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Well, this isn't really history in the fifth installment at Gamespy, but rather an outlook into the future of our genre. Here's an excerpt:
RPGs used to present gigantic worlds, and even Morrowind is significantly smaller in size than Daggerfall, most of this is due to the emphasis on graphics. Are the worlds getting smaller, but more detailed? "It's crazy what you can do with graphics now. You'll see RPGs getting better and better looking. I think a trend in games that is happening to other genres that will happen with RPGs is … game-length drastically shrinking," explains Howard. "The average game now is like 10 to 20 hours of play. I'd expect future RPGs to be 20 to 60 hours of play." But he allows, "The Elder Scrolls is obviously much longer than that, but it's a trend I expect to see in other games." Baldur's Gate bucked this trend; the sequel is dramatically longer than the original, yet it's also more focused. Maybe the lesson in Baldur's Gate II is that the main plot is shorter, tighter, and a story told with more focus. Personally, I'd say that it would really be a bad thing to have RPGs with 20 hours of gameplay. I surely hope that Morrownd will start a trend that brings us more open ended RPGs, but I am aware that this is mainly a matter of development costs... |
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History of RPGs Part 5
