The Wonderful Worlds of CRPGs

[Gez]

Can you believe in a world where the population of guards is greater than the total number of civilians, where there are numerous merchants but only a handful of peasants (or even, none at all), where women are a minority, and children are unheard of ?

It's the average heroic-fantasy CRPG world; especially for first-person games (the Ultima series were nearly OK in their demography, but not the Ultima Underworld, in any of the visited worlds). Arx Fatalis has a grand total of one child, and Morrowind, despite its size, features only adults. Third-person games (the Baldur's Gates, NWN, etc.) suffer less from this syndrom, but it's still present.

Despite all their attempts at presenting an immersive and consistent universe, the developpers still don't like to feature "unnecessary" (for the plot) characters or items.

This result in strange worlds, where it is a good idea to go bother everyone with your chit-chat, because everyone has important clues to tell you; even if you have to break in their homes for that. Is there a game where you can knock on Random NPC's door and wait for him or her to open? If so, I haven't seen it. Also, every item you can pick up is useful, and if no merchant want it, then you'll surely need it for a quest or another.

It's kinda weird, I find. Why should CRPG heroes be hypersocial kleptomaniacs?

 

[Psion]

Despite all their attempts at presenting an immersive and consistent universe, the developpers still don't like to feature "unnecessary" (for the plot) characters or items.

For that, I don't blame them. A few background graphics showing farmers tending the fields would be nice, but really, if you are talking about using resources, why would you want to waste the programmers and player's time with idle prattle?

It's kinda weird, I find. Why should CRPG heroes be hypersocial kleptomaniacs?

As for that, I think it's tradition. Like physically impossibly large mouths on yelling children or using you unstoppable destructive attack every episode in anime.

 

[Joshua Randall]

CRPG = Computer Role Playing Game. Not simulation. Not sociology experiment. Game.

Here endeth the lesson.

 

[Mallus]

CRPG = Computer Role Playing Game. Not simulation. Not sociology experiment. Game.

Here endeth the lesson.

Okay, here beginneth another one...

What do you think of the idea that a little more versilmiltude, properly implememted, might make a CRPG more fun?

Sure, just having a few polygonal kids wandering around a town is pretty meaningless. However, now through in a monster/s raiding the village, with some in-game mechanisms to support protecting targets, plus a reward system for doing said protecting [50gp for each villager left alive giving out by the mayor at combat's end], and now you have a far more interesting random encounter than I've seen in a CRPG. Plus, a reason for even an minor location to yield some reward, aside from all those countless thousands of gp's and potions carelessly left in barrels...

More objects in a game environment leading to more options/kinds of play can only be good, right? Trickier than kicking off canned scripts, but I'm thinking a fairly simple set of mechanics can yield some rich results.

related note: I've been a Civ. addict for years, and it always struck me that in the course of play, strategy games like Civilization create better 'narratives' than RPG's; since there is a dynamic, even-changing sequence of events that respond to player input. Beyond the simple, 'achieve task, watch cinema, progress' mechanics of CRPG's.

 

[Zappo]

and Morrowind, despite its size, features only adults.

It could be worth noting that there is one sadly good reason for which Morrowind has no children. The developers acknowledged this while the game was being made, and said that they had to choose between:
A) Making children 100% invulnerable.
B) Getting an R rating for the game because you *have the possibility* to hurt children.
C) No children.
They decided that "B" was too economically bad and "A" was decided to be too silly in a game whose pride is ability to do what you want.

If you want to see really out of whack demographics, check any Ultima Online shard. If it's popular, 85% of the population are adventurers, mostly male, and no children or peasants. If it's not popular, 85% of the population are guards and merchants, still no children or peasants.

 

[Darkness]

While more about console, rather than computer, RPGs, the following may prove useful to this discussion:

The Grand List of Console RPG Clichés

It's hella funny in any case.

 

[Arc]

It's hella funny in any case.

Though it's a massive tangent...

Do I detect a bit of NorCal terminology?

 

[Aristotle]

Someone has touched on this already. Silly or not... having children in a video game immediately bumps up the rating of the game. This is why you don't see kids in so many of the games. Because the rating system requires the higher rating if there is any conceivable way for children to be hurt to any degree in the game.

It sucks, I know... I can't imagine how different Hommlet would feel in the Temple of Elemental Evil game if there were children, or better yet if there were quests involving children. *shrug* What can you do?

 

[frugal]

Sure, just having a few polygonal kids wandering around a town is pretty meaningless. However, now through in a monster/s raiding the village, with some in-game mechanisms to support protecting targets, plus a reward system for doing said protecting [50gp for each villager left alive giving out by the mayor at combat's end], and now you have a far more interesting random encounter than I've seen in a CRPG. Plus, a reason for even an minor location to yield some reward, aside from all those countless thousands of gp's and potions carelessly left in barrels...

I believe that with Neverwinter Nights it is possible to do exactly that. In fact it should be possible to do so with any game with a decent scripting language.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Someone has touched on this already. Silly or not... having children in a video game immediately bumps up the rating of the game. This is why you don't see kids in so many of the games. Because the rating system requires the higher rating if there is any conceivable way for children to be hurt to any degree in the game.

It sucks, I know... I can't imagine how different Hommlet would feel in the Temple of Elemental Evil game if there were children, or better yet if there were quests involving children. *shrug* What can you do?

I don't know how true that is in America and Canada, but I do know that in some European countries it's illegal to sell any game where it's possible to harm or kill children. In the European version of Fallout 2, all of the children were removed from the game because killing NPCs is possible, and some of the "evil" quests actually involved you killing innocent NPCs (children included). In the case of The Temple of Elemental Evil, Troika decided to kill two birds with one stone and not put any children in at all, thus saving themselves the hassle of removing child NPCs from the European version.