The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games - Michael J. Tresca [99]
There seems to be real discomfort on the part of game designers with the save game feature (Juul 2004:138). The ability to start over meant players could “game” the system by determining the best possible choice in a game without long-term consequences. Saving also pulls the player out of the game’s narrative, creating a form of dissonance that prevents agency because the player is reminded each time that he’s playing a game (Mateas 2004:27). Developers reacted by penalizing the player. Some games charged a penalty for saving, such as Legend of the Fortress, which charged the player (and thus his characters) gold (Barton 2008:242), while Blade of Destiny charged experience points.
Other CRPGs overtly discouraged saving, like Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall, which warned players about abusing the save game feature (Barton 2008:301). Most extreme was Shadow Sorcerer for the Dragonlance series: “If unavoidable interruptions do occur, you can save the game to disk. However, repetitive saving is not encouraged—take your losses like a man...” (SSI Staff 1991:3).
Roles
Temple of Apshai’s instruction manual describes tabletop role-playing as an onerous experience that requires a group of “reasonably experienced players,” a knowledgeable game master willing to put in “the tremendous amount of time necessary construct a functioning fantasy world,” and large chunks of playing time lasting from four to up to twenty hours. Temple of Apshai argued that a CRPG was better—with just one character to keep track of, “You can play for just as long or short a period as you like, and return whenever you feel like it.” In essence, it allowed players to adventure with just one character or “solo” (Johnson 1982:6).
Creator Roles
The advantage of having a computerized game master is that it keeps track of the virtual party. At a tabletop, dividing up the party either required extra recordkeeping for the game master or a co-game master. Realms of Darkness, Crystals of Arborea, and The Magic Candle all featured this option, which was a long time in coming. The Magic Candle split up the party even further by allowing the more craft-focused characters to stay behind and earn money (Barton 200:124).
Adventure Designer
Creating a game engine is key to making a profitable game. After creating a single unifying game engine, developers simply produce plug-in scenarios for subsequent installments. When the game system begins to show its age, game publishers release construction sets that allow the public to create their own games, thereby increasing the popularity overall. Sometimes, the users of these toolsets crafted content superior to that provided by publishers themselves.
The first of these toolsets was the Adventure Construction Set, published by Electronic Arts in 1985. It leveraged Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and The Return of Heracles as toolsets and included two scenarios, one based on Gilgamesh (Barton 2008:84). The Bard’s Tale Construction Set expanded the enormously popular Bard’s Tale series. Unlimited Adventures built on the even more expansive “Gold Box” games. These games created a sort of computerized game master, creating content that could be played by other players. Unlimited Adventures was followed by BioWare’s Neverwinter Nights (Barton 2008:172).
Bullfrog’s Dungeon Keeper made an entire game out of creating dungeons. While the tabletop version of Dungeons & Dragons has always emphasized that the Dungeon Master is not the sole opponent of the players, Dungeon Keeper clearly cast the role as