Ah! I understand.

I did not have it in mind to be that kind to the player, though.

I was reading it not as the player can attain any goal they choose, but rather than no matter what goal they choose ultimately it amounts to do they want ramped up intensity (obtained by trying to achieve any goal other than cracking that egg) or do they want to go crack that egg.

"The pursuit of happiness" isn't the same as "happiness". I was interpreting freedom to "pursue their own goals" similarly. :)

Anything other than trying to crack the egg is basically delaying the inevitable.

I was thinking of goals like I want to explore the entire map, speak to every NPC, maybe even learn what all the possible different conversations are that every NPC is capable of, maybe even kill all of them and gain every item gainable even ones that might not be of any conceivable use (unless there is a shop or something somewhere that can turn almost anything into cash and cahs actually has some use) and so on.

You know: the usual suspects! Normal goals of normal RPGers. ;) :)

Oh and maybe I want to find something I can complain about, like maybe a plank or ladder shown in an image somewhere that looks long enough to cross a something shown on some other map somewhere, but that the programmer neglected to make capable of being used to cross that something. Or a rope shown somewhere and something that looks like in theory a rope could be tied to it but that wasn't implemented either.

(I still remember in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy going look and being told there is blah blah underwear blah blah blah but on telling it pick up underwear it denying there was such a thing. So look again, yes look still claims it is there...Oh but it's dirty underwear (or was that used underwear) but get dirty underwear also claims its not there. Another "usual suspect": finding bugs! ;))

However, WESNOTH-SPECIFIC examples of pursuing own goals could be things like I want to kill *that* NPC using only mages, or I want to level up some Grand Knights to use against *that* enemy instead of the maybe more obvious unit X that maybe the programmer or author expected or even hinted I would use, or I want to do the whole thing using only unit type Y, or I want to get all my units to level 3 before cracking that egg and so on. (The usual *Wesnoth* suspects... many of them actually attainable. (Who would have thought one could do the whole of Heir to the Throne using only Elvish Shaman units?!?!))

[Edited by - markm on December 20, 2010 12:19:54 AM]

Oh, I see how you could look at it that way. Me, I'm ALWAYS wanting to do things in games that can't be done, or disappointed if I do them and the game doesn't acknowledge them. I often want to do things like seduce an NPC, capture a monster and use it as a mount or pet, crossbreed plants, collect one of everything, max every crafting profession, assemble cool-looking outfits including changing the colors of pieces of clothing and not having them be rendered useless by their stats, fix NPCs' problems, go back in time to prevent tragedies, build an impressive house, solo dungeons intended for a party, find every treasure chest in the game, etc. Of course most games don't even have most of those types of gameplay, and that's ok. I only get really frustrated if a game seems like it would enable a goal or almost enables a goal but then when I actually attempt it it's impossible for some stupid reason like lack of storage space, or things that simply can't be done as a character of one gender or the other due to the designers' heterocentrism, or unique items that must be sacrificed to advance the plot so one's collection can never be complete, or any kind of artificial restriction that a single character/player can't do something, like have all available professions or step on two squares to open a door within a dungeon.

Quote: Original post by sunandshadow
That's actually a pretty cool piece of original mythology, although it's challenging to imagine how one would implement a game flexible enough to let the player do such a variety of things.

Thanks for the compliment on my story!

I have a plan for how the game will be flexible enough to do what I want, but I don't know how smooth implementing it will be. It may end up being far too large a job for me to handle, but I think that what I'm planning will work. I'll have to finish nailing down several design features before I can start tackling it.

What if this was worked into a more narrowly focused game?

Like you have a multiplayer RPG with lots and lots of players doing different things, and there is the eggs, and it can be found, moved around, hidden, protected, and if it is hatched, the whole world turns upside down in some fundamental way that forces everyone to rethink their strategies.

And players goals w\r\t the egg would stem from how they're playing the game.

Whoa, a forum that's actually helpful. I'm still in a little bit of disbelief. Thanks for the suggestion JoeCooper.