Scott Rouse blog - Rogue ability

[med stud]

What video game RPGs have you played?

I'm curious about this as well. A CRPG that gives instant gratification is a very boring CRPG; since CRPGs can't make as good plots as DMs, resource management is a must for a CRPG to be interesting.

 

[jasin]

I certainly can't prove that the warlock in particular is "video-gamey" in any objective way; I can only say that is where I see the first fundamental shift in playstyle in 3.5 that leads us to 4E.

Oh, I agree that the warlock is an early example of what might now be called 4E thinking. But the class never made me think "video games". The knight was probably the first class that did that, because by then I knew enough about WoW to notice how there was a sort of positive feedback loop between RPGs/D&D and MMORPGs, pushing the warrior further from "beating people up" to "drawing aggro" as his primary role.

 

[Hairfoot]

At the same time, you can't feel the sense of achievement in a MMO like you can at the table because of the scripted, pre-plotted nature of the story. You're, no matter how harrowing and exciting the experience was, just another guy who completed the same quest a thousand other players have completed before, and because you are in a shared world with these thousands of other players, it is imminently obvious that this is the situations (as opposed to an adventure module, where while you will have completed the same adventure many other players completed, you have, generally, completed it in isolation from those other players).

Well said. I think that PnP games can usefully adapt some features of MMOs, but what you've said here seems so plainly obvious that I don't understand why there's so much flat denial of it.

 

[hong]

OTOH, it should be said that the scripted, pre-plotted nature of adventure paths didn't seem to stop a lot of people feeling satisfaction at kicking Dragotha's ass....

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Really?? I never saw that! The magic missiles in all those Gold Box games worked by the book for me -- such to the point that they were 90% of what my magic-users carried.

It was Curse... I'm in the sewers for five years, attacked by 60,000,000,000 thieves, I cast "Magic Missile..."

...

...

...

...

...

...

..."Miss."

"WHAT THE F***ING F***?!?!"

So, yup, Curse... bad example of AD&D combat.

 

[Grog]

Magic Missile never missed for me in any of the Gold Box games. Are you sure you didn't have a glitched copy or something?

 

[hong]

That's a good question. It has to do with the shift between the resource management element to the instant gratification element. It has to do with the idea that in video games, even if there is some sort of spell point system, it is usually extremely fast in refreshing -- so much so as to be near "at will".

Refreshing your mana in 10 seconds is an eternity, in a game where people can attack every second.

Refreshing your spells in 1 minute is similarly an eternity, in a game where people can attack every 6 seconds.

 

[hong]

I'm actually surprised that noone has commented how a ninja teleporting away from the bad guys is so anime.

 

[Scribble]

I'm actually surprised that noone has commented how a ninja teleporting away from the bad guys is so anime.

Ninjas have good hide skillz dude. No one noticed.

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Magic Missile never missed for me in any of the Gold Box games. Are you sure you didn't have a glitched copy or something?

It was over 13 years ago, I don't know what color the box was.