SWTOR is fine to look towards as a game that scratches the slider itch, but without actually providing a back scratcher lol. SWTOR has been Bioware's cash cow for more than a decade now, and they seemed to figure out quickly that one way to keep players playing is simply to lean into outfits and looks. To the point where they don't even really need a game to prop it up, it's just like GI Joe or digital Barbie, an outfit designer set in the Star Wars galaxy or something.
Characters there don't really have skills or attributes or stuff like that to set them apart. They are all the same even down to the voice depending on what initial class you choose for the character. They rely almost entirely on gear and face/species to mix it up and make a character seem unique. But throw some dyes in there and some extra helmets and robes, and damned if people don't show up anyway just for that. lol
It just continues to confirm my long held belief that what D&D really needs is just a truly beautiful character designer. The character creator to end all D20 style character creators. Do it up to the umpteenth degree, maybe with a basic arena module, then worry about building the actual adventures and game modules for it later.
They should sell the character creator like a digital PHB, the environment builder and toolset like the DMG and MM, then make adventures for it with different studios and writers all working within the same base system. Artists all using the same tools and systems to create content over time at the industry standard. Basically what they said they were going to do with Neverwinter Nights, but never actually produced, which was Baldur's Gate: Unlimited Adventures. You know like the Unlimited Adventures they did for the final Gold Box.
Instead they keep farming it out into separate computer games from separate studios and so it has this rapid turn over and the most important thing (char design) always suffers. I think if NWN had been designed to support adventure modules for full party instead of single player characters in large groups (MMO or PW style), it would have lasted forever. The problem with it was that it lacked the party dynamic for level scaling, and its not as fun to build modules for a single PC as it is for a party. The same shit always happened every time, they could scale it well enough for an individual player, but anything more and the everything was thrown way off, so it was either an insta-kill for the monsters or a TPK for the players, because there were no scaling guard rails. The game was designed for SP/SC, not a party. Which is why it couldn't achieve BG status. You couldn't make a tactically interesting game like BG in a system like that, cause everything had to be easy enough that the single player character wouldn't get murdered constantly. All the adventures were basically solo adventure mods, and Bioware has continued in that vein unfortunately, but they still do a really nice job of capturing what people enjoy about developing a characters aesthetic, and aesthetic progression as a substitute for other more tactical/mechanical meat on the bones stuff.
For digital Dungeons & Dragons D D&D, it'd be rad if they planned it out in phases. Like first we get the Operating System and everyone designs for that OS. They could really work on creating a physics for a 'real-world' environment, design and animations for character mannequins in the char creator, some standards for how things like cinematics and the art will present in the PHB. With the MM it could be all about creature creation, dressing the bads basically. The DMG sets up the god mode, and a toolset for behind the game masters' screen. And THEN they launch the inaugural campaign module series. Like after that other stuff is all already in place. That would just be such a better way to do it. Like hire a studio to make the basic D&D OS, and have that be proprietary, but then go to individual studios to write the modules or the supplemental books basically. There's also room for something like a subscription to Dragon magazine (MMO style) to complement the one and done starter materials, just to go with the analogy of how it was done in pen and paper. But the starter set materials, those should basically be like really elaborate Character and Monster design and Adventure design studios. With the DMG more like a model train set, building of environments and stories stuff, creating NPCs and campaigns, controlling the camera. Then every new Official Adventure game that comes out brings add ons to contribute to the whole and it can continue like that for some longer period of time than we usually get, one offs, or maybe two offs if we're lucky. I just wish they would approach it more with a grand plan, the way they do for the physical materials and books.
I guess that's more an idea for NWN3 than BG3, but still I think it could work quite well for D&D. I think they just screwed up when they didn't make things backwards compatible moving from 1 franchise to the other, or from NWN1 to NWN2. But otherwise the idea was genius, and a perfect fit for D&D.
AD&D Analog Dungeons and Dragons
DD&D Digital Dungeons and Dragons hehe
Where each gets like it's own grand plan every 10 year period? 6e should maybe be that, where the digital game gets it own full treatment and publishing slate aimed at making it all cohesive. Instead of like banner sales to the latest picture show one off, make it more like a long haul serial. And have the Char creator as the tip of the spear, vanguard out the gate. That would be cool
Last edited by Black_Elk; 15/08/21 02:11 AM.
