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What Happened to Turn-Based Games?

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by Tiamat, Sep 18, 2007.

  1. Tiamat Gems: 17/31
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    Jakub Wojnarowicz at FiringSquad has written a long, analytical editorial about the diminution of turn-based games, both amongst RPGs and in other genres. The writer asks,

    So is real-time gaming better? How come it's taking over from turn-based gameplay? Before we answer that, let's take a look at how real-time has invaded domains once reserved for turn-based games.

    what was needed to spark a new interest in computer role-playing was a fantasy RPG, something with an AD&D license.

    In the dying months of 1998, not long after Fallout 2's release, the attention of gamers worldwide focused on a small, almost unheard of developer from Canada - BioWare. Here was a company making an epic game with the AD&D Forgotten Realms license - quite possibly the most popular setting for any role-playing game ever. That game was Baldur's Gate, and it started the whole hoopla about the RPG resurgence. BG was quite unlike any AD&D RPG to that time. Instead of the traditional turn-based rules, it switched to a real-time format with pseudo-turn-based options. The real-time play is what caught many gamers' attention. Battles were mercifully short, the action was exciting in a vivid way, but if things got too hairy, the player could always pause to give orders. What a wonderful system! No wonder RPGs were on the comeback and turn-based gaming was dying! We've seen four Infinity Engine games already, and more real-time RPGs on the block. Yes, the latter Ultimas were real-time, but they came too soon for the current generation of gamers.

    How many turn-based RPGs are in development now? How many turn-based games of any kind do you see people hyping? Very few, if any. Now what's so bad about turn-based gaming that it doesn't deserve our attention?

    Ultimately, the writer links the fall of turn-based gameplay to market and development forces; the purpose of an industry, such as the gaming industry, is to sell products, and thus only what is popular will sell, and only what sells will be developed...so gamers who lament the lack of innovation or turn-based classics in new games should encourage developers to make what sells by putting their money where their mouth is.

    Read the rest of this intriguing article at FiringSquad, and thanks to our friends at RPG Codex for finding this one.

    [ September 18, 2007, 01:54: Message edited by: Tiamat ]
     
    Tiamat, Sep 18, 2007
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