[MUD-Dev] New Bartle article

[Brian Hook]

At 09:38 PM 3/10/01 +0000, matt wrote:

>>   - melee combatant: monks, warriors, brawlers - non-melee
>>   combatant: archers, snipers, magic users - healer/non-combatant:
>>   shaman (optional) - stealth (optional)

> Heh. Why do you think this is? It's because of a general
> unwillingness to think outside the box.

I wasn't disputing that, which is why I prefaced my comments with "for
a combat oriented game".  Assuming we're trying to vaguely model
real-life and/or its caricatures, in general those are the stereotypes
that are portrayed and those are the stereotypes that many games
attempt to propagate.

While "thinking outside the box" (a phrase that is practically
meaningless now) is laudable, people do happen to like things they're
familiar with, be it class names, archetypes or just "being like that
guy in that book".  People know and understand elves.  Now move on to
a universe that is far more alien -- Jorune comes to mind -- and
people balk because they don't necessarily want to relearn all their
fundamental assumptions.  While part of this can be attributed to
their unwillingness to think outside the box, part of it is just a
desire to play the game without subjecting yourself to a huge
"unlearning" process followed by a massive reeducation period, only to
lose interest in the new universe after about 2 hours.

I read a post on a message board once where the poster was proud of
the fact that his "elves" were nothing at all like "normal elves".
Specifically, he was particularly proud of the fact that by using a
term that had prior connotations his own particular usage would be
very jarring.  Efforts like that reek of heavy-handed,
self-congratulatory pretentiousness.  I guess I fundamentally have an
objection to "being different for differences' sake", which I find
annoying, as opposed to "being different because I have a way I think
would be cool".

Or, as a friend of mine likes to say, "try not to conform too much to
being a non-conformist".

>A mage and an archer are the same because you've made them the
>same. Achaea's mages are nothing like archers, for instance.

I had hoped that my posting made it clear I was talking about
archetypical spell-sling fireball-vomiting mages in archetypical
combat oriented games.  As such, my statement holds true.

> Listen, my major objection is the same objection I have to most
> mainstream movies. They are too formulaic.

That's vehemently stating the obvious.  And the same thing applies to
games.  When games like Homeworld, Half-life (!), and Deus Ex are
praised as being original, you know there are problems.

But my point -- and I think you see this -- is that often things are
formulaic because those formulae are successful, popular and fun.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this.  As a matter of fact, I
think it's completely reasonable to pursue designing a game that aims
at player's preconceived notions and desires.  I think the problems
occur when everyone is being derivative for no apparently good reason
than historical continuity -- i.e. conventions remain, not because
they have some innate appeal but instead because "they just are". When
people don't take something popular and add their own spin to it to
make it a little different or off the wall, then maybe there's a
problem.  There are many derivative RPGs that supplied enough of their
own twist on things that they were interesting in their own right.
RuneQuest, Shadowrun and L5R come to mind.  Other games, which I won't
bother listing, contributed very little or nothing other than to say
"Our company also has a [genre] RPG!".

I would hazard a guess that far more people want to be a variation of
Conan, Legolas, Gandalf or Drizzt than Phlorgo-th'tad the Emulibite of
Terro'dha.  This isn't necessarily because people are small minded,
unoriginal, creatively limited or sheep (unfortunately, those that
fancy themselves original, creative and outside the herd often tend to
think like this).  It's because sometimes people want to play a game
that they can relate to instead of first learning what an Emulibite
is, where Terro'dha is, why "elves" are tall, stupid, gangly creatures
that live in the mountains, and "orkhs" are timid, erudite social
animals with a fear of anything larger than a mosquito.  And why
"fighting" consists of oral debates in the nearest Pradallion, which
is a clearing inside a grove of "trees", but trees are really made out
of a hardened mineral substance.

But hey, there's no denying its originality.

Brian Hook, unemployed game designer

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