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SpookyXJ on 24 April 2008
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shio said:
Bodhesatva said:
rocketpig said:
Bodhesatva said:

Surprised how many people have said Bethesda here. They're my favorite RPG maker now, although that isn't saying much sinec I don't like any RPGs in the first place.

I'll just harp one more time on the fact that openness/interactivity is in direct opposition to story telling, and Bethesda is yet another excellent case to prove the point. Oblivion and especially Morrowind are the most open ended RPGs I've ever played, and they also happen to be the least coherent in terms of storyline.

You're all going to have to pick one or the other, I think. People seem to use the term "linear game" as a pejorative, but this also allows developers to tell a story. Do you want open games, or story driven games? Because the more open games get, the less story driven they will become.


Or you can strike a nice medium like BioWare, you story-hatin' cat-mod.


You're right, I phrased that wrong. I didn't mean it has to be 100 percent story, 0 percent interactivity or 100 percent interactivity, 0 percent story, with nothing in between -- I only meant to say that one comes at the sacrifice of the other. Using that simple math again, you could have 60/40 interactivity/story, or 70/30, or 10/90, or whatever.

The point is, you can't have 100/100. You sacrifice one for the other.

That is Completely Wrong, Open-endness does sacrifice story, it merely changes the way the story is portrayed (aka, story-telling). It is clear you have little experience with RPGs, especially wRPGs (probably since you're not very fond of RPGs)

Do you know which game is claimed by many to have the Best Story Ever in the history of videogaming? that's right, it's 'Planescape: Torment', a open-ended wRPG. PS:T has an incredibly deep and fascinating story, brilliant characters (with possibly the best sidekick character ever created, Morte), and was even compared to novels. If I was going to rate the game the way you just said, i'd give it a 100/80 (100 Story, 80 Interactivity).

Overall open-ended RPGs actually have better stories than linear RPGs: Baldur's Gate 2 just feels like a true epic and has the most natural romance; Fallout 1 & 2 have more personality than 99.9% of jRPGs (actually make that 100%); The Witcher, based on a polish novel, shows how well a open game can tell a story.


Ah but thoes games with the exception of the Fallouts are not really complete sandboxes. There is a good bit of linearity to there progression. I guess you could consider them sectional sandboxes. Fallout 1 & 2 are great examples though.

On a side note you have great taste in games.