How do you describe to someone what you like about games? Aside from telling someone \u201cI want Fable\u201d or \u201cI like RPG\u2019s\u201d (which might net you a copy of \u2018Asheron\u2019s Call\u2019 when you really wanted \u2018Dungeon Siege II\u2019), how do you give someone enough information about your likes and dislikes in games that they could actually buy you a game as a gift? I have updated an article I originally worte for the former RPGDot (the site founders all left and created RPGWatch) in which I endeavored to detail my \u2018gaming preferences\u2019 and would like to share them \u2013 and have you share yours in return.<\/p>\n
In order not only to provide some context, but also to frame the discussion let me say that I came to RPG\u2019s through the \u2018back door\u2019: while many were playing Wizardry on the Apple ][ in the early 80\u2019s, I was playing Castle Wolfenstein; while others had moved on to Ultima Underworld by the early 90\u2019s, I was playing Wolfenstein 3D on my PC. On the advice of a friend (big LotR and \u2018Renny\u2019 types) my wife bought me Diablo when it came out. I slogged through it for a bit, decided I really hated it, then returned quickly to games like Duke Nukem 3D and Dark Forces. It wasn\u2019t until Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic was nearing release in the summer of 2003 that someone suggested I get Neverwinter Nights to gear up for KotOR. In early August the Mac version of NWN was released, and I got it the day it came out. The rest, as they say, is history \u2026<\/p>\n
At some point, you have probably come across the so-called \u20186 P’s\u2019 – P<\/strong>roper P<\/strong>rior P<\/strong>lanning P<\/strong>revents P<\/strong>oor P<\/strong>erformance. This can be applied directly to gaming – for instance when developing a character in an RPG. Indeed, I think I spent longer developing parties for Wizards & Warriors when I \u2018discovered\u2019 it this spring than it took me to fully play many recent FPS games (e.g. Pariah). But that isn’t what I’m thinking about. I’ve been replaying the entire Dark Forces \/ Jedi Knight series lately, and was playing the late stages of Jedi Knight II and the early missions of Jedi Academy while also replaying Half-Life 2 (HL2). Anyone who has played both HL2 and Jedi Academy can state pretty objectively that HL2 is a better game \u2013 better looking, performs about as well, better production values and so on.<\/p>\n So why would I rather play Jedi Academy? In fact, why are there probably a dozen FPS games that HL2 is objectively superior to that I\u2019d rather play? Finally, why would I willingly put\u00a0hundreds\u00a0of\u00a0hours into playing through the buggy and unfinished mess that is Dungeon Lords multiple times? That premise has been bothering me for some time \u2013 and while the release of HL2 brought it to the fore, it has been particularly acute since the release of Dungeon Lords \u2013 so I figured I should look into what drives me to like games.<\/p>\n When I say \u2018like\u2019, I don\u2019t mean just games like XIII or Revenant that are enjoyable for a run and then tossed into the big storage bin under the guest bed; I mean games like Dark Forces that I continue playing at least twice a year more than a dozen years after I first got them.<\/p>\n This is what I came up with. A list of parameters that define why I love the games I love. I spent some time trying to come up with six P\u2019s for gaming, only coming up with five P\u2019s and having to force the sixth to become a P. In the end, I like that sixth P \u2013 Possibilities \u2013 better than what I was originally thinking, which was \u2018exploration\u2019, because it captures more than just looking around.<\/p>\n 1: Plot<\/strong> \u2013 we\u2019re not talking about a need for every game to have some high-concept epic story like \u2018Baldur\u2019s Gate 2\u2019, just some basic reason you should be playing the game. The Plot should be proportional with the scope of the game. Take a game like \u2018Rune\u2019, for instance. The basis of the story is pretty simple – the runes that protect the world are being taken by the Bad Guy, who has also taken people from your village. A large battle cutscene shows everything you care about being destroyed. The remainder of the game is you working back through conquered lands to your home and the final battle. The plot is simple and direct, but enough to keep you playing through to the end, and wanting to do the right things.<\/p>\n What does not qualify as plot to me? Mission based games like \u2019Medal of Honor Allied Assault\u2019 or \u2018Call of Duty\u2019. Sure they are fun, but they are all just loads of missions. \u2018Painkiller\u2019? No \u2013 that is like a new Quake for 2004! Just an excuse wrapped around a frag-fest.\u00a0 Nothing wrong with that – it just means that the primary motivation has to come from elsewhere (generally gameplay in those cases).<\/p>\n 2: Personality<\/strong> \u2013 I want my characters to have distinct personality. From way back before the Doom era, Castle Wolfenstein presented you with a hero who had to stop Hitler\u2019s evil plans. That same hero returned for id\u2019s Wolfenstein 3D. Later, Dark Forces presented a hero with loads of personality in Kyle Katarn. Soon after, we got Duke Nukem, who is still a very unique and quotable character. There are loads of great characters in gaming, both protagonists and non-player characters. Some \u2013 like HK-47 in Knights of the Old Republic \u2013 add flavor. Others \u2013 like Cate Archer from the \u2018No One Lives Forever\u2019 games \u2013 add a whole level of depth and humor as the main character.<\/p>\n I like to feel immersed in the character, not just role-playing in a type. So in games like \u2018Knights of the Old Republic\u2019 or \u2018Baldur\u2019s Gate 2\u2019, I am given loads of opportunities to define my character. In contrast, characters in games like Icewind Dale\u00a0don’t engage me as much\u00a0because of the lack of interaction and personality development. Then there is Half-Life 2 \u2013 there are games like Doom where you are a nameless shooter, but Half-Life 2 takes it to a new level. By wrapping a gorgeous, living world around an absolute cipher, it makes the utter lack of personality even more striking.<\/p>\n I also want the characters I deal with to be interesting. It seems like everyone in Planescape Torment is interesting, and I love so many of the characters in other games like Baldur\u2019s Gate II, Gothic II, and so on. I very much enjoy moments such as when Bastilla uses the force to trip up Mission on Tatooine.<\/p>\n 3: Purpose<\/strong> \u2013 why am I doing this? I am not engrossed for long simply running around shooting or slashing everything. Or, if that is my mission, I like some motivation \u2013 perhaps I\u2019m escaping some evil empire, or freeing the oppressed masses, or destroying some dark force bent on world or galactic domination. Even still, I need more \u2013 why me?<\/p>\n Some games actually try to tell you why you alone are the one person who can save the world \u2013 like in Arcanum, for instance. But many games just throw you in the middle of the action, telling you that you must save the world. Again, why me? Answer that one question, give me some reasonable motivation, and you have me for the game.<\/p>\n 4: Power<\/strong> \u2013 I want to see my character grow in knowledge and power during a game. That is why the original Jedi Knight and Deus Ex games thrilled me so much \u2013 and why RPG\u2019s have become such a major force in my gaming life.<\/p>\n Specifically, I want to be able to grow my character \u2013 whether it is a \u2018training\u2019 method like Morrowind or Dungeon Siege I\/II, or a more traditional statistic allocation method, I don\u2019t want my character\u2019s primary means of getting more powerful to be finding\/buying better equipment – unless of course you are playing a character that *doesn’t* get more powerful, as is the case in most shooters. While that is certainly a valid method, when playing a game where the protagonist is supposedly attaining new levels of power I like to feel that I have chosen a path for myself.<\/p>\n 5: Preference<\/strong> \u2013 I know what I like, and like games that wear their pedigree on their sleeves. Well, pedigrees that I like, anyway. Take Star Trek Elite Force II for instance \u2013 as a game it is just a solid shooter (~80%), but it is heaped with Star Trek love that transcends many of the flaws and makes it a game I love. It is certainly no better than the recent game Project: Snowblind, but I know which one I\u2019ll go back to again and again \u2013 the one where my success is rewarded with a growling \u2018almost as good as a Klingon\u2019.<\/p>\n That isn\u2019t just about licenses, either. Again, think about Planescape Torment. That game is very serious about your ability to fully role-play, and the environs and settings just drip with an immersive universe. Or Fallout or Fate for that matter. Games that know what they are and stick with that theme. There are too many games that think they know what they want to be, but never get the courage of their convictions. Games like Metalheart that want to be Fallout but fail to realize what it was that made the game great are worse to me than games like Sacred with much lower aspirations that succeed in their goals.<\/p>\n 6: Possibilities<\/strong> \u2013 I am looking for something that feels like what I do actually matters. In Deus Ex, you get extra \u2018exploration points\u2019 for discovering out of the way places. In Jedi Knight, you get extra \u2018force stars\u2019 for finding all secret areas in a level.<\/p>\n In RPG\u2019s, exploring areas can come in all sorts of forms, with all sorts of outcomes. I still revel in the difficult but rewarding \u2018dialogue dance\u2019 involved in successfully romancing Jaheira in Baldur\u2019s Gate II. Wandering the halls in Dungeon Lords looking for a switch while dealing with constantly respawning enemies is not my idea of fun exploration.<\/p>\n You might have noticed that I didn\u2019t include \u2018humor\u2019 or \u2018fun\u2019 anywhere in the list. Why? Don\u2019t I like fun in my games? Certainly I do \u2013 LEGO Star Wars was one of my favorite games in 2005, mainly due to the absolutely hilarious way it presented everything. But some games are just intense and frankly not \u2018funny\u2019 \u2026 but that doesn\u2019t mean they aren\u2019t fun. For me, a game that gives me an interesting character in engaging settings with some reason for me to pursue the goals I am given \u2013 that is fun.<\/p>\n Are these your preferences? Most likely not \u2013 in fact you might strongly disagree with much of what I say here. But that is the point \u2013 we each have our own likes and dislikes, and reasons for those tastes. That is why \u2013 even within the RPG genre \u2013 we have 3D games and isometric 2D games, turn-based and real-time combat, and so on and so on \u2026<\/p>\n So, what are your defining rules for games?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How do you describe to someone what you like about games? Aside from telling someone \u201cI want Fable\u201d or \u201cI like RPG\u2019s\u201d (which might net you a copy of \u2018Asheron\u2019s Call\u2019 when you really wanted \u2018Dungeon Siege II\u2019), how do you give someone enough information about your likes and dislikes in games that they could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}