What happened to parties?

[Jason]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

My first roleplaying experience was with BG, BG2, torment etc.
One of the most enjoyable things about it was the party interaction
and to a greater extent the complexity of the combat and management of your
group.
Now going through Neverwinter nights and the expansions and Knights of the
old Rebublic
etc, while good just dont seem enjoyable even with the sidekicks.
Neverwinter Nights 2 and the next Bioware game is also solo, no party, just
henchmen.
What happened?
Is there a reason for this, because their taking away a really important
part of the RPG experience.
Are there any new RPG out there like BG2 with an adventuring party?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

Jason wrote:
> My first roleplaying experience was with BG, BG2, torment etc.
> One of the most enjoyable things about it was the party interaction
> and to a greater extent the complexity of the combat and management of your
> group.
> Now going through Neverwinter nights and the expansions and Knights of the
> old Rebublic
> etc, while good just dont seem enjoyable even with the sidekicks.
> Neverwinter Nights 2 and the next Bioware game is also solo, no party, just
> henchmen.
> What happened?
> Is there a reason for this, because their taking away a really important
> part of the RPG experience.
> Are there any new RPG out there like BG2 with an adventuring party?

Mostly multi-player support I think. The genius of BG, BGII, and
Planescape was that they all had a single privileged character. This
makes it much easier to give the player a fixed point of view. You
can't do this in a multi-player game very well. You also can't do real
time (i.e. no pausing) very well if you are expected to run more then
one character. I think you need real time for a multi-player game.
Pausing all the time would be insanely annoying in multi-player. For
the record, Bioware is working on a more BG style game called Dragon Age.

MSH

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

Jason wrote:
> etc, while good just dont seem enjoyable even with the sidekicks.
> Neverwinter Nights 2 and the next Bioware game is also solo, no
> party, just henchmen.
> What happened?
> Is there a reason for this, because their taking away a really
> important part of the RPG experience.

Yes, there is a reason. Consoles. Bioware RPGS are now being made with
consoles in mind. So they are more simple to cater to the greater number of
stupid people who play console games.


--

Burning_Ranger

To email: aziz@aziz1removethisbit.fsnet.co.uk

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

In article <41b5e04c$0$25772$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au>,
Jason <jasongeorge0232@hotmail.com> wrote:
# Neverwinter Nights 2 and the next Bioware game is also solo, no party, just
# henchmen.

Actually, the next Bioware PC game (Dragon Age) is going to be BG-style
full party-based.

Of course, you'll have to wait a year or two for it.

S.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.baldurs-gate (More info?)

Jason <jasongeorge0232@hotmail.com> wrote:
r: Neverwinter Nights 2 and the next Bioware game is also solo, no party, just
: henchmen.
: What happened?

I think what happened is that Diablo 2 sold about 80 bazillion copies, so nobody felt very inclined to
vigorously pursue the BG2 model further.

Which is a shame.

--
Jason Compton jcompton@xnet.com