TheHouseAlwaysWins
Look, Ma! Two Heads!
I've been exploring the world of RPG's for the past few years and a problem I notice commonly in both RPG's and JRPG'S is a lot of them tend to rely on infodumps to tell their stories instead of actions in the gameworld.
A big idea that comes from the film industry is the thought of "show don't tell". The best sequences in a lot of films tend to be the parts that rely on good camerawork and emotion of the scene. A good example of this is found at the end of 2001: A space Oddysey. The protagonist is shown without words higher realities.
I notice a lot of RPG's that cater to the RPG crowd tend to limit themselves too much and always stick to infodumps and stats. I think this is why Fallout 1 is my favorite Fallout of the series because it has heavy elements of the show don't tell philosphy. The Glow isn't memorable because it has infodumps describing it. It's remembered because it's a place we're warned about as if it's a legend from the Brotherhood and when we go there we see a giant radiated hole with a unique spooky music track playing in the background. Similarly, the most memorable moment in Deus Ex for me was finding out the Majestic 12 lab was under Unatco the entire time and it was a clever way without words or infodumps to tell us the situation.
It's one thing to tell us legends and stories from books like what modern bethesda tends to do for their games. If you have cool ideas actually implement those in some form in your games.
I have a basic idea for an RPG. So instead of an RPG filled with infodumps, how about one where we get a lot of the story through actions that happen at that time in the environment and the player has to respond to it? So instead of number stats, our characters upgrades his skills through actions in the environment? If your character is a boxer, he can join a club for boxers and do quests for it and learn new moves that allow the character to becomes more powerful.
A big idea that comes from the film industry is the thought of "show don't tell". The best sequences in a lot of films tend to be the parts that rely on good camerawork and emotion of the scene. A good example of this is found at the end of 2001: A space Oddysey. The protagonist is shown without words higher realities.
I notice a lot of RPG's that cater to the RPG crowd tend to limit themselves too much and always stick to infodumps and stats. I think this is why Fallout 1 is my favorite Fallout of the series because it has heavy elements of the show don't tell philosphy. The Glow isn't memorable because it has infodumps describing it. It's remembered because it's a place we're warned about as if it's a legend from the Brotherhood and when we go there we see a giant radiated hole with a unique spooky music track playing in the background. Similarly, the most memorable moment in Deus Ex for me was finding out the Majestic 12 lab was under Unatco the entire time and it was a clever way without words or infodumps to tell us the situation.
It's one thing to tell us legends and stories from books like what modern bethesda tends to do for their games. If you have cool ideas actually implement those in some form in your games.
I have a basic idea for an RPG. So instead of an RPG filled with infodumps, how about one where we get a lot of the story through actions that happen at that time in the environment and the player has to respond to it? So instead of number stats, our characters upgrades his skills through actions in the environment? If your character is a boxer, he can join a club for boxers and do quests for it and learn new moves that allow the character to becomes more powerful.
