Just thinking aloud...

[Puma]

I was just thinking...
Why do people keep on playing this 7 year old RPG?
What fascinates them?
What magnetism does this game so that people keep on returning to their long since abandoned chars?

[LennyLen]

I was just thinking...
Why do people keep on playing this 7 year old RPG?
What fascinates them?
What magnetism does this game so that people keep on returning to their long since abandoned chars?

It's all that naked witch flesh. :blink:

[Puma]

And I was asking seriously...

[LennyLen]

And I was asking seriously...

Then think on this:

People play computer games for enjoyment. So when people continue to play the same game for so long, this means that the game is very...

[Mick]

I think if I could fully answer that question several game companies would offer me large sums of money for my insights...

But I'll summarise what I think is best about D1 - flexibility within simplicity. It's a simple conceptual basis with enormous room for complexity and subtlety if you want to go that way, where the game's design keeps throwing up new things for the player even after they've been poking into it for seven years.

It's a game with a very simple method; run around killing monsters and picking up prizes while improving your character's abilities. That's easy enough for just about anyone to understand. If they can get their computer working they can understand that.

But you can do that in three basic ways: Warrior, Rogue or Sorceror. So that's a nice easy-to-choose level of complexity. Then there's the complexity of the items, so you can easily have different types of each basic character and play with your character's abilities endlessly. Then there's spells. Then there's the difficulty settings. Then there's four different basic types of dungeon area. Then there's variation in what monsters show up when. And you can explore these elements as much or as little as you like.

It means you have vast freedom to play different ways within a very simple basic idea, and the game can keep throwing up new combinations and problems at you, and you can keep learning new things even after playing it for seven years, and you can make your learning curve gentle or steep as you like. Incredible flexibility.

On top of that, it's unusually user-friendly. I have limited use of my left hand so most computer games are useless to me; too many keys to control. Yeah great, use 1-0 to select weapon, then IJKM to move, then ESDX to look around, then press the space bar to run or swim, then... No chance. I can use the mouse in my right hand and I can reliably tap at one key, unreliably switching to another nearby.

I can play Diablo literally with just the mouse if I want. I can also play it with Shift for firing arrows at a distance, and I can hit 'Command' to use spells - although every ten minutes or so I'll find I'm hitting Z and getting a close up view of my character being hit. To hit a spell hotkey means hoping my left index finger is working fairly well, to select a new spell is an interesting exercise in risk assessment. So the controls can be complex and used by digitally dextrous players, but can also be used by the clumsy or incapacitated.

There's only one other game with such simple controls that was complex enough to hold my interest at all - Descent. Again, simple conceptual basics with a fair bit of complexity. But still nowhere near the flexibility of Diablo1.

Like life: simple at first glance but with incredible variation and flexibility if you care to look closer.

Mick.

[--Pete]

Hi,

I think if I could fully answer that question several game companies would offer me large sums of money for my insights...

Yep. And after having paid for your insights, a "true" gaming company would promptly ignore them :)

But I think you are dead on as to the simplicity factor. Of the board games, the ones with the most complex rules seem to have the shortest lifespans. Chess, checkers, go, and backgammon which have a lot of complexity in a small set of rules have lasted for centuries. The same seems to be holding true in computer games. So the question must be asked, "Are gamers searching for simplicity because they are simple?" ;)

--Pete

[ismael.]

IMHO its simplicity (not very much actually in the world of Diablo) coupled with ultimate variability in everything - items, monsters, dungeon layouts. You never get bored on your way searching for better and even better items as each game is different, the monsters and dugeons are generated in ever different ways.

This is imho also the reason why many other games, even good ones, popular at the time of their release quickly wear out - there is simply no variation once you delve deeper into them, they are static in content. You get bored of them once you explore them to the last detail. Not so with Diablo - though composed of relatively few elements, the elements are found in ever changing, never the same constellations.

Also, Diablo is not time consuming (relatively speaking) and hence playable anytime you find a free hour or so. It is not intimidating in size. Unless not playing IM or some insane variants, one game of more or less frantic action takes only few dozens of minutes - unlike many other game monsters best requiring one whole day for a session.

My 2 cents.

[Mick]

Pete Says:
'...Chess, checkers, go, and backgammon which have a lot of complexity in a small set of rules have lasted for centuries. The same seems to be holding true in computer games. So the question must be asked, "Are gamers searching for simplicity because they are simple?"'

Are chess players simple? Not in terms of their understanding of chess, no. People generally search for simplicity because they want life to be understandable and predictable. But not *too* understandable and predictable or they get bored and are left unchallenged. It's that balance between understandable rules in a simple enough form and enough flexibility to provide challenge that makes great games great.

Mick.ˇ