Quote:
Originally Posted by Humerox
[You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]
Here's an interesting article covering some of that.
|
Nice link and on target.
Basically, the ideas that players have of physics and punishment will change over time. So what might work in one "generation" won't work in the next. It continually reshapes itself into something new.
I still think there's a niche for realism in RPGs. But it'll never be mainstream.
Sometimes I think it's my programming background that makes me interested in realism. I think my personality fits an engineer more than anything else. I'm always wondernig how things work. When I see a game that's too "abstracted" I get bored with it because it's not nearly as interesting as a simulation might be.
I mean, when you boil down most RPGs, it could be just HP and DAMAGE and LEVEL. You don't need much more than that because these sum it up. That's heavily abstracted. In fact, you could just have a LEVEL and nothing else. So a level 2 would beat a level 1 dependent on the formula that's used.
How about
:
Sword A (highly abstracted) - Damage: 2
Sword A (less abstracted) - Damage: 2, Type: Slashing, Weight: 4
Sword A (much less abstracted) - Damage: 2, Type: Slashing, Weight: 4, Quality: Poor, Material: Demium, Magical Properties: None, Length: Short
A highly detailed RPG can take dozens of properties and combine them in different ways in different skills. A highly abstracted game greatly reduces these things to make it more understandable and fluid.
If you abstract a game enough then there's nothing left to keep anyone interested, imho. So, another words, you cannot abstract forever. There's a limit. It's about finding hte right balance.
This all reminds me of the battle between realism and impressionism in art history.