Might and Magic: Prologue

What is that, flapping, caterwauling and plummeting towards us all like a concussed albatross? Yes, yes, that’s right! The Encounter With Dracula Is Terminated emerges like a bull from the mist for an extra special entry into the series that perpetually threatens to, but never quite does, fizzle out, much like a cheap extra-long sparkler that’s keeping you and your wife cold for fifteen minutes more than you’re comfortable with on fireworks night.

I have a confession, lady and gentlemen. I was feeling low. I was broke, and I had no games I hadn’t completed. I was about to nail Dracula’s coffin permanently shut when none other than Ian Hardingham told me about how, in a genuine occurrence, a female was asking where this very article had gone, as apparently my Prototype review was appreciated by one of the webs denizens. This denizen was a girl. Awesome. With this one, however, I have unfortunately agreed to shed any female readership. This is something I feel only those with big bushy beards may be prepared for.

So, like some crazy critical butcher, I’m slamming not one, but six game experiences on the cold hard slab of analysis this time. I say ‘this time’ instead of ‘tonight’ because, as I mentioned, this is no ordinary entry into the annals of TEWDIT; I am taking on not one fantastical monster, but hundreds. Nay, possibly thousands. Between now and the end of next week I am going to be putting my sanity statistic on the line in the name of unnecessary journalism. My stamina statistic will be tested through the rigors of a mountainous challenge that promises absolutely no reward whatsoever, save for an insight into the mechanical innards of classic RPG gaming. I will be, over the next week, spending a day playing each game in the Might and Magic six pack, recently released via mode7 friends and all-round bargainous archive GoodOldGames.com. I will be eating (food likely to give me gout), drinking (mead), and breathing (FIRE) both might AND magic for the next six days.

RPGs are hands down the best experiences I’ve had playing video games. I realised as I was watching the download bar throb, though, that I was particularly ill-informed when it came to the origins of this genre. Platformers? Sure, I had Donkey Kong and Prince of Persia. Shooters? I’d completed doom and Wolfenstein 3d before Pentiums had even dawned. The first RPG I really sunk my hours into came much later with Final Fantasy 7. I’d played Zelda of course, but I’m not going to count that for the reason that the traditional spinal column of RPGs, stat counting, was mostly absent. Obviously, then, despite playing lots of roles in the age of 3d graphics, I could not label myself KNOWLEDGEABLE about the genres origins. I’ve just labelled statistic counting as a backbone of classic RPGs, but how do I even know that? This thought unsettled me, slightly. Was the task I had just signed up for too much for a…a…noob? MAYHAP.

With that in mind, I decided to do a little research to clue myself up. I was hoping it would be as easy as in oblivion. You know, open the article, +1 INTELLIGENCE pops up, I can close it and get on with my day. Unfortunately, having to read ensued. Awful. Anyhow, I read through the wiki article on Dungeon, the first PDP-10 RPG based on Dungeons and Dragons back in 1975, and also a decent article on Gamasutra about the 1980-onwards era of computer role playing games. I’m not going to get too bogged down in the history of them now, but take a look at those links if you want to have a bit more of a detailed read about it. The summary is pretty much all of it stems from Dungeons and Dragons the board game, and the first games were white-on-black number crunching with nothing but text and lines. Not what I’d come to expect from mass effect, though anyone who’s played fallout 3 or oblivion will not have a struggle to see the link between this and the journal’s long pages of character statistics. The difference may perhaps be more apparent, though, between this and the point blank shotgunning of super mutants. While these early games were no doubt revolutionary, there were drawbacks.

Picture this, if you will. It is 7pm. Work is over. Candles are dimly lighting the room, and you’ve sat down for a board game that may last all night with three like-minded individuals. Who are fat. You are also fat. However, this is no ordinary board game. It’s a board game you’re playing with a plastic Viking hat on, and it isn’t trivial pursuit. What I’m trying to sum up here is that when dungeons and dragons made the leap from friends dressed as elves, props, and elaborate descriptions of the terrifying foe you must slay to ‘You have encountered A RAT. y/n.’ in blocky white text on a black screen, it isn’t hard to see how the genre’s titular role playing element could suffer.

It did suffer. The game was tedious, and could barely be called a game at all. ‘Role playing’ was barely discernible, and it lost the sociable element. At least when you’re sitting around with your three toady friends you can talk about fine elf bitches to pass the time. Lord knows, I do. Early shooters, for instance, were not replicating an experience as Dungeon was, so there was no similar drop-off in quality when (then poorly) digitising them. Another string lacking from the bow was the high 36k ram usage of Dungeon (lol), as opposed to the 32k of 1971’s text-based Star Trek. This kept it from becoming widespread amongst the computers of the day, as people would opt for Spock a lot of the time anyway. Not having something like Maze War launching the genre with somewhat of a bang, the computer game RPG at its origin was in a practically unrecognisable form.

With the original Might and Magics, we’re dealing with something that has the more recognisable visage of being a playable game (just about) while retaining the sensibilities (or lack thereof) of the traditional RPG and its board game ancestry. Herein is something incredibly interesting about the genre: Its transformation has been so much more dramatic than most others over its history. Crysis, albeit a vast distance away, is a predictably logical development from Maze War. Oblivion is not a predictable development from Dungeon. The journal, yes, but the entire game on top of the statistical foundation is something quite different. With this in mind, I realised I should seek the mindset of traditional role playing to begin my journey, as things were done differently back then. Luckily, I had long ago bought the 1984 single role-playing game-book ‘Deathtrap Dungeon’. Don’t ask me why. I’ve done stranger things in charity shops. Dusting off the book, I realised quite quickly that this was all the training I would need. I opened the book at random pages to gain a feel for the quality role playing I could expect. Here are a few excerpts:

NB: To make this a bit more FUN, this was a genuinely random selection at the time of writing, achieved through the age old method of opening the book and pointing.

114. The caveman is wearing a leather wristband with four small rats’ skulls hanging from it. If you wish to put it on your own wrist, turn to 336. If you would rather set off north again, turn to 298.

69. Ivy does not notice you opening the door. You slip out of her room, close the door quietly behind you and find yourself at the end of another tunnel. Turn to 305.

190. Your body vibrates wildly and you are unable to stop yourself passing out. Lose 3 STAMINA points. If you are still alive, turn to 50.

After much more in the vein of the aforementioned skull-adorned wrist band wearing, leaving Ivy and her tunnel (um…), and wild body vibration, I thought I was in as good a state as I’d ever be to begin playing Might and Magic I – Book I. NB. From hereon out I am playing the games. It was a terrible, terrible ordeal, so it may be just that to soldier through. I apologise. Believe me, I had it worse…

Tune in next week to read the exc(ruc)i(a)ting account of me playing through might and magic I-VI!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 9:32 pm and is filed under News, The Encounter With Dracula. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Might and Magic: Prologue”

1. Visiting the Village: Gaming Podcast » Blog Archive » Might and Magic:

   § October 18th, 2009 at 11:12 pm

   [...] Delivered like a delirious monkey with an infinite set of those colourful fridge-magnet letters and a huge fridge…This is it. The play-through of the Might and Magic six pack, and my immediate feedback regarding it. It’s the very freshest The Encounter With Dracula Is Terminated! If you didn’t catch the build up to this crazy ride, you can do so right here. [...]

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