War

[Silverbolt]

I dunno, I seem to recall in QFG1 being able kick the grandma's cat, gratuitously looting neighbors, and killing the spitting spores among other things.

Actually, if you killed the Spitting Spores it would lead to utter game-over-ness.

[Rulic]

The real secret behind qfg was that it was light hearted and humorous.  It never took itself seriously... 

...

I guess what I'm saying is that it's important to make a game where you can kick the grandma's cat and still be a hero.  But if being evil doesn't get you to the objective of being a hero, then it doesn't belong in the game.

You have a good point.  It is YOUR adventure.  I can think of interesting ways of having a war going on while you're lollygagging around the region.  You could do it in a very funny way.
I recall an old Star Trek adventure game, even though humor wasn't a factor in it, where you were in a trench in a fabricated WW1 battle and all you did was do little quests for the soldiers in the trenches.
To keep the spirit of humor, I could see a Gomer Pile (Pyle?) kinda feel to it.  The whole show was based on the military and the setting took place during the Vietnam War, but not once in the show did they even mention the word Vietnam.
Monty Python comes to mind on good military humor for inspiration.
I've kept this thread on my mind in the past week and kept thinking of scenarios of how it could work.
Heck, the way storywriting goes, you could make a whole game just about a war, but keep it humorous and not even fight the enemy of the people you're being the hero for.  Perhaps your goal is to find what actually started the war, who started it (who doesn't have to be fighting in the war), and how to end it.  Many wars in history were started from trivial issues.
I look back at that post I made and wish I could take some of it back, because possibilities are endless in storywriting.
However, my opinion still stands on the point where I would like the Hero#'s to stay away from turning into hack and slash "I got points for killing someone" games.

[PHattiE]

I dunno, I seem to recall in QFG1 being able kick the grandma's cat, gratuitously looting neighbors, and killing the spitting spores among other things.

Actually, if you killed the Spitting Spores it would lead to utter game-over-ness.

Only if you bragged about your deed to the tree lady.  She get's mad; never make tree ladies mad!  

But I use to have fun getting the lowest points possible.  Some of the sierra games actually took points *away* from doing wrong things.  In qg1, you can kill the bear, leave the kobold alive, loot the town, kill the spores, try and hunt the stag, throw daggers at the hermit, threaten the meeps, get kicked out of erasmus's house and still transform the brigand leader and become hero of Speilburg.

But I think rulic's pretty much right.  It's all about getting the right writing/story.  So many people think they can write, but have no clue what it is that makes a story interesting and dynamic.  I can usually tell if someone can write based off of their forum posts.  Usually people who are pretty dry, lack humor, and can't keep your attention longer than.... zzzz

anyway, naw I would hope that the hero#s don't get into a hack and slash rut... unless of course the action sequence are highly addicting...  then, who cares?  

 :hero: