RPG News - Gamasutra Storytelling Quantum Leap Awards

[Dhruin]

A few days ago Gamasutra posted their Quantum Leap Awards for Storytelling (http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20061103/quantum_01.shtml). Not surprisingly, RPGs (and Adventures) make up a good proportion of the chosen best, including System Shock 2, Baldur's Gate 2, Jade Empire, Planescape: Torment, Deus Ex and Fallout:
If there's one thing that makes a story great, it's the characters. Baldur's Gate II had tons of unique characters, all with very fleshed out personalities. But one thing that made it a "Quantum Leap" was the integration of these personalities into different situations. Your stoic Paladin buddy may react differently to the horrors of a sinister cult compared to your brooding Drow cleric. And better yet, they may just react to one another, leaving it up to the player to settle their dispute. On the other hand, the game also offers the player a chance to romance with certain characters in the game, a relationship that grows over the course of the adventure, so subtly that the player may not even notice he's in that character's "romance" string.
More information. (http://www.rpgwatch.com/show/newsbit?newsbit=2623)

[pantheon]

Thats got to be a spoiler - dammit!

[Dhruin]

It's pretty hard to discuss a (nearly) 10 year old game's story without potential spoilers, isn't it? I'll change the newsbit, but honestly, if you haven't played it yet you have to accept the rest of the world has moved on.

[space captain]

Jade Empire?? WTF that game was crap compared to those others

[Unregistered]

Thanks, I appreciate you doing that.
I would expect spoilers if I was to read the article but not as a heads-up to the article.

I think you'd be surprised how many people haven't yet played Fallout, especially younger players.

[Acleacius]

Yeah not sure why you would care, if you haven't played after 10 years?
Are you just waiting for the right moment? :p
Do many young players come to a strictly RPG site which most dicusses adult RPGs and not have played the classic RPGs?
Technically you said, Thats got to be a spoiler, impling you have not played it. ;)

[Corwin]

Fallout can be a difficult game to find now. It may not be their fault!!

[Dhruin]

I would expect spoilers if I was to read the article but not as a heads-up to the article.

Fair enough.

Aaaaaanyway, I found it interesting that the Jade Empire entry referred to having refined the KotOR approach...doesn't that make KotOR the quantum leap and Jade Empire an iterative refinement?

Of course, if you don't think KotOR was as revolutionary as the mainstream press seemed to assert, neither of them should be there.

[Maylander]

I still find it hard to believe Half Life is #2, while PS:T, Fallout, BG2 and FF7 are all just "honorable mentions".

[Corwin]

I agree, I would have thought PS-T should be in the top 3 along with FO 1/2!! The complexities within those games were incredible!!

[Maylander]

Indeed, the way the story is handled in PS:T is amazing, if that wasn't groundbreaking - nothing is. I'd go so far as to say not many games have been able to copy that after PS:T either.

I love how it's actually driven through a quest for answers instead of "I need to kill every baddie" or "Saaave the world!".

[Corwin]

You can actually complete the game without killing hardly anyone. In fact, the non-violent solutions were always worth MUCH more exp!!

[txa1265]

Remember this is a popularity contest - you had to write in and suggest stuff. The fact that two FPS are the top two stories ... well, it pretty well makes the list bogus (and remember that I'm a FPS nut). Just because the *method* of storytelling in HL was great doesn't mean that the story itself was all that great - certainly many on the Honorable Mention list were much better. And definitely agree on theKotOR thoughts.

[Maylander]

Indeed, KotOR is the "leap" in that type of storytelling and gameplay, as it was the first and set a standard. KotOR2, Jade Empire and so on are all based on the success of KotOR1. Also, KotOR1 has the whole Revan twist which is worth a mention. I can't recall ever seeing a twist like that in a game before, although the concept is far from new - read quite a few books with it. Always loved twists like that.

But then again, BG2 only refined BG1, I see no reason why BG2 should be "revolutionary" while BG1 is not. Yes, BG2 is a better game, but that's because it's more of the same, not really anything new.

[Ryuken]

Euhm, BGII wasn't "just" more of the same. The npc-interaction was upped to a great degree which very much made it a revolution.

[Arhu]

Ah, Dreamfall is in the list, my favorite as far as the story in a game is concerned. All is fine. :)

That said, there's still some games mentioned that I haven't played yet. Maybe I should..

[txa1265]

Ah, Dreamfall is in the list, my favorite as far as the story in a game is concerned. All is fine. :)

I think you mentioned that before ... I keep thinking I should play it at some point, but got so burned out on adventures earlier this year (just look at my GamerDad log of PC adventure reviews this year - I think I did 6 starting with Indigo Prophecy). Maybe after the new year and I've had enough time to really submerge myself in NWN2 and Gothic 3.

[Unregistered]

I was a bit surprised Betrayal at Krondor wasn't even mentioned. Guess it's a bit too old for popularity contests.

[Corwin]

You're probably right. After all, the game was made into a book!!

[doctor_kaz]

Baldurs Gate 2 had great character interaction, but is that really storytelling? The actual story itself was retarded, and the game relied heavily on 2nd person narrative to spoonfeed parts of the story to you.

Also, I agree that Kotor deserves a lot more mention. It was the first game to make evil a truly viable and equal career path as good and then turn both into separate and equally satisfying endings. Whatever path you chose, it seemed like the game was made for it.

[ToddMcF2002]

Jade Empire!?!?!?!???? Hey lets put PoR2 in too!

[Sisay]

Also, I agree that Kotor deserves a lot more mention. It was the first game to make evil a truly viable and equal career path as good and then turn both into separate and equally satisfying endings. Whatever path you chose, it seemed like the game was made for it.

Really? It would seem Arcanum did exactly the same, and I'm sure it wasn't exactly a fresh idea back in 2001 either. Not to mention games like Fallout and Geneforge doing it much better, not just having a completely linear main quest branching into two equally linear and uninspired quest lines a few hours before the game ends. The infamous Biowarian evil paths, where evil means being a petty thug or worse, doing exactly the same damn things the pretentious paragons of virtue do except asking money for it, don't really seem appealing. More like shallow. But that's just me I guess.

Actually, why have a linear main quest at all? Is this much hand-holding really needed? How does teh storytelling(tm) justify the linearity when the writing remains as subpar as ever? Why do developers ignore the obvious strenghts of the medium, actually being able to affect the story and the gameworld in a meaningful way? Why does every game try to be an Uwe Boll movie?

[LordRac]

Good to see Gabriel Knight make the list, that was an awesome game.

But ummm....Zelda 2?? :rolleyes:

Ultima V was released the same year and had waaaay better NPCs.