02-24-2011, 09:37 PM
Grim I think you hit the figurative nail square on the head: browser games are boring. I rapidly experience everything the game has to offer, and end up bored with no interest in the gameplay. The rapid turn/tick time contributes to the 'acceleration of disenchantment' as you put it.
Additionally, most browser games are shallow to the extent that I can almost feel/see the raw mechanics churning away between clicks. Even if the game lacks a story/plot, I should still feel part of a narrative, a narrative I'm creating or contributing to as I play my position. However, when I play browser games I feel as if I am merely crunching numbers through an elaborate system.
Your point regarding imagination is key. The PBMs were fun, in many ways, because they lacked graphics and relied solely on your imagination. When playing RTG's RN:ROTE fiddling with my spreadsheet and tracking orders on paper really didn't feel like number crunching, rather I felt as if I was actually planning and issuing orders to my vast empire. In many ways I think many PBMs, while not RPGs, had a certain roleplay element that grabbed our imagination. For example, in SN:ROTE I was able to fully craft my position's species including physical, socio, and religious traits. I wasn't playing some canned or nameless people, but a people I created and gave life too, even though the RP didn't manifest it self during regular gameplay.
I still like have hopes for the web as a gaming medium for "deep" games, for it is accessible and ubiquitous these days, just like paper+mail was (is) two decades ago. I wonder what a web based game without these flaws would look like. Long turn/tick times? More player actions/customization? Less graphics?
Regarding the character systems, did you ever play Olympia?
Additionally, most browser games are shallow to the extent that I can almost feel/see the raw mechanics churning away between clicks. Even if the game lacks a story/plot, I should still feel part of a narrative, a narrative I'm creating or contributing to as I play my position. However, when I play browser games I feel as if I am merely crunching numbers through an elaborate system.
Your point regarding imagination is key. The PBMs were fun, in many ways, because they lacked graphics and relied solely on your imagination. When playing RTG's RN:ROTE fiddling with my spreadsheet and tracking orders on paper really didn't feel like number crunching, rather I felt as if I was actually planning and issuing orders to my vast empire. In many ways I think many PBMs, while not RPGs, had a certain roleplay element that grabbed our imagination. For example, in SN:ROTE I was able to fully craft my position's species including physical, socio, and religious traits. I wasn't playing some canned or nameless people, but a people I created and gave life too, even though the RP didn't manifest it self during regular gameplay.
I still like have hopes for the web as a gaming medium for "deep" games, for it is accessible and ubiquitous these days, just like paper+mail was (is) two decades ago. I wonder what a web based game without these flaws would look like. Long turn/tick times? More player actions/customization? Less graphics?
Regarding the character systems, did you ever play Olympia?