Your perfect RPG.

[siegeshot]

We'll get into WHY later, please everyone participate that reads this. It's important. I'm trying to get an idea of what people REALLY like in an RPG Thanks in advance.
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What would you want it to be about?
What console would you want to play it on?
How advanced would you want the graphics to be?
(keeping in mind, simpler graphics = speed/portability)
What would you want it to be rated?
(kiddy content vs adult content vs generic)
How long would you want it to be?
(long with almost no updates vs short with tons of updates)
Collectable monsters/cards?
Any other ideas comments?

[DarthToad]

This is so my topic Siege.

My perfect RPG would take place in a dystopian universe, but not one that's really obviously dystopian. I'd say closer to Final Fantasy VII or X than 1984. It would also have a plot that could make me cry. I couldn't think up of a plot right now, but I think a cyber/fantasy universe where there's a war between the conformists and rebels that's just being done so the real government can stay in control. It'd be something along those lines.

The console would probably be PS2. PS2 is the perfect RPG system (well, besides Super Nintendo in some ways). There's lots of room on those DVDs, the controls are great, and there could be voice acting. Of course, it'd have to be done right.

I'd say PS2 level graphics would be good. Well, I wouldn't mind old school SNES graphics really, but a little bit of realism doesn't hurt too much, and I don't mind not having it be portable.

The rating could be anything. I don't even look at those anymore. It should be rated high enough to advance the plot. So I guess i'd go toward generic/teen.

I'd like the game to be long but not impossibly long. It should be long enough for a good plot, but short enough for replays.

There should definitly be a monster arena. Those rock!

I'd like a level up system that'd be like the sphere grid as in you'd be able to upgrade by stats instead of levels. It leaves more options and it's good for replay value.

The game should have a turn based system, probably active battle but I could do old style.

Random battles are a necessity.

Nobuo should so do the soundtrack.'

I could probably think of more stuff. Man, I should really get a blog.

[mysteriorockanova]

My perfect RPG would probably be about some little kid whose house has been crashlanded into by an alien in a spaceship that only little kids can see, so adults deny its existence despite his familys ruined house, and the alien sets about to destroy humanity so he has to get some of his friends to help kill it. At the end it would turn out that the adults could see it but the alien was controlling their minds just so they would ignore it, but the kids are immune to it.
I think it would be on the Gamecube.
It would probably be kind of simplistic cartoony graphics.
It would probably be for kids but not so corny that adults wouldn't even touch it.
Probably ten hours long so people don't lose interest.
No Collectibles.

Hope this is helpful for whatever you are doing.

[DocD83]

Following your questions in order:

- I like swords-and-sorcerers kinds of RPGs, though I like the idea of a space/sea exploration RPG. I understand there are a few of those around, but I never played them.
- PC
- Graphis quality is of little importance to me. Just don't make me upgrade my computer.
- Generic, I guess. [Looks at box for Guild Wars] Rated Teen would be good.
- It should be of moderate length so that slower/casual players can have a chance of getting close to the end before more is added, but not so short that those scary people who play for 52 hours at a time don't get too bored.
- Sure, why not? I'll never buy them but some people might.

Surprisingly, I was planning on writing an article for my website about Guild Wars vs Everquest (the two RPGs I've played), so I have a number of ideas about what's good and bad in the games. Without knowing why you've asked this of us (though I figure you're either very bored or working for a company making a new RPG), I won't know which ones will be useful to you because most of them are specific to the two MMORPGs I've played. But since when has the uselessness of my ideas ever stopped me from posting them?

- PLEASE make sure there's something useful to do at every point in your character's development. I stopped playing EQ because there was NOTHING to do from level 18 to 40, and I was stuck at 26.
- If you're doing a multiplayer RPG, make it so people can solo the game. The single thing most likely to turn me off of a multiplayer game is if I HAVE to deal with the other players. Because I'm a casual gamer, and most players are 14 year old boys who have never had any power in real life so they get a huge ego in-game.
- Include a good text-based communications system. EQ had a nice feature where I could preprogram messages to send to my party, but Guild Wars doesn't (at least I haven't found it). Since no one has time to type commands no one does, and the group runs around completely disorganized.
- Include a good mapping system (including the ability to annotate your maps).
- Keep the number of player classes down. EQ had, what, 14 classes? 15? Far too many to keep balanced.
- Information is key in these games. Include lots of data logging, such as Guld Wars' quest log. Make a complete list of skills/spells/tradeskill combinations/whatever available at the start, with full descriptions. Keep a complete record of all transactions (buy/sell price, cost of components, etc) if it's a multiplayer game with an extensive economy like EQ.
- If it's going to be like EQ, have a way for people to easily find what's for sale or put up stuff for sale without having to commit a character to a heavily populated/heavily lagged trading zone. I figure that's best done through the banks.
- Have the environment remember what you've done. Monsters you've kiled in Guild Wars stay dead as long as you're in the zone, but step out of it for an instant and they're back. Put a delay in, and maybe have reenforcements physically move to replace the dead.
- No long waits to heal up after a fight, especially if fighting is the only real way to progress your character.
- Leveling up should be incidental to progression in the story line. No hack-and-slash grinding.

Probably little of that was useful to you, but it gave me a chance to gripe so it was useful to me.

[siegeshot]

Yea I'm sorry I can't say more. I'm really iffy at this point cuz I can't really find anyone in the business that'll talk to me ya know. Since I'm not rich and havn't worked for a gaming company forever. (as if anyone besides Richard Garriott has ALWAYS worked in gaming)

The first thing I had to realize when working on what I'm doing is that it'll be impossible that what I'm doing will ever be an mmog in the sense of what mmog's are now. The number 1 reason is I've followed UO's and WOW's development heavilly over the years, and that's even beyond my most distant hopes of ever coming to terms with.

ok now that that's out of the way.

I like the idea about things happening in a generic point in time, where like, everything's all mixed up. But I just don't think technology has a point at all, since it has all happened so recently, it is easy to come up with like, how things would have progressed, had there never been any microchips. Ya know? also, everything would have a purpose. no fillers. Time sinks in RPG's are important these days, but they have to be balanced.

onto the video game stuff

I could definately see how a pit/arena would work, with a respawning sort of pyramid style death match never ending thing with rewards and money as you progress in an all for nothing sort of um. thing.

Also, from reading I could see how I like random battles from what I've already been thinking about. I also like thinking about turn based combat.

Also, while leveling up in and of itself shouldn't be hack and slash, who likes how like, in Megaman X Zero for gameboy advance, Zero uses his weapons and they level up, instead of him. And then he level's up his armor. Instead of buying new armor and leveling up. That way grinding has a purpose, as you are training your weapons skills. Same thing with Secret of Mana, your weapons skills gained, but you also could gain levels too. Ya know? Think about that?

Unfortunately I think that graphics and sound track are going to fall by the wayside just because of the scope.

I don't want to give too much away cuz I just don't understand all of the specifics yet of how you conduct this stuff when you have an idea you don't want anyone to take. No offense.

Off topic sort of, I don't know how any RPG can ever superseed the ... I guess... genre that the SNES put out. I think that was the bench mark. I don't mind better graphics, but I honestly wouldn't mind if every single RPG if they weren't worried about innovation, would crank their games out similar to like Secret of Mana and all of the squaresoft offspring.

3d rpg's are cool, but there is just something so soothing to that SNES rpg feel. Something I can't describe in words.

[Hucklebubba]

I agree with pretty much everything Darth listed, save for the following modifications/additions:

For the battle system, I'd go with complex real-time. Say, based on a fighting game engine. With counters and grapples and ninjas flipping out all over the place.

Lengthwise, I say use FF3/6 as a benchmark (this works for many things). Even after I completely beat the aforementioned game every which way but loose, I still couldn't clear it in less than twenty hours. If memory serves, it took more than twice that long the first time through.

Include item creation. Item creation is some good soup.

Catgirls. You need at least one, but I'd be happy with an entire cast comprised of them.

[siegeshot]

cat girls, item creation and attack counters are all really good ideas. i'm hoping to have a demo of what i'm doing within a month or two.

[dajaymann]

I've always imagined a regular or MMORPG version of the old Atari game Adventure, complete with the exact same kind of graphics scheme, would be the greatest RPG ever created. Just a crazy retooling of the original. Everyone gets to be the dot, but you can customize your color! I'm maroon!!!

[Head Mutant]

I'm not sure where it was I saw this -- maybe Something Awful before I gave up reading their usual garbage -- but a site did an article where they tried to show what Warcraft would look like on an Atari 2600. It was brilliant.

[siegeshot]

That would be sweet. My favorite cartoons people make of Warcraft is when people in like one Warcraft are walking around, and stumble into another, usually older Warcraft. It always cracks me up.

Anyway yea, all of these are great ideas, and the beauty of it is, with the way I'm going to be making this game, all of these ideas will be able to be integrated. Thanks for all the ideas.

[PoliticalHeadressPending]

What would you want it to be about?

It would have to be grand. The player must be able to take on the world. It would have to be original. And would prolly have to stay away from online. I personally would stay away from the typical hero w a sword and magic crap that dominates today's rpg scene. I would go for something a little more realistic.

What console would you want to play it on?

prolly ps2 or x-box (even though I hate it) With the 360 and ps3's coming out, they should be able to support it better then the gc.

How advanced would you want the graphics to be?

either very realistic or just enjoyable. Hell it could be sprites as long as the game kicked butt.
What would you want it to be rated?

E. the more mature you make the game the less people will play it. Some of the best games are E anyhow.
How long would you want it to be?

Short enough to allow casual players to say they accomplished soemthing, with enough extras to keep advanced players addicted for weeks. I guess 40-50 hours to beat regular sotry line and another 200 hours to max everything out.

Collectable monsters/cards?

Monsters maybe, but card games just flop.

Any other ideas comments?

Mutiplayer, but not online.

[PoolMan]

admin said:

I'm not sure where it was I saw this -- maybe Something Awful before I gave up reading their usual garbage -- but a site did an article where they tried to show what Warcraft would look like on an Atari 2600. It was brilliant.

Your memory is obviously not completely rotted away. Behold, a link to the Something Awful article in question.

Of course, the standing warning for language always applies when linking to SA.

[Spiderdancer]

MY perfect RPG: That rare animal, the RPG-playing Female checks in. First, I'd like to vote for one in which the female characters all wear long robes and the male characters all wear speedos and sword harnesses.

Ha ha. Just a little joke. I know there will be cleavage and ponytails, just like there always are, but I never stop hoping.

What would you want it to be about?

I personally like it when someone picks a genre like Sword and Sorcery and does something different with it, like Disciples II and Diablo. Always provided the female characters aren't stuck in the "easily killed spellcaster eye candy" category.

What console would you want to play it on?

PC. No question. I've played several game systems for varying lengths of time, but I still like my computer the best.

How advanced would you want the graphics to be?

Hm. Well, preferably better than SNES saltshaker people, but I'm not demanding complete 3d.

What would you want it to be rated?

E or T. Reach a broader audience and you make more money anyway.

How long would you want it to be?

Definitely more than 20 hours. Preferably in the 100+ range. Unless you spend fifty of that hundred fighting the same ten monsters over and over and over.

Collectable monsters/cards?

Heck no.

Any other ideas comments?

I vote for real time/hack and slash battles. I'm OK with turn-based once in a while, but the whole "look, we've suddenly been transported to a mystical separate screen" concept tends to disrupt the gameplay for me.

[Al]

spiderdancer said:

Always provided the female characters aren't stuck in the "easily killed spellcaster eye candy" category.

Oh come on! There's always a butch amazon woman with a giant sword! And if that doesn't constitute gender equality, than I don't want to know what does!

Al

[DocD83]

Always provided the female characters aren't stuck in the "easily killed spellcaster eye candy" category.

Oh come on! There's always a butch amazon woman with a giant sword! And if that doesn't constitute gender equality, than I don't want to know what does!

And let's not forget those whussy, effeminate, easily-killed male elves in 90% of RPGs.