I often wonder why Vampire : The Masquerade is so much hyped. I see that people say that it was a great game.
But … Why does nobody do a game like "Angel : The Masquerade" ? Is it bad and unwanted to play good guys with a similar theme ?
You know, when looking at things, it is my habit to turn things around at 180 degrees and then watch the outcome.
I suspect that a game like that (playing angels) would fit too much the following tropes (taken from my favourite web site, "TV TRopes") :
Good is boring :
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodIsBoring
Being good sucks :
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeingGoodSucks
Good is dumb :
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodIsDumb
No good deed gets unpunished :
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished (where the opposite of that would be ...)
Good is ot nice :
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GoodIsNotNice ( "Affably Evil is when a villain is polite, friendly and genuinely kind, even while plotting evil.")
Evil is cool :
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilIsCool
Evil feels good :
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilFeelsGood
Villains act, Heroes react :
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VillainsActHeroesReact
There are in my opinion far too many tropes supporting polaying evil, and supporting evil characters as plot-drivers, than there is real incentive to play good characters, or making them strong.
My biggest complaint is that "Villains act, Heroes react" kind of tropes, which degradates [spelling ?] the good side to merely being "answerers" and being inferior in every aspect. Like with these tropes from above, nobody wants to implement strong good characters. They're dumb, boring, react, and get easily slaughters, like Pathfinder : Wrath Of The Righteous shows in its introduction. The overwhelming bad is so much better equipped that the heroes are considered qweak from the start. They have to build up their reputation - which is very uncool - whereas the villain already has his or her immense reputattion from the start - which is very adorable in the eyes of people to whom might and power matter.
In the end, most games are baically like : "I play the good side just to relish how much more powerful the bad side is. I would really really like to prefer playing the bad side, because it is so much powerful, and I want to feel powerful, but the game doesn't allow me that. It only allows me to play a skimpy, boring, dumb good guy."
Vampire . The Masquerade is a bit different in that, as far as I know - I have never played it.
But still, it follows the trope of having a deep story with deep moral choices etc. , whereas developers strongly believe that a similar game is just not possible for ggood characters. It just isn't or otherwise there would have been one already.
It is bvery striking that developers - no matter whether C-RPG or pen & papoer - do not see any sense in a setting that features the opposite of a horror game like Vampire : The Masquerade. It would be simply too boring, and I'm very sure that everyone would agree to me.
I find it striking that people abhor good NPCs so much. I do not remember a single good NPC who is
driving any kind of plot. It is always the villain who does it.
Recently I supported a campain book for TDE (The Dark Eye). It is about a certain region of Aventuria.
What I found with it, is a very detailed and massive construction of LOTS of evil characters, spies, secret societies, networks, background NPCS, who are ALL evil. The good ones are merely noted within a very few pages. No details, no networks, no spies, no secret societies.
And that, although one would expect a secret society for good ones, too.
Let's take the Vampire : The Masquerade premise : In Wikipedia, I read this :
In Vampire: The Masquerade, the Masquerade refers to an organized conspiracy primarily orchestrated by the Camarilla to convince the general public that vampires do not exist. The Camarilla believes the Masquerade is the cornerstone survival strategy for Kindred and fear that without it the kine would rise up and exterminate all the undead.[31]: 14, 22, 33
Why does there not exist a game within a group of angels orchestrates a conspiracy to convince the general public that angels do not exist ? One could easily develop a fantasy setting in which this is required.
One could even easily deveoped a horror game in which angels must mask themselves, because evil rules the world. It would be a great setting, because of the above tropes "evil is cool", "villains act, heroes react" etc. etc. . Everybody would love to play it.
Another quote from Wikipedia :
Vampires in the World of Darkness have a rich, complex, and diverse secret society with a range of ideologies, goals, and backgrounds. Sects largely divide along ideological disputes surrounding the distribution of power among vampires, the role of vampires in the human world, and the ancient myths that allegedly explain the origins and purpose of vampires.
Because of the trope "good is dumb", nobody has ever developed
any "rich, complex and diverse society" for angels. You just cannot imagine it, because you adhere the tropes "good is boring" and "good is dumb" too much. Nobody has ever made even the slightest attempt to break out from this.
The tropes "good is dumb" and "good is boring" (and similar ones) are just too strong.
They overwhelm everything, because of - storytelling.
Everyone wants to listen to stories of a weak, dumb, boring hero to overthrow the mighties villain there is. Therefore, good
has to be dumb, boring, weak.
It is also part of most storytelling that there is some kind of "rise to power" (advertising for Bioware's Dragon Age !) from a weakling to a stronger one. It therefore also requires the hero being dumb, boring and weak. Not being the member of a secret society network of good ones, please. No good side factions, please. No diversity among good side groups, please. That level of detail would overwhelm people, because they are not used to it.
The older I become, the more I'm deeply fed up with that.
It feels to me like "been there, having seen that", and its like I have seen it all, and that gaming history repeats itself. There is nothing new under the sun.
It deeply feels like ... as if gaming history repeats itself. It deeply feels to me as if there was no incentive to play any video games anymore, because they all follow the same old formulas and tropes.
Which is why I more and more tend towards exploration games these days. Of which there exist only a frighteningly low number for the PC ("Impossible ! Because the PC is THE action platform !").
I guess that I'll havce to develop what I want all by myself. *sigh*