Tuesday, July 10, 2007
MMORPGs Broke Jeff Vogel
Jeff Vogel, long-time indie RPG (role-playing game) developer, has an interview up at RPGWatch that is well worth reading. In it, he explains some of his more controversial articles, including his explanation for doing a Nethergate remake after blasting it as an example of why indies can't innovate.
He notes that his ripping on "level grind" and "trash monsters" was primarily aimed at flogging himself for past mistakes:
"I think that game developers need to be far, far more respectful of the time of the player. Leisure time is precious. We should not waste it. We shouldn’t burn time at the beginning making the player grind out levels before he or she can get into the plot. We shouldn’t burn time with faction grinding and trash clearing. We shouldn’t pad the game out with tons of B material."Reconciling this with his publicly expressed love of MMORPGs, he explains:
"I was an addict. It passed.He also gives a little bit of a preview for the upcoming game, "Avernum 5." Where Avernum 4 was very hack-and-slashy with a huge world, Avernum 5 will instead focus on a very intricate and detailed plot.
"I spent an abusive amount of time playing Everquest. Then something happened. The switch flipped in my brain, and I didn’t care anymore. I was really looking forward to the World of Warcraft expansion coming out. Then it came out, and I just didn’t care.
"I’ll really seriously have to need an escape from reality before I pick up an MMORPG again. The whole business model is based on keeping you playing for months and months. And, since content is finite and expensive, that means wasting my time."
Check out the full interview here:
Jeff Vogel Interview
(Vaguely) related Indie RPG Stuff
* Jeff Vogel Gives Innovation Another Chance, Plans Nethergate Remake
* Why Does Jeff Vogel Hate RPGs?
* How to Get Me to Buy Your Indie RPG
* Why Do RPGs Suck Now?
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Labels: Interviews, Roleplaying Games
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 7:40 AM (Permalink)
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Yeah, giving RPG'ers a good classic experience, and not wasting their time is almost two different things. I know we have discussed this here before, I just can't remember where. I do know that after a while, Final Fantasies random encounters get old. This is one of the things I enjoyed about Crono Trigger. The biggest debate about the Chrono Trigger style of monster encounter, is how often do you respawn the monsters?
In Chrono Trigger, if you left the screen and came back, they were all back. Would it be better to do this, or to put a timer on it? While longer re-encounters is nice for the player looking at getting through, it is frustrating to the player who is trying to level up.
Anyway, I understand and have shared his frustrations with Single player RPG's many times, but it seems like a hard thing to fix without breaking it.
In Chrono Trigger, if you left the screen and came back, they were all back. Would it be better to do this, or to put a timer on it? While longer re-encounters is nice for the player looking at getting through, it is frustrating to the player who is trying to level up.
Anyway, I understand and have shared his frustrations with Single player RPG's many times, but it seems like a hard thing to fix without breaking it.
There's a place for unplanned / uncontrolled (by the player) encounters. A very good place. I'd be hesitant to make an RPG without that mechanic.
But those shouldn't be the meat of the game. Not by a long shot. And in way too many console RPGs (and older PC RPGs), that was the case.
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But those shouldn't be the meat of the game. Not by a long shot. And in way too many console RPGs (and older PC RPGs), that was the case.
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