| Thread (16 posts) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Lepidus 6/06/06 2:56:52 PM
|
|||
Novice Member
Joined: 1/07/04 |
Stephanie Shaver, the Lead Designer of Hero's Journey, tortures people with this curveball of a developer journal. In the article titled "Much Ado About Roleplay", Shaver openly switches topics for this amusing run.
You can read more here. |
||
| |
|||
|
Anageth 6/06/06 3:00:30 PM
|
|||
|
Novice Member
Joined: 3/15/05 |
Your "You can comment on this article here." doesn't link to the right part of the forum. Sends to home.
|
||
| No longer visiting MMORPG.com. |
|||
|
Amathe 6/06/06 3:06:43 PM
|
|||
|
Novice Member
Joined: 3/02/05 |
Fun stuff. If Stephanie is writing the quest descriptions and dialogue, I will read every word.
|
||
| |
|||
|
grndzro 6/06/06 3:45:30 PM
|
|||
Advanced Member
Joined: 2/21/06 |
Yea I definately hope they design the game with serious multifaceted roleplay elements in it.
Of course the Paladin(Antipaladin) would have new dialogue options, new questgivers,alignment changes, equipment incompatibilities, A shift in the toon's abilities, possibly looking different/clothing options. This would lead to class changes based on roleplay events. Thieves could become assassins. Spellcasters would have to unlock different schools of magic. Priests/clerics/healers would need to devote themselves to a diety/ideal....etc etc |
||
| |
|||
|
delak 6/06/06 4:36:38 PM
|
|||
|
Apprentice Member
Joined: 1/23/05 |
As always a great read from Stephanie. I hope the quest dialog is as chaotic and informative as her developers journals.
|
||
| |
|||
|
Jenuviel 6/06/06 4:50:13 PM
|
|||
Hard Core Member
Joined: 5/26/05
Sadness is but a wall between two gardens. -Kahlil Gibran |
Anything that moves online games (or creates a seperate niche for them) more in the direction of Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, etcetera is a good thing to me. I like it when my decisions have an impact on my character's story, on who that character is. Steph's observation that most of us don't read quest descriptions anymore really hit home for me. Embarrassed as I am to admit it, I've found myself falling more and more into that method of scanning and running, rather than reading and thinking.
In MUDs (good ones, anyway), there were reasons to read room descriptions other than the writing; there were often clues to secrets in the area, whether they were hidden trainers, rooms, quests, objects, or other such points of interest. The thing is, when you read a room description to look for clues that'll get you goodies, you're still reading the room description. Strangely enough, that allows you to realize just how good (or occasionally bad) the writing actually is. Anyway, this episode of Steph's Adventures in Dev Land offered more good news for me, and I like a developer who's unafraid to toss in references from Pulp Fiction (or the bible, if we're going back that far), not to mention several other references I'm sure I missed on the first time through. I also applaud her brave use of punctuation (because unnecessary parentheses are clearly a sign of internal dialogue, indicating an active mind!). In all seriousness, I greatly enjoy the light tone and sense of humor in all of Steph's updates. Strangely enough, I read these dev reports looking for bits of information, and end up realizing just how good the writing actually is. Funny, that.  |
||
| |
|||
|
Flatfingers 6/06/06 5:15:04 PM
|
|||
Novice Member
Joined: 2/06/06
Designer of Systems |
Actually... it sort of sounds to me like what Steph is describing isn't really "roleplaying" so much as it is story. That the lore of the game world will be more than just flavor text that somebody randomly emitted in a few seconds; that it will actually have meaningful in-game effects and consequences and linkages to real things in the game world. I am definitely up for that. Example: we've seen that wyr will have bits of lore text associated with them, presumably as something that Bards will be able to uncover with their Loresinging ability. If we follow what Steph is saying, it sounds like some (much? most?) of any people or places or things identified for a wyr will themselves refer to other people or places or things that at some time existed in the game world. If that's accurate, it will take quite a bit more work than just making up lore that sounds nice... but it also seems like a way to make the game world feel much more coherent, much more like a real place.
--Flatfingers |
||
| |
|||
|
BountyGreg 6/06/06 5:49:32 PM
|
|||
|
Novice Member
Joined: 5/14/06 |
It's sad to say but I can't really remember the last time I really RPed.
I sure wish my decisions would have an impact on the world, at the same time I see it technically impossible. I mean, comon, if i decide to kill an NPC who was giving a quest, what will the other players do? Imagine a psycho runs in the game and kills most quest-giving NPC, what then? replaced by another or respawns? that's not RP. If I killed an NPC in say, AD&D, there was a good chance my GameMaster would have made a check to see if someone saw me and if someone did Id be a hunted man for as long as needed. I know it sounds a bit crazy but my fun with new GMs was to test them by killing the quest giver. Either they'd complain you killed their game (bad GM) or they would just improvise something very fast in their head and go on on another path (good GM). i don't see a server imrpovising something tho, it will always be scripted and I know by experience, the game could get out of hands very fast. A script could have 1000 possible ways to get the quest, what if I get rid of those 1000 possibilities? The only way I can see it is by having GMs in-game, but that would be very expensive and you'd need very good GMs. So, as much as I would LOVE to see more RP in a MMO, I don't see it happen soon. |
||
| |
|||
|
Valentina 6/06/06 8:55:06 PM
|
|||
Advanced Member
Joined: 5/28/06
"It''s not true that I had nothing on, I had the radio on!" - Marilyn Monroe |
LOL She's so cute!!! I like what I read. It believe this game has the potential to influence others to put the RPG element back into MMORPG.
|
||
| Aion: Tower of Eternity Coming in 2009 |
|||
|
ladylore 6/06/06 9:34:42 PM
|
|||
| |||
;)
