Hi Tom.
while I see your point on originality being less of a concern due to access,
I'm afraid I do not necessarily agree, not when we're talking about text
adventures and rpgs, as opposed to action type games like super castlevania,
since experiencing even a very generic spooky castle dracula with all the
sterriotypical opening cofins, creaky stairs, shambling ghoul butlers etc
would be quite a different ethos to having a fully fleshed out game with
background and character, considder for example the difference betwene
playing the esp pinball classic haunted house table with all it's sounds,
evil organ music etc, and just reading a very generic description of a
creapy old ruined house.
I'll also add that for me, super castlevania only really became interesting
in it's environments later on in the game, when i reached places like the
swirling room in the clockwork mantion or draculas treasury, the first few
levels in the generic castle area and the standard forest I didn't find half
as interesting in terms of their background and setting.
Getting back to text games though, to take one example, The choiceofgames
choice of the vampire has clearly been enspired by anne rice first book,
since your vampire starts off on a plantation in late 19th century
neworleans. now, if I were to write a vampire text adventure game with the
same historical setting, it would be far less interesting since we have seen
what vampires are like there and have even played as one. Likewise there are
so many interactive fiction games, eamon rpgs, gamebooks etc that are either
directly set in castle dracula in transilvania or in a very similar
system, ---- isolated community of fearful peasants ruled over by vampire
lord living in his giant medieval castle, that it would not be a new setting
to explore, ---- indeed if you look through the list of Eamon adventures
there are so many with this form it's quite unbelieveable.
of course, good writing or game design can always make a generic setting
worth trying anyway, but even so, I'd myself much prefer a game with a
slightly different ethos.
To take one example, one thing i've not yet seen is a vampire game set on an
estate in a time of termoil. Suppose for example, I wrote a game set in 18th
century England at the time of the battle of colludan, in which England was
at war with Scotland regarding King James the sixth being king of both
countries.
You could have the vampire as in fact a leader of a Scotish clan which was
comparatively undiscovered, but which has come betwene the encampments of
both an English and Scotish regiment. The vampire of course, wants both
sides to get lost and leave him alone and to not be discovered, since both
the English and Scotish church would agree on his extermination, so
therefore starts reanimating corpses on both sides to fight against each
other, in an effort to wipe out both regiments so that no news gets back to
either London or edinborough. So, in the game you could either play an
english or scotish soldier, (the english being better armed but the scotish
having better starting stats). Part of the game would be fighting the enemy
army, then the vampire's plans would be discovered, and the second part of
the game would involve the two forces combining to fight off the undead,
before storming the manner house of the vampire himself. The game would
therefore be set mainly in rugged country sides, battling with 18th century
weaponry against both humans, and the undead and whatever the vamp could
throw.
I'm not actually suggesting you take on this idea in itselff, 9since
obviously it depends upon historical knolidge), but merely pointing out that
by just tweaking the time and plot of even a standard vampire story, you can
wind up with something with a lot more dimention to play.
I will freely admit however, that as a general theme I'm a little sick of
vampires at the moment, everyone going nuts over what is essentially a human
mosquito, especially with all the romantic rubbish (I wonder how romantic a
leach is). Then there is the constant winging and wining about vampires
having to kill people to survive! ---- for goodness sake grow up! :D.
this isn't to say i won't play anything with a vampire in it or give
something with a vamp a try, it's just that as a general concetp I'm getting
pretty sick of them in their standard form, and to interest me as an idea in
a story, ---- interactive or otherwise, there needs to be a little more, or
at the least, some darn good writing!
Of course as I said, this is totally different from the question of an audio
game, since there you have the action, atmosphere and sound, not to mention
exploration to considder over and above the general theme, ---- heck I'm not
crazy about modern war stories, but I do very much enjoy games like Zero
site, gma tank commander and lone wolf purely as games and experiences. So,
feel free to come up with an idea, it's just that if it is a text game I'd
personly want a little more spin than just the usual blood drinkers, though
certainly if you came up with something I'd gladly give it a try whatever,
(I was sorrry your audio castlevania halloween idea didn't come out since I
was quite looking forward to that one).
Beware the Grue!
Dark.
---
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