Poll: Multiplayer + RPG: two great tastes that taste great together?

WillSimplyBe

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Hello once again, my fellow escapists. I was thinking about something recently...

RPGs are pretty great, but they are usually a single player experience, not that there is anything wrong with that, but do you think these storytelling epics that we call RPGs could ever expand and perhaps, some would even incorporate multi-player? It seems to me like RPGs are missing out in an area that could be great for them.

I remember in Tales of Symphonia, they actually had the option to let other people control your teammates instead of the AI. They actually did it pretty well. (Though I must say fighting Abyssion with two people that had never played before that day was HECTIC.)

So what do you think? Would you ever like to save the world and level up at the same time with friends at your side? Explore all of Tamriel or the apocalyptic wasteland as a team? Unravel a fantastic tapestry of a story as a duo, perhaps?

Do you think that they could effectively do this? No? Why or why not? (Please explain instead of only voting, lol, poll votes don't bump threads or let me know why you said something, xD...)
 

NeutralDrow

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Mar 23, 2009
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Wouldn't mind if more RPGs had multiplayer options, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's past time. They are single-player intended, after all.

Still, the Tales series Abyss and later implements multiplayer very well, so I'll go with yes.
 

gim73

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Jul 17, 2008
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Well, they have multiplayer RPGs, they are called MMORPGers. Seriously though, FF6 had a multiplayer option. You could have the second player control two of your party members, and you could control the first two. Kinda lame, but then again... IT'S A FRAKKIN RPG! Most rpgs I play have lots of menus. That generally means the game is paused when they have the menu open. Multiplayer and pause have been eternal enemies. Look at neverwinter nights.

Besides, multiplayer is NOT a good taste. Generally, it tastes like balls, since most multiplayer games involve some 10 year old boy trying to lower his sac over your mouth.

Turned based RPGs and this really suck, but I could see where it might be useful if you had somebody controlling your allies in dragon age. Personally, I wouldn't trust them with my potions. Also, if the entire game paused whenever either of us paused, that would get rather annoying quick.
 

WillSimplyBe

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gim73 said:
Well, they have multiplayer RPGs, they are called MMORPGers. Seriously though, FF6 had a multiplayer option. You could have the second player control two of your party members, and you could control the first two. Kinda lame, but then again... IT'S A FRAKKIN RPG! Most rpgs I play have lots of menus. That generally means the game is paused when they have the menu open. Multiplayer and pause have been eternal enemies. Look at neverwinter nights.

Besides, multiplayer is NOT a good taste. Generally, it tastes like balls, since most multiplayer games involve some 10 year old boy trying to lower his sac over your mouth.

Turned based RPGs and this really suck, but I could see where it might be useful if you had somebody controlling your allies in dragon age. Personally, I wouldn't trust them with my potions. Also, if the entire game paused whenever either of us paused, that would get rather annoying quick.
There is a difference between Multiplayer and Massively Multiplayer. There are also plenty of RPGs where there is little to no pausing mid-combat, like the tales games, or Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles(the first one...-_-), or Infinite Undiscovery, which actually could have been even better with multiplayer, since it had added focus on partnership. Be aware, I really was not talking about the standard turn based RPGs, but the more action oriented ones. I'd love more games that had that kind of connectivity like the marvel ultimate alliance games, or a(NOT Massively) multiplayer system for The Elder Scrolls games.
 

Astalano

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Nov 24, 2009
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No, because RPG's are a personal experience with choices that aren't meant to be influenced by people outside the world. You have to be immersed and multiplayer takes you out of it. Don't bring up Borderlands, because that wasn't really an RPG.
 

hazabaza1

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Nov 26, 2008
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Wo-ho, no way.
Imagine how much Dragon Age and Mass Effect, for example, would suck with multi-player.
 

WrongSprite

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Aug 10, 2008
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Two worlds did it, and it was really cool. Played with my friends for ages as a necromancer.
 

Axolotl

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Aren't RPGs inherently multiplayer?
Proper ones are anyway and emulation of them is a key goal in all cRPGs so yes they should have some form of multiplayer.
 

RatRace123

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Dec 1, 2009
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Only specific types of RPGs would be suited for multiplayer.

Actually now that I think about it, Bethesda RPGs would be great for multiplayer (imagine walking around the Fallout 3 wasteland with a friend)

Bioware RPGs, which are more character based wouldn't be good for multiplayer.
 

bcponpcp27

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It worked pretty damn well for Borderlands, no reason why it wouldn't work with some other rpgs...
 

Aitruis

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Making the assumption that it was designed well, yes. I can't count how many times I've walked into gamestop looking for a multiplayer game me and three mates could enjoy, only to be confronted on one side by a wall of multiplayer FPSs and on the other by a wall of single player rpgs. Problem is they don't really care for FPSs, so I wish there were more multiplayer RPG's.
 

Aitruis

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RatRace123 said:
Only specific types of RPGs would be suited for multiplayer.

Actually now that I think about it, Bethesda RPGs would be great for multiplayer (imagine walking around the Fallout 3 wasteland with a friend)

Bioware RPGs, which are more character based wouldn't be good for multiplayer.
What he said.
 

high_castle

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Axolotl said:
Aren't RPGs inherently multiplayer?
Proper ones are anyway and emulation of them is a key goal in all cRPGs so yes they should have some form of multiplayer.
Yes, but the cRPG is a different animal than the PnP one. I grew up on D&D and then shifted to the computer come the time of Baldur's Gate. Since then, I've been primarily a cRPG gamer. And while there are definitely some games that can do multiplayer decently enough, my favorite games are decidedly single-player only. A good story becomes hard enough to tell when you have to allot for the actions of one player. Try to include the choices the rest of the team would make, and that's virtually system breaking right there. So the solution to this would be to make the thing less character-driven and more story-driven. Means not as many choices and generally being forced down certain corridors. To me, the hallmark of a good RPG is being able to define your character virtually any way you want, and to influence the story through your actions. That means, at least for the foreseeable future, the best RPGs will be grounded in single player.

Of course, I'm talking about western RPGs right now. JRPGs are a different genre altogether, one I stay away from and thus have no opinion on.
 

Axolotl

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high_castle said:
To me, the hallmark of a good RPG is being able to define your character virtually any way you want, and to influence the story through your actions. That means, at least for the foreseeable future, the best RPGs will be grounded in single player.
I agree with this but that's all also true in a PnP RPG so I fail to see why mutltiplayer cRPGs would be unable to convert the concepts.
 

hazelwoof

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Nov 12, 2009
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I play(ed) Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 and Neverwinter Nights with other people over LAN. Waaay more fun than playing single player, although it took us twice as long what with the arguments over loot and the regular killing of each other.
 

Abedeus

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hazelwoof said:
I play(ed) Baldur's Gate 1 & 2 and Neverwinter Nights with other people over LAN. Waaay more fun than playing single player, although it took us twice as long what with the arguments over loot and the regular killing of each other.
Neverwinter Nights with unofficial mods and hakpacks = the best online experience I have had since 2002.