07-17-2003, 07:18 PM
Hmmm... for me this was always more of an arcade/action game with character development and the back-story is just atmosphere.
Virtual Walls? The first time through I cared about the story a bit, but to this day I could not tell you the story. As far as I can tell it's all pretty silly. I'm bright enough to follow a good an interesting plot but I was always more interested in characters.
I played D1 and loved it, but did not play much multiplayer. When d2 came out I played each of the original 5 classes through Normal single player (softcore of course). As an interface designer I certainly noticed that the single player model had changed from D1 and there was no such thing as "saving". It took some adjustment but I found it added to the experience rather than detracted.
Heh, I remember my first time doing Normal cows with my first barb, and quickly having a popped corpse and a swarmed red portal. It took me an hour and countless deaths to get my gear back. It was genuinely tense and exciting and "real" but it had nothing to do with the story, which I had already forgotten.
My characters have lives, and they live them in this strange world where they are trapped, only being able to relive parts of the same story again and again. Imagine if the Matrix decided its virtual world should be based on D & D instead of 1999... Heck, I buy this notion easier than this silly world where the landscape is overun by monsters who don't pose any danger of coming into town.
What virtual walls?
When I tried out multiplayer and the experience was exactly the same except I could co-op with others I thought it was tremendously smart design decision. When I finally came online with D1 I did not have fun, but with D2 I understood immediately how to play the game because it was exactly the same action/arcade game I had learned SP.
My experience was completely different from yours and I came to the opposite conclusion. I think it was a forward-thinking design decision. D2 is not Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights; those games offer more of the kind of varied and evolving single player experience you are asking for.
Virtual Walls? The first time through I cared about the story a bit, but to this day I could not tell you the story. As far as I can tell it's all pretty silly. I'm bright enough to follow a good an interesting plot but I was always more interested in characters.
I played D1 and loved it, but did not play much multiplayer. When d2 came out I played each of the original 5 classes through Normal single player (softcore of course). As an interface designer I certainly noticed that the single player model had changed from D1 and there was no such thing as "saving". It took some adjustment but I found it added to the experience rather than detracted.
Heh, I remember my first time doing Normal cows with my first barb, and quickly having a popped corpse and a swarmed red portal. It took me an hour and countless deaths to get my gear back. It was genuinely tense and exciting and "real" but it had nothing to do with the story, which I had already forgotten.
My characters have lives, and they live them in this strange world where they are trapped, only being able to relive parts of the same story again and again. Imagine if the Matrix decided its virtual world should be based on D & D instead of 1999... Heck, I buy this notion easier than this silly world where the landscape is overun by monsters who don't pose any danger of coming into town.
What virtual walls?
When I tried out multiplayer and the experience was exactly the same except I could co-op with others I thought it was tremendously smart design decision. When I finally came online with D1 I did not have fun, but with D2 I understood immediately how to play the game because it was exactly the same action/arcade game I had learned SP.
Quote:So, I guess what I'm saying is... the game tried to make multi and single player interchangable, and it failed miserably. Single player should have had a persitant world with a fixed difficulty level and unlimited storage space.
My experience was completely different from yours and I came to the opposite conclusion. I think it was a forward-thinking design decision. D2 is not Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights; those games offer more of the kind of varied and evolving single player experience you are asking for.
KS