My son recently referred me to your Gaming Intelligence website. Nice to know that there are people out there who actually still care about RPGs (the numbers are dwindling).

I am a somewhat "older than normal" female RPG fanatic. I began playing my first RPGs on a "dumb terminal" in 1979, online. The first computer RPG I had was for my first Apple II+ back in 1980, on the old large floppy disks (in the "olden" days when computers didn't have hard drives).

And, I have continued to loyally play RPGs from that time to the present, on Apples, a Lisa, IBMs and clones, various Macs from regular to "Power" to the new "G3." Along the way, my son grew up, and together we have played RPGs, when available, on the original Nintendo, the 64, the Turbo-Graphs 16 (with and without the CD), and all of the various Segas (Master, Saturn, Genesis (with and without the CD). We have all of those original games still, plus the notes and dungeon diagrams we hand-drew and wrote, and some (not too often purchased) "game guide" books.

So, I guess you could say that I'm somewhat experienced in this area by now. To put it bluntly and succinctly, the older games were well-written, creative and many were unusual and a lot of fun... and the majority of those done today are boring, badly written, etc.

But the worst problem is that you can't get through many of the recent games without a game guide because (as I am always screaming now in frustration) the "links" to the various sections of the games are not tracked properly, and, often, you don't know where you are supposed to go next because someone simply was not detailed enough to ensure accurate and complete instructions to the game player.

In one game, it let you actually teleport out of a dungeon while the countdown was in progress, then the dungeon completely disappeared, and the game proceeds normally... until... at the very END of the game, the player finds out that a crucial item was in the dungeon and you can't go back to retrieve it, and you need to start the whole game all over again.

In another game I am playing now, there are clues in the dialogue to where the player must go next, BUT they must be written down immediately, because there are no repeats anywhere in the game. If you blink and miss the information, or if you press the game buttons too fast while you are reading, then the information can be lost forever. There are no repeats, even from the same character who gave you the information, even if you immediately talk to that character again. And, no hints to that same information anywhere in the same town, or in any other town.

Another example... I was playing a game recently that had a description of an item in the booklet that came with the CD. I assumed that this item did what the booklet said it did. At one point, having that item, I got stuck in an area of the game. Then I found out, from a "game faq" that this item actually had a function that was DIFFERENT than that described in the booklet. This shouldn't happen in a well-designed game. Players should be given accurate information (no, it wasn't a translation problem -- the information was missing, as if the game people just didn't care).

Have you also noticed that some games require one to purchase food, yet if you run out of food it makes absolutely no difference at all? And, some games make it almost impossible for a character to die, which, when you discover this fact, makes the game a lot more boring. RPGs are NOT supposed to be that "user-friendly!"

Too many games now waste too much time before you get the airplane or transporter, or dungeon escape spell, or other faster methods of moving around. It seems as if the programmers are trying their best to waste people's time, so they don't need to worry about more creative places to go until almost the end of the game.

I have found most of your comments on the frequently-used conventions in modern RPGs to be (unfortunately) completely accurate, too. But those don't bother me as much as the increasing frequency of bad programming and insufficient information given to the game player in the game and the guidebook.

After playing these games for so many years now, I fully expect to be able to reasonably play the game, know where to go, and be able to survive to the end of the game, without needing any additional information, other than the little booklet with the CD, and the information contained in the game itself. I shouldn't need to look up "Game Faqs" on the Internet, or buy a game guide, or call the company for hints. A properly programmed game should be entirely self-contained.

Well, this isn't a "rant," but it is a commentary on the state of the RPG games in general, and a somewhat sad commentary on the lack of real creativity in RPGs anymore -- it seems that the quest for money, and the much higher costs of marketing, and the increasing rarity for successful small enterprises, are depressing the creative geniuses in this area. Sigh.

- Paulette Caswell