clipka <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> The irony about this all is that what most computer players consider
> "role-playing elements" was actually adapted by D&D from the older "fantasy
> wargames" genre to combine with *actual* role-playing - of which the majority
> of computer games have virtually *nothing*.

  I wouldn't say "nothing". While it's technically too difficult to have
the same kind of freedom as a tabletop game run by a human DM, some computer
RPGs do have some variation depending on your choices.

  The most typical variation in computer games is based on your "karma"
(for the lack of a better name): If you do good things and make choices
which show compassion and empathy, NPCs will behave differently towards
you than if you act in evil and selfish ways and act like a bully. In the
worst extreme you will be a wanted criminal who can't even enter cities
(unless using stealth) because all the guards will immediately attack you.

  I think Baldur's Gate 2 goes a long way in this direction. Most of the
NPCs in your party are completely optional, you can bully them and drive
them off, or you can make them like you, and you can even lose them
*forever*. (There's actually a really nasty spell which some enemies cast
which will destroy a member of your party irrecoverably, ie. that member
will be truely lost forever, and you can't get him/her back ever again.
That can really hurt if you had emotionally invested in that particular NPC.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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