Weekend Confirmed 95 - Ken Rolston, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

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  That trick with the Jarl and Helgen is interesting, as I've been thinking that one way to address Garnett : areyouthatguy
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    Here's the problem: when people buy a game they tend to expect to have some measure of control over what : RedSwirl
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      First, there's a world of difference between having control over your own actions and the degree of impac : areyouthatguy
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        By: RedSwirl x Show Full Post

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        What you (and garnett) seem to want is an open world with things happening independent of the player, and pulling that off really depends on how much agency the player expects to have. If you're cutting off content, like say killing characters or annihilating towns due to player inaction, people will complaint about being forced to do certain things.
        
        I think a better description of what you (and garnett) might want is the player being put in the midst of an event - maybe a battle or something, that they can influence, but will still move forward on its own.
        
        A really good example outside of RPGs I can think of is a battle in ArmA 2 - a dynamic open-world military game where no battle happens the same way twice and you really do feel like a single cog in a giant machine. Depending on your role it's almost like you're a single unit in an RTS. Here's an example of something that might happen in that game:
        
        If you're commanding a team and you call in helicopter support, there's a chance that helicopter could get shot down. If it get's shot down near you and the pilot survives, the commander of the battle (who is run by run by an A.I.) will give you a totally new mission objective to rescue the pilot. On the downside, there is actually a chance in that game that your A.I. commander can fuck up, lose the battle, and probably get you killed.
        
        I think maybe something like that would be interesting in the context of an RPG if it wasn't deeply tied to a written narrative with content that can be seen or missed. Imagine if in Skyrim you could happen upon a large battle between the Stormcloaks and Imperials, choose to join either side, or just walk away and let it run its course. The problem is writing a narrative around something so dynamic. The fully dynamic battles of ArmA have no narrative outside of the narrative you and the A.I. create.

        Jan 15, 2012 4:40pm PST
        What you (and garnett) seem to want is an open world with things happening independent of the player, and : RedSwirl
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        What you (and garnett) seem to want is an open world with things happening independent of the player, and : RedSwirl
        • Your ArmA 2 example is interesting. I was trying to describe this whole thing to a non-gamer yesterday : areyouthatguy
  • That would definitely be a major mechanism for how it would work. I guess what I wasn't being clear ab... : Garnett Lee
• Here's the way I would do it. A game the scope of Skyrim has the option to write a story that has it's ... : LorumFoll
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  I really think JRPGs were much better at this than people give them credit for. A linear march from town ... : HockeyJohnston
  • I will agree that some JRPGs have handled this in a good way. Making the march from area to area defin : RedSwirl
• SWTOR handles this in an interesting way. In each area, about 2-5 side quests are available to the playe... : Atanatari165