Mass Effect 3 - Preview @ Atomic PC

Atomic PC has a preview of Mass Effect 3 based on a presentation and roundtable discussion with the Biodocs and invited press. Among the subjects covered was "the future of RPGs", with this snip featuring Eugene Evans, GM of BioWare Mythic:

Out of the many topics, the future of RPGs was perhaps the most interesting. There was a lot of discussion of multiplayer, the supposition that single-player will die off in the not-so-distant future and how interconnected mobile platforms can add to the RPG experience. All members of the panel had their own spin on how they saw the future of the RPG, but Eugene summed it up best with his stance. “I think the always-connected person, the person with the phone that’s as capable as it is now and will be in the next couple of years, means that they expect that to be part of their everyday life. We should expect that to be part of their everyday gaming life, too. And the opportunity to make that an extension of what they’re doing in a game, is going to be very, very powerful; as a way to keep them engaged.”
“Because you only have so much time to play; but you do have time when you’re on the bus, you do have time when you’re waiting around for whatever. It’s a way to keep them engaged and re-engage them so that they’re going to want to get back home to play the game. They’re going to want to get back to their couch, their desk, wherever it is to play. And that’s only going to, I think, create more excitement around games, because that excitement comes from being pulled back into that universe all the time.”

More information.

I *hate* this new direction!

So to marry those two is difficult and what we have to focus on is just to make sure that combat feels personalised. But when you play a role-playing game, role playing is the most important thing. You want to be able to do things that you would in real life. So you have to find a way to actually say, ‘This is how I’d fight in combat. This is how I’d defeat these enemies.’”

This is the typical "I fight, therefore I play a role" nonsense.

It's not much better than "I eat, therefore I am living".

but BioWare is looking to make the third Mass Effect outing bigger than before. One such area that BioWare is raising the standard is in the combat.
“So we’re still using the Unreal 3 engine but we’ve done a lot of work to bring a better particle system into the game and that adds a kind of different level of dynamic-ness to the combat; especially the enemies that use things such as smoke which you may have seen in the demo. Those kinds of things are in. You’ll be able to have a 3D battlefield in a way where you can move up, down, all over the place… jumps over gaps and ladder climbing, and all that kind of stuff changes up the combat.”

So they only concentrate on the combat.

The whole article is almost only focussing on combat in terms of describing ME3 - and on "emotional involvement.

It's a riddle to me as how they might try to combine both. Because combat just isn't emotional at all, imho. And ME3 is to a great part about nothing but combat, if I interprete the signs correctly.

the supposition that single-player will die off in the not-so-distant future

This is what is indeed currently going on. The MP crowd has won. I just home there'll be territories where SP might still flourish, like the adventure games in Germany.

“Because you only have so much time to play; but you do have time when you’re on the bus, you do have time when you’re waiting around for whatever. It’s a way to keep them engaged and re-engage them so that they’re going to want to get back home to play the game. They’re going to want to get back to their couch, their desk, wherever it is to play. And that’s only going to, I think, create more excitement around games, because that excitement comes from being pulled back into that universe all the time.”

… Until the pendulum swings back and peoople do NOT to be connected anymore.

The human organism just can endure only so much involvement. At least, until people begin to "enhance" the human mind - which is through cybernetics or through drugs. Addiction might follow.

And this "let's keep them constantly engaged" is an dangerous experiment on humanity, too. Because it will create quite a lot of addiction, too. In that no-so-far-away future we might indeed end up like the humans in Wall-E.

Ray expanded on Eugene’s idea in how he saw a link between the past, the present and the future of RPGs. “Nowadays, we can actually create worlds that look real. We’re breaking that barrier now more and more and it’s interesting because all we’ve really done is brought what the players had in their head at the beginning [of RPGs] to life. And now the systems can handle that and you can create engaging dynamics of AI and the world interaction and multiplayer interaction and social interactions, and everything the player dreamed, I think, 30 years ago we’re not at the real starting point for computer games. We’re at the new beginning where everything we imagined is possible.”

One word : Matrix.

In this article of a German newspapr site a doctor of neurology (if I interpret his title correctly) informs the reader that using a magnetic resonance tomograph, scientists were able to reconstruct a movie seen shortly before scanning by the persons who were then scanned by the magnetic resonance tomograph. Unfortunately no source of this is given.


And last, I don't understand this "activity chain" concept they use in the article.

I think they're right about multi player. In fact I think single player is already dead. I think if a big single player RPG came out right now it wouldn't get anywhere and no one would buy it.

Your post is missing something

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
This is the typical "I fight, therefore I play a role" nonsense.

Actually, the way they talk about combat is that there seems like they mean having choice. That's a good thing and yes, combat is a big part of role-playing games as ut has always been. But you can't really translate "crouch down, get a handful of sand from the ground and throw it in the brigand's eyes. Then run around him, steal his helmet and choke in with it from behind" into a computer game.

So they only concentrate on the combat.

No? They were lifting one aspect from the game and discussed it. Doesn't mean that all there is to it. It certainly does not seem the trend going on ME and ME2.

This is what is indeed currently going on. The MP crowd has won. I just home there'll be territories where SP might still flourish, like the adventure games in Germany.

I would love to see some experiments in multi-player adventure gaming! I think there are amazing possibilties for such a game! That's a great idea.

Originally Posted by human_male
I think they're right about multi player. In fact I think single player is already dead. I think if a big single player RPG came out right now it wouldn't get anywhere and no one would buy it.

I think you're forgetting about… oh. Right.

You know what makes me want to go back to my desk and play? A good game. It is that simple.

Originally Posted by human_male
I think if a big single player RPG came out right now it wouldn't get anywhere and no one would buy it.

Does not compute.

Originally Posted by JDR13
Does not compute.

Give it some thought.

Originally Posted by human_male
I think they're right about multi player. In fact I think single player is already dead. I think if a big single player RPG came out right now it wouldn't get anywhere and no one would buy it.

I think Skyrim and the Fallout franchise wants a word with you. They will sell if there good. You wont get the COD sales that's a different demographic. Most company's seem to forget that.

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
I think Skyrim and the Fallout franchise wants a word with you. They will sell if there good. You wont get the COD sales that's a different demographic. Most company's seem to forget that.

Hmmm, never heard of those games. Are they quite popular?

Some of you can't see HM's sarcasm for the trees.

Originally Posted by human_male
I think if a big single player RPG came out right now it wouldn't get anywhere and no one would buy it.

Except Skyrim.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Some of you can't see HM's sarcasm for the trees.

I guess that I'm too naive for that !

But - let's take a look at the RPG gaming world - what other choice do we have apart from those "blockbusters" and the Indies ? Not much, in fact. At least not in terms of high-buget games.

Compare the number of SP RPGs with that of MMORPGs + free-to-play RPGs. My personal impression is that the latter is currently booming, and increasing in numbers so much faster than SP gameplay. Even SP game modes more and more appear as "an afterthought" and "being tacked on".

At least that's my personal, subjective impression.

Originally Posted by Dhruin
Some of you can't see HM's sarcasm for the trees.

What is this… "sarcasm"?

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Even SP game modes more and more appear as "an afterthought" and "being tacked on".

Nonsense. The only games where the single-player campaign seems to be tacked on compared to the multi-player are games where multi-player is the primary gameplay mode. I especially don't see many RPG games with single-player where multi-player is a big focus compared to the single-player—if they even have it. Unless you're talking about Diablo clones.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Except Skyrim.

Compare the number of SP RPGs with that of MMORPGs + free-to-play RPGs. My personal impression is that the latter is currently booming, and increasing in numbers so much faster than SP gameplay. Even SP game modes more and more appear as "an afterthought" and "being tacked on".

At least that's my personal, subjective impression.

Well if your looking at AAA main stream MMORPGs, only about one comes out a year and it has a pretty good chance of failing or at least turning free to play and disapearing from the radar. Many more indie MMORPGs are released, but then again many more indie single player RPGs are also released. So multiplayer is definitely a big deal, but I'm not sure that it's dominating single player to quite the extent that you are imagining.

Originally Posted by human_male
I think they're right about multi player. In fact I think single player is already dead. I think if a big single player RPG came out right now it wouldn't get anywhere and no one would buy it.

I will say one word: Skyrim