posted
I meant to link this here earlier in the week -- my piece went live on Tuesday -- but I forgot, and it's been a busy few days. It's a short article in this week's issue of The Escapist magazine, an online magazine about video games.
Yes, that means someone is paying me to write down my musings about video games. It's a pretty sweet deal, if you ask me.
It's a good article, I liked it. I am sadly behind the times in RPGs, but it was an interesting analysis.
quote: However, player alignment system or no, CRPGs can't avoid answering the classic question of moral absolutism vs. moral relativism. If Good and Evil exist in the game world, it's because they have been codified during the development process; the system's discrete nature is inherently limiting.
Do you mean games that have alignment systems are moral absolutist, and games with no such system are moral relativist? Or am I missing the point?
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Morbo: Do you mean games that have alignment systems are moral absolutist, and games with no such system are moral relativist?
Yeah, I'm just saying that Good and Evil either exist in the game's framework or they don't. There can be none of the ambiguity about that question that we have in the real world.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
I don't game, but it was entirely readable, and you made a lot of good points, which I got, since you made it so entirely readable. Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Good article, though I'm not a gamer so I didn't think "yeah that's so true" but it sounds reasonable. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote: Alignment weights can also be abused more directly. If you pickpocket a farmer but rescue the blacksmith's daughter from her kidnappers, the net result is a shift in your alignment toward Good. Trying this approach in real life will make you pretty unpopular and maybe even land you in jail, but somehow it works just fine in BioWare's Neverwinter Nights.
Related but a bit odd, in Fallout I'd specifically pick fights with raiders and slavers because I could beat up them and loot their stuff with no consequences. That always struck me as a bit off, but I'd still do it
quote: Still, the strength of Gygax-model CRPGs like PST suggest it may not be the inherent restrictiveness of the Gygax model holding back North American CRPGs ...
Having grown up on North American CRPGs, did you single out North American ones for a specific reason? Could someone give a brief summary how other people approach the issue?
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Mucus: Having grown up on North American CRPGs, did you single out North American ones for a specific reason? Could someone give a brief summary how other people approach the issue?
They don't, which is basically why I kept it to North American, or at least "Western" CRPGs. That is to say, I'm not aware of any Japanese CRPGs that implement a player alignment model in any significant way. My experience with JRPGs has been that the player generally doesn't have enough choice in the story progression to make implementing a player alignment model worthwhile.
Beyond that, I kept it to North American specifically because I've never played any of the European CRPGs (e.g. Gothic), so I'm not really qualified to comment on what they do and don't implement. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
Very nice article. I hope they pay well I don't expect you to answer, of course. I've written for a few game sites in the past, and they all payed poorly, if at all. Still, it's fun to write about video games, so there's an enjoyment factor that doesn't come with some better paying work.
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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posted
I have no conception of what "well" is in this context, because I've never been paid to write something before. However, they post their base pay rate in the submission guidelines on their website, so it's there if you're really interested. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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