The fact that you were a rabbit was actually pretty important. It’s one thing for a cop to throw away his badge and hunt down his family’s killers– cops, video game cops at least, are accustomed to violence. A meek rabbit that’s driven to slit throats and fight wolves just has a lot more dramatic potential.

Plus, animals have tons of symbolism attached to them. Tolkien-based stories (which, let’s face it, involve killing anthropomorphic pigs) always reek of an unhealthy racism to me: the orcs live only for war, and must be exterminated. A wicked sorcerer (and long noses are common) is behind the invasions. The good guys are the ones protecting a civilization remarkably similar to that of Western Europe. Oh noes! Saruman is interbreeding the “savage race” with the pretty pretty elves! Revolting! I wonder if there’s pics?

But wolves? We’ve been using them in fairy tales for years. They’ve got personality, and they’ve got reason to kill rabbits.

Holy sh*t! Lugaru, developers on RPS! Jeff, I love you guys, keep up the good work.

[Oops, you're right... I should warn about these. Okay - Spoiler zone, skip to the next @ if you haven't played Mask.]

Your analysis is quite true, because the overall goal was quite hefty. It was, after all, to basically dethrone one deity and undo the works of another. And to have neither achieved at the end was … heart-rending. But that too was one of the things that made the game stick with me, and I have to admit that my mind played out no end of “What if?” scenarios, mostly in regards to approaching the City of the Dead and onwards.

And that’s just part of the magic of Mask, much of the game is designed to make the player think, and when the player isn’t thinking, possibly to have them dream a little, too. This is something that’s usually only ever accomplished by books and a damned talented writer, to see it have been done in a game makes me long to see it again. To know it is possible and that it may never happen again is horrid, and this is perhaps why I look upon the more unimaginative fare released today with a more cynical eye than I would otherwise.

And it’s funny, because as much as I loved Fallout, Planescape, and Baldur’s Gate II (along with the mod Westley did, I think it was), none of them hit me as strongly as Mask did. And I realise that as technology increases, so does the ability to tell an absolutely amazing tale, to tell fantastic tales. And the fact that we’re having the same old tripe shoveled upon us frequently is … well, tragic.

These are just my feelings on the matter, of course. But it might help the RPS crowd understand my attitude towards games, and that’s a good thing.

Anything that shows even the slightest bit of imagination, I’m all over. Anything that looks like it could go beyond the realms of simply being a game, and touch upon that hallowed goal of being an experience which the gamer may never forget. So thus do I shamelessly encourage imagination.

I’ve derailed a bit here, but I think it was worthwhile.

@thaddeus

Redwall would be grand, as would Watership Down. I’d even settle for a continuation of Inherit the Earth: Quest for the Orb (which was loosely based on ideas presented by both). If that happened though, they’d have to bring the respective writers on board just to make sure it does become the same kind of experience the books are.

I could only begin to wrap my mind around how wonderful an RPG done in Bioware’s new Aurora engine might be. And it would introduce the humble gamer to something a little different, as being primarily a British series of books, the heroes and villains aren’t the usual fare that one would expect to find in games. The villains especially can be intriguing, clever, and quite eloquent.

If nothing else, it would make for some enrapturing dialog.

@Jeffrey Rosen

I’m going to hold you to that! I’m actually looking forward to Lugaru almost because of the fascinating art-style. If you manage to capture that within a game, then you can count on one happy camper.