Consider, BioWare, The Non-Epic RPG

Kotaku is tired of saving the world in every BioWare-developed RPG, so they grilled co-founder Greg Zeschuk during PAX about why all of their games seem so formulaic.

When Zeschuk and I spoke a couple of weeks ago at the Penny Arcade Expo, however, I asked if there was any reason BioWare couldn’t or wouldn’t make a role-playing game about something more pedestrian. Must the preservation of all life always be the motivation?

“Like you said, it’s almost like there’s a formula,” he said. “Save the world: Check.” Zeshuck and I both know that a lot of gamers want that feeling of being a hero. That’s a big draw.

Half-joking, I said to him: Why not have an RPG just about having a good week?

“You’ve got to go to work,” Zeschuk riffed. “You’ve got to finds your clothes.” As he threw these ideas out, I realized they didn’t sound that appealing. But Zeschuk liked the idea of making an RPG that’s about less pressing matters than the preservation of all life.

“We have had conversations about having a game that would have much more intimate moment to moment experience, not so much like saving the world,” he said. As a means of loose comparison, he brought up Milo & Kate, the virtual person project showed by Peter Molyneux at this past E3. “It’s not quite like the Milo stuff, but taking the character technology and taking something like mundane is the wrong word but something like sitting around the table.” His idea sounded more like indie games I’ve played or heard about that center on the simpler moments in life, like the dinner part in Facade.

I agree that we need more variety in our storylines, but I don’t want to just sit around a table exchanging stories and drawings with Milo. Let’s leave that to Peter Molyneux, please.