Foilfodder wrote:RECIVS wrote:...players making decisions for the DM in an RPG-like game isn't ideal by any measure, and you can Google it, ask the AI, or whatever. It's clearly a flaw, poor game design by any objective standard. Are we going to keep such a flaw out of nostalgia alone to preserve AHQ as close to the vanilla version as possible? How would that help the game in the end? Now extrapolate that same—nostalgia blind—approach to all the game's other problems, and we end up with what we have today: a flaw-romanticizing paradigm to “fix” AHQ.
If you don't like the game rules, RECIVS, you are entitled to that opinion. However, when comparing Advanced Heroquest with other games, or just rating it on its own, please remember Advanced Heroquest wasn't designed as a Solo Play game. It is a game designed to be lead by a Gamemaster. The Solo Play rules are optional and take up just a page and a half toward the back of the rulebook. Stating that the game designers left in a flaw due to poor game design is too harsh.
Fitting examples when a thing is used for a task it can do, but wasn't meant for:
- Fishing with dynamite.
- Hammering a nail with a screwdriver.
You probably get the idea....
My friend, I’m afraid you keep proving my point with each post.
I get the idea of a flaw-romanticizing paradigm perfectly well; the one that considers it “too harsh” to suggest that AHQ is poorly designed, flawed, or that it shouldn’t be that bland and repetitive.
As I’ve said in other posts and threads, it’s pretty clear what kind of game AHQ was supposed to be. It’s also obvious what a boardgame dungeon crawler is and what game design principles it involves. I've written about it extensively—just see my first few posts in this thread, for example. In the end, the facts remain the same.
AHQ not designed as a solo-play game? What the heck are you even talking about? It's kept me hooked for 14 years without ever playing with anyone! I’ve said repeatedly that I haven’t found another DC that delivers the same level of dread and unpredictability when playing solo. I also said that they don’t make them like that anymore, with few components and short setup times. AHQ just needs some work to take more advantage of its potential, but I know suggesting the obvious may sound like sacrilege to some people, which only proves my point, again.
I do love AHQ and understand the context; the difference is that I’m immune to the nostalgia factor, and I certainly don’t romanticize its flaws. I know it was the first solo-friendly board game dungeon crawler ever, that its designer was inexperienced, and that the deadline was tight; it all makes perfect sense to me.
So, back to the actual topic: regardless of our preferences, we can agree that making decisions for the DM in an RPG-like game isn't ideal by any objective standard, and that it’s clearly a flaw, right? Just look at what other solo games of the type do, for Christ's sake!
The irony is that sometimes the same people who tell you to play a game the way you enjoy it are the same people who end up telling you (wrongly, by the way) how not to play it.
