Well, I had fun yesterday evening. Spending my time formating/re-installing/updating my OS. During that time I was over on my spare (non-gaming, unfortunately) PC going through forums. One discussion that I had never really thought too much about was the topic of MMORPGs diversity, or rather the lack there of. Now, sure the argument was on what some would call the core mechanics of the RPGs, but it did make some good points. Why is there such a lack in diversity?
Diversity can mean many things of course; you have your traditional elf/dwarf warrior/wizard style RPGs and then the sci-fi variety, but the core mechanics of them are still roughly the same–level, get loot, do quests. All three of those actions can be put under one major awning of the RPG core, character development. The single basis of an RPG, to me, is the development and growth of a character. It is at these roots then that we must seek change.
How does a character grow? Through levels? Skills? Equipment? Or is it through the amount of quests finished and monsters killed? These have been the basis for most RPGs thus far. Surely these cannot be the only means of character development though, what other options are there? How about the choices a character makes; the impact they have on the world? What if skills and attribute increases were given based on decisions made and actions done? That could be interesting. Simply during the writing of this I am becoming flooded with ideas. I can imagine a world where there is no set path, there are no levels, no classes; there is only choices and actions, and what you do effects your character’s development and its place in the world. Where hiking out across the land and coming upon a small cottage, you will have choices–help the old hermit inside or harm him? Helping could increase your moral standing and have the possibility of gaining a skill (the hermit was an old wizard, he taught you a unique spell for helping him), where as harming him would lower your moral standing and could increase your character in other ways (gain a special magical artifact that he had in exchange for his life). I would love to see this, perhaps it’s time for me to find an open source game engine to learn so I can attempt it. The game would be a lot like the Elder Scrolls series, non-linear, but I would like to try a slightly different path with character development in it.
