Narrative in RPGs

It's been ages since anyone's written, but Duvall tells me he's got a post coming up. So, in the interest of restarting this thing, I'd like to discuss something that's been on my mind. No, not the election, although a post on that may come soon enough.

No, I've been thinking about RPGs, specifically this roundtable discussion. I never really played the classic computer RPGs like Ultima, becoming engrossed in the genre during Black Isle's heyday of Icewind Dale (ID - only okay), Baldur's Gate (BG - grand and epic, but a little trite), and Planescape: Torment (PT - probably one of the finest examples of narrative).

But, as the roundtable discusses, they just don't make RPGs like they used to. Something has gone out of the narrative and immersion. American cRPGs are beginning - in my mind - to resemble Japanese ones. You're dropped into the middle of events, and you're essentially a glorified gopher. Your tasks focus on picking up the 3, 4, 8 fragments needed to put the magic weapon back together, complete the ingredients to your spell, save the world. But you have little choice in the matter, and your actions don't mean anything as a result. As important, the worlds feel "artificial:" they don't feel lived in, as if they persist both before and after your character.

And I think one of the main reasons for this drop in immersion is technology. Sure, graphics in the past few years have made a tremendous leap. The Infinity engine has nothing on the Aurora engine. But text used to play an enormous role in these games, mostly because the engines couldn’t produce the effects that were needed. Pretty lights? Sure thing. Big explosions? Check. Emotive effect through facial animation that can keep up with your dialogue choices? Uh oh.

But that was okay. Well-written text created immersive environments and effective narrative when combined with the literally thousands of characters that inhabited the BG and PT games.

With the newer technology, designers have opted for fewer characters and fancier graphics, thinking that tech can potentially substitute for the emotional content that came from narrative. But – to cite just one example – when you enter cities in Oblivion, do you notice something missing? That's right: people. The world outside may be vast and fun to explore. But the cities are sparse and lifeless affairs, because there is no background to explain WHY you should become the head of the fighter’s guild, why your choice is meaningful beyond the swag that you receive.

I think the strongest analysis in the roundtable is that RPGs have become, in effect, single player MMORPGs. No real background, no real narrative, no “world.” Which is why I’ve been finding myself getting into shooters. The best – Half-Life 2, Call of Duty 4 – tie your actions into a larger narrative much more effectively than many recent RPGs, and they do it with a variety of content and gameplay (it also helps that guns are just that much better from a first person perspective). They are immersive: nowhere near PT, but better than NWN1. But they don’t set themselves up as needing to create a coherent world.

So, RPG makers, craft a narrative that gives meaning to my choices; make me care about a character’s relationships, not about leveling up; immerse me a rich history. Give me worlds again.

Politics By Other Means

So I just got two PC games: Company of Heroes and World in Conflict. Both excellent real time strategy (RTS) games, and each is nothing short of emotionally draining. Lots of explosions, a visceral feel to the combat, and generally compelling story lines.

And most important for me, no resource micro-management. While something about RTS always appealed to me, I hated the "generate masses of peons to gather raw materials" design. This was mostly because I could never devote the time or effort to learn all the hotkeys required to build a specific building or perform actions. In other words, I could never "actualize" my economy. Games devolved into a series of scrolling around the map, pausing the game, hunting and pecking for a build order, and repeat. More often than not, the result was that my peons were quickly killed in all kinds of horrible ways.

I understand where these games were trying to go. The economy obviously lays the foundation for military choices, and a good RTS will have the player make interesting economic decisions that affect their military options later down the road. But too often - for me at least - the games just get bogged down in a mindless game of digital "gopher". This always left me wondering where the real focus of the game was: warfare. It was like I had to bore myself for hours just to get that five minutes of desparate payoff. And of course, my failure at economy building was eventually a failure on the battlefield, especially as I couldn't hotkey unit orders and have them come directly to the fight. The learning curve is far too steep for a casual player.

Which is why these two games are wonderful. WiC is the "purer" of the two, eschewing all resource gathering and superficially similar to the Panzer line of games (which are also fun). The beauty is that, while you may have no resource gathering, you are fundamentally concerned with resources. You get a steady supply of points, up to a certain level, and you have to spend them on just the right mix of units to win. If your unit dies, the points a credited back to you, although it does a little while for them to be available for use.

CoH makes things even more meaningful. Again resource acquisition is non-existent: you get steady supplies from key points that you hold. But you have to fight for those points, which neatly folds your military decisions into your economic ones. The point is not just to eliminate the enemy, but decide where you want to eliminate them and what can be gained from it.

All this frees up the player to concentrate on the action. They do say that soldiers worry about tactics, generals about logistics. But frankly, if logistics is that boring, I'd rather be a grunt. And besides, modern militaries take their time when planning their economic and political foundations. If I want that, I'll play Civ.

In other nerdiness, Wesleyan students be proud. Now, I'm off to play flag football.

ciencia del cohete

August 10th

Reading list: Yotsuba&!

Yotsuba&! is the perfectest comic ever. If you do not think so, your heart has been replaced by a shriveled up turnip.

* EDITED TO ADD: On a related note, there's a new action figure. If you follow the links, I actually think the old one is better. Better yet, there should be a plush. Not that I'd get one, mind you...

Opening night, gentle folks. Opening night.

Also available in hi-def at Yahoo Movies.

Sallie Mae owes me money

I just paid off my student loans, and thanks to the wonders of wireless tube transfers, my ten day payoff made it in less than ten days. Sallie Mae owes me a buck-fifty or so.

I'll start feeling the benefit of these savings in about a year and a half, when I've paid off Leopold and this here ticket to kingdom of His Majesty Bhumibol Adulyadej I got yesterday.

My first adult system

Indeed, I picked up a Wii today. Mine is now named Leopold, and my computer is Bloom, for what that’s worth. Anyway, a friend of mine has judiciously been checking the Wii’s availability at the local gaming emporium since its release last year...clearly we wanted it, but only when we could just step in and pick it up.*

I don't know what to say that hasn't been covered by every other venue, but it's my first console system that wasn't originally given to me by my parents (ahh, Power Pad), so as someone called it today, it's my first grown-up system. Bit strange, since for me it has no killer app (I actually own games for systems I don't own), so I didn't pick it up for one compelling reason (Golden Axe). I wax pretty effusive when talking about it, even with the polite nodders who would never think of buying one and foolishly allow me to think all the things I think about it out loud. Like its relative affordability, great design, low power consumption, the general good karma of the company behind it, ease of use. You know, like Apple. Except, you know, populist and welcoming. But the fascination with it is clearly that created not just a hot purchasable item, but a social event of sorts. Mothers I know who never touch these things will play with the Wii . Why, with the messageboard in place, it's truly a purchase for a household--a person to person social creation. Mind you, the Nintendo GameCube, other than a few, potent franchises (Mario, Zelda...) seemed to hold its own only through its party games, so it's not a new idea to them. While the other systems allow for side-by-side play, none of them encourage it the way Nintendo does, which may allow it to claim at least the number two spot in the console market. As made evident by the xbox, tech specs (though not too shabby in either incarnation), matters less if players have an easy, intuitive way to connect with friends.**

But now I'm meandering, and I still have to set up my wireless router so I can register Leopold with the proper authorities—and I can be reunited with the 70ish-fitness-leveled Mii I created on my friend’s system the first time I played...and maybe I'll get around to that post about the video game as the next great novel.

*I'm not sure how it is with you folk, but I passive/aggressively add barriers to things that are luxuries. Like go to a movie I have marginal interest in only if number of friends want to see it, wait for the price drop, etc... My personal consumerist tipping points. Waiting till it I could walk in and get it is a pretty weak one, so it was pretty obvious I was getting one.
**Xbox Live being that machine's killer app far more than Halo ever was.

Canton is for me

So Netease ran this article today about how Guangzhou has entered a magical new phase of economic development. By imagining away 3 million people, the Guangzhou government was able to cook the numbers and wrung a per capita gross national product of 11 thousand dollars out of its population for 2006. (A 10 thousand dollar per capita annual income is the magic dividing line that differentiates developed and developing economies) The story does not seem to have been picked up by any respectable Chinese media organization, no doubt because the numbers are grossly misleading. Nevertheless, the article indirectly gets to a point that I agree with wholeheartedly: Guangzhou is a nice place to be.

Sure, its a little dirty and somewhat chaotic. But, I've been to Shanghai, Xi'an, and Beijing, and believe me, Guangzhou is the best city in China. Ask any dignified Beijing or Shanghai resident and they'll certainly tell you, Guangzhou is full of shifty, no-good, hustling vagrants. Don't listen to them. It’s all sour grapes. I think the nicest city folk in China live in Guangzhou. Sure they can be rough around the edges, but most are helpful and friendly. Warm smiles greet you in the shops and on the street. Unlike the jerks in Shanghai, Guangzhou locals make an effort to communicate with outsiders in Mandarin, and con artists don't curse at you when you ignore them like they do in Beijing. Public transport there is great. Guangzhou has one of the most civilized subway systems I've ever seen and the cabbies are real characters. The food is also out of this world, a fine departure from the bland Huaiyang-style stuff in Shanghai and the stomach-churning Beijing "delicacies" in the capital. Dim sum for me is the centerpiece of Guangzhou dining, but there you will also find some terrific Thai and Vietnamese fare as well. Look out McDonald's! Real Kung fu rules the fast food scene on the Canton streets.

Yes, so when I travel to China, I don't bother to visit the old capital or the so-called "New York" of the East. I prefer the old charm of Canton any day of the week.