18-12-2002 00:58									#31
	Suffering from ads?

New thread created:
http://apolyton.net/forums/showthre...&threadid=71251

	06-01-2003 09:50									#32
	Suffering from ads?

quote: Originally posted by moomin I do not agree. The two strategy games I love the most, and that I've returned to again and again during the years, are MoM and Moo. I'm sure they have some backstory or other, but I've never read them... nor do I care. Grand strategy is all about making your own story, I think, and the best the designers can hope for is to make an inviting canvas. And come to think of it, the backstory was the fist thing I ever turned off in SMAC. I really think storytelling belongs in other sorts of games, like RPGs or adventures.

I think you've hit a nail-shaped thing on the head here, but not quite squarely.
The story aspect is important (as well as being something with which that Vel guy seems to have more than a passing familiarity ) although it probably won't matter too much to people after their first game or two, given that the background doesn't really change.
Look at Wonder Movies in Civ2 for example. Few people watch them more than once or twice and when ToT came out (without said wonder movies) it got a bit of criticism from those who wanted them left in.
SMAC is another good example. People generally won't watch through more than once or twice (with an obvious exception being the Cloudbase academy - It was a few games into the expansion before I actually realised this had a purpose other than the cool movie. j/k) but putting them in for the first couple of games does give some a sense of immersion which, in turn, leads to the third and fourth games whereupon the development of strategies starts to come into play.

Imagine if Moo/Mom had come with something similar. Wonder Movies, Spell effects, etc. Few people would turn such off without even seeing them.
By todays standards (seemingly graphics-intensive with less regard for actual gameplay) those two might not even appeal to many if they were released tomorrow, for example, alongside the typical FPS or other eye-candy intensive piece of garbage. Its a shame but there you have it...