Re: What is role playing on a computer?

On Mon, 27 Oct 2003 19:44:34 +0100, Peter Knutsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
[snip]
>Take a computer game such as Thief. In it you're forced to play a 
>thief. Sure, it's about breaking and entering, but why not make the 
>game a bit more flexible? Add character skills, allowing the player to 
>weigh three or four different areas of prowess, like Tech 
>(lockpicking, traps, maybe medical), Physical (stealth, swim, climb), 
>Combat and Magic (for extinguishing those pesky magical lanterns)?
>
>It doesn't change the nature of the game at all (it's still about 
>breaking and entering), it just broadens it.
>
>It's a bigger challenge for both the game designers (deiding how stuff 
>interacts with other stuff), the coders (making code for more 
>interactions) and the level designers (more interactions to consider), 
>but we pay these guys a ton of money, so I think we're entitled to ask 
>for better games.

When money grows on trees, maybe.

Adding systems, making games nonlinear, following actions to their logical
conclusions as Samuel was dreaming about - these take time.  In an RPG you can
choose as a GM not to detail every single corner of the world, and create what
you need for whereever the players go.  That ability for focussed, possibly even
spontaneous creation doesn't exist in computer games.

Chris