The Video Game Revue

Checklist RPGs

Something has gone awry in the development of the RPG genre. Not so much on the console side of things, although that line of evolution has its own unique problems and has suffered a lot in its own way. But for today, I'm referring primarily to what is going on with PC style RPGs--the kind that started with Rogue, evolved through Ultima, and resulted in World of WarCraft, to speak very loosely of the development of the genre.

It helps to know something of the distinction between Console RPGs and PC RPGs. This is more of a generalization than a formal definition, so bear with all of the exceptions to the rule out there, but PC RPGs have generally presented themselves as immersive game worlds for the player to explore and become lost in, whereas Console RPGs have tended to be more like singular storyline experiences that the player works through, a little like an interactive movie. This distinction gets blurred a lot, but consider a game like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, which has a central story-line but also actively encourages the player to become sidetracked or even venture off to explore completely on one's own. Now compare that with something like Final Fantasy X, which has much less of an exploration aspect and a lot more in the way of character-driven drama.

A common element of many PC RPGs is that the player gets to fashion their own character, whereas Console RPGs are more likely to present a fixed protagonist, and his or her party, whom the player must play as. One can readily see how the former setup lends itself to an open-ended game universe while the latter lends itself to the telling of a rigid storyline. Both styles of RPG can be very rewarding, but for whatever reason the Japanese RPGs of the console world tend to be of the character-driven, rigid storyline type (I think that in this way they more closely resemble manga, which is perhaps the key difference between the Japanese RPGs and their American counter-parts), whereas the more American RPGs of the PC gaming world tend to strive more towards a simulator-type experience, and sometimes even more of a gaming toolkit (Neverwinter Nights, The Elder Scrolls Construction tools) than story-driven game. MUDs and MMORPGs have taken this experience in exciting new directions, where the game world is explored and crafted in a community-driven fashion.

The one development in recent years that seems innocent enough but has really been bothering me is the introduction of the "quest journal." The first PC RPG that I can remember prominently featuring a checklist style quest journal was Neverwinter Nights, but I have since seen it in just about every new PC RPG that I've played (World of WarCraft, Guild Wars, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.) On the surface, quest journals fix a simple gameplay problem: they keep track of where you're at progress-wise in the game so when you get interrupted and revisit the game later you can more smoothly get back into the flow of continuing where you left off. Additionally, they save you the task of having to write and keep basic notes for yourself so you can remember what your quest progress has been and what quests are left undone.

But quest journals also take something away from the experience. Back in the days of Ultima, you had to keep detailed notes if you realistically expected to be able to keep track of your quests and goals in the game. This could be really frustrating and I'm sure it lead to many players (including myself) to turn to walkthroughs and FAQs to figure out how to advance, but on those occasions that a player did insist on figuring it out for himself (I've done it before, honest), it made the game feel that much more immersive. Such RPG experiences more closely resemble reality in that you had to figure out your path through the world on your own, and you couldn't always keep track of everything--at least not conveniently--so you would encounter complications based on simply forgetting something or missing an important clue. As much of a pain in the ass as that was, it was fun because it made the game more engaging. With quest journals, important clues and directions to the next destination are often right at the player's fingertips at all times without any real effort.

There's more to this quest journal thing than removing an element of gameplay, however, because as soon as the quest journal becomes a prominent feature of the game, the game content starts to be designed around it. I don't have a problem with an RPG automatically taking notes for me, because to me it's a serious problem to not be able to figure out where I left off in a given RPG (I can go weeks at a time between sessions of Elder Scrolls IV, for instance.) However, the quest journal is so widely used that it truly becomes a task list, and that work-like feel of the game starts to colour the experience as a whole. With Neverwinter Nights it got to the point--for me at least--where firing up the game felt less and less like entering a fantastic world of adventure, and more and more like starting up a work program and finishing tasks. Similarly when I'm exploring the world of Elder Scrolls IV, I feel like I've got a task list weighing me down; sometimes I can still be daring and go off on random explorations, but there's always the temptation to simply follow the directions in my quest journal. The overall effect is as soul-crushing as going into work every weekday.

A big part of the problem, I think, is that a quest journal really highlights repetitive or cookie-cutter type quests. A lot of RPG quests in Neverwinter Nights, World of WarCraft, or Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion follow common templates--go to a certain location, find a certain item, collect X item drops from enemies found in this area, etc. Solving quests like these doesn't involve much creativity, especially if your map shows you exactly where to go and everything is basically spelled out for you. At least with Ultima you were often only given sketchy directions and had to find your own way to the destination; with Oblivion, you can often skip the travel process entirely by simply clicking on the destination in your map. Such automations effectively simplify questing to the point where little thought or planning is involved--the player simply executes instructions rather than deciding how to approach the problem.

PC RPGs should be about exploration and puzzling out information for yourself, and I think that repetitive and task-oriented quests are nothing short of total death for the genre. Gathering 5 sea shells in one area and moving on to the next to find 5 acorns is a lot like doing chores, only with pretty graphics. There are still some quests out there that feel like genuinely epic expeditions, although they are generally reserved for later in the game when the player's character is high in levels, and/or they are totally optional in terms of the game's primary storyline. Part of this design philosophy may be to appease players who want to be able to finish RPGs without getting stuck, which I suppose would leave true RPG fans out in the cold.

The next time you're playing an RPG, ask yourself if the quests that you're doing are genuinely challenging, or if they're really just time consuming. Some players enjoy the experience of "grinding" towards goals in an RPG, and while I can see a place for some chore-like tasks in an RPG game to give it that sort of appeal, I loathe the idea that the majority of any RPG would consist of such things. I once considered RPGs to be the deepest and most stimulating genre of video game, but fancy quest journals with unambiguous maps have a tendancy to dumb down an RPG so that it requires neither skill nor creativity but merely the player's attention. To me that is nearly the very definition of a bad video game.

posted by Parappa @ 9:24 PM