People aren't THAT dumb, they just don't have the patience. It's like chimps with ADD who need instant gratification.

That's why they invented THE AWESOME BUTTON.

Dragon Age 2?

I'd have to disagree with you on the nostalgia viewpoint. I played games such Akalabeth, Temple of Apshai and the first Wizardry back in the early 80's and think that, *for their time*, they were great games. Many hours of enjoyment lay therein, and you can't ask much more from any game than that ;)

And Wizard's Crown was one of the best games I've played, in any era.

Would I play them now ? No - the graphics, mapping and other record keeping required would spoil the experience for me.

Also I'd note there are people on these forums who play the early Might & Magics, so there's still life in some of the old games.

LOL! From the majority of accounts from those who played DA1, yes!

I remember that one of the patches for Morrowind did a lot to improve the journal. Right out of the box, it was an absolute pain to use. It used to function like the one from Baldur's Gate 1. I really can do without having to write stuff down in order to be able to keep track of it.

Regarding the fast travel, I'm still on the fence about it. Normally, that's the kind of thing I welcome, but Elder Scrolls games are all about the exploration and the world does seem smaller and less dangerous for it. Morrowind had the mark/recall spell that prevented one from having to do trips to remote locations twice, there and back again, and Skyrim has horses and I can just see these elements together reducing pointless traveling and boredom, while maintaining the sense of exploration that Morrowind provided.


Generally I have to say that Mass Effect 2 and Skyrim did restore my faith in RPGs and gaming as a whole and made me remember why I fell in love with it in the first place. But they are exceptions, I haven't been anywhere as much enamoured with other modern RPGs like The Witcher or Dragon Age.

How was Pool of Darkness? ;)

In the USA, 8bit platforms were pretty ill by 1988. It was just the C64 and the Apple 2 (mostly the education market). You'll see new CRPGs designed on 16/ 32 bit platforms and then maybe ported to the C64. This is very different from the market just a few years earlier.

Edit: But I could be wrong. My point that comment was taken from is that Goldbox is a 2nd or 3rd generation CRPG series and not what I had in my mind when I said old (which was admittedly vague).

I loved journal from Arcanum, it has everything - Rumors, Quests, Keys, Blessings...

It was actually the Tribunal expansion that made a real quest journal... without it the journal sucked, yes. I don't want to write anything or make a map either, I think that is too "old school." That's why I think Morrowind, Deus Ex, Fallout... they set the tone for me, and strike the right balance.

I try to emulate Morrowind's methods when playing Skyrim and Oblivion. You can go back to a big city at any time (using intervention spells), you can go from one city to another at any time (using public transportation) and you can go back to where you just were at any time (using mark and recall). So in Oblivion if I would usually fast travel to the nearest city to my quest objective and walk from there, then fast travel back to the city when I was done.

It's always been my impression that the US was more console territory. It always seemed to me that everyone over there had Nintendos at that time, and real computers were almost non-existent. In Europe (or in Denmark anyway) it was the other way around. Everyone had one computer or another, and consoles were almost nowhere to be found. Nintendo wasn't on the Danish market at all, but the Sega consoles of the time were, although there weren't many of them.

The C64 (and the other 8-bit computers) were gradually phased out in favor of the various Amiga models (and some PCs) during the years from around 1990 to around 1992. Consoles didn't really start to take off here until the PS1 came out.

Again SSI gold box drew some maps for you - they WERE featureless graph paper jobs though - were they the first?

Baulders Gate 2 ?

Could be, the earliest examples I playes were (I think, this is ages ago) MM 3 and/or Wizardry VII. But the Gold Box games were roughly around the same time,bit earlier maybe, so I have no clue who can claim "first".

Boy, no idea, and now my Brain hurts ;-P.