RPG Statistics And Micromanagement

Next Gen has an interesting article on the future of RPGs, and more specifically the alleged obsolesence of translated pen-and-paper RPGs in favor of MMOs and visceral action-ized versions.  The piece doesn’t mention this, but I suspect that there are probably two key audiences for computer RPGs: first, PnP players who enjoy being able to see their game worlds translated into an interactive environment, and second, players who just like exploring a fantasy world and developing an ever more powerful character.

The use of pen and paper statistics is partly an artifact of the first group, who comprised a significant portion of the second for a great deal of the life of PC/console gaming.  If you really enjoy Dungeons and Dragons, I’d guess that you’ll really enjoy a computer version of it - and you need the stats and micromanagement to connect you to that D&D world.  But that’s not the whole story: another part of the use of micromanagement is that it lets you very effectively compare your progress against a baseline.   

At its core, much of the appeal of an RPG is that it lets you see how your character is evolving, gaining new abilities, and dispatching stronger foes.  A “sword that cuts an enemy in two” is all well and good, but how do you know if that sword is better than the “spear that impales enemies”?  If you can’t easily determine which is superior, you have no idea if you’re actually making progress within the context of the game.  In a similar vein, those menus that Ed Del Castillo reviles so much provide a far simpler means of feedback than attempting to communicate things like inventory space visually.

This isn’t to say that menus should be used exclusively, or that they’re even preferable in many situations.  But technology hasn’t yet reached a point where we can dispense with them.

Attack of the Imitators

Man, the amount of total crap on the Wii is truly amazing. Sure, you have publishers like Conspiracy Entertainment that release nearly a dozen shovelware products to turn a quick buck, but that’s not even the half of it.

Just now I searched for Endless Ocean on Amazon, and not only did it bring up that game, but just below it with similar cover art was “Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure”. Not only that, they were undercutting the price of Endless Ocean by $1 (at $28.99). I mean, why just go diving when you can BE a sea monster… and for a dollar less to boot!

Now, obviously the games are a bit different, as Sea Monsters (according to the description) lets you play as “Six different sea monsters”, but does this not seem like a cheap imitation to anyone else?

And the Wii (and DS for that matter) are just full of these kinds of imitations. Because of the success of Nintendogs, the Wii has both “Petz Dogz 2″ and “Puppy Luv”, as well as “Petz Catz 2″ and “Kitty Luv”, not to mention “Petz Horsez 2″ and “My Horse and Me.” The success of Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Mario Party have brought us such gems as Carnival Games, EA Playground, and perhaps the best name for a game ever, Game Party (it’s sequel, likely to be called “Party Game”, is also highly anticipated).

What is wrong with this picture? Suddenly the Wii library is looking like a PC bargain bins, where all you find is a bunch of second-rate hunting, card, and casino games, only the Wii also has pet simulators, party/mini game compilations, licensed crap, and other trash. Are people actually buying this stuff?

I guess in some ways, since I’ll never buy any of this stuff, I don’t really care that much except that it’s kind of scary to walk into the Wii aisle at Circuit City only to find a sea of trashy games you’ve never heard of. On the other hand, if people actually buy this crap, this will probably be mostly the kind of games we see on the Wii during its lifetime. If that’s the fate the Wii is doomed to I’m afraid it’ll receive less and less attention from me as time goes on. And if this is a trend that Nintendo is happy with, it’s quite possible that the Wii will be the last Nintendo console I own.

Does anyone else remember the Nintendo that promised “Quality over Quantity”? Maybe they really should consider this again.

Endless Ocean

I’m somewhat intrigued by Endless Ocean, but I share some of the same concerns as Jason Cipriano here.  Is there any point to playing a game that doesn’t end?  I think Cipriano’s conclusion is correct, but his diagnosis is somewhat flawed.

The problem with EO isn’t that it lacks conflict - games don’t need conflict per se to be fun, stories do (and we all know my feelings on the story front).  What games do need is an objective.  This is because a game, almost definitionally, requires motivation, a reason to play.  To the extent that you can artificially create objectives (see the penguin, see the eel, etc.), you can create a game out of the context of Endless Ocean… but without a meaningful amount of substance behind it, I can’t imagine it would hold people’s interest very long.

Oddly, I also don’t know that this is particularly well targeted for casual gamers, either.  Casual gamers don’t need complexity - but even more than hardcore gamers, they often revel in the objective.  In fact, games like Uno or Solitaire are in reality stripped of almost everything except it: “get rid of all your cards” is pretty thin gruel to someone playing GTA, but makes casual players quite happy.  So I’m unclear on who EO will really appeal to.

 Are you planning on getting the game?  Has anyone played it?

Square Pegs, Round Holes

I’ve definitely noticed that my gaming tastes have changed over the years.  For example, I no longer have the stomach for many RPGs; I can’t get into the Square-led art style in fashion these days, with its gender-indeterminate leads and angst-ridden plotlines, and reading that much repetitive text (or worse, watching twelve minute movies) just isn’t something I can really enjoy any longer. 

At the same time, I’m a little puzzled by the complaint that Lost Garden raises here.  The author notes up front that the problems he noted in Mario Galaxy are really the result of his own “defects” rather than those of the game.  But he then proceeds to criticize a number of elements of the game itself, from its difficulty to its genre.  Part of this complaint, I think, stems from his disappointment that he didn’t enjoy a game that so many people loved.  But that doesn’t really excuse the complaint.

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Ridiculous Wii Design Decision #800

I’d stop complaining about terrible Wii design decisions, but they just keep popping up.  My girlfriend got Elebits, one of her favorite Wii games, for the holidays, and spent quite some time playing around with it on my brother’s console.  No worries, we figure - we can just copy the save files onto our SD card and continue the game at home.  Lo and behold: for some insane and inexplicable reason, Elebits save files can’t be copied to an SD card!  For what possible reason?  Who knows!  I understand that random VC games have similar problems.  Ridiculous.

Gamestop Selling a REAL “Virtual” Console

Nintendo is desperately trying to meet the holiday demand for its Wii console, ramping up production to 1.8 Million Wii’s a month, double what they were producing at the same time last year during the same period.  The Wii is already selling a ridiculous amount of consoles (almost a million just in the U.S. in November) and they simply can’t keep enough in stock.  So what to do?

Well, perhaps spurred on by the kind of news showing that Nintendo is losing out on potentially over a BILLION dollars because of their hardware shortage, Nintendo has apparently authorized or approved Gamestop to sell a full-priced “raincheck” for a Wii to be picked up in January on December 20th and 21st while, get this, “supplies” (of the “raincheck” receipts, I suppose) last.

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Linearity Hypocrisy?

GameLife raises an interesting point that occurred to me while I was playing Super Mario Galaxy: the game is far more linear than its Nintendo 64 predecessor.  But people don’t seem to care (especially considering the success of NSMB for the DS).  Is it indicative of hypocrisy when people laud non-linear games for their inventive story-telling and the player’s control over the narrative?

My suspicion is that the answer is “sort of.”  I suspect that people overestimate the importance of narrative in the first place and that what really matters is just whether the game is fun.  Naturally, that’s a subjective assessment that can be helped or hurt by the story-telling choices that the designer makes - but it’s not necessarily a one-fits-all requirement.  I wish people would remember that more.

(By the way, is it just me or is it odd that Chris Kohler is confused by the relative outperformance of NSMB vs. Galaxy?  Sure, the latter has sold only 10% as much as the former.  But the DS has 53M consoles sold, while the Wii is still under 15M, and some of those sales are necessarily to casual gamers.  It’s a question of basic math.)

SMG = SMB3+

Some intriguing thoughts from Press the Buttons linking Super Mario Galaxy to Super Mario Bros. 3… in more than the obvious ways,

Mario Brings in a Happy Birthday

What better way to start off my birthday than to spend some quality time with Super Mario Galaxy (don’t answer that Megan)?  The game simply drips in sheer joy and may be one of the happiest, most fun games ever made (perhaps actually giving increased meaning to the “UR MR GAY” ridiculousness).  There have certainly been several amazing games already this year, and even more to come, but there are so few that so confidently revel in the sheer joy of gaming like Mario Galaxy has (perhaps the last game that I can recall is the original Katamari Damacy, a fun and innovative, but still far inferior game).

With the industry trend towards more realism, seriousness, and storytelling that supposedly is bringing “maturity” to the medium, Mario Galaxy simply bucks the trend and reminds us all why we ever started playing games in the first place.  Bioshock may have been an important step forward this year for games as a medium to explore serious themes, but Mario Galaxy, with it’s effortless controls, gorgeous visuals, fantastic music, and outstanding level design, is as much a work of art as Bioshock is.  Bravo, Nintendo.

Wii would like to play… test.

Downgraded graphics and sound were a given for the Wii version of Guitar Hero III, but how much worse? While the Wii doesn’t support digital audio, it still supports Dolby Pro Logic II, which does an ok job with positional sound.  Guitar Hero III advertises on the box that it supports Dolby Pro Logic II, a nice alternative to Dolby Digital.  Unfortunately, Guitar Hero III apparently doesn’t just lack its advertised Dolby Pro Logic II support, it doesn’t even support stereo sound.  That’s right, Wii fans only get mono-sound Guitar Hero.

The game is obviously still very playable, as even several reviewers didn’t catch on to this problem.  Although, you’d hope with a game so reliant on sound and music they’d at least get this part right. Doesn’t anyone bother to playtest their games now?  You know, make sure all the features you’re listing on the box actually make it into your game?  A novel concept, I know.

I’m curious to see how Activision fixes this.  As of yet, I don’t really know of any “patches” to Wii games that you can download or install on the console.  Any time there’s been a major bug with a Wii game (which there have been only 1 or 2 to my knowledge), Nintendo has had to exchange the actual game disc with a fixed version.  Will Activision have to issue a recall (or at least a voluntary one) for their Wii implementation of Guitar Hero?  I’m sure we’ll hear more about this soon.