effort to do well - but the game dev's don't take that route. Instead we get an overly simplified "white bread" version of the game(s).

Personally, I've always enjoyed FP action-RPGs. I prefer Bloodlines, System Shock 2, or Deus Ex to ME, but I'd take any of them over another generic shooter like Gears of War 2, etc...

I got nothing against first person perspective - when MoH: Allied Assault was still fresh I played the living shit out of it, same with Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory... but this attempt to merge FPS and RPG is resulting in glorified FPS games that use a persistent world instead of a level based progression. There's really very little RPG to it and that makes me sad >;(

 

[Volourn]

"It sells for the same reason gore-splatter and slasher movies, which are movies that have no plot other than "people die, also, titties", sell so well."

Except, most slashers aren't exactly super sellers.


"But ME manages to be even dumbed down as a shooter"

that's okay because ME isn't a shooter. It's an Action RPG as described by BIO and as it actually is no matter what spin what puts on it. It's also vastly superior at 'rpgness' than 99% of actual full fledge RPGs. LMAO


"Damm, who let woman do the talking. Ok, I'd punch HER."

No, you wouldn't. You are talk no action. And, if you did, you'd out yourself a sbeing absolutely pathetic.

So... which is it? Are you a coward, a retarded scumbag, or both?

Your choice.

 

[Futile Rhetoric]

It's also vastly superior at 'rpgness' than 99% of actual full fledge RPGs.

This is what pretty princesses everywhere actually believe.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

"Damm, who let woman do the talking. Ok, I'd punch HER."

No, you wouldn't. You are talk no action. And, if you did, you'd out yourself a sbeing absolutely pathetic.

So... which is it? Are you a coward, a retarded scumbag, or both?

Your choice.

Fucking Bethseda choices.

 

[Dionysus]

If game developers are busy filling in the areas that sell well instead of the areas that are designed well, then no... no they won't. Squaresoft actually made some very interesting games in the PS1 era that I still love - they don't anymore because their entire business model has taken a page from EA's, rehash the big AAA shit that sells well. Hell, they even made an announcement on this. So instead of getting big ass companies that in their success might think about making a unique game, we get generic BS that's trying harder and harder to turn into an action movie. Anyway, my primary argument was that mixing two game types that have opposite gameplay styles (player skill based vs. character skill based) results in a game that requires a lot of effort to do well - but the game dev's don't take that route. Instead we get an overly simplified "white bread" version of the game(s).

I think you've got an overly rosy vision of the mainstream titles of yesteryear. They've always been rather generic, and I'll take ME over Pokemon or Final Fantasy VII. I didn't get a ton of choices in ME, but it was painless and offered more role-playing than Square's big-budget crap.

And games without player skill aren't worth playing. If "pure RPGs" are supposed to be like slot machines with dynamic odds, then I'll pass. Personally, I like the FP action RPGs because I feel that RT gameplay with a ground-level camera is better for just about everything relevant to RPGs except group-based tactical combat.