Quote:
Originally posted by Katherine:
The main thing about NWN is the fact you will have interaction with other players and DMs. It's a real chance to roleplay in an otherwise sterile CRPG environment. That's the thing I look forward to- roleplay that makes sense for your character rather than being force fed a rigid plot.
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Well, but this is the old singleplayer vs multiplayer argument, all over again.
I think there is much to be said for both sides of the coin--and against both, too.
You refer to CRPGs as sterile environments; and certainly that's true, to the extent that you wish to roleplay and grow a character whose actions lie outside the very narrow possibilities supported by a goal-oriented, singleplayer game. However, a multiplayer environment doesn't automatically mean that your options for roleplaying are any broader, save for dialog. I've been on many formula MUDs that were just as restrictive towards roleplaying as the narroweest standalone games. In my experience (and I've been playing since the early 1980s), the broadest options were in text-based MUD spinoffs like DragonRealms--but I'm prejudiced. I worked for 'em for four years in my sparetime.
I know that we tried to build in as many options as possible for the RPGer. We used to run fairs periodically, and I made up close to a dozen merchants with enormous stocks of items drawing their inspiration from various cultures. Much of the stuff they sold was pure RPG; even when it had magical effects, the effects were often as not intended to amuse, entertain, and add provide RPG "hooks" for players. I even built apartment flats (when we added player-purchasable housing) that deliberately sought to create a distinctive, non-Western cultural feel. I attempted to avoid doing the "Celtic thing" or the "AD&D thing" as much as possible.
I strongly suspect that NWN will definitely contain the AD&D thing--not that this is bad, but it shows the inherent limitations of graphical environments over text-based ones: words are largely eliminated as one of the most basic building blocks. This leaves me wondering how much roleplaying NWN can truly allow. Oh, I think it will be great, and provide a ton of scenarios very quickly that are ingeniously user-built. But I question whether the multiplayer aspect of NWN will truly open up a venue for roleplayers. Unless there are tons of non-goal-oriented things around to do, I imagine we'll have the same rewards-for-finishing-killing-quests that predominate in most standalone games.
Note, Katherine, you may want to check out Morrowind. Although it is standalone only, I am extremely impressed with its "freeform" aspect. Many quests have nothing to do with killing. It's possible to all but "win" the final conflict--or ignore the main plot, in fact--and never kill anything in the game. I've seen tons of RPG items. Well worth checking out.