In what other game would you have a love story between two people that get continuously reincarnated for the whole 10,000 years, only to have the woman die in the man's arms every time?
Even now, I still get goosebumps.
To be honest, I'm probably not the only one who will say that a Japanese RPG made them cry. Currently, they have two factors in their favor for producing strong emotions: They're long, letting you build up feeling for the characters and get to know them, and they're very narrative-based, meaning that there actually are characters, and that stuff happens to them.
Thanks for the awesome read.
-Nick
To the Editor: [re: Dom Camus on Warren Spector] One point perhaps lost is that the current situation is one of games stuck in one rather specific niche. Game design can advance without becoming "mainstream" (Though I see nothing wrong with that - to each his own), for there are many more interesting niches waiting to be filled. As Julianne mentioned in this week's editorial, no game has made her cry. Surely there could exist a tragedy niche, just as action-adventure is a niche already well-addressed by games.
-Peter Robinett
To the Editor: In the Wal-Mart article in issue 40, you quoted the programmer of Deer Hunter as having said that its target audience had been "ignored by the game market (or worse, ridiculed by games like Redneck Rampage)." He's right about the ignoring, but wrong in his implication of Redneck Rampage.
Your redneck has a deep sense of humor, and is not too concerned about maintaining a politically correct stance to avoid offending those who occasionally fry up a possum and serve it with Moon Pies and corn liquor. Redneck Rampage was fun and not mean-spirited. The series sold several hundred thousand units, a large percentage having been sold from the shelves of Wal-Mart. The "Wal-Mart audience," as you call it, bought more copies than did the wired, black-clothes-wearing, Marin-County-dwelling, $4,000-computer-having audience.
Regards,
-Bill Dugan
President, Torpex Games
(Producer, Interplay, Redneck Rampage, 1997)
To the Editor: I enjoyed your magazine. There are lots and lots of men on every single article ... except the sexuality one. Then there are all women.
What gives?
-Malia
To the Editor: I wanted to applaud The Escapist and the content it's publishing. It summarizes the current flaws in gaming in today's world and makes me feel a little better about being a game designer.
Thanks,
-Mike
