Conspiracy Theory

by Mistress Nightshadow 

Well, it's me again... and this time I owe a little more credit to people resident at RPGamer. Brad, our lovely ex-editor and current weekend host of Q&A, and the many people who sent a mini [or full blown] editorials to RPGamer's Q&A on the 30th and 31st July. This gave me a little basis to what I'm going to write now.

I also would like to thank the leader of Team XKalibur, Tomm, for letting me use his project, Mythri, as a case study.

This time? Well, have you ever wondered about the state of the RPG industry? Well, this remark made by Darry J. Huskey in his letter which sparked off the debate made me think a little bit.

"Is the RPG community compromising its standards of quality because of the past efforts of certain RPG companies?"

Of course he goes on a slightly different tack than I will when you read this... but that does raise a good question. I phrased the question in my mind in this way...

"Is the RPG community compromising it's standards of quality because of the issues of corprate politics? [ie. Money?]"

I'm not going to go off how X game has sold out to the RPG community, I'm going to suggest something entirely different... something which as far as I know hasn't been suggested.

But you will note at the top that Team Xcalbur has something to do with this... their project, Mythri was a case study. Well, as you should know, if you've been following the news recently, Mythri is having problems. More presisely, they're having problems with finding a publisher.

This was quite surprising considering that I found Mythri to be one of the most innovative, and likely very appealing RPG I have ever seen on Game Boy. I would love to list many of the features which splits this RPG from all Game Boy RPGs as well as many other console RPGs, as indulged by the leader himself, but we both agreed that there would be a no spoiler policy... at least until RPGamer and other sites offically get the information I know about.

Well, the fact is, that it encorporates many features which many RPGamers have been appealing for, resulting in interesting combat, and it also attempts to remove many of the flaws which made other RPGs unbalanced, making them too easy or too hard. Since this group is made up of a group of dedicated and experienced RPG players, I could safely say that this was almost custom-made for the RPG market, and would easily net most, if not all of the RPG market, and could possibly grab the attention of many other non-RPG players.

But as of yet, no company wants to consider touching them with anything more than a thirty foot pole. Despite the fact that it has extensive research and experience in what makes a good RPG, and that by my knowledge, it should do quite well within the RPG market, particularly with it's quite different approach.

Team Xcalabur even said themselves "Companies want a franshise, a 'cut me too' clone, or something which involves catching monsters." And from what I've seen, that's been fairly true in the Game Boy market. Pokemon is probably the only RPG I can think of which has been released recently, and most other games being released now are ports from other systems.

Back to my point... Have you noticed, with only a few exceptions, of how little RPGs have really developed? Ok, Grandia tried to implent one interesting battle system, Final Fantasy Tactics and Shining Force both developed a new genere, Final Fantasy VII brought the third dimension into games... but I can't really quote many others. Quite a trend, isn't it? The battle systems between Final Fantasy 5 to 8 aren't that dramaticly different...

Which brings this point in. Mythri is probably the most innovative RPG I have seen of late on the Game Boy, with the research easily seen, and it's originality pretty much evident with my discussions with the leader, but yet it has been pushed aside. And yet many RPGs haven't gone anywhere as nearly as much change to keep things interesting, and yet they do quite well.

I don't know about you, but I'm starting to think someone's deliberately dragging their heels here. A whole bunch of them in fact... but it sounds stupid that companies are only slowly introducing features and different approaches, doesn't it? Or does it?

Take the Microsoft case for instance. They have been accused of trying to stiffle innovation by killing off their compeditors. What would have happened if they succeeded? They would have been able to sell hundreds of products, each just a little different from the next, and they'd be able to maxiumise their profits with the ideas they got.

Could the same be happening in the RPG industry? That cartels are formed to make maximum profit? That could explain a lot of things... like why no one wants to get near Mythri, and the general slow pace of ideas into the RPG industry.

Of course, not everyone's like that, some companies do happen to break the trend, and some games do prove to be very innovative and original... but now it seems to be more sporadic than anything else now. Even saying that it's hard to introduce something new is sounding more like an excuse... particularly with Mythri's appearence proving quite the opposite.

You think that there is seriously something in this, that maybe we're blind to the real world of the RPG industry, that it's all a conspiracy theory, or that you think I should be placed into an asylum, send the idea to nightshadow_007@angelfire.com. I'd be happy to hear from you. I just can't answer any questions on Mythri, because it'd be better to direct them to the group themselves.