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From: buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)
Subject: Re: Have we gone full circle - Final Fantasy 9
Message-ID: <G6FzLq.FH2@world.std.com>
Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 17:08:14 GMT
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This pretty much has no connection to r.a.i-f so I'm tempted
to remove it, but I think I sort of worked in a hidden comment
about puzzleless IF.

Padraig Donnelly <zerooverkill@btinternet.com> wrote:
>> [FF8] has major pacing problems and whoever
>>designed the gameplay must *really* hate powergamers...

Or maybe they wanted to make the game more playable for
non-powergamers, who probably make up at least 95%
of the players of a game that sells that many copies?

>Agreed.  It bites.  Who's bright idea was it to level up the creatures
>along with the players eh?  Ooh...  they had better have been sacked
>or at least given a good telling off.  :)

I haven't played FF8, but the flip-side of this is obviously
that they "level down" the creatures along with the players,
and that's a good thing (assuming they do it).

When I played FF7, I just played along through the plot--I never
went just wandering around powering up my characters. As a game
designer, I don't think I should have to, either--the game shouldn't
encourage me (in game fiction) to hurry to the next plot point
if I'm really not powered up enough (this was a big problem
in the first Baldur's Gate).

Well, in FF7, I was doing fine, having the occasional challenging
combat where I really had to work at defeating a boss critter,
when I was going up this icy mountain and encountered a creature
that literally wiped out my entire group with a single attack--
and it wasn't a boss monster, just an ordinary monster.  I had to
go spend some time powering up, and then I still had to get lucky
and not have the creature use that particular attack more than
once. It totally killed the story momentum, my level of immersion,
etc. etc.

I got past it.

Later, I started up Disc 3, dropped down into this pit, and about
the third combat I had, I encountered another similar situation--a
creature that simply wiped out my entire party in one shot. So
I said "I guess I'll have to go around and power up" and instead
went and started playing some other game--one that I found fun--
and never went back.

Now, obviously, that's my opinion as a gamer. Some people find
wandering around powering up fun. On the other hand, it was
clearly a flaw in the game design, because it only happened
twice; if it had been a consistent feature of the game--you
always had to wander around powering up between plot points--I
wouldn't fault it, I'd just say the game wasn't my cup of tea.

And of course, personally, as a game designer, I wouldn't care
about power gamers either. I wouldn't design a game around making
it designed for people who go around beating up easier creatures until
they're over-powered so that no combats are ever challenging;
why would I want to make a game with no challenge?

And I certainly wouldn't fire or tell myself off for that.

SeanB
