Warren Spector was the development director of the original Deus Ex and the first person in the game industry to come up with the concept of "Immersive Sim." As a young man, he loved the board game Dungeons and Dragons, and science fiction writer Bruce Sterling, the definer of the concept of "cyberpunk," played with him as a host. Spiketer recalls that Sterling was a very generous dungeon lord who was willing to let players play freely.
"From the first night, in the 10 years since, the most fascinating thing is not the story that Bruce painted, but the story we told with him."
To this day, Spiketer still remembers those stories—he played the unsmiling samurai Botara Chitan fighting in the streets and leading the "Rat Gang" into a large gang in the riverside city of Shang, but he would not reveal the ending. "That would make me very emotional and embarrassed."
Warren Spector is the producer of classic games such as System Shock and Deus Ex, and later teaches game courses at the University of Texas at Austin
As a great dungeon lord, Sterling understands that he has to create the "scaffolding" needed for the player to develop the story, provide the player with "obstacle training", and leave enough room to play. To overcome the challenges of Sterling's design, Spiketer and his friends needed to make some important choices.
"If these games don't sound like they've driven me crazy over the past few decades, it's because I'm not loud enough." Spector said, "I've always wanted people to experience the feeling I had when I play Dungeons & Dragons. ”
Origin story
In the 1980s, Spector briefly worked for TSR, the publisher of Dungeons & Dragons, before joining Origin Systems to develop computer games.
"I think in the '80s and '90s, Dungeons & Dragons influenced all developers in the computer game industry, and Origin was no exception. For example, in Origin's RPG game Genesis, the player does more than just kill monsters and get treasure, you need to decide how to make the character interact with the game world based on your wishes and ideas in the real world. You don't have to guess what the character should do or how the designer wants you to play, but you feel like you're in charge. It was all primitive, but the way forward was right. ”
Original Dungeons & Dragons, released in 1974, consisted mainly of three rulebooks, Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures.
While working at Looking Glass Studios, Spiketer co-developed System Shock and Thief as a producer and is regarded as one of the pioneers of the immersive simulation category. While these games look more like FPS than board games, they all do what the Dungeon Lords do: provide obstacles for players and encourage them to use their imagination to find ways to overcome them.
"Our philosophy is to allow players to do whatever they want and not let them down. Ideally, a game will never be unresponsive to the player's actions, and whatever it does, some logical outcome should happen. ”
Spiketer began banning teams from using the word "puzzle" because it was so easily reminiscent of a single solution. Instead, he encourages developers to think more about "problems." Spiketer asked the developers to leave the stage and let the players perform, which was the principle he later insisted on when he led the team to develop Breakout at Ion Storm Studios.
The Elder "Genesis" series on PC
"In Out of the Shell, you can solve the problem in any way you can think of." Spector said, "You can try all sorts of things and then face the consequences of different options... While people seem to love the story of Breakout, it actually just tries to provide people with the background and structure to make their choices, so that players feel that their choices are meaningful. In short, it's like Dungeons & Dragons. ”
After the development of the original Deuteronomy was completed, Spector was delighted to find that the game had reinvented the disruptive fun of board games — bringing down the Dungeon Lords. "I often see Deus Ex players who have a problem and try to solve it in a way that no one has ever tried. And then I think, does it work? Whether or not the player can solve the problem in their own way, will the game react in a logical way? ”
Today, designers who have worked under Spiketer are located throughout the game industry. Emil Pagliarulo served as lead designer for Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, Kent Hudson became game director for Watchdog: Legion, and many worked for Arkane Studios, developing content for Death Loop and Redfall. In a sense, these games all play a similar role to the Dungeon Lord.
The original "Out of the Siege", released in 2000
Still, Spector believes that some developers misunderstand the essence of immersive simulation. "Many RPG developers believe that role-play can only revolve around classes, skills, numerical values, and dice rolls. Dungeons & Dragons is okay with that, but that's because Gary Gigaix and Dave Anatson (co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons) only had those tools at the time, and video games could do more. ”
Everywhere
Video games both restore the board game experience while allowing players more freedom to play their roles. BioWare has developed three games that are officially licensed by Dungeons & Dragons, and the studio has tried to restore the rules of board games while taking into account the needs of video gamers to express themselves.
In Baldur's Gate, about half of the key characters are based on characters from a game of Dungeons & Dragons hosted by designer James Ohlen. For example, ranger Minsk is played by programmer Cameron Toffer. "When I was in high school, Olsen ran a comic book store at home, and he used to host games upstairs." BioWare co-founder Trent Austel recalls.
Although Olsen didn't have any development background, BioWare needed a "Dungeon Lord", so it didn't hesitate to recruit him. When Olson left BioWare 22 years later, the position was already senior creative director.
The original "Baldur's Gate", released in 1998
After the advent of Neverwinter Night, BioWare stopped developing games based on Dungeons & Dragons rules, but you can still feel the effects of the rules in games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Age of Dragons that the studio later produced. More importantly, those rules are backed by a corresponding worldview.
"It's almost a philosophical topic, and we adhere to the principle that when characters from different backgrounds, with different insights and abilities are combined, teams become very powerful. Dungeons & Dragons celebrates diversity and will make you realize that the collective is always more powerful than the individual. Austell said.
This philosophy resonated with the public, especially after the advent of Mass Effect, which allowed players to build emotional connections (and even romantic relationships) with team members. In addition, BioWare's famous moral choice design was also inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, which has a table in its rule settings that divides characters into nine factions classifications to determine whether each character is good, neutral, or evil. The influence of this classification is now not limited to the game world.
"At BioWare, the concepts of good and evil are very important." "Most games in those days required players to do the right, right thing, but almost all BioWare games allowed players to try evil, a setting inspired by pen-and-paper adventure games," Auster said. When you play Dungeons & Dragons, your teammates may be the bad guys, and the Dungeon Lord is allowed to continue because then the player is free. ”
Star Wars: Samurai of the Old Republic, 2003
From Doom to Quake
Id Software's "Dungeon Lord" is John Carmack, who allows players to play as villains, only to end the world.
"It's all my fault, I'm too greedy and underestimate the power of the devil." Doom designer John Romero recalls. When Romero and his friends encounter a five-pointed star during their adventure, the demon trapped inside begs Romero to release it. In exchange, the Demon promises to give Romero some powerful items. "I want those things so much."
The devil kept his promise after regaining his freedom, but it also said, "It doesn't matter, we will rule the world anyway." ”
"For the next month, we fought and hid with demons, watching the heroes be defeated and the world destroyed... That was the last time we played Dungeons & Dragons together. Romero said.
Despite the brutal ending, Romero praised Carmack as a "very impartial dungeon lord" for being "loyal to his own rules" as he was. "He's always rolling the dice in secret because there are so many unexpected things that can happen in the game that we don't get bored at any point." Carmack and Romero "suffered heavy losses," but that experience inspired them to create Doom. In the world of Doom, a Martian base is occupied by invaders from Hell.
Doom, 1993. No matter what type of game, there may be a group of people behind it who like Dungeons & Dragons
"We never thought Dungeons & Dragons would affect our game design, but it was really fascinating and we liked to get together and play. No one will study the numerical tables carefully, nor will they be bound by some mysterious rules. For us, playing Dungeons & Dragons is a way to increase team cohesion. ”
Carmack created the NPC character "Quake", who belonged to an organization called the Silver Shadow Band, which worked for the large institution "Justice". When the developers of id Software went through several adventures in the company of Quake, they came up with the idea of having Quake as the protagonist in a video game.
"We started working on Quake in January 1991, but the technology wasn't good enough, so we canceled the project." Romero recalled. After the release of Doom, Romero regained his original idea. In the 1996 version of Quake, its oppressive, dark fantasy atmosphere, overall style and names such as Ogre Castle and Warlock's Chamber of Warlocks are also reminiscent of Dungeons & Dragons, and have had an important impact on contemporary independently produced shooters.
After leaving id Software, Romero still vividly remembers his adventures with his former colleagues in Dungeons & Dragons— Romero named his first game in Ion Storm Daikatana, the name of the sword that the demon had given him.
From Romero's latest strategy game, Empire of Sin, players can also find the imprint of Dungeons & Dragons. "Dungeons & Dragons will always be part of a video game that requires players to calculate conflicts, obtain fallen items, and define character characteristics, and these core elements will keep the game engaging."
The Big Knife with a catastrophic performance, 2000
The Romeros' new book, Empire of Sin, 2020
New experience
In a sense, concepts such as experience points and upgrades are perhaps Dungeons & Dragons' most pervasive contributions to PC gaming. These concepts provide Diablo and Destiny players with goals to pursue, allowing Call of Duty players to continue killing, and also making the relatively slow-paced Witcher 3: Wild Hunt attractive for in-depth exploration. Without these basic concepts, it's hard to imagine what contemporary PC gaming would look like.
"It's funny." Spector said, "Actually, I don't advocate that developers pay too much attention to experience points and character leveling, but most of my games seem to include these elements, and it is impossible to completely abandon Dungeons & Dragons." ”
"Experience points and level increases make it easier for players to become familiar with role-playing and easier to incorporate system-created characters. This will make the player feel comfortable, which will bring a sense of pleasure. ”
Spector acknowledges that the sense of freedom of immersive simulation games can be daunting for some players. "They force you to think and in a special way make you accountable for your actions." This means that sometimes you have to stop and think, evaluate, and make plans before you can take action. These jobs may be fun, but it's always work... Tabletop role-playing games are simpler to understand, and focusing on the characters and designer's story will make players feel more comfortable. ”
Today, there are still PC game development teams trying to combine role-playing and dice-rolling gameplay, and Larion Studios is an example. Still in early access, Baldur's Gate 3 is an RPG officially licensed by Dungeons & Dragons that mimics the rules of the original board game and directly replicates the monsters in the Monster Atlas.
But more importantly, by Spiketer's definition, Baldur's Gate 3 is an immersive simulation game: players can overcome obstacles by simulating stealth, engaging in intense battles, or engaging in dialogue with their characters to write their own adventure stories.
The influence of Dungeons & Dragons has permeated every corner of the game world, and this has long been a consensus, but there may be stories in it that you don't know.
This article is compiled from: pcgamer.com
原文标题：《How Dungeons & Dragons shaped every corner of PC gaming》
Originally written by Jeremy Peel