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      <h5><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">//<a href="../../../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">loonygames</font></a>://<a href="../index.html"><font color="#7C420E">issue 
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                      <p><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#0000FF"><i><a href="../../2.1/uc/index.html"><font color="#904C10" size="3">Beaker's 
                        Bent <br>
                        Yet more on the Future of RPGs</font></a></i></font></b><br>
                      
                      <div align="right"> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-1">By 

                        Rich &quot;<a href="mailto:rich@loonygames.com">Beaker</a>&quot; 
                        Wyckoff</font></div>
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                    <h5 align="right"><b><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#00025E">Vol. 
                      2, Issue 5&nbsp; <br>
                      December 8, 1999&nbsp; </font></b></h5>
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              <loonystart> 
              <h5 align="right">&nbsp; </h5>
             
            <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Now compare 
              <b>BG</b> to the recent<b> Final Fantasy</b> games. These also take 
              place on top of static backgrounds, yet take advantage of this fact 
              by rendering them from all sorts of interesting angles as adventure 
              games do. <b>FF</b>'s environments are also largely non-interactive, 
              with the occasional button to play with or computer console to operate. 
              Neither <b>BG</b> nor <b>FF</b> have much of what I'd call a world 
              simulation at all. <b>Zelda</b> and <b>Ultima IX</b>, on the other 
              hand, are worlds largely filled with items which operate under learnable 
              and relatively consistent rules, rather than being mere immovable 
              window dressing. A burning torch in <b>Zelda</b> can be used to 
              ignite a stick, which can then light other torches. In <b>Ultima</b>, 
              the douse spell can put out fires, clearing a path through dangerous 
              areas. Rocks can be picked up and hurled at enemies in <b>Zelda</b>, 
              or piled into stacks to help reach high ledges in <b>Ultima</b>.</font></p>
            <p align="left"></p>
            <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Creating 
              an interactive world is just one way to go about making an RPG, 
              but I happen to think it is the most important direction for RPGs 
              to go in, and despite the many problems with <b>U9</b>, I really 
              feel it signifies the future of the genre. Origin may be abandoning 
              single player games altogether, and based on their results with 
              <b>Ultima IX</b>, that's probably a very good idea. However, better 
              developers will continue to make single player-focused RPGs, and 
              for these developers, <b>Ultima IX</b> is the most important recent 
              RPG to study, for reasons I'll explore now.</font></p>
            <p align="left"></p>
            <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">There are 
              certainly other good games from the last year which are related 
              to the RPG genre. One of these is<b> System Shock 2</b>, but as 
              a first person, combat-focused game, I would argue that <b>Shock</b> 
              really represents a sophisticated kind of shooter rather than an 
              RPG. Likewise, the <b>Final Fantasy</b> series are coming to increasingly 
              favor their story development and cut scenes over their basic RPG 
              elements. With each new release, Square seems to be giving the player 
              less ability to customize their characters, which I feel is a very 
              important element in anything RPG-like. Finally, <b>Baldur's Gate</b>, 
              for all the hype, turns out to be less flexible than the great party-based 
              RPGs of the past, saddled with non player-created party members 
              and an annoying combat engine that manages to be neither a good 
              real time system nor a good phased system.</font></p>
            <p align="left"></p>
            <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">None of 
              these games really represent anything new for RPGs. The <b>Final 
              Fantasy</b> series has been going for years, just adding better 
              presentation and depth to the basic formula of highly plotted adventure/RPG, 
              and <b>Baldur's Gate</b> is basically a throwback to what RPGs were 
              like in the early 90s. What is the basic concept of an RPG on the 
              computer, anyway? To me, they are all about continually exploring 
              new and amazing places while increasing your characters' ability 
              to survive the ever-increasing hardships they will face. Computer 
              RPGs need to have character growth in terms of the basic game system, 
              and they definitely need to have combat that manages to stay interesting 
              throughout the game, and in my opinion they need to have plot. I 
              think if you take away either the game system character growth or 
              the combat but keep the plot, you have an adventure game, and if 
              you take away the plot but keep the other elements, you have a strategy 
              game. There's nothing wrong with either of these kinds of games, 
              but they aren't RPGs.</font></p>
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              <p align="left"><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"></loonystart></font></p>
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<p><i><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="-2">Credits: Illustration 
  &copy; 1999 Dan Zalkus. Beaker's Bent is &copy; 1999 Rich Wyckoff. All other 
  content is &copy; 1999 loonyboi productions. Unauthorized reproduction is prohibited, 
  so don't do it or we'll sick our lawyers on you. Muhahahahahahahah. ph3ar our 
  m@d l3gal sk1lz y0.</font></i></p>
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