The Last Seed

[Ace of Spades]

"The Last Seed" you ask yourself. A thought that entered your mind as soon as you gazed upon the title of this topic. And for those of you who remember anything of my surname, it has absolutely nothing to do with anything I pursued to create. Save for two people that I am sure of. Regardless of my shantics, however, I am only creating this topic of discussion because I want to once again bring attention to something I've still been working on for this whole time I've been AWOL.
This didn't belong in the game section because this is not in any way or form a game, at this particular moment. I could do all that really cool stuff where this dude tells you about his life story and how it took away from a full time story/game/character developer, but I'll save you the details. As some of you may recall, for about 4 years I was working on a game with RPG Maker called "The Omega Seal." There were certain ideas that I kept on developing throughout the entire process of making the game, which halted any playable results. I was never a programmer. I was never into making battles. But played and I loved RPGs, because it conveyed a certain story that was different from just reading a novel.
But then I got older and entered that whole "real life" thing. And to be quite honest with everyone here, RPGs are kind of.. well, lame. Super lame even. Dialogue is rarely ever realistic in any way or form. The story progresses in a way that imitates the obnoxious behavior of alpha males fighting and dueling their way out of any possible obstacle in his and his party of teammate's way. There's always some super deep mystical thing behind all that exists, there's always some evil bastard dickface that wants something so obscure, and for some reason, YOU, as the protagonist, has some hyper obligation to solve this barrage of problems.
When is there ever an instance where the second female party member gets super jealous of the main suave y protagonist/hero getting all up in the primary female's face? When does friendy friend protagonist who doesn't matter as much to the hero, have his conflict between the main hero and his animal instinctive feelings toward wanting to have the beautiful and voluptuous enchantress, whose only desire is to keep up the main protagonist because he's the one with the best skill. Instead of the usual bullshit comedy act we all wanted to put in our games before, where an old granny gets pissed because the hero and his band of good-doers are stealing from her conveniently placed treasure chest.. why not add some realism to our characters? Why not turn an alternative perspective of a novel into something that is actually imaginative, and not just reprocessed garbage that every other story consists of. Perhaps it'd be nice to have a game that is fun, not just due in part to battle sequences that have no bearing on the story, encounters with people that might matter but actually don't, linear-driven plot line that affords no true "choice (aside from message options that deal with yes no or monkey)."
Lads, and the few and fair lasses, I have always wished to make a story that compels, intrigues, seduces, manipulates, compromises, legitimizes, opens minds, and imaginizes. I have been doing so for the entirety of my absence, but now I feel that I am ready to truly put my entirety of this Creation of Mine into gameization.

"For I am a mapmaker, I once had said. But for these places, locations, destinations, and keys; it was not graphics that I mastered, but instead, imagination."
   

[Felix-0]

Please, make a TL;Dr
because, even though I read your post. I just got done working third shift and I don't really understand what this is about x3

[Meiscool]

TL;DR
Make characters that seem real.

[zuhane]

Ace, I pretty much completely agree with you. I don't understand how it can be difficult for people to make compelling characters, though. You just
need to throw in a little humour here and there, some interesting concepts and something believable. There's this huge misconception that people want
to explore a boring-as-**** town full of old people and churches and have lifeless conversations with NPCs. Why?

Look for everything in a game that you want and appreciate, then just make your game like that!

[Meiscool]

I find making real characters easy. All you gotta do it make a tragic event and go from there. Female character who was raped, male character whose older brother was murdered in front of him, other male who accidentally caused a fire as a child and is haunted by the fact that the fire killed his parents, etc. Nothing is more real than death.
I find balancing them in battle to be the most difficult part. Everyone can make healer/fighter/mage/etc, but doing something more like xenoblade and whatnot can make it hard to balance characters.

[zuhane]

Many people try and take from the pages of already-successful RPGs, but I think it's much better to innovate. Just because we enjoyed
all those games all those years ago, doesn't mean people wanna play clones of them! Set it in a weird time with weird monsters and weird
places and just experiment with weird ideas!

[aboutasoandthis]

I don't think it should be so much about realism, but more so character effectiveness? In my opinion this comes down to my personal attachment to the character, and to the character's influence on the plot. The characters in the story should have a reason for being there. I personally prefer for a character to introduce  a moral idea central to the theme of the story. I think this is the main reason people play RPGs. Even if it's a linear storyline, the main character usually has a significant impact on the world. Combine this with how fantastical and interesting video game worlds can be. 

Now to relate to the topic, a good character should also be easy to get attached to. Added realism is a great way to get that attachment. I finally got the chance to play Ico (yay), and one of the best things about the game was how believable him and Yorda were as children. He moves and acts like a little boy. She moves and acts like a little girl. They were constantly put into situations where they could fall from extreme heights. That fear of two kids getting hurt made me care about their safety, which is awesome. I know that can be hard with RPG maker especially because you usually have to rely on dialogue, but it can be done. I've seen some great characters in games, including RPG Maker games. Absolute realism isn't needed as long as I love the character, but it can help.

[Prpl_Mage]

Realism sucks. Why would people risk their lives saving the whole world by fighting huge dragons? I most certainly wouldn't I'd like hoard some food and lock me up nicely.
And even if they felt like they had to fight huge dragons they would most probably die. I mean most NPC's dies byt just bumping into monsters. The heroes need to stand out a little, be a pack of righteous fools.
In a book/novel it's pretty easy to kill some characters off when their part is played. But killing one of my teammates (looking at you ff7,tales of symphonia, grandia 2 ect) is a load of ****. I leveled that guy, he was part of some strategy, a team setup, class balance? gave him some neat gear. Taught him spells, used my stat boosts, invested money in any other crap. And then they are all like "meh, he's dead". A waste.
So the heroes need to stick around for pretty much no reasons. I would've bailed when the leader of my team came up with the brilliant idea to storm the enemy headquarters or enter a crater full of hideous beasts just so that we can retrieve something to cure his sisters illness or any other stupid idea. And any time the final showdown comes up and I'm currently in space/hell/netherrealm/whatever crazy epic location might be. I'd probably just go. "Yeah, I forgot to feed the cat" and go home. If I were a realistic person that is.

I'm gonna be honest and say that I forgot the point I was trying to make and my time is up. G'night all.

[zuhane]

I don't even think there has to be a hint of realism. Characters just have to be great in their own way. Look at Archer from the cartoon series, he's a complete
bastard, but everyone loves him because he's well-written and the characters all have unique interactions!

[zuhane]

Point still stands kind of!