AquarionicsFrom the set of the Doom movie:
The monsters have nothing to do with hell, the plot is not taking place on Mars and “space marines” are not well “space marines” as their outfits are more like SWAT team members.
So, another game of spot the licence then.
Today, I’ve been awake for four hours.
I’ve spent one of those hours shopping for christmas presents, and the other three playing Role-Playing Games.
Three of them, in fact.
In the first, my character was a scientist, thrown against his will into a situation where he can either grab the closest weapon and kill things, or be feasted on by parasitic creatures. In it, I’ve just left the realm of a mad priest, a place where the normal residents have abandoned due to the overwhelming number of these parasitic creatures.
In the second I took upon the role of Long John Silver, famous pirate, as he founded and managed his new colony of pirates.
The third was NeverWinter Nights.
A large number of games are, in fact, Role Playing games. Far from the most famous quote about plots in games (John Carmack, creator of Doom, said that plots in games are like plots in porn. Good, but not why you’re there) more and more games rely on you playing a part in the story. The only thing seperating lots of these games from an RPG in the traditional sense is the fact that the name, and the only reason they don’t get the name is the Gaming Industry (both sides of it)’s insistance on Swords & Sorcery == RPG. There are two RPGs (Both with sequels) that are not Swords & Sorcery. They are Fallout and Knights of the Old Republic. And why isn’t Deus Ex not an RPG? Because they didn’t call it one.