Mu's article is a mix of both MMORPG and CRPG design observations, and he is another that has been around to witness when writing talent had to fill in what graphics and empty hype obviously couldn't sell. Actually, not having what constitutes a "game" was what didn't sell then. We've bantered back and forth over some items, but for the most part he is correct.
It seems bleak, and it is. This is one of the reasons that jaded players of MMORPG's and CRPG's have gone back into the roulette game of pen and paper, hoping against hope to find a GM and/or players who do not suck. As a general rule, though, most people do suck, and are incapable of telling an RPG from a glorified shooter, which is what many so-called RPG's actually represent. It is my fervent hope that the RPG, particularly the MMORPG, will rise above the level of "bad Doom with character levels" and manage to present an immersive and compelling storyline that draws players in, rather than continuing on their current slide.
To this, I have to state that it is no surprise, as the imaginative people who have read more than Dragonlance and R.A. Salvatore's moronic version of Forgotten Realms have gone back to playing P&P, considering how the current state CRPGs in general (particularly D&D CRPGs) seem to be little more than copying bad R.A. Salvatore plots.
There was jack shit for writing talent the first time around, riding his coattails for crappy combat might be apropos, but doesn't do any favors for the genre. Especially when people could point to Ultima in a "Simpsons did it!" sort of fashion. Ultima sold - it wasn't because it appealed to anyone of any genre with a bad case of OCD.
Why is P&P coming back into fashion? Simple. CRPGs are becoming dumbed down and mindless, designed for the average idiot to pick up and play a la Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest.
Gone are the puzzles from Wizardry, Might & Magic, Ultima, and many other old greats. Now we have stupid logic puzzles from first grade taking their place. Difficult combat that requires the player to plan ahead and think is also replaced - with crap that any moron capable of clicking on an enemy and whacking the spacebar can passively watch. All for the sake of lacking attention spans of players of unrelated genres in the hopes of "broader appeal", and to cover up how unimaginative the combat system has been constructed. The end result is that combat becomes little more than a repetitious chore that in fact only becomes more repetitive now that you have made it faster and more passive.
Gone are the hidden secrets that might be uncovered by doing something unusual or suggesting a topic of discussion like in Wizardry; now you have context menus that will tell you exactly what to do and where; it really begs the question as to how far are some developers going to try and make the game play itself for the player to pay $50 for the experience. Then the developers try to act miffed when people say the game is ass, and roll their eyes when the developer is going to claim to do something that was done far better on 1/100th the RAM and processing capacity.
Conversation is being treated the same way. What was originally a clever way of conducting discussion with the interjection of new topics, in the hopes that the player would actually THINK about the world and come to some logical conclusion versus being led by the nose, has now been taken down the road of a scripted time waster that does little to add to the environment's depth other than lead to the usual information/combat/leave trio of options.
And, supposedly, some "CRPG developers" are "innovating" the genre, but I have yet to see this by those who are credited so in any other way than graphics and token items for "blockbuster" titles still in development.
Joy.
