GameSpy - How to Build and Market an RPG

This humour from GameSpy is as tired as the tropes they poke fun at. A sample from How to Build and Market an RPG:

The main selling point of western RPGs is freedom, so be sure to completely overwhelm the player with side quests right after the requisite hour-long tutorial tells them what their real goal should be.

In Fallout 3 the main mission is to find the avatar's father James, but the second the player emerges from Vault 101 they can kill raiders at a nearby school, go shopping at a supermarket, get lost in the labyrinthine DC subway system, help an annoying woman write a book full of questionable information, kill mutants… basically, you want to give the player every reason not to keep up with the main quest since, if you're doing a western RPG, that aspect should be the weakest.

More information.

This made me laugh - "the latest FPS "Revenge of Peace."

But overall, it's not a funny article, although he is mostly right. I'm getting increasingly tired with elves, dwarfs and the other Tolkien stuff.

Originally Posted by Malk
I'm getting increasingly tired with elves, dwarfs and the other Tolkien stuff.

Or with a cliché-laden setting for them.

Just imagine something like Fallout, but with Dwarves and Elves instead o Humans … And not Steampunk, but with a "magical Fallout" instead, so to say.

No-one has done this yet.

And the backstory of Stonekeep is the closest to this kind of setting I know about. Or of Frayed Knights.

Another setting no-one ever did is investigation, murder, cryme, mystery. Within a fantasy realm.

It's incredible (in a bad way) how they can't come up with something original. It's like they're totally out of imagination.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Just imagine something like Fallout, but with Dwarves and Elves instead o Humans … And not Steampunk, but with a "magical Fallout" instead, so to say.

You mean something like post-nuclear fantasy world? It sounds good, but if I could, I'd pick something even more original (since Arcanum did a similar thing).

Another setting no-one ever did is investigation, murder, cryme, mystery. Within a fantasy realm.

I don't think solving crimes would translate well to the rpg realm. But there is an adventure game with exactly the same concept - Discworld Noir. My favorite, actually.

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
Just imagine something like Fallout, but with Dwarves and Elves instead o Humans … And not Steampunk, but with a "magical Fallout" instead, so to say.

AD&D Dark Sun: post-apocalyptic, high-fantasy with Dwarfs and Elves. SSI released two(?) Dark Sun PC games back in the day, and they featured some of the finest turn-based combat ever to grace a CRPG.

All the money goes to the technology and programmers, rather than quality writers or original thinkers…

Originally Posted by Dhruin
In Fallout 3 the main mission is to find the avatar's father James, but the second the player emerges from Vault 101 they can kill raiders at a nearby school, go shopping at a supermarket, get lost in the labyrinthine DC subway system, help an annoying woman write a book full of questionable information, kill mutants…

This makes me want to play FO 3…

I can't even remotely understand, how this can be meant as criticism…

Another setting no-one ever did is investigation, murder, cryme, mystery. Within a fantasy realm.

Obviously you didn't play what is probably the best RPG ever… Ultima VII… you've got to go and play it right away!

Originally Posted by bkrueger
This makes me want to play FO 3…

I can't even remotely understand, how this can be meant as criticism…

to me it is

That criticism is stupid though. The main quest is 'find your father' and you can ignore it. That's good. Oblivion, on the other side, has the same approach but it doesn't work because the main quest should feel urgent and.. it isn't. Not at all.