The Year Role-Playing Games Broke @ Joystiq

Dhruin

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The Year Role-Playing Games Broke at Joystiq argues that classic western RPGs reached their nadir in 1995, with a new era and a different paradigm following:
For example, SSI, the company that owned the license for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons video games, released around 30 AD&D games between 1988 and 1994. Thirteen of those were part of the "Gold Box" series of games that had almost identical engines and narrative style. We sometimes complain about Call Of Duty putting out similar games every year, but the Gold Box games came even faster. But SSI lost that license, with the last major release in 1995, and a consistent amount of good-to-great (though rarely earth-shattering) AD&D games disappeared from the market. So too did non-licensed games that are barely remembered today -- Albion, The Magic Candle series, Phantasie?
At the time, this seemed to indicate the near-death of the genre. 1995 and 1996 were certainly dark periods, with only Daggerfall and Diablo -- barely counting with a December 31st release -- making 1996 look better. The numbers never came back, but the Hall Of Fame-level games did: Fallout in 1997, Baldur's Gate, Fallout II, and Might & Magic VI in '98, and so on. (One of the few things that interests me about Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning is that it seems like an indication that the RPG is popular enough again to start seeing generic games in that genre, instead of shooters or action games.)
Thanks, Avantenor!
More information.
 
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I remember Phantasie and Phantasie II. Great games!
 
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Usual way of handling RPG franchises :

RPG -> established great brand name -> bigger firm buys it -> makes a shooter or a shooter-like game out of it -> death of the brand name (at least in the RPG genre)

New way of handling RPG franchises (as seen with the ME series) :

RPG -> established great brand name -> directly making a shooter-like game out of it (and thus skipping the step fro turning an RPG brand name into a shooter brand name : the game's already a shooter-like game from the beginning on !)

This pattern is always the same. A great RPG brand name is established, bought, and turned into a shooter-like game.

I'd like to go the opposite way, just to make people angry :

Shooter -> establisch grat shooter brand name -> make an old school RPG out of i.

This way of handling a shooter franchise ould most certainly break the shooter franchise. Maybe RPG players would be attracted by this RPG, but this is doubtful, if at least a part of the RPG players don't like this pecific shooter franchise at all.

It would like ... turning the Call Of Duty or the Battlefield game into an old school RPG with lots of talents, perks & feats and numbers in it. And experience points, of course, and numberic display of damage during combat.

And, of course, no ccompany holding such a shooter brand would license it to me so that I could do an old school RPG out of it.

They wouldn't, simply because they'd knew that I'd be braking the franchise by making a completely different game out of it.

But doing it vice versa they don't have these scruples. They are willing to do a shooter game out of an RPG, they believe that this is just okay doing so.


In a way Obsidian tried it with Alpha Protocol.
 
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I remember Phantasie and Phantasie II. Great games!

Never played II but Phantasie III was way better than pt. I. Great game.
 
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I really do miss the gold box games. They were far from perfect (mainly due to 2nd editions funky magic system) but they were solid, fun, titles. Some of the best turn based, tactical, party based combat.
 
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Currently I'm aware of at least 2 old school turn based RPGs based on Doom (Doom Roguelike, and Doom RPG) as well as one on Castle Wolfenstein.

I'd like to go the opposite way, just to make people angry :

Shooter -> establisch grat shooter brand name -> make an old school RPG out of i.

This way of handling a shooter franchise ould most certainly break the shooter franchise. Maybe RPG players would be attracted by this RPG, but this is doubtful, if at least a part of the RPG players don't like this pecific shooter franchise at all.

It would like … turning the Call Of Duty or the Battlefield game into an old school RPG with lots of talents, perks & feats and numbers in it. And experience points, of course, and numberic display of damage during combat.
 
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So too did non-licensed games that are barely remembered today — Albion, The Magic Candle series, Phantasie

I hated the Gold box games at the time but played and loved those 3 game. As far as barely remembered, Albion was the type of game you just don't forget. I can't even remember the name of any gold box game I played. But I still remember a lot of the story and game play of Albion.
 
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"Shooter -> establisch grat shooter brand name -> make an old school RPG out of i."

In addition to the Doom RPGs and Wolfenstein RPG mentioned above, I think they also made a Serious Sam RPG. Subtilted Random Encounter or something like that?
 
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Ah, Magic Candle. Fond memories. As I recall, it was the first (or one of the 1st) games where you can leave party members in town working and/or training.

There were three as I remember. Then they put out a 4th game with the same engine but not with "Magic Candle" in the title. Can't recall the name. I think it came out shortly before the end of the company.
 
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As much as I enjoyed the gold box games (and I did play every single one I got my hands on, which were mostly all of those released), I didn't enjoy any of them as much as I did Fallout and Baldur's Gate 2. For me, those games marked the point in which story, gameplay/strategy, graphics, and audio all come together to form a perfect RPG experience. I would put Planescape in that group as well, though one tick below the other two.

Since then, RPGs have more-or-less followed the Elder Scrolls (open world) or Diablo (loot-driven) mechanics. DA: Origins seemed like a brief return to form for Bioware, but alas proved not to be...
 
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I really hope they go back to DAO for DA3. Honestly, I loved DAO, despite its flaws.
 
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… and Stonekeep.

Not sure if I'd put Stonekeep on the same level as those games.


I really hope they go back to DAO for DA3. Honestly, I loved DAO, despite its flaws.

DA:O was the last Bioware game I enjoyed to any degree. I'd love to see a sequel in the same style, but something tells me that EA/Bioware are a little too stubborn for their own good.
 
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To me, "broke" is kind of a harsh word. More that they changed from the classic RPG model to variety of hybrids that added more storytelling and action-based gameplay into the mix.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, 1995 and 1996 pretty poor years for PC gaming overall, were they not? That was a boom time on the console side with the PS1 picking up major steam. JRPGs were also having their golden age during that span and were growing in popularity, peaking in 97-99. I would think that those factors may have had an indirect impact on the PC side of things. At least, that's what I would speculate.

I do miss some of the games of that pre-95 era though. I still remember the hours and days I would spent exploring the World of Xeen. That said, I do love the more narrative-driven experiences of modern RPGs as well, and would note that some of the most beloved PC RPGs came after 1995.
 
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Ah, Magic Candle. Fond memories. As I recall, it was the first (or one of the 1st) games where you can leave party members in town working and/or training.

There were three as I remember. Then they put out a 4th game with the same engine but not with "Magic Candle" in the title. Can't recall the name. I think it came out shortly before the end of the company.

I believe the title was Bloodstone: An Epic Dwarven Tale
 
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^ Beat me to it. They were all pretty cool games, though the first was the best. Heck, I kinda liked the weird little strategy spin offs they did: Siege & Ambush at Sorinor. I have fond memories of sending my battle chickens charging at the enemy lines...
 
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