Drew, you seem to have forgot the PC legend Fallout 2 in yesterdays closing response. Not only does the game let you play out an open ended life in its world, it also throws in consequences for your actions, and a trunk load of possibilities that at times, seems almost endless.

This isn't to say I liked the game though :) In fact, I down right hated it, but I though it was worth mentioning anyway.

I know you don't want to hear this but......fallout. I know that you get tired of hearing it getting told to you whenever you ask questions like this, but fallout gives you great leeway into personal behavior. You can kill almost anyone, in fact in one town you come across a feud between two opposing sides, and you have the choice of killing one or the other, or doing nothing.

On the other hand, most of these games add freedom of action usually do so to the exclusion of a cohesive narrative. General characterization gets thrown by the wayside because of the ability to do actions not in line with the character's throughts, ideals and morals. Would it have made any sense if Zidane suddenly out of the blue decided to take his weapon and kill Dagger. Probably not. Also, freedom in a game means that more variables have to be stored in game save files. Actions must be recorded, and each must be saved. The saves in fallout could run into the megs. This could be overcome with the latest generation of games though, given the amount of hard drives and larger memory cards.

As for killing in MMORPG's this is an issue of contention. Even if you rule out leveling up, killings would still happen in ways that would piss off a majority of the game players. PK groups would develop, as they did in Ultima Online. Roving bands of killers camping near newbie spawn points do not a fun game make.

What does it all add up to? Not much. If anyone did have the answers, they probably wouldn't tell anyone, but go out and create a game we would all buy. Oh well.

-Zabuni

You know what the problem with more freedom in RPG's is, more complications/dilemmas/conflicts to the scenario. I mean, suppose you are able to smash the sword in the mayor's face(who, may I remind you, is the only person to posesses the knowledge to the key's whereabout) and ultimately killing him, then what would the other option be in order to advance with the story, to reset the game and pick the option whereas to not smash his face in the second time you speak to him? Or maybe even worse,Saga Frontier worse, to have that particularly heinous action result in an immediate unresolved/unexplained/alternate ending? Sure I suppose the programmers could add an option to forcibly have you pick the correct option via the try-and-true formula without resetting, but I'm sure this wouldn't be very fun now would it- for the programmers or ourselves that is. Do you see where I'm going at here, the more freedom in RPG's, the more anomalies/dilemmas/complications/conflicting scenarios/ unwanted bugs there are likely to be! So the only way I can see where it's feasible for true freedom/total control in an RPG is if it were an online/MMORPG RPG, who knows maybe we'll get the option to smash the mayor's face in with FF11?

-Obese roach-

Drew:

For the subject of games being able to predict numerous responses to things and how it won't work, I'm going to point the finger at an unusual suspect: pen and paper RPGs.

The main advantage to these over computer and/or console gaming, as most who have seriously compared the two will attest, is that there is more freedom available to the player -- infinite freedom, in fact; if it's possible and you can think of it, you can do it.

There is a major preventative factor to modifying this for a computer interface: /the computer itself/.

What's missing here is human imagination. A computer cannot possibly predict every last thing that a person wants to do -- hell, even designing an interface capable of supporting this would be a nightmare, let alone the programming for it. Computers don't know anything unless we tell them about it, or at least how to create it by letting it fill in some set variables. How, therefore, is a computer going to understand that I'm going to react to the aforementioned dorkwad mayor by asking what he had for breakfast or dancing flagrantly or any one of literally thousands of things I could do?

Whereas in a P&P, asking what he had for breakfast wouldn't neccesarily do me any good, but after re-iterating to the gamemaster that "no, I'm not kidding, I really want to do this", it would be done. Humans, such as the GM, comprehend breakfast without requiring a sub-routine. Computers do not.

But how is a computer going to predict a thing like this? Take a good look at artificial life projects -- programs made to imitate real people in conversation; that sort of thing (there are a few of these currently on the web -- do a search for "Megahal" sometime). Even the best of these cannot maintain the illusion for more than about five minutes. Pre-fabricated responses and reactions are /required/ in order to avoid pitfalls like this, and to ensure that no non-sequiturs come along. (Before the word "Fallout" escapes anybody's mouth, let me point out that even in that paragon of non-linearity, one was very rarely provided with more than three or four ways to solve a problem. This is still admirable after noting that most games before then only gave you /one/ way of solving something, but it's still very far from perfect.)

And for the final nail in the coffin, go take a look at The Sims. If Will Wright's track record and support from a monolith like EA can't give a computer program enough intelligence to pick up the chair from the hallway and set it down somewhere else so that it doesn't starve to death behind an impassible blockade, what hope do we really have of truly human behavior reaction within the next few years?

I've probably overshot the bounds of the daily topic by a few miles already, so I'll shut up now.

-J.S. Powell

hello,

it's me the stupid guy that writes you NC17 letters (i like drew like madonna likes dick!!!!!!!!!) and leaves you and the rest of you freaks(readers) to deal with this crap, but i'm gonna try and write a serious letter (don't expect it to be long and technical like chris would demand):

first of all i'm loaded (drunk) [Thanks for clearing up the meaning of "loaded" -Drew], but i have to say that paper mario is pretty damn awesome, especially since i bought it while shopping for valentine's gifts for my girlfriend with my friend's girlfriend, and she screamed at me when i went into software etc to buy a vmu & a video game. well f-that, it's funny how the fact that when her parents were away this weekend she continued to play it for 2 days straight and i had to actually steal my n64+game+etc from her house since she liked it so much (so did her boyfriend & 1 other dude). and i agree, the game is really really well done, especially in the fighting system (which i think will be overlooked quite a bit). it's like a final fantasy game with mario/friends and their items (hammers/fire flowers/etc), with excellent 2D graphics and even better 3D landscapes. how is that for a review, 3 non-"gamers" to spend a consequence-free weekend drinking and playing paper mario, when at first they didn't even know what it was.

well i just wrote quite a few good reasons to buy paper mario, and now let me try and explain why phantasy star online is one thousand times more worthy of your money than paper mario.

phantasy star online = hannibal lecter on the loose, paper mario = the silence of the lambs
phantasy star online = scrambled eggs & bacon cooked by mom, paper mario = mcdonalds breakfast sammich
phantasy star online = getting laid, paper mario = cinemax softcore porn

..... i could keep going, but i just have to say that after giving up on Asheron's Call & Everquest, Phantasy Star Online has captured me in a sick, unadulterated, perverse, grotesque way. I don't know if it's the fact that Phantasy Star (1) is/was the first RPG i got into, whether i had sex with my PS2 cartridge, or the fact that I spent $90+ on PS2, 3, and 4 each. Or maybe it could be that it's a Diablo with Dreamcast graphics and absolutely no problem in the lag/connection department so far, (check out my article on dc.ign.com on how to get broadband to work, my name's Zack [quick plug???]).

Ok well i hope i weighed both those choices fairly... so when you're finally online with phantasy star, all i ask is that you email me with a time & server to meet you on, because i would love to kill Dar, er, the last boss with you.

-Z, i love you drew

Where are the GIA's reviews of Phanstasy Star Online and Paper Mario? I consider you guys to be the authority on what to buy, but there's been some slackage lately in actually reviewing the games timely enough to be helpful.

(I bought PE II the day it came out because the GIA hadn't warned me away from it yet, and have been bitter since. Bah.)

Anyway, if you're broke, then I'd reccomend Paper Mario. PSO can only hold one character per memory card, so you need a 4x memory card or several vmus in order to try out several classes, which just raises the bill higher.

The local EB also will not let you return PSO, saying something about PSO registers the access key to your specific Dreamcast when you go online, the end result being you can only play online from the first DC you use to play it online.

-Norvy

Hey man,

This column has gotten REALLY lame (as always, well-written, but now unmistakeably, REALLY lame). Perhaps there is a direct correlation between the progressing lameness of the Final Fantasy series and this column. Mathematically, it would be something like:

Q(FF#?)= .5Q(C)

...where "Q" is the constant of quality, "FF#?" represents the latest installment in the Final Fantasy Series, and "C" is this column.

Could it be that when FF# is less-than-noteworthy, there is actually very little worth mentioning on the minds of this columns followers? To be honest, I hate math. Don't make me hate the GIA as well. Find something new to talk about.

And for what my two cents are worth (devalued because of inflation, I'm sure):

Final Fantasy (insert number here) hasn't been an RPG since VII, when all the computer animation and intrusive storytelling was introduced. Don't get me wrong, the computer animation can be spectacular and the stories can stir curiosity, but anytime I can't allocate stats, character class, or EVEN CHOOSE MY CHARACTERS' NAMES, I'm not playing an RPG.

You might be in denial, but of late, Squaresoft has channeled its energies into reaping revenue from the band-wagoning popularity of the Final Fantasy name. Case-in-point: Back-to-back-to-back installment releases, copious amouints of figurine, audio, and other merchandising, and a forthcoming budget-busting movie (that is also such an ill-conceived idea, it has put Square in the red).

The writing is one the wall. Square and Final Fantasy have gone mainstream, and everything we learned to appreciate about the series in our youth is now exploited for the mass-market. Don't be naiive for the sake of nostalgia.

~The anti-Gipper

Well, in real life back in the day the "RL PKers", highway bandits, travelled in large groups and ambushed anyone unfortunate enough to be travelling along the highways. This scared people into never straying far from their home villages, and merchants and others with a need to travel often had to pay large fees to hire bodyguards. Oh yeah, there's something I want to see realistically simulated, all right.

-AJ

Hey Drew,

If you were really broke, you wouldn't be able to afford either of those two games. Kind of like I am. Well, exactly like I am. I'm so jealous of you, you damn bastard.

-E

I just wanted to tell you about how -I- felt about Failu...I mean, Phantasy Star Online. Though I haven't played Paper Mario, I did buy it, and will try it this week...after I complete Skies of Arcadia. Anyway, on to my rant in effort to convince you to get anything -but- Phantasy Star Online.

I like the Phantasy Star series. Nothing against the games; II and IV stand out as two of the better RPG's I've played. Unfortunatley, Phantasy Star Online...really..sucks. Oh, it's addictive, if you don't play online PC games, for about two hours- then the horrible realization that this is a terribly shallow game kicks in.

Yuji Naka admitted that Phantasy Star Online was modeled after the hit PC game Diablo II; there's nothing wrong with doing that. However, when it's a poor clone, it is. PSO lacks any semblance of a plot; there is a backstory, but that's it; never capitalized on, no twists, no NOTHING. I'm serious. Even in single player Diablo II had a decent storyline, serving not only as a mood-setter but as something to keep the game balanced in all areas and to provide for a good atmosphere. And it did. PSO, well, Sonic Team must have said, "What the hell, they don't need a plot!"...and that's that. I can't comment on the music because we all have very different tastes; I thought it was merely passable, nothing more. The same for the sound effects. The real kicker is the terrible gameplay. First off, there are only FOUR DUNGEONS in PSO. FOUR. That's it. Four incredibly small dungeons that you will travel through over and over and over and over again until you puke from seeing those same damned textures. I see no excuse for this! That is unbelievable! FOUR! All those dungeons consist of are opening doors to fight monsters...in the most boring of ways. First, the camera is terrible, never adjusting so you can see ahead unless you take the time out to stop and do it manually. Secondly, your character enters "walk mode" whenever next to an enemy, making it hard to run away, and for sluggish control. There is a terrible targeting system as well; PSO begs for a Z-Targeting system like the Zelda 64 titles, but alas, that's not there either. After beating two billion of the same enemy in a dungeon, you level up. You finish your quest. Then you return to that same city-block area that's the size of your room and buy items. Now that's what I call deep, engrossing gameplay. But wait, there's more! Not only do you get a non-existent plot and terribly shallow gameplay, but you get amazingly shallow character creation abilities as well! I think people were decieved into thinking PSO had a good character creation system. YOU CAN MAKE YOUR CHARACTER FAT! Wow! Hold me down! When it comes to the things that MATTER, like stats, no, no, you can't edit anything like that! You can't even pick your gender! No editing important things like agility, strength, etc. Just appearance. Now that's what I call an amazing amount of depth. You might be blown away at this.

Phantasy Star Online is a step in the right direction; online gameplay. While it -is- fun for a bit to play online with people/friends, it grows old quickly due to all the aformetioned flaws. Simply put, it's a bad Diablo II clone, and I suggest you pick that title up; it's a much more rounded product. PSO is too shallow, my friend

Drew, I read Double Agent every day even though I don't agree with half the stuff that comes out of your mouth ( keyboard ) but enough is enough. You and your readers constant attacks on random encounters beg for something to be said and so I will.

Without fighting monsters, an RPG is a load of nothing but preset fights, one after the other. This strategy works with some strategy RPGs such as Kartia, where the world and story environment speaks volumes by itself, but makes potentially expansive games like Chrono Cross feel abysmal to play. The question shouldn't be as to whether to eliminate random encounters but ways to better make use of them so they're not an unpleasant experience. If you don't agree with me and say that random encounters do nothing but impede progress, slow gameplay, and are sometimes painful, then let us reexamine it.

How much time did you spend in FFT intentionally going into random encounters and having a lot of fun? Anything can happen in them - maybe you'll find a couple of chocobos beating up on another one ( which is a guest unit for unknown reasons ). The enemy combination almost always varies - one friend of mine once had a random encounter against fifteen dragons! Then in the encounter, your characters develop right in front of you and use teamwork and skills you've attained to defeat the enemies. If random encounters die, kiss any potential expansion on this goodbye. Or if thats enough - be honest with yourself, how much time did you spend just walking around the Veldt? I rest my case