Editorial Why less is more

[Monolith]

Tags: Scars of War

<a href="http://scarsofwargame.com">Scars of War</a> developer Naked Ninja/Gareth devoted <a href="http://scarsofwargame.com/DevBlog/?p=347">some thoughts</a> to item and creature design in RPGs, criticizing the quantity over quality approach many of today's game developers follow.
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<blockquote>And these days, most designers have a “more is better!” approach to design. More creatures, more spells, more magic items. If game A has 20 monster types, the sequel needs to have 50! Designers brag that their games have hundreds of thousands of magical items! That’s not something to brag about.
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These designers fail to grasp their mistake. By adding more, they subtract value from the existing pool or enemies and items. Nothing is special or epic or legendary anymore, none of those buzzwords that people like to throw around.
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In SoW, I am taking a different approach. Monsters are rare, special, and I hope interesting. And legendary creatures/items are legendary. Which, generally, translates into highly lethal. If people for a league around a cave talk about how dangerous the creature that lives there is, listen to them. I will warn players before instant death encounters, but it’s a warning you can miss or ignore if you want to. <b>So pay attention.</b></blockquote>
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You've got to give me some ritalin first.
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Discuss!
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Thanks, <b>Dark_Paladin_Anti_Hero</b>

 

[JarlFrank]

Sounds good. I'm sick of "legendary" items being just like that other sword you just found, only with +5 to hit and damage instead of just a simple +2. Meh, legendary my ass.

 

[DraQ]

I don't have anything against craploads of creatures and items, as long as the distribution curve of their types is slanted heavily towards the lower end of the scale.

Other than that - sounds good, especially the:
"don't go there, %playername, you'll die!"
*%playername ignores advice*
*%playername dies*
part.

 

[Durwyn]

No hordes of orcs/goblins/demons/blightspawn ?? No uber weapons in every barrel ?

UUUUUCK YEAH !

 

[Luzur]

I don't have anything against craploads of creatures and items, as long as the distribution curve of their types is slanted heavily towards the lower end of the scale.

Other than that - sounds good, especially the:
"don't go there, %playername, you'll die!"
*%playername ignores advice*
*%playername dies*
part.

wont work, lots of console players will return the game complaining its too hard since they can die.

 

[DraQ]

I don't have anything against craploads of creatures and items, as long as the distribution curve of their types is slanted heavily towards the lower end of the scale.

Other than that - sounds good, especially the:
"don't go there, %playername, you'll die!"
*%playername ignores advice*
*%playername dies*
part.

wont work, lots of console players will return the game complaining its too hard since they can die.

We need some retard cleansing.

 

[TheMany]

Copious amounts of fights and items usually ruin RPGs and other genres for me. Unless its a Dungeon hack where that be the main idea, not something the developers try to disguise like in The Witcher.

 

[DraQ]

Copious amounts of fights and items usually ruin RPGs

Yes!

I, for one, do not wish to impersonate riders of the apocalypse of some goblin mythology any more.

 

[Rhalle]

Unadulterated horseshit.

A transparent excuse to do less.

Monsters and gear are already cloned and recycled. And that's a 'quantity'' approach?

 

[Hory]

What we need is an article about why less blog hyping means more time for actual development.

 

[Naked Ninja]

A transparent excuse to do less.

Caught out!

What we need is an article about why less blog hyping means more time for actual development.

I'll begin writing a blog post about it immediately!

 

[Volourn]

He makes it sound like this soemthing new. this pretty much has always been true. It's not a new thing. Moron.

 

[Naked Ninja]

Volourn, your consistency is impressive. Most people vary their responses at least every few months.

 

[Volourn]

Perhaps, if the Codex newsposts and the posters would be more original, my responses would also be new.

 

[Kingston]

Does that mean the majority of enemies will be humans? I certainly hope so, considering all the best battles in RPGs have been against humans. Baldur's Gate comes to mind especially.

 

[Ahzaruuk]

Unadulterated horseshit.

A transparent excuse to do less.

Monsters and gear are already cloned and recycled. And that's a 'quantity'' approach?

I see it as saying that they want to be more econimical with their game and not make it a loot porn.

 

[obediah]

less is more, but some distros get a little aggressive with the filters making it less useful as a diagnosis tool.

 

[DraQ]

Unadulterated horseshit.

A transparent excuse to do less.

Monsters and gear are already cloned and recycled. And that's a 'quantity'' approach?

I see it as saying that they want to be more econimical with their game and not make it a loot porn.

:D
Heh.

 

[kris]

wont work, lots of console players will return the game complaining its too hard since they can die.

what makes you think they will buy the game to begin with? I mean he have not released a "Sex and violence" trailer even!

 

[Andhaira]

Sounds great. IMO SoW is shaping up to be a fantastic game and a must play for all codexian regulars.

 

[Dark_Paladin_Anti_Hero]

Rampant Coyote wrote up a blog post on this blog post with some additional good points:
http://rampantgames.com/blog/2009/06/rp ... ntasy.html

 

[shihonage]

I believe less is more when it comes to fleshing out the background of the game. Fallout 1's "less is more" approach was exactly that. They made enough of the world to convince you that it exists, without dumping on you barrels of busy lore and inserting "what Aradesh had for breakfast last night" into his dialogue.

 

[Castanova]

I don't think "less is more" is really the crux of the issue. The goal is to have items that are unique and give the player pleasure in acquiring. This can be done whether there are 10 items in the game or 10,000. I think "good item design combined with good world/quest design" is the real point.

 

[Serus]

Why slavery is freedom ?
Why war is peace ?
Discuss.

 

[DraQ]

Why slavery is freedom ?
Why war is peace ?
Discuss.

Is ?