Thursday, September 24, 2009

Nils on unpredictable dungeons

Nils, otherwise known as "the guy who writes more on Tobold's blog than Tobold does", finally realized that his analytical mind and good writing skills are better employed on making a blog of his own. He has posted a very interesting article on unpredictable dungeons, listing their advantages and disadvantages.

Historically speaking it is curious that Blizzard, who mastered the random dungeon in Diablo, ended up using so few unpredictable factors in the dungeon design for World of Warcraft. As Nils says, that leads to dungeons becoming boring after X runs, and a requirement to "know" raid dungeons before even going there for the first time. Is having to follow instructions from YouTube or some Bosskiller site by the letter really the most fun we could possibly have? Or does this predictable dungeon design lead to people confusing "skill" with the ability to react quickly with a predetermined response to a predetermined event? Me, I'd be all for some more unpredictable dungeons, where players would actually have to think tactically to succeed, and not just follow the script.

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