Icarus Studios News

Part 2, Strategy, Simulation, and RPG

(Continued from Part 1) 

Strategy games evolved from board games and involve skillful thinking and careful planning in order to be victorious. There are many different kinds of strategy games, but I’m going to focus on the most popular ones, because, in the end, we all want to be socially accepted and do whatever the cool kids do. First, determine if you enjoy turn-based strategy and tactics (Are you patient?) or real-time strategy and tactics (Can you think on your feet?). Second, learn your four Xs: eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. If you’re looking for practice on that, Civilization is a good start. And finally, decide if you like constructing or conquering.

If you’re all about conquest, you’re looking for war games. In most war games, your strategy involves destroying your opponent’s army or sinking their battleships or whatever, like in Scorched Earth. The players complete tasks with troops and resources they are given, build, or gather—which are often represented graphically on a map. If you are into games like Command & Conquer, then most of your game-play will involve finding resources, building bases, doing research, and producing materials. Some tactical games forego the economical aspect and just get down to the action on the battlefield.

Let’s say you’d rather use your skill for strategy to construct something. (You goody-two-shoes, you.) Now we’re drifting into the genre of CMSs—Construction and Management Simulation games. In a CMS, you build, expand, and manage communities (like city development) or projects (like the building of a theme park), using limited resources. A lot of CMSs spill over into economic games, because so much of your energy is spent forming and implementing a financial strategy to govern those under your God-like care. There’s more to it than that, of course: Often, you must meet the requirements of the NPCs, and they always want something—food, shelter, emotional nurturing—the needy buggers. SimCity is perhaps the most famous of these “God Games,” in which the player looks down on the world and manipulates (or at least reacts to) characters and events. If you have control issues, this is the genre for you. 

Other Simulation Games (that sometimes include elements of strategy) offer opportunities to play at politics, romance, pet-care, child-rearing, vehicle and flight simulation, employee training, and scientific experimentation. These games are social, and sometimes they overlap with Role-Playing Games. Some are linear, some are non-linear; some specialize in action and others provide more of a social space.

Most RPGs are adventure games, like Dungeons & Dragons. They center on players who cast themselves in the role of adventurers who develop skills (like magic or martial arts) and journey along a pre-plotted storyline. These worlds are often inhabited by elves, monsters, wizards, warriors, and healers who populate towns, cities, castles, dungeons, etc. Most of these games rely on a fantasy element, so, if potions, quests, teamwork, and dragon-slaying are your cuppa, you’ve got dozens of games to choose from. Once you get past the grind and level up your experience points, RPGs can be one of the game genres that involve the most rewarding social interaction.

Of course, in order to support a lot of role-players, you’re going to need a massive world for them to play in; hence, Massively Multi-player Online Role-Playing Games, or MMORPGs. These games emerged in the 90s and have only increased in popularity; properties like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online have millions of players worldwide. They combine the fantasy element of an RPG and the adventure aspects of previous puzzle games like Myst, sending players off the narrative path to complete quick quests or mini-game puzzles for rewards, with the engaging graphics and social interaction inherent in a 3D virtual world (of which I am not, in any way, predisposed, I may remind you).

If neither action nor adventure suit you, but you are looking for a social networking experience, then virtual worlds like Second Life allow players to become residents of an online meta-reality, devoid of the pressures often accompanying competition, character death, and end-game strategy of other online games.

(Continued in Part 3)

-Kara Stambach, Virtual Worlds Team