ON INTERACTIVE EPICS

Instead of going over to the forums and saying, "hi i are new herr," forcing you all to greet me with excitement and kindness before any of you are aware of the three thousand reasons that could exist for you to hate me, I thought I would write an article about what I think makes a good game. I'm not providing this as advice as much as I'm hoping to find some like-minded people and potential colleagues.

Lots of people fall one way or the other on the dichotomy of gameplay and storyline, and I frankly think that both are so important that it is an injustice to your project to half-ass either. Can I say that here?

The finest games I have ever played - the ones that really stuck with me - are the ones with engrossing plots, dynamic characters, and finely-honed mechanics. I personally will not suffer any of the three to be lacking.

- Plot
Interesting plots must be unique; I think everybody agrees here. But I think they also have to be meaningful. They can be wildly imaginative and abstract but if the player can't follow the action or relate to the events, who cares? RPG's by now are a legitimate form of literary expression. They should have meaning, depth and messages. In workshopping, one of the most common questions I hear is, "what are you trying to say with this?" If you can't answer that, you'd better head back to the drawing board.

- Characters
Your characters should be real people that inhabit your head. You should think about them often. Things should happen in the real world that remind you of them. They should make you laugh, and you should feel their pain. Not a single character should be created that doesn't have at least one interesting thing to say. Characters should also be motivated. Being completely evil or completely good is lame. I think most people would agree.

Characters also need to be dynamic and have interesting relationships. A game's storyline takes place over a good chunk of time and during what must be a very important part in the main character's life - he or she should not remain the same in any game, ever, from beginning to end. What we're documenting by the very idea of making a game worth playing is a change in someone's life worth seeing. That said, I'd say some things about dialogue but I think Solitayre already handled that subject pretty well.

-Mechanics
A game engine should bring something unique to the idea of game engines. I have no patience for rip-offs and cookie-cutter engines. Innovation is tantamount in this category. I personally lean towards a great amount of customization. I also prefer systems where use breeds improvement (i.e. use a skill, that skill gets better). Is there a name for this sort of system? I'd call it Lamarckian.

I also prefer turn-based combat; but this, more so than anything else I've written, is just opinion.

I appreciate when game designers have gone to great length to attribute to the player the joy (or burden) of character design, within some constraints. I'll never forget my initial excitement over the grand skill webs of Final Fantasy X, nor my disappointment when I realized that it really reduces all of the characters to empty shells.

All that being said I'd love to hear anybody's thoughts, agreeably or otherwise.

And hello. I'm Gou.