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SvennoJ on 09 June 2015
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Mr Puggsly said:
SvennoJ said:

I do know what I want. I want to be able to talk to npcs instead of choosing from a few dialog options. Be able to ask for directions and advice without having to use a minimap or menu screen. Not be put in a straightjacket when it comes to completing objectives. AI that can adapt to my play style, both in generated dialog and gameplay.
For racing, Isle of Man track is at the top of my list, followed by endurance races with 200 cars on the track.
A complete god game expanding on the powers of from dust.
Gambit system from FF12 and programmable abilities like in Transistor applied to a massive scale RTS game.
More creativity in locations, art styles and escpecially different cultures.
And the last guardian to finally get finished (or actually made...)

First of all, I want to point something out in your last post. Numerous games you mentioned as new IPs were not or used ideas from past games. Paper Mario started in 2000, Mario Galaxy was a successor Mario 64 and Sunshine, Wipeout HD is a sequel, Oblivion is obviously just a significantly more polished successor to Morrowind, Motorstorm is basically a Midway arcade racer with nice graphics, Fallout 3 at its core is Oblivion with guns and ideas from past Fallout games, Dead Space is basically RE4 in space, Mirror's Edge was a unique game but not great. Hence, you're boasting about too many sequels or games inspired by their predcessors.

Talk to NPCs instead of choosing dialog options? So we would just have an AI to chat with? Quite honestly, that sounds like a waste of time for the average gamer. I feel that request has less to do with actual gameplay and more to do with story telling.

I'm not saying your ideas are bad, I just don't think there is mass appeal for them. The games you boasted about have mass appeal.

Mostly right although most of those IPs did something very different. Super paper Mario's unique use of 3D as well as Mario Galaxy, Dead space plays very different from RE4, I would call it closer to Doom 3. Oblivion and Fallout made there first appearance on consoles and Motorstorm's use of terrain and mixed vehicle type races with their own optiomal routes was to my knowledge unique.

Talking to NPC's has a lot to do with gameplay. Instead of being restricted by what each NPC is limited to say (usually a standard line), ask where everything is or who to talk to. Gameplay would be more engaging if you did not follow an arrow or trail on a minimap all the time. You would be more involved in exploration and the journey instead of checking off quests as efficiently as possible. You would also get to know the land better.

Maybe the average gamer is only interested in clicking through the dialog asap, follow a marker and kill some stuff to loot. Yet I can't be the only one that feels gameplay has stagnated and there should be more options than being a kleptomaniac serial killer for hire. All effort is put on more realistic looking characters and more detailed graphics, none on improving the GM part of RPGs. Left 4 dead experimented with an AI director (2008 as well!) why don't we see that in RPGs or FPS.

There are technical hurdles ofcourse. Natural sounding speech generation seems to have stalled, constructing appropiately matching dialogue is a lot harder than rendering your current armor in cutscenes. People don't want to type sentences, constructing them from lots of options Lucasarts style is better yet still tedious and speech recognition is not always reliable. But games used to be on the fore front of new technologies like these, starship Titanic (17 years ago!) had great interactivity with NPCs.

Mass appeal is for what people know, sequels always sell better. That doesn't mean new ideas can't become hugely popular.