The history of computer role playing games

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part I: The Early Years (1980-1983) Matt Barton Welcome, brave adventurer, to the first of my in-depth feature articles exploring the history of our favorite computer game genre: The Computer Role-Playing Game, or the CRPG For many avid gamers, the CRPG is the perfect storm of gameplay, story, and strategy Whether we're talking about a randomized "dungeon crawler" like Rogue or a story-driven game like Betrayal in Krondor, a click-fest like Diablo or a stat-crunching Pool of Radiance, the CRPG has always enjoyed a tremendous appeal Even today, when the first-person shooter and sports games seem to have crushed all opposition, everyday millions of players login to World of Warcraft, and each new installment in the Zelda series sends ripples throughout the entire game industry Whether acknowledged or not, the CRPG will always play a major role in computer and console gaming The CRPG is the spine of the electronic gaming industry and it's not hard to see why You just can't have more fun with a computer or a console than when you're engrossed in a well-crafted CRPG But where did the CRPG come from? From what deep, dank dungeon did they crawl? How has the genre evolved into the amazing games we enjoy today? If you've ever wondered about these and other CRPG-related questions, of if you just like reading the very best writing you can find on the net about gaming then grab a mug of your best ale and prepare to read an article only an author of Armchair Arcade would ever dare to draft! From Tabletops to Desktops Although most people would probably think it's a trivial matter to trace the CRPG back to its tabletop, paper-and-pencil based "equivalent," doing so probably obscures more than it reveals about the two genres As anyone who has actually played D&D is acutely aware, the two games are as different as playing intramural basketball and College Hoops 2K7 Indeed, the typical "CRPG" is not a "role-playing game" at all, or, if it is, that's generally the least distinctive thing about it After all, you "play a role" when you play PAC-MAN or SPACE INVADERS, and even in games like Tetris you're playing a role the unseen force that causes those falling blocks to shift and rotate It's probably more accurate to describe first-person "interactive fiction" games like Zork or Myst as a "role-playing games," since in those games the player literally assumes an important fictional role within the game Likewise, a firstperson shooter like Half-Life seems to come much closer to the ideal of "playing a role" than a game like Icewind Dale, in which you only indirectly control a whole group of characters Strat-O-Matic: Paper-based games like this paved the way for D&D and CRPGs.Taxonomic quibbling aside, there is no doubt that while they are not direct descendents, CRPGs were deeply inspired by D&D At the very least, it's obviously more than a coincidence that so many of the themes and trappings are shared by both genres, and both are highly absorbing and addictive One wonders if Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson knew the full implications of what they were doing when they sprung Dungeons & Dragons on an unsuspecting public back in 1974 However, Gygax and Arneson's classic tabletop "role-playing game" didn't come out of nowhere As near as I can tell, the clearest precedents were war games like Avalon Hill's Tactics II (1958) and sports simulation games like Strat-o-Matic (1961) However, while D&D certainly borrowed (whether intentionally or not) many of the conventions of these older games (especially an emphasis on caculation), it contained some radical new innovations For one thing, instead of recreating painfully-accurate historical Civil War battles or the World Series, D&D was set in a fantasy world populated by elves, dwarves, and dragons Although there's some question about how deeply J.R.R Tolkien's Ring trilogy played in the development of D&D, most players of the game were hardcore fans of Middle Earth, obsessively reading and re-reading the novels Indeed, for countless Tolkien-enamored teenagers of the 70s and 80s, D&D was simply a more enthralling way to experience these lavish fictional places After all, it's one thing to read about Frodo and Bilbo going on fantastic quests, but the appeal of going on one themselves was simply too much for many teenagers to resist Authors Brad King and John Borland, authors of Dungeons and Dreamers: From Geek to Chic, claim that "it's almost impossible to overstate the role of Dungeons & Dragons in the rise of computer gaming." What could be more true? The "gamer" as we know him or her today was born in the D&D era Although there have always been games, none of them had the drawing power of D&D While cards and dice can certainly become disastrously addictive (see Gamblers Anonymous), gambling games were always about prizes the players could win, not the games themselves Strategy games like chess, meanwhile, are so abstract and "mental" that it's often not clear whether they are true amusements or really just exercises in logic Furthermore, the fact that you can become a professional chess player indicates that chess lost its status as a mere "game." If you can earn a living doing something, you can no longer describe it as a "pure amusement" it's become a sport with real earning potential Finally, board games like Monopoly and RISK, while certainly fun and engaging, are only very rarely enjoyed over extended periods for any significant amount of time These are games that get hauled off the top shelf of a closet a few days out of the year to keep idle hands busy during the holidays Though you can find large, highly devoted communities of UNO and ROOK players, these seem more like exceptions rather than the rule Every childhood has its talismans, the sacred objects that look innocuous enough to the outside world, but that trigger an onslaught of vivid memories when the grown child confronts them For me, it's a sheaf of xeroxed numbers my father brought home from his law firm when I was nine Steven Johnson, Everything Bad is Good for You Not so with D&D In so many ways, D&D was more of a lifestyle choice than a "harmless diversion." Indeed, the closest equivalent I can think of is the children's game of "make believe," in which a group of kids pretend to be in various social and occupational roles such as a father, doctor, superhero, and so on The other kids will "go along" with the fantasy, helping to perpetuate it (generally in return for similar reinforcement from the other children) For instance, two boys will take turns being the "cowboy or the Indian," or I suppose nowadays the "Republican and the terrorist" or some such nonsense Often enough, these games can get quite elaborate, with imaginary pals, exotic fictional settings, and plenty of simulated action I must confess to having played many such games with my younger sister, when we "went on vacation" to all sorts of fantastic locales Of course, once a kid gets to a certain age, playing "make believe" seems too juvenile or irrational to engage in (at least openly), so all of these impulses are repressed at least until D&D comes onto the scene Suddenly, playing "make believe" is back, and players can enjoy the activity without being accused of being immature or schizo Indeed, the strength of D&D lies in its combination of make-believe, play-acting, and a logical, math-based rule system As Johan Huizinga illustrates in his book Homo Ludens, such play is a vitally important part of learning The more kids get to play "make believe," the more intelligent they become! As Steven Johnson would say, playing D&D makes you smarter! Sadly, when enough "concerned" citizens realized that so many young people were having so much fun playing this new game, they began insinuating and then outright accusing players of engaging in a "Satanic ritual" or, at the very least, dangerously influenced by hidden subliminal content (for a sickening example, see this analysis of a Chick tract) We might perhaps be more sympathetic to these folks; they knew just enough about D&D to make them dangerous For instance, they quickly learned that they involved graphic violence, magic (or, "witchcraft"), and often demonic forces (dragons, hell hounds, demons) No doubt, walking by and hearing a 7-year old cry, "I summon forth a black demon to annihilate your cleric!" was enough to convince any well-meaning parent that something odd was going on here Furthermore, as then as well as now, occasionally news surfaced of some genuinely disturbed gamer performing some horrific crime and then blaming it all on the game The same could be said about the D&D-themed "heavy metal" music of the era Obviously, Iron Maiden or Judas Priest was a powerful catalyst for evil during all those dice rolls for initiative The fact that so many people are still willing to buy into this rubbish is far more fearful than any demonic foe encountered in a D&D session! Ironically enough, many of the friends I played D&D with were far more devout Christians than anyone else I knew Even the ones who weren't religious tended to live more morally upright and ethical lives than most other folks another reason, no doubt, for religious hypocrites to despise them Still, no matter how someone feels about the moral influence of D&D, no one can deny it played a highly constructive role in developing the computer game industry Besides creating a new type of person the "gamer," and sowing a generation with seeds of creativity and imagination, adapting D&D for computers became one of the Holy Grails of early computer programming Although many game historians cite Richard Garriott's Akalabeth as the first CRPG, we can find earlier precedents in the world of mainframes The Mainframe Era (The Dark Ages) Hackers on university mainframes got an early start on developing CRPGs, trotting out games as early as 1974 (the same year Gygax and Arneson released the first Dungeons & Dragons) Unfortunately, the history here seems a bit murky (thus the title "Dark Ages"), and declaring which game was the "first" seems a bit foolhardy What is clear is that there were several CRPGs on machines like DEC's PDP-10 and PLATO, a computerized learning system The first of these appears to be Rusty Rutherford's pedit5 for PLATO Pedit5 had most of the basic features of the genre, such as an explorable dungeon, monstrous foes, collectible treasures, and a magic system Unfortunately, we will likely never learn much more about this game owing to the short-sightedness of PLATO administrators, who had a rather nasty habit of deleting this game wherever they found it (the many kids who managed to stay a step ahead of these party-poopers were denigrated as "zbrats") There may very well have been text-based CRPGs before Pedit5 that may have simply been lost to history Later that year, two programmers at Southern Illinois University named Gary Whisenhunt and Ray Wood created dnd, also designed for PLATO This graphical game contains many features that would become staples of the genre, such as the ability to create a character and assign stats for characteristics like strength, intelligence, and so on There was also a "level up" system based on experience points Monsters got tougher the deeper players went in the dungeon This game also marks the first appearance of the "general store" where players can purchase equipment Perhaps most important, dnd featured a story and a quest kill the dragon and fetch the Orb It is certainly no surprise that fetching an all-powerful "orb" will show up again and again as the defining quest of CRPGs! Whisenhunt and Wood's game would later be the inspiration for Daniel Lawrence's famous Telengard game for the TRS-80 and Commodore 64 platforms We'll have more to say about Telengard momentarily dnd (mainframe): Pic from Wikipedia (public domain)Meanwhile, a student at Claremont Graduate University in California, had designed a game called Dungeon, which ran on the university's PDP-10 mainframes Like dnd, Dungeon featured a level-up system However, one key innovation was the ability to create and operate a whole party of adventurers rather than just a single character To this day, there is debate about whether it's more fun to control a single character or a whole party of them Dungeon also featured a graphical map system with "line of sight" vision, which meant that players could only see in the direction their characters were facing and took lightness and darkness into account (elves and other creatures with infravision could see in the dark) Perhaps the most famous of all CRPGs, however, is the UNIX game Rogue Created in 1980 by Michael Toy, Glenn Wichman, and Ken Arnold, Rogue was known for its randomized dungeons, ASCII-based graphics, and complicated gameplay Rogue represented the player's character with an at sign (@), and monsters were designated by the first letter of their name (Z for zombie) The story was simple and would be copied (with slight modifications) in later games like The Sword of Fargoal: descend to a specific level of the dungeon (in this case 26), retrieve a magic item (in this case the Amulet of Yendor), and escape the dungeon However, players might have just as much with the game even if they aren't aware of this quest; just wandering about killing monsters and gaining treasure and experience points are plenty of fun Still, Rogue is a very challenging game with a steep learning curve For one thing, there's an abundance of confusing keyboard commands to learn (R for remove a ring and r for reading a scroll), and players practically need a legend to make sense of the "graphical" display Secondly, besides dealing successfully with the many monsters and traps in the game, the character must also be constantly fed Nevertheless, Rogue was so successful that it spawned a near limitless number of ports and derivatives called "Roguelikes." Several of these games have also achieved lasting fame, such as Hack, Moria, Larn, and Omega It's very easy to find a version of Rogue or at least a roguelike on just about any computing platform (indeed, I'm not even sure we could call something that didn't have some form of Rogue a "computer platform" at all!) I spent any number of hours sloughing my way through both Larn and Hack on my Commodore Amiga computer, even though I also had access to games with "better" graphics A boy with an imagination is content with a warm bowl of ASCII every evening (though ANSI is quite nice once and awhile) The question that seldom gets asked about these early "CRPGs" is to what extent they really recreate the tabletop D&D experience Although they manage to mimic some parts quite effectively particularly the dice rolling and number crunching they seem to fall rather flat in the play-acting department Somehow I doubt that anyone sitting down for an evening of Rogue ever donned a pair of cheap elf ears and a faux leather jerkin, though such accouterments are common enough at real D&D games Furthermore, although dnd players might belt out an obscenity every so often, I doubt any of them did so in a Dwarvish accent What was clearly missing was the element of "role play" that was such a huge part of the tabletop game At best, the computerized versions could simulate the mathematics of D&D combat and to some extent the strategy and exploration components, but the inherent abstractness and aloofness of the medium seemed to stop true role-playing at the gate Although later on we'll discuss CRPGs that have tried to address these issues in interesting ways, it's important to see for now that D&D and its computerized "equivalents" actually have far less in common than most people think The Bronze Era (1979-1980) Although thousands of people may have had their first CRPG experience on a mainframe, most of us would kill our first digital dragon on a personal computer Although exact dates are hard to come by, we can say that as early as 1979, at least two commercially-published CRPGs were available for home computers One of these was developed by a high schooler named Richard Garriott, who was sufficiently enamored with D&D to call himself "Lord British." Garriot's game, Akalabeth: World of Doom, featured wire-frame graphics in first-person perspective (other parts offer top-down perspective), and was, in many ways, far ahead of its time Akalabeth was only available for the Apple II, and some controversy exists over whether it was first published in 1979 or a year later Garriott insists that it was released in 1979, although the first disks and cassettes had copyright 1980 on their label The other game was Dunjonquest: Temple of Apshai, by Automated Simulations, Inc (later re-named Epyx) Temple of Apshai was the first of a five-game series, though only the three games making up the "Apshai trilogy" are well known today Temple of Apshai was first available on the TRS-80 platform, then the Commodore PET, but was later ported to the Apple II (1980), Atari home computer (1981), DOS (1982), and finally to the Commodore 64 and Vic 20 in 1983 Let's take a look at Akalabeth first Akalabeth (1980): Kill this thief quickly, or he'll swipe your gear!By all accounts, Garriott was both a big fan of Tolkien and of Dungeons & Dragons The name Akalabeth, for instance, is taken from one of Tolkien's more obscure works, The Silmarillion The game was written in BASIC, a fact that makes the game all the more impressive from a technical perspective (and allowed players to cheat or modify the game as they saw fit) As mentioned above, the game features wire-frame first-person perspective, but switches to a top-down view when the player is on the surface This innovation would be seen in countless later CRPGs Akalabeth's story is straightforward enough Lord British, "Bearer of the White Light," has recently driven the evil wizard named Mondain from the kingdom of Akalabeth, but Mondain's monsters still dwell in dungeons below the surface The player's task is to descend into these dungeons, slaughtering foes and venturing to the surface to purchase equipment and procure new quests from British British will raise the character's attributes upon completing quest as well as give him (or her?) opportunities to advance in rank, such as from peasant to knight These quests involve finding and killing increasingly difficult critters When players begin Akalabeth, they are presented with a few text screens with information about the game The first establishes the back story Subsequent screens tell players what "strength" and "dexterity" are good for, a list of keyboard commands, and so on Finally, players are given the choice between playing a fighter or a magi As might be expected, the fighter can't use "the magic amulet," whereas the magi can't fight with rapiers or bows (though axes are allowed) The magic amulet was an unpredictable item sometimes it even turned the player into a powerful Lizard Man Finally, although the players can select a difficulty level from to 10, the game is still challenging since the character gobbles up food with every step If the food supply runs out, it's game over a situation that can easily put even the most powerful players into an unwinnable situation To make matters even worse, thieves roaming about the dungeons are more than adept at swiping your character's gear-carrying a few extra of each item is probably a wise precaution I can't spell, have no grammar techniques, and have read less than twenty-five books in my life Richard Garriot (Lord British), as quoted in Hackers by Steven Levy Unlike Akalabeth, which is easily found online and also available in some Ultima compilations, Dunjonquest: Temple of Apshai is a very difficult game to come by Epyx re-released three games in this series as the Apshai Trilogy in 1983, which featured updated graphics Try as I might, the only version of the original game I could find in working condition was the Coleco Adam version! Unfortunately, that version is comparatively crude to the versions offered on other platforms and probably not very representative The Trilogy is very easy to find on a variety of platforms, however I played the Apple II version, which I hope is at least similar to the original Anyway, I was able to find a scan of the original manual, which is a true treasure for any historian interested in the early history of CRPGs Back in 1979, game developers couldn't expect players to already be familiar with most of the conventions of the genre (they didn't even exist, yet!) What's interesting about the Apshai manual is the great lengths it goes to try to convince players they should give RPGs a chance I'll quote an excerpt here from the manual's introduction: Did you grow up in the company of the Brothers Grimm, Snow White, the Red Fairy Book, Flash Gordon serials, The Three Musketeers, the knights of the Round Table, or any of the three versions of the The Thief of Bagdad? Have you read the Lord of the Rings, the Worm Ouroboros, The Incomplete Enchanter, or Conan the Conqueror? Have you ever wished you could cross swords just for fun with Cyrano or D'Artagnan, or stand by their sides in the chill light of dawn, awaiting the arrival of the Cardinal's Guard? Ever wondered how you'd have done against the Gorgon, the hydra, the bane of Heorot Hall, or the bull that walks like a man? ( ) If any or all of your answers are "yes," you're a player of role-playing games or you ought to be The manual goes on at some length in this vein "RPGs allow you a chance to step outside a world grown too prosaic for magic and monsters," it claims Although players may be total losers in the "real world," the RPG offers them a chance to test their true mettle Furthermore, RPGs "can and often become, for both you and your character, a way of life." What's even more interesting is how the manual introduces CRPGs as a more convenient way to role-play "Ordinary role-playing games require a group of reasonably experienced players, an imaginative dunjonmaster willing to put in the tremendous amount of time necessary to construct a functioning fantasy world, and large chunks of playing time." Indeed, "twenty-hour marathons are not unheard of." What the CRPG offers is a pre-constructed world and automatic handling of all those complicated math problems "While there are greater practical limits to your actions that is usually the case in a non-computer RPG, there are still a large number of options to choose from." Indeed, many of the more intriguing features of the game seem to be attempts to bridge the gap between RPGs and CRPGs For instance, instead of merely buying items for a set price, players must haggle with the storekeeper Furthermore, much of the in-game text is "in character," with "Medieval" tendencies like using "ye" for "you" and "thy" for "your." The manual also includes textual descriptions of each room of the dungeon probably a concession to the limited memory of early home computers Interestingly, though, this same "feature" would show up in some later games, particularly Pool of Radiance My guess is that by then, placing important information in a game manual was a subtle form of copy protection Temple of Apshai: Players could get textual descriptions by looking up the "Room No." in the manual.Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the Apshai series is its combat system The manual claims that the developers were inspired by "historical research, a knowledge of various martial arts, and practical experience in the Society for Creative Anachronisms." At any rate, a "fatigue" system that limits how often you can attack and how far you can run (your character's wounds and the weight of his equipment also influences the fatigue rate) The character can also "hearken," or listen for the presence of a monster in an adjoining room, and even try to talk monsters out of combat If your character dies, he will suffer one of four fates either consumption by a roaming monster, or rescue by a dwarf, mage, or cleric If it's the dwarf or mage, your character will lose equipment Temple of Apshai was quickly followed up by Datestones of Ryn, Morloc's Tower, and Curse or Ra The other Apshai games included Upper Reaches of Apshai and Gateway to Apshai Epyx released the Trilogy compilation for a variety of platforms in 1983, but perhaps the best of these was the Commodore Amiga version released in 1986 Anyone seriously desiring to play the series today will prefer the Amiga version's enhanced graphics and control scheme I jumped every time one of those swamp rats appeared My sword arm got sore from gripping the hilt of the joystick, and there are wrinkles in my permanent-press armor from hours in front of the monitor Steve Hudson on Gateway to Apshai, from COMPUTE! ISSUE 60 / MAY 1985 / PAGE 56 Although neither Temple of Apshai nor Akalabeth are particularly playable today, their historical value cannot be overestimated Both games were successful in their own right, and helped launch vitally important series (particularly Akalabeth, which led to the Ultima series) However, the genre was still crude and left much to be desired in terms of interface and design There was tremendous room for extensive development Although the "Golden Age" of CRPGs wouldn't happen until the mid to late 80s, the "Silver Age" which we'll discuss next-introduced some games that are still playable and rewarding today The Silver Age (1981-1983) In 1981, the CRPG wasn't nearly as recognizable as a genre as it is today Only a precious few commercial games took on the title, and these were cumbersome and hard to play compared to arcade and adventure games What the genre really needed was a definitive game (or preferably a series) that would help garner momentum for the genre This boost would happen in 1980 with the release of Ultima I: The First Age of Darkness, developed by Richard Garriott and published by California Pacific Computer Co Ultima, of course, would quickly become the premier CRPG series which enjoyed some two decades of installments Another series that clone called Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel appeared for the PS2 and Xbox in 2004, but most fans of the first two games don't care to acknowledge it According to an official 2004 press release, Bethesda is currently developing Fallout 3, though it may sadly turn out to be only radioactive dust in the wind In any case, it would be nothing short of a miracle for another team to match, much less surpass, Black Isle's post-apocalyptic masterpiece Arcanum: Steampunk and Magick Black Isle wasn’t the only company releasing brave new CRPGs that were willing to abandon the old swords and sorcery formula A company named Troika scored a triumph in 2001 with Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscure, a game published by Sierra that quickly gained a large and devoted cult following It certainly wasn’t the first CRPG to try to marry magic and technology; many of the early Ultima and Might & Magic games blended the two quite freely, but SSI’s Spelljammer: Pirates of Realmspace is probably a more direct precursor At any rate, Arcanum is the game people think of when they hear the word “steampunk,” and deservedly so Arcanum is most often praised for its open-ended gameplay and intriguing game world, which is best described as an industrial revolution taking place in the midst of a high fantasy setting Usually, magic and technology are pretty strange bedfellows, but when done right (as in Arcanum), the result is “magical realism,” in which objects that would ordinarily look familiar are placed in settings that make them seem strange and exotic It can be quite exhilarating, for instance, for a dwarf to draw a flintlock pistol rather than the clichéd old axe or hammer The outcome of the game depends on whether players follow the magical or the technological path; the choice is left to the player "If you're serious about role-playing games so serious that you don't care about graphics but instead just want to immerse yourself in a different world and try to explore it, perhaps even exploit it, as fully as possible then Arcanum is well worth the investment of time, money, and effort.” –Greg Kasavin on GameSpot, Aug 21, 2001 Unfortunately, Arcanum is not without its flaws, particularly in the all-important criteria of combat As we’ve seen countless times, the combat system is often enough to make or break a CRPG Although the game offers three different modes (real-time, turn-based, and “fast” turn-based), none of them are perfect, though the third comes the closest The key problem is the way experience points are doled out; the player only wins them by hitting rather than defeating enemies This fact makes strength and dexterity allimportant, thus ruling out many of the more exciting possibilities The difficulty also seems a bit skewed towards the magical path; technologists had a tough time finding equipment and surviving long enough to use it Thankfully, there are usually alternatives to brute force combat Arcanum has much in common with the Fallout series, no doubt due in part to sharing some key members on the development team Both games also share the same wonderful sense of irony and humor, and the aesthetics are guided by a coherent and refreshing style that helps balance out the bugs and difficulty issues While not as polished and playable as Fallout, Arcanum nevertheless stands out as a viable alternative to the standard formula BioWare: The New SSI We've seen how TSR's valuable license had fallen upon hard times after SSI's last "Black Box" games, the Eye of the Beholder series created by Westwood Studios SSI's own efforts went from bad to worse, ultimately costing them their exclusive license with TSR, and other companies fared little better despite plastering AD&D all over their products Nevertheless, cherished AD&D franchises like the Forgotten Realms were just too promising to remain out of sight for long, and many CRPG fans longed for a return to those halcyon days of Pool of Radiance and Curse of the Azure Bonds, games with great stories and gameplay set in the familiar and beloved worlds of high fantasy The problem was how to "update" these hallowed games for the late 1990s Two possible models existed in Elder Scrolls and Diablo, but these action-oriented games seemed to have little to offer fans of the hardcore, stat-tastic games of the 1980s The development team that would finally succeed in winning players back to the Forgotten Realms would not be SSI, Interplay, or Sierra, but rather a trio of Canadian medical doctors turned game developers: BioWare BioWare created what is perhaps the greatest CRPG engine ever designed; the famous Infinity Engine, an isometric engine used in some of the greatest CRPGs of all time Like Blizzard, BioWare's first foray into CRPGs was a critical success: Baldur's Gate, released in 1998 Like Diablo, Baldur's Gate features isometric perspective and allows players to create only a single character Both games feature real-time gameplay, but with one key difference: Baldur's Gate switches to a hybrid turn-based mode for combat, which allows for much more tactical-style battles than Diablo The engine is designed to allow most battles to be fought by a highly configurable artificial intelligence system; the player need only sit back and watch However, players can always hit the space bar to pause the game and manually assign actions, then resume the game to see them carried out This compromise between real-time and turnbased combat resulted in very compelling gameplay, and has much to offer both novices and aficionados of the genre "The entire game is played exactly like a true game of AD&D with savings throws, armor classes and to-hit rolls and combat range and speed all computed with every scrap the party gets into The thing that makes this all so impressive (and very different from SSI's Gold Box series) is that it all goes on behind the scenes where it belongs Baldur's Gate is, simply put, the best computer representation of Dungeons and Dragons ever made." Trent C Ward on IGN, Jan 18, 1999 Furthermore, Baldur's Gate turns what fans of SSI's Gold and Black Box players might see as a limitation creation of only a single character rather than a party into a key storytelling asset Although players can only create and directly control one character, they can allow up to five other characters to join their party These characters not only have greatly varied skills, but unique personalities and implications for the plot Characters of different political and ethical outlook may not get along; a few characters may actually betray the party at a critical juncture In short, the gameplay changes considerably depending on which characters the player adds (or doesn't add) to the party Rather than simplify or dumb down battle tactics, the real-time aspect adds a new dimension to them the time it takes to perform an action (casting a spell, quaffing a potion, switching weapons, etc.) may leave a character more vulnerable I lost track of the times I started casting a powerful magical spell, only to see it wasted on enemies who'd already died or fled Finally, to further sweeten the pot, BioWare offered a multi-player option which let players trade the non-player characters in their party for friends Although somewhat buggy and not perfectly integrated, this option helped the game compete against Diablo, whose Battle.net servers had become a swirling vortex for daddy's money Like any great CRPG, Baldur's Gate features a rich, nuanced storyline that resists easy summary (and, indeed, reading such a summary would ruin much of the fun of the game; the point is to learn what's happening as you play) The basic gist is that something (or someone) has been causing a serious iron shortage, which has led to widespread banditry across the countryside Meanwhile, two young wards of a mage named Gorion (the beautiful rogue Imoen and the player's character) have been separated from their guardian and left to fend for themselves Gradually, the player learns of a large conspiracy involving a secretive organization named the Iron Throne By the end of the game, the player learns that both the avatar and Imoen are much more than what they seem It's a complex but not plausible story of political intrigue, and offers much more than the standard black and white view of morality that runs through most CRPGs Baldur's Gate was followed up one year later with the Tales of the Sword Coast expansion pack This pack added new areas, spells, weapons, and made some minor improvements to the gameplay and interface More importantly, it added four new quests The general consensus among reviewers was that the pack offered "a little more meat to chew on," but was certainly not to be mistaken as a full sequel Some gamers resented the lack of true story developments, but others were just glad to have a little more Baldur's Gate to whet their appetites The true sequel, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn, appeared in 2000 and became an instant best-seller While the game continued to use the Infinity Engine, the graphics were overhauled (800x600 as well as the old 640x480) and took advantage of the new 3D accelerators that were all the rage among Windows gamers Shadows of Amn also added new classes, specializations, and cool skills like fighting with two weapons simultaneously Furthermore, several of the beloved characters are back from the first game, including Imoen, and this time personality (and even romantic) conflicts among party members are even more instrumental to the gameplay Contemporary reviewers fell over themselves praising the game and giving it the highest possible marks; it didn't take an orb of true seeing to know this game was platinum For what it's worth, I consider it the finest CRPG ever designed The second Baldur's Gate is even better than the first, and is widely acknowledged as the best CRPG ever made The story picks up where the first Baldur's Gate leaves off (which is all the more reason for new players to start with the first game) Unfortunately, it's a bit difficult to talk about the story to Shadows of Amn without giving away the shocking ending to part one, so I'll just briefly state that it's mostly concerned with the sinister blood running through your avatar's veins Unfortunately, your quest for answers is rudely halted by one Jon Irenicus, a wicked mage who captures you and your friends in an effort to steal your powers for himself The story quickly gets much more complicated and involved, but suffice it to say you'll be going to hell and back "There's little doubt that Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn deserves to stand among the very best games of the era, or indeed among the greatest games of all time." -GameSpot Editorial Team, Mar 27, 2006 One of the most-praised aspects of Shadows of Amn is the degree of freedom it presents to players Many quests are optional, and there are many different paths through the game that substantially alter events Players can either "stick to the main plot" and ignore these many diversions, or get so involved in them that they might lose track of the main story altogether And, as with the original game, party dynamics play a huge role in the gameplay that goes far beyond just simple combat tactics Mixing and matching characters with differing ethics and values can lead to some very interesting "drama" that everyone should experience at least once particularly in a game with such good voice acting Multi-player is also supported, so gamers with a few similarly-devoted friends can get even closer to the old tabletop experience via their home network In 2001, BioWare released an expansion for Baldur's Gate II called Throne of Baal This important expansion represents the final chapter of the saga, and required playing for any fan of the other games It also adds new items, spells, and even more class abilities The expansion also adds a dungeon named "Watcher's Keep" that can be accessed during certain chapters in the Shadows of Amn game However, perhaps the aspect most people remember of this game is the degree of god-like power your avatar has achieved by the game's ending It's a fine ending for a fine series What makes the Baldur's Gate games so great? Again, I think it's clear it's more a question of craft than genius With Baldur's Gate we get good stories, fun characters, meaningful quests, high-stakes combat, and an intuitive interface The graphics, sound, and music are appealing and add much to the game's subtle ambiance Perhaps the best testament to the game's lasting appeal is that no single element seems to rise above the others There are no gimmicks; just solid platinum gameplay It just doesn't get better than Baldur's Gate The Joys of Planescape: Torment If there's one thing we can say about the Platinum Age of CRPGs, it's that it has its fair share of cult classics I doubt you could find any group of CRPG fans that didn't contain at least a few died-in-the-wool fans of Fallout and Planescape:Torment Both games are wildly different than the typical "high fantasy" game like Baldur's Gate, and both offer more introspective gameplay than Diablo, Mandate of Heaven, or Daggerfall Indeed, although I've played my share of CRPGs, I can think of very few that manage to rise above the status of "game" and into something approaching "art." Like Fallout, Planescape: Torment pushes at the boundaries and reclaims the AD&D rule set to serve its own ends Although Torment was not as successful as the more conventional CRPGs available at the time, it's nevertheless a true classic and one more good reason to call this era the "Platinum Age." With masterpieces like Planescape: Torment on the shelf, how can we not call this the Platinum Age of CRPGs? BioWare realized that its marvelous Infinity Engine was the best of its kind, and it made sense to license it out to Black Isle, the elite CRPG division of Interplay that had brought us Fallout Black Isle wasted no time, and in November of 1999 released the cult classic Planescape: Torment The game is set in the Planescape campaign setting, a complex setting involving several interrelated planes of existence The game's strange story and surreal ambiance lent the game considerable appeal among gamers who were ready for a darker and more metaphysical CRPG Indeed, several reviewers have commented that this game is really more of a graphical adventure game than a CRPG "People who have traditionally shied away from Tolkeinesque fantasy RPGs may find the Planescape world a little daunting at first, but may find that the game's incredible script and powerful characters will help them understand why the rest of us are so addicted to this type of game." Trent C Ward on IGN, Dec 17, 1999 Like any good story, the majority of Torment's appeal comes from its unique setting, plot, and characters The game is set in a "multiverse," or interconnected planes of existence The city of Sigil serves as a sort of "portal port" to these other planes, but the player must find the "doors," which can be disguised as any object Furthermore, the different planes are home to beings who tend to belong to the same "faction," or political groups towards which they are extremely loyal (e.g., the "Anarchists" and "Godsmen.") The player may choose to join one of these factions, though doing so will win him enemies as well as friends There is no clear black and white division between the good guys and the bad guys here; the point is to really get the player thinking deeply about morality It's an interactive Inferno, and it doesn't take a Dante scholar to see the many allusions to that famous poem The story begins when the Nameless One, the player's character, awakes on a slab in a giant mortuary He's suffering from near-total amnesia, and the plot is concerned mostly with his rediscovery of who or perhaps more accurately what he is It's a nice contrivance that gives the player considerably leeway in role-playing the character, but it soon becomes obvious that the Nameless One's past deeds have won him no small amount of animosity from the bizarre characters he meets Thankfully, there are also plenty of characters willing to join the Nameless One, including the infamous Morte, a floating head that becomes his wise-cracking sidekick Then there's Fall-from-Grace, a succubus who's turned from sex to philosophy, opening the "Brothel of Slaking Intellectual Lusts." There's even a robot named Nordom, a rather nerdy crossbow on legs No doubt, part of Torment's enduring popularity is the mix of serious and comedic themes running throughout Another feature of Torment that sets it apart from most CRPGs is its heavy reliance on dialog not only to build the story, but to offer alternatives to standard combat Many potential conflicts can be resolved via intelligent conversation These conversations also help develop the characters into far more than just "henchmen." There are plenty of other innovations I could mention, such as a truly unique "tattoo" system that can boost stats as well as document the player's progress, or the way the world changes according to the Nameless One's actions and beliefs Suffice it to say, there is no other game like Planescape: Torment, and I doubt there ever will be It's the perfect CRPG for gamers who prefer wit and wisdom to hacking and slashing Fighting for Your Right to Party: Icewind Dale Most of the best games of the Platinum Age allow players to create only a single character Even though games like Baldur's Gate and Fallout let players add characters to the party later on, these were pre-generated characters, often with their own personalities and agendas While this system allowed for more tightly controlled narrative and story-telling opportunities, some fans of old classics like Pool of Radiance and Eye of the Beholder felt cheated They wanted to create their own party of adventurers from scratch and control them directly Black Isle heard their prayers, and in 2000 released Icewind Dale, another game based on BioWare's Infinity Engine and set in an arctic region of TSR's Forgotten Realms It boasted great graphics, sound, and a score by Jeremy Soule that is one of the finest musical scores ever composed for a video game All this sounded like a dream come true for old-school fans like yours truly More characters means more dynamic party management; get the balance right Icewind Dale lets players create and control six characters, and since the game is so focused on combat, building a properly balanced party is of paramount importance Furthermore, combat can be a very difficult affair, requiring careful coordination and team-work For example, one favorite strategy is to have a stealthy thief stride ahead, attract a few enemies, and lure them into an ambush As usual, the magic-users function as artillery; they dole out the most damage, but are virtually helpless in physical combat and must be protected Major battles can get quite complex and intense, with a nearly infinite number of variables, especially during the preparation stage (Which potions to give whom? Should the mage learn enhancement or attack spells?) The only serious problem with the interface is keeping the six characters aligned in a sensible formation; it's easy to slip up and have a mage striding forward in a vulnerable position, or to unknowingly leave a character trapped behind an obstacle several rooms back Unfortunately, Icewind Dale is no masterpiece The heavy emphasis on combat and party dynamics came at the expense of an intriguing storyline or meaningful interaction with non-player characters This is a linear "hack and slash" game set in a somewhat dreary world of snow and ice Indeed, the game it reminded me of the most was SSI's utterly forgettable Secret of the Silver Blades The general consensus among reviewers was good, but not great, and it certainly didn't help to be competing with mega-hits like Diablo II and Baldur's Gate II, which were released the same year Black Isle developed an expansion pack called Heart of Winter the following year, which adds five new areas and plenty of new items, skills, and spells It also features higher resolution and better artificial intelligence It's a quality expansion for fans of the first game In 2002, Interplay published Icewind Dale II, which differs from the original in several ways Perhaps most noticeable is the switch to AD&D 3rd Edition rules, which greatly affect how characters are created and developed Gone is the old random dice throws for stats; players instead are given a certain number of points to distribute as they see fit However, the catch is that pushing a stat above "average" requires a greater share of points; it's an exponential system that works quite well There is also a new "feats" system, which is a terrific innovation that seems ripped straight out of Fallout Nevertheless, the "feats" system makes leveling up a much more interesting and customizable process, and adds greatly to that "just one more level, then I'll stop for the night" kind of thinking that keeps you playing until your alarm clock goes off There is also a skill system that allows further customization and trade-offs; a thief who puts too many points into "open lock" may be rotten at disabling traps or moving stealthily Finally, players can "multi-class" their characters however they wish, even to the point of giving each character a level in fighting or thieving just for kicks However, again there's a trade-off; really cool abilities are available only to very high-level members of a certain class Too much hybridization results in a "jack of all trades, master of none" type character that is mostly worthless "Is your Wizard looking a little unhealthy, with that sallow skin coloration that comes from lack of physical exercise? Give him a level or two as a Fighter, buff up his weapon feats, and watch that cauldron belly vanish! Is your Druid's winter wolf form guilty of unsightly molt in battle? Give her a level of training as a Barbarian, and watch her wolf tear each of those yetis a new ice hole after summoning forth her Rage!" Barry Brenesal on IGN, Sep 5, 2002 Icewind Dale II offers other enhancements as well, particularly more meaningful interaction with non-player characters and better diversity in settings The voice talent is also top-notch, an important aspect that tends to get overlooked by many reviewers (unless it's bad, in which case it becomes the focus of such reviews) Although the story is slightly more nuanced than the original, this is still primarily a "hack and slash" game more concerned with combat tactics than dramatic tension Tellingly, most contemporary reviewers spend far more time talking about the feat and skill system than the story arcs The new "feats" system made leveling up much more interesting than the old rule system Of course, the other big game of 2002 was BioWare's Neverwinter game that threatened to make Icewind Dale II look old-fashioned gamers' hard drives I'll have more to say about Neverwinter Nights but suffice it to say, Icewind Dale II is the last of the great Infinity brought so much joy to CRPG fans Nights, a fully 3-D before it even hit later in this article, Engine games that Other TSR-Licensed Games of the Platinum Age Although by far the most popular TSR-licensed games were of this era were based on BioWare's Infinity Engine, there were other contenders: Stormfront Studio's Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor (2001) and Troika's The Temple of Elemental Evil: A Classic Greyhawk Adventure (2003) Neither of these games were very successful, though at least the latter achieved some fame for being the first computer game to allow gay characters to marry Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, published by Ubisoft, is perhaps the most disappointing game in CRPG history It's one of those games whose sheer wretchedness is hard to describe to the uninitiated, who assume the critic has some grudge or personal motivation for launching a stream of flaming vitriol No doubt, part of my own distaste for this game stems from its title, which represents a brazen attempt to lure unwary fans of the legendary Gold Box game to this uninspired, insipid, and downright unplayable travesty Indeed, my contempt for this game tempted me to omit it entirely from my history I'd heard about the game months before it was released, and counted down the days until I could re-enter Phlan and challenge Tyranthraxus once again After plunking down $70 and playing the game for several hours, I kept telling myself that eventually it would get better Just a few more battles with those slow-mo skeletons, and surely my party would emerge from those drab, look-alike dungeons and the game would start to get interesting Eventually I realized that it wasn't going to get any better, and that I had wasted some twelve hours of my life that I would never get back What makes Ruins of Myth Drannor so terrible? Besides the utterly boring sameness to all but a tiny fraction of the gameworld, swarms of bugs (the game actually reformatted some gamers' hard drives!), and fatiguing, repetitious battles this is one of the slowest games ever in a literal sense The turn-based combats quickly become agony as the characters and endless sea of skeletons lethargically plod into position Heck, the skeletons look about as lively as the player! I was frustrated enough to download a hack to speed up the combats, which eased my frustration, but I can only blame my willingness to actually complete this game as evidence of masochistic tendencies I hereby grant Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor the distinction of being the worst CRPG of all time More importantly, it's a grave insult to the legacy of its namesake, and I can only hope that any gamers unlucky enough to play this game first will themselves a favor by playing the original Even though the older game has "obsolete" graphics and interface, it has one vital advantage over Ruins of Myth Drannor: It's fun Troika's Temple of Elemental Evil is a much better game, and was certainly designed with the old-fashioned CRPG gamer in mind Troika had distinguished themselves in 2001 with the steampunk masterpiece Arcanum, but Temple turned out to be too "hardcore" for gamers weaned on Diablo and even Baldur's Gate Like Ruins of Myth Drannor, Temple of Elemental Evil is a party-based game set in 3rdperson isometric perspective, and features turn-based rather than real-time battles Although it suffers from a somewhat cumbersome interface, the pace is much improved and the combat is sophisticated and challenging enough to keep players on the edge of their seats Unfortunately, the game is riddled with bugs, and the lack of a really gripping storyline and interesting characters kept it out of the spotlight Indeed, even the surprising twist of allowing two male characters to marry (see my earlier article Gay Characters in video games) failed to draw much attention to this title Obviously, not just any developer has what it takes to produce an outstanding CRPG out of a TSR license Getting it right involves more than just having an outstanding engine; significant craft is involved in creating a compelling story that makes the player's actions meaningful The best games (Curse of the Azure Bonds, Baldur's Gate II, Planescape: Torment) offer far better rewards than just experience points and gold coins They draw the player in, suck away days of his life, and leave him desperately wanting more On the other hand, games like Descent to Undermountain and Ruins of Myth Drannor demonstrate that these licenses are worth nothing without a solid team behind them Miscellaneous Highlights of the Platinum Age There are several other worthy CRPGs released between 1997 and 2001, even if they tend to get lost in the shadows of juggernauts like Diablo, Elder Scrolls, and Baldur’s Gate One such game is Bullfrog’s Dungeon Keeper (1997), which turns the CRPG on its head by letting players assume the role of dungeon master It’s a rare but startling instance of a developer making a game out of game development itself Although Dungeon Keeper is probably closer to a strategy game than a conventional CRPG, it still offers an invigorating new perspective on the old dungeon crawl How those evil archmages manage to keep so many orcs and dragons fed and under their control? The game was praised by critics, and Bullfrog wasted little time producing an expansion, The Deeper Dungeons, later in 1997 Dungeon Keeper 2, released in 1999, borrowed the bulk of its gameplay from its predecessor, but was still popular among gamers and reviewers The Platinum Age also saw the end of three prominent Golden Age series: Krondor, Wizardry, and Quest for Glory Return to Krondor (1998) brought players back to Midkemia, Raymond E Feist’s fantasy world This series is one of the more baffling in CRPG history, since the second game, Betrayal in Antara, is not actually set in Feist’s world at all For various reasons, Sierra lost its license and had to generate an entirely new world in what felt like a last-minute affair However, they were able to resolve their differences, and the next year Sierra published the third and final chapter in this disjointed saga Return to Krondor is often hailed as the best of the three, with a good story (as if you’d expect anything else from Feist) and lovable characters Although more linear and straightforward than most CRPGs, players are still given plenty of room to develop their characters and decide which skills to emphasize The combat system is a highly intuitive turn-based procedure that offers a nice balance of ease and precision Unfortunately, the game suffers from a rather repetitive magic system that is poorly represented on-screen A somewhat promising alchemy system is made redundant by a plentitude of pre-made potions littered about the game world In short, Return to Krondor is a game with a great story and characters marred by a less-than-satisfying game engine With Wizardry 8, Sir-Tech was able to finish up its series smelling much rosier than Origin or New World had with their final Ultima and Might and Magic games Released in November of 2001, Wizardry finally let players squash their old nemesis, the Dark Savant, and for most fans represents the best game in the series, and it’s as fully loaded as a Cadillac It contained a mix of sci-fi and fantasy themes, and let gamers make real decisions that affected the story Like the late Might and Magic series, Wizardry is set in real-time, with first-person perspective and fully realized 3-D environments However, the party size was a full characters, selected from 15 classes It also offers real-time and turn-based combat modes, and a fairly sophisticated spatial system (i.e., the party can attack or be attacked from all sides) The production values are quite high, with excellent graphics, voice acting, and dialog What Wizardry does well is gives the player a solid role-playing experience If you’ve ever sat down with pen and paper dungeon and dragons, created your own characters, and led them into countless battles, this game will simulate that experience perfectly – Scott Jelinek on Just RPG, c 2001 Unfortunately, even Wizardry isn’t perfect, but suffers from some pretty nasty bugs caused by the infamous Safedisk “copy protection” program This problem prevented several CD-ROM drives from running the game, and led to other less predictable crashes Some reviewers also complained that the battles became repetitive after awhile, and slowed the game’s pace to a near stand-still Nevertheless, it’s one of the last truly epicsized party-based CRPGs, and a fitting end to a long and historically vital series In 1998, Sierra released the fifth and final Quest for Glory game, Dragon Fire The previous game, Shadows of Darkness (1993), met with mixed reactions from critics and didn’t sell well, but fans pleaded with Sierra to let Lori Cole put an end to the much-loved series Unlike the previous games, Dragon Fire places much more emphasis on conventional CRPG elements (such as a wider variety of arms, armor, and magic items) Critics tended to be kind to the game despite its dated graphics, occasionally bad voice acting, and awkward combat interface Much was made of Chance Thomas’ musical score, which lasts over hours The Dawn of the Modern Age The Platinum Age certainly had its share of ups and downs, and gamers enjoyed a wide variety of diverse games and game engines However, by 2002, CRPGs had lost most of their shelf space to the steadily encroaching MMORPG and RTS genres, and the latest round of games seem (to this critic, at least) to be more about looking back than looking forward CRPG development hasn’t ground to a halt, but the grooves have worn deep Most of the CRPGs published in the past five years have either been unimaginative sequels or games so derivative they may as well have been To put it bluntly, we’ve entered a stage where games are one of three types—Diablo-inspired “action” games, Morrowind-style “FPS” games, and the endless sea of me-too MMORPGs Perhaps the two most important games we’ve seen so far in the modern age are BioWare’s Neverwinter Nights (2002) and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (2003) Although the long-term impact of these games is hard to predict, they seem (to me, at least) to be the most direct heirs of traditions going back at least to Baldur’s Gate, and perhaps even to SSI’s Gold Box games Neverwinter Nights was no Baldur's Gate, but its powerful 3-D engine spawned the Modern Age of CRPGs Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic Neverwinter Nights features BioWare’s Aurora Engine, a fully 3-D engine that promised more advanced graphics than the beloved old Infinity Engine used in Baldur’s Gate For the first time, players had a free-moving camera they could position however they wanted BioWare also included a toolset to let players easily create their own Neverwinter Nights campaign Like Baldur’s Gate, Neverwinter Nights only allows players to create and control a single character, though they can add “associates,” such as familiars and up to two computer-controlled characters Neverwinter Nights also followed the 3rd Edition AD&D Rules seen in Icewind Dale II, with a fun and intuitive leveling system based on skills, feats, and stats Although the two games have much in common, there are many important differences between Neverwinter Nights and Baldur’s Gate II Perhaps the most significant is that the player’s avatar isn’t woven so integrally into the plot Instead, the player’s character starts off as a “blank slate” adventurer who has responded to a call by Lady Aribeth to help the city of Neverwinter Neverwinter has come under a deadly plague It doesn’t take the player long to learn that the plague is only part of a much larger conspiracy to take over the city of Neverwinter, and the roots of treachery run deep The player is allowed some leeway in directing the avatar’s action; he or she can be a saintly type, a ruthless mercenary, or a hell-bent sociopath These choices are mostly played out in dialog options, but also in which side-quests the player accepts or rejects Expansion packs for the highly successful game were not long in coming The first was Shadows of Undrentide, developed by Floodgate Entertainment and published by Atari (Infogrames) in 2003 Shadows of Undrentide wasn’t what most players expected at the time; rather than extending the original campaign, it added an entirely new one that was recommended for new characters Besides the addition of five new “prestige” classes for advanced characters, the expansion met with generally favorable (but not over the top) reviews from critics The next expansion, Hordes of the Underdark, appeared a few months later Thankfully, this trip to the drow’s homeland fared much better than the aforementioned Descent to Undermountain Besides a few epic battles that no player will likely forget, Hordes of the Underdark also added plenty of new assets to the game, including 50 new feats and 40 new spells The massive expansion was met with good to great reviews from critics, some of whom consider it an even better game than the original campaign Kingmaker, an expansion released in 2005, offers three additional “premium modules” for Neverwinter Nights BioWare’s most celebrated game of the Modern Age is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, published in 2003 by LucasArts As the title implies, this game is based on the Star Wars franchise and the Star Wars Roleplaying Game developed Wizards of the Coast (the heirs of TSR) It’s a highly ambitious game based on a highly modified Aurora engine called Odyssey, and offers round-based combat Although Neverwinter Nights had impressed critics, Knights of the Old Republic knocked them off their feet, with several claiming it as one of the best CRPGs ever made On my second day of playing, I sat down at my desk and started playing the game at 10 am From then on, I didn't get up for anything until pm that night Not lunch, not even the bathroom That's how good Knights of the Old Republic is – Allen Rausch on GameSpy, Nov 23, 2003 Knights of the Old Republic is set some 4,000 years before the movies, but this is still a Jedi thing Indeed, the player can decide which side of the Force to follow Much like Neverwinter Nights, players are allowed to select among side-quests, many of which help identify them as good or evil The game is drenched with detail and story, and some thirty odd hours of highly addictive gameplay Critics raved about the excellent writing and dialog, which any CRPG gamer knows is quite rare indeed It won countless awards, and is probably the most celebrated CRPG of the Modern Age Few licensed titles have enjoyed the impact KOTOR has made on the game industry The sequels to Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic were developed by a company named Obsidian Entertainment, which formed after the demise of Black Isle Studios Both games were created with BioWare’s Odyssey Engine Unfortunately, neither Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords (2005) nor Neverwinter Nights (2006) have attracted the fanfare of their prequels Concluding Thoughts on CRPG History Although the CRPG has certainly suffered its share of ups and downs over the decades, history shows that when things are at their bleakest, there is always a new company poised to spring onto the scene with an amazing new title that brings every true CRPG fan back to the table Perhaps we’re at such a point now; major CRPG titles have slowed to a trickle, and some critics seem all but convinced that online games like Blizzard’s World of Warcraft are the logical heirs of the “oldskool” CRPG However, rather than trace the lineage of games like World of Warcraft or EverQuest back to CRPG classics like Ultima or Wizardry, I see them more as the descendents of another genre called the “MUD,”or the multi-user dungeon MUDs appeared on the gaming scene almost simultaneously with text adventures and the first CRPGs, but were mostly played by college students and others with access to a mainframe (or subscribers to services like America Online or CompuServe) Although it’s beyond the scope of this article to discuss MUDs in any detail, suffice it to say that the appeal of these games is based far more on the thrill of playing with other people than anything else A case in point is the original Neverwinter Nights, an online game available on AOL between 1991-1997 that was based on SSI’s Gold Box engine Rather than get excited about stories or quests, players spent time creating and participating in a player-created “guild” system; the bulk of the game’s appeal consisted in socializing and building up one’s social status In short, the difference between the typical MMORPG and the traditional CRPG is as sharp as that between attending a Renaissance Fair and reading a good fantasy novel Although both offer no small share of delights, it just doesn’t make sense to claim that people should prefer one to the other, or that they are somehow equivalent Just as selfrespecting RPG fan might wish to avoid a crowd of drunken nincompoops at a “Ren Fair”, a CRPG fan may have aspirations beyond being “pwned” by rapacious adolescents Of course, there is the question of whether the single-player, stand-alone CRPG is still commercially viable as a genre, and many “oldskool” fans take a cynical view No doubt, the culture of PC gaming has changed drastically since players were crawling through Wizardry, The Bard’s Tale, or Curse of the Azure Bonds These games had steep learning curves and required long attention spans—aspects which make them seem quaintly “oldfashioned” compared to games we find on the shelves today Many modern gamers find even Baldur’s Gate II simply too contemplative; it fails to provide enough rapid-fire bursts of instant gratification to keep them from awake Can you imagine these folks taking the time to map out a dungeon on graph paper or reaching the level of tactical expertise necessary to complete Wizard’s Crown? There was a point in gaming history when the CRPG was viewed as the “hard” genre; the genre that required the largest investment in time and energy but which offered the greatest rewards These were games for the “hardcore,” the computer geek who was proud of her esoteric knowledge and superior intelligence Some cynics claim that this began to change with the increasing dominance of console RPGs, which by the late 90s were influencing CRPGs more than the other way around (indeed, several RPGs originating on consoles were later ported to PCs, and with much success) Naturally, adapting the CRPG for use on a console required making concessions in almost every area, particularly the interface, which had to be simple enough to work with a handheld controller Likewise, these games had to appeal to a much wider demographic than PC games, whose developers could expect much more technical knowledge and sophistication than their console counterparts Although the difference between consoles and computers has been steadily narrowing since the “fifth generation” or PlayStation era, many oldfashioned CRPG fans still resent the marked Japanese influence on their beloved genre (see my earlier article, Kawaisa!: A Naive Glance at Western and Eastern RPGs) Yet, there are plenty of gamers out there still playing Rogue and running the classics on emulators or via nifty new services like GameTap (see this list of GameTap’s RPGs) Games like Oblivion, Dungeon Siege II, and Neverwinter Nights II continue to show up on the charts, and an undisputed masterpiece like Knights of the Old Republic is still enough to win over old fans and introduce hordes of new gamers to the genre My guess is that the next big revolution in CRPGs is just around the corner, though it’s impossible to tell from which company it might arise, or what form it might take However, I can’t emphasize enough that the best CRPGs of all time have been far more a matter of craft than revolution, of paradigms coming together rather than breaking apart Like Pool of Radiance, Baldur’s Gate, or Fallout, the next big CRPG won’t be so much about doing something new, but doing something right ... company of the Brothers Grimm, Snow White, the Red Fairy Book, Flash Gordon serials, The Three Musketeers, the knights of the Round Table, or any of the three versions of the The Thief of Bagdad?... One-Shots There are at least four other games that make up the Silver Age of CRPGs These include Telengard, The Sword of Fargoal, Tunnels of Doom, and Dungeons of Daggorath While these games are... the history of the CRPG? I didn't think so! So, stay on your guard, friend the best is yet to come! The History of Computer Role- Playing Games Part2: The Golden Age (1985-1993) [Note :The following