The Oldie Top Ten

I agree with you guys, but don't see it as an absolute truism. It is just that any visual medium by its' very nature of having words, sounds and visuals curtails the amount of imagination required by the observer.

I don't think that text/words impedes the imagination that much. When reading a novel, you have to process your own imagery of what is being indicated, and each person will visualize the conceptual triggers differently/uniquely.

txa1265 said:

I agree with you guys, but don't see it as an absolute truism. It is just that any visual medium by its' very nature of having words, sounds and visuals curtails the amount of imagination required by the observer.

Click to expand...

To a certain extent. Imagine the differences between play P&P game and playing Bioshock. One forces you to use your imagination to "see" your characters, setting and what is happening and the other makes you use your imagination from seeing what has happened in Rapture. Both make you use your imagintion to understand what is going on but Bioshock takes away a lot of imagination by showing you exactly what has happened there. I don't remember the exact quote but Ken Levine said something about how the story of what happened in Rapture would be represented visually and after playing it, I definatly got a sense of a city gone mad by just seeing the suitcases and protest signs when I got out of the bathysphere. That took away some of my imagination by forcing the visual picture on me.


I believe it's like when you read a novel and then go see the movie based on the novel. I don't know about anyone else but I am never happy with the movie because it takes away too much of what made the book good. You never get the personal connection with the characters like you can from reading a good book.

With all that said I still understand why it would be very difficult to go from Bioshock graphics to graphics like in Pools of Radiance.

I definitely noticed starting in the late 90's that it seemed far more effort was put into the interface and graphics than the actual story of most RPG's. I've come around to the 3-d interfaces of today, and while I still reminisce about the old games, in playing U5:Lazarus and replaying U7, I found myself a bit annoyed at the lack of journal entries or mini-maps (less so in U5:L as it did have the far overhead map).

On topic though, I can't believe after 5 pages, there's still no love for Legacy of the Ancients!

blatantninja said:

On topic though, I can't believe after 5 pages, there's still no love for Legacy of the Ancients!

Click to expand...

Legacy of the Ancients got love from me on Top 10 CRPGS of all time http://www.rpgwatch.com/forums/showthread.php?t=727&page=20 but for this list I felt that Battletech was also quite lonely