Level 7 Plunger of Tenacity!!!

[elgado]

A friend of mine recently told me about a new RPG game called Oblivion. The graphics were pretty sharp, but I had next to no interest in playing it despite my friend's claims that it was "really good". The reason is simple: the game offers nothing new other than better looking landscapes, shinier blades, and bigger clubs.

What I want to know is whether is whether people here have gotten tired of of the magician-orc-dwarf genre. Granted, I never liked fantasy games, but as an "outsider", it seems to me that they've gone too far in recycling this. Parvini has already raised the topic of repetitiveness in the industry. However, I feel that the Thou Hast Obtained Ye Ancient Matress of Misery genre has been recycled the most. Is the fantasy RPG market being propped up primarily by newcomers, or do old gamers still have interest in the newer games?

[mistergreen77]

I think they still have appeal. I haven't played Oblivion yet but my brother has a copy and he says it is really good. He is not a newcomer. I would say it is a question of taste - I feel that way about fps games and to some extent rts games as well. But if a new RTS game came out that breaks new ground I might be interested. But I was bored of fps after I finished wolfenstein and doom - since then there has never seen one I could get interested in. Oblivion is the next instalment in the Elder Scroll series of games which probably has a following - maybe it isn't just about the gameplay and its innovations but people have some emotional investment in the storyline as well.

[Scythe]

As long as it's a role playing game that offers me a lot of freedom in creating my character, stats for me to tweak and optimize, a world to explore and hours of quests, I couldn't care less about the setting. Fantasy, sci fi, horror, dark age, whatever. Recycle all you like, designers, just put in a lot of content, and I'll keep paying the bucks. Twiddling my character stats, showing the monsters who's the boss, heck, even dressing up my character in various ways, just because I can, always cooks my goat.

I just clocked 90 hours in Oblivion last night, and I'm not bored yet. In fact, I had to remind myself to let go and get some sleep (and only managed that because the game crashed). Oh yeah, and it IS also really pretty. I still have to convince myself that that tree I see in the distance isn't just background graphics - I have to walk all the way over there and see that it's really not. Neat. Before that, I'd just completed Dragon Quest 8, another outstanding fantasy RPG with a lot of content seen before, but done in an exceptionally charming and endearing way. I finished at about 110 hours of gameplay in that one.

The genre I feel for, as you do for fantasy RPGS, is real time strategy. I played the first "modern" RTS, Dune II, until I'd completed all three campaigns. Ever since then, I haven't seen a single (not even one) RTS game that, to me, wasn't just a rehash of Dune II on some level. I've never been able to play another RTS for more than 2-3 hours before becoming completely and utterly bored by the lack of new ideas. Dune II was innovative and I loved it. I keep shaking my head every time I see another RTS game built on the same bricks. It is, to a certain degree, pure genre hate, but I honestly enjoyed Dune II when it came out, and haven't enjoyed any other RTS game I've tried since then.

[eMTe]

Fantasy games market is eating its own tail, undoubtedly, but it's Tolkien who is to blame. Unrelenting popularity of his books and world he created encourages big companies to suck the last cent out of fans pockets. And now another generation was enticed into this world by Jackson's movies. It's ever full bag of green stuff so why experiment?

[Parvini]

I'm considering getting Oblivion but am worried that I might need a new PC to play it... here are my PC's vital stats:

P4 1.8 Ghz
1.5 GB RAM
Nvidea FX5600 Graphics Card

Vampire: The Masquarade plays AWFULLY on this system so I'm worried about Oblivion.

Anyway, to address elagado's point... for me there are 4 vital ingredients to any great RPG:

1. an effective and rewarding levelling system

2. a great plot with an intriguing and gripping story combining REAL choice and providing consequences for decisions/ actions.

3. balance - the game should give you some challenge for your level.

4. a world that immerses you and takes you out of your real world, a world you can "get lost in" full of believable characters that enourages you yourself to role-play.

Everything else INCLUDING weapons and holy grails and side-quests and "freedom" comes second to these 4 ingredients.

For me, the BEST RPG ever was Baldur's Gate 2 - it had all these things by the bucket load and it never felt repetitive. I actually preferred the linear elements it had over the more freeform adventure of Baldur's Gate 1.

The MOST DISAPPOINTING ever was actually the predessor to Oblivion Morrowind. Not only was its levelling system crap but it had a poor main with virtually no incentive to follow it and most crucially its world whilst very pretty was full of carbon copy people and its horrible "dialogue tree" perhaps the worst I've ever seen in a game.

To me even really short and forgotten RPGs like Return to Krondor are preferrable to the lumbering almost unplayabe beast that was Morrowind.

I'd argue that recycling is not only fine but vital - rather than see obtaining items and levelling up as borrowed ideas, why not see them as the essentail tools of an RPG? Every Shakespeare tragedy has the same basic structure and elements but what makes each one distinct and special is how Shakespeare fleshes that stucture out. I see RPGs in pretty much the same way - Baldur's Gate 2 is the RPG equivalent of Hamlet no amount of reading it will ever exhause what it has to offer, Morrowind was the RPG equivalent of King John some good ideas but poorly executed.

[Eric]

A friend of mine recently told me about a new RPG game called Oblivion. but I had next to no interest i: the game offers nothing new

The game may offer nothing new to an old hand of the RPG genre but to the new gamers it offers quite a lot.

I have never been a fan of the Goblins, Elves and Orc "nonsense" - it really doesn't interest me but I have found that Oblivion captures my interest. You do need a meaty system to run the game so it looks nice, but hey, what modern game doesn't?