I have played soccer for more than two-thirds of my life. It has come to mostly define who I am. Several times throughout my playing career, I have been asked to take the helm and coach. I actually accepted once; I helped coach the women's team at my university after my eligibility was up. I hated nearly every minute of it. See, I have never been one to enjoy being on the sidelines. I enjoy roles of leadership, but on the field, as a captain. In other words, I prefer to do, not command.
This train of thought struck me as I was watching a coworker play an RTS at work the other day, all the while practically salivating at the announcement of Starcraft 2. I have never, ever enjoyed a Real Time Strategy game, not even any of the Sims titles. Finally, it occurred to me why: I don't enjoy the role the game places you into. I will alway prefer to play the hero or the main protagonist. I like like to take the reins of a character, if only to suspend my disbelief and become this character for a short while. Seeing my orders carried out never made me feel powerful or god-like. If anything it made me feel powerless as my units were obliterated and dismantled. Maybe the games are better now ( or I just sucked) but I gave up on them a while ago.
I would like to see a game give some control to the individuals within the ranks. I think that is way I am intrigued by the upcoming game, Overlord. It has Action RPG elements like Oblivion, but allows the player to control a small army of minions, like Pikmin. It sounds like the player could hack and slash their way through the game but would be better served by implementing his minions to do some of the dirty work.
This sort of mash-up of genres gets me kind of excited. As long as it doesn't start to play out like a Dynasty Warriors game, it should be fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment