LE A real "Adult" Mod.

[catonic]

I have been playing computer games since the C64 came out back in the early 1980's and it has been both interesting and frustrating to see the changes since then. The worst part, imo, has been the excessive concentration on violence as a gameplay mechanic and I would like to suggest a much more adult alternative, in the best and broadest sense.

Playing Skyrim, with some added mods, things have advanced enough to show me that it is possible to create something that would :

 

1. Be adult in that our (the players) choices could have a much greater and real impact on their status, wealth, property, health, looks etc and hence make our decision making more crucial and intense, instead of relying on combat for that tension.

2. Include things like slavery so that the player is at risk of being captured and made a slave if they venture into certain areas or interact with certain characters and then have to try and escape.

3. Allow wider choices of good (helping, healing, giving) and evil or harm (not just killing) with real consequences so the player has to think about what they do much more. For example, include the option to knock a NPC out and steal from them and then have to deal with the consequences if seen or if the NPC knows who attacked them.

4. Include player marriage and families as this means that spouse / children / home can be killed / wounded /damaged / destroyed so requiring the player to think about the consequences of their actions. For example, if I choose to undertake a quest that is risky I may lose my home and family. A house in some places / regions is much safer than others.

5. Allow / show visual damage to houses and objects due to fire , violence etc. as this makes it clear what loss we / others have suffered.

6. Show more adult (nudity /sexual) content in the narrow sense as this provides the player with a reason to try and marry / co-habit with an attractive spouse or have attractive followers which require the player to make more effort or cost more instead of just running around killing. It also adds to the potential loss which adds tension and a sense of triumph if we succeed in fighting of bandits etc or outwitting an NPC who wants to enslave / harm our spouse / children / servants / followers. Or we can choose to try and enslave others and then have to deal with the consequences of that, including potential loss of followers / family / property.

7. It also allows the choice of cheating on our spouse / lover and the consequences of that (if caught), or they may cheat on us and then we have to decide how to respond.

8. Allow more variety in architecture, both inside and out, as this makes things much more interesting and creates emotional effects that are immersive.

 

The advancements in AI and modding that Skyrim shows over its predecessors make it clear that these changes can be made relatively easily and will make the game more immersive, interesting and balanced. There will be far more positive reasons for going on quests and they will not need to involve killing to be interesting, challenging and rewarding. For example, in our travels we will see NPC's who we are attracted to, houses we may like to buy or locations in which we would like to build. A number of excellent mods, such as Deus Mons, give us a small taste of how much greater RPGs such as Skyrim could be.

Anyway, enough of my rant / frustrations / wishes.

If others are interested in this sort of thing I would encourage them to work together to create a really "adult" RPG, rather than just another exercise in running around killing in an increasingly pretty environment, and, to give due credit, Skyrim is very interesting and well done environment.

[yota71]

Nice idea, but maybe difficult to apply it require a lot of BG work to make this work

[drjoe2012]

I agree with you.. Not to rain on your parade or anything. But, these are "fantasy" games. Not many want "real" games. They talk about more realism. They create mods with "immersion". But, most of them deal with the killing part.