[UA] [OT] Re: Johnny Come Lately

[Todd Erickson]

Heh.  Please don't hate me for taking a totally unrelated thread
on...*grin*
The Johnny Come Lately article (on the Rev page) talks about how, in
order to be successful in times to come, RPG's are either going to
have to be 
1. Very small, so that they aren't extending themselves too far, or
2. Connected to the video game market, since that's the direction many
companies seem to be going, or
3. Connected to a spinoff, such as CCG's, TV series, etc.

While 1 and 3 are probably, 2 gives me pause.  From my experience, the
majority of computer based RPG's are either 1 player only (Baldur's
Gate, Final Fantasy, etc.) or muds in which the only real point of
teaming up is to kill bigger things for more experience to kill bigger
things to...
Diablo 2 is apparently going to be run for teams, but until I see how
it actually goes, is probably not in any way as group fitting as the
average RPG.  Or rather, while you can have a team, there's likely a
list of definite goals that cannot really be deviated from by the team.
The only games I've seen so far on the Video RP market that have room
for deviation are the games like Daggerspell, and it's predecessor
Arena, in which you could either follow the path of the game...or just
go out on your own, becoming an adventurer, a thief, whatever, and
practicing one' skills against the inhabitants of the realm.
But still, none of these really offers to the room for creativity that
you can get in most RPG's, which drives me nuts.  And I wonder, am I
the only person who LIKES operating as part of a team that can go out
and do creative, odd things within a universe that don't necessarily
have anything at all to do with the original "purpose" of the game?
Escapism is all well and good, but having one's mind challenged is
nice too, and not just in a Rubix Cube/Can you hit the buttons fast
enough and in the right order to beat Mortal Kombat/Tomb Raider?  Is
this making any sense?  Or am I just doomed to be attracted to a
method of gaming which is quickly dying?

Todd
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