Michael McCarthy to make Space Action RPG

Michael McCarthy, one of the original members of <a href="http://www.terra-arcanum.com/troikagames/">Troika Games</a> has setup his own company called Laid Back Gaming and begun work on a turn-based Action RPG set in space. <a href="http://rpgcodex.com/">RPGCodex</a> have <a href="http://rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=130">an interview with him</a>. What's most interesting are the parts where he talks about how Troika worked. Like this:
<blockquote>Let me give you an idea of what made Troika great. Here are two scenarios, one featuring a regular game idea, and one featuring a Troika game idea:

<i>Regular game idea:</i>
<blockquote><b>What the player experiences:</b> You were told that the wealthy owner of the Inn can help you find the buried treasure. You walk into a bar. The bartender greets you with a fine "Hello Stranger! Come and enjoy a pint of ale on the house!" You will notice that you when you click on anyone else in the room you get a generic "good day sir", you certainly can't attack anyone, and if the game let you fire off an explosive spell, it wouldn't do any damage in room and no one would notice that anything had happened. You talk to the inn keeper and he says if you give him 10 gold, he'll give you the map to the secret treasure! So you do.

<b>What the developers were thinking:</b> Well, this has to be this way, right? I mean, the bartender has knowledge that keeps the quest moving along so we can't kill him. And what if we attacked someone else in the corner of the bar? We couldn't have that because it would look strange if the people just sat there! And I mean, c'mon, if you can kill this guy, wouldn't that mean you can kill the others too? Oh plus, our publisher informed us yesterday that we have to take out all the kids in the game because we can't sell the game in Germany if it has kid killing. Yeah..... killing people in a friendly town is out of the question.</blockquote>
<i>Troika game:</i>
<blockquote><b>What the player experiences:</b> You walk into a bar. The bartender greets you with a fine "Hello Stranger! Come and enjoy a pint of ale on the house!" At this point, you shoot an arrow through his neck.... he drops dead, the bar maid and most of the patrons freak out and run for the door... You laugh maniacally until you notice some guy in the corner (who happens to be the bartenders' brother in law enjoying a pint himself) unsheathing his vorpal sword and coming after you with bloody vengeance in his eyes... You kill him too and take his sword. You search the inn and find a key underneath a bottle of whiskey behind the bar. The key opens a lockbox upstairs in his room where you find a map.

<b>What Troika was thinking:</b> Hey, what if I want to shoot the bartender? Yeah, I hate those stereo-typical jolly fat bartender guys. It'll be more trouble, but we'll make sure you can get the map some how. For the people in the room, we'll have them check against your faction and skills, if you attack anyone, they will determine if they are scared, hostile, or unmoved by your actions. If they are scared they'll run, hostile they'll attack, and unmoved they will just sit there drinking a beer while all hell breaks loose. Yeah, we should put at least on guy in the bar who's tough as nails. The tough quiet dude who calmly drinks his beer... The guy you DO NOT want to mess with. Yeah, and if you kill anyone in this inn, the cops in town will attack you on sight. The more neutral shopkeepers will still sell to you, but they will jack the prices up because even they think you are a cold blooded killer.</blockquote></blockquote>
<a href="http://rpgcodex.com/content.php?id=130">Read the rest of the interview here</a>.

 

I'm more worried with what he is saving number one thousand for.

 

I'm pretty sure deleting posts doesn't lower the post count. You can pop into the database and change the number to whatever the hell you want though.

 

Well hey, it does work. Now you're back to 831.

 

Glad to help.

That post I made was horribly convoluted, it was probably for the best that you deleted it.