Why should i play Angband?

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

How would you answer this question?

I've been asked this by chums who play off-the-shelf games, who i know
would love Angband if they gave it a chance...

How would you 'sell' the game to people who are prepared to pay $$$ for
an off-the-shelf first person shooter, but who can't see past the ASCII
graphics of Angband?

Those of who have persevered know that the steep learning curve of
Angband is well worth it, but that doesn't seem to make my question any
easier to answer!!!

Tigpup

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

Some people really like eye candy and don't really have the imagination
to substitute for it. Some people really like real-time games and don't
like anything turn-based.

I don't think there is a solution to either of these. My girlfriend
refers to *band as "the letters game", and she can't understand why
it's so engrossing. Yet she enjoys playing Diablo II - but she enjoys
the eye candy and the real-time movement, and the character development
(stats/skills/kit - ie. what it has in common with roguelikes) doesn't
really interest her.

People are mentally stimulated by different things, and *band appeals
to people with a fairly specific set of characteristics or interests.
I've never met a *bander who hadn't played any sort of pencil and paper
RPG before playing a roguelike computer game. I can't imagine that it
would appeal if you weren't already used to exercising your imagination
in that way. Graphical FPS games, on the other hand, are much closer to
"reality", so it's easier to imagine yourself in the role.

Just my 2p.

CC

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

"magnate" <chrisc@dbass.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>People are mentally stimulated by different things, and *band appeals
>to people with a fairly specific set of characteristics or interests.
>I've never met a *bander who hadn't played any sort of pencil and paper
>RPG before playing a roguelike computer game.

I'm not sure if I've met any 'banders who hadn't, but I know at least
two Nethackers who hadn't.
--
Martin Read - my opinions are my own. share them if you wish.
My roguelike games page (including my BSD-licenced roguelike) can be found at:
http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ [...] likes.html
Everyone expected the Bavarian Inquisition.

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

'the letters game.' Hah! A friend of mine and I call it 'slaughtering
the alphabet,' as in, I'm going to go slaughter the alphabet for an
hour or so; or, I was slaughtering the alphabet when I found a great
weapon of slay foo.

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

Martin Read wrote.

> "magnate" <chrisc@dbass.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >People are mentally stimulated by different things, and *band appeals
> >to people with a fairly specific set of characteristics or interests.
> >I've never met a *bander who hadn't played any sort of pencil and paper
> >RPG before playing a roguelike computer game.
>
> I'm not sure if I've met any 'banders who hadn't, but I know at least
> two Nethackers who hadn't.

Never played a paper and pencil game. First Roguelike I played
was on CPM on the Commodore 128. One store and your first purchase
had to be a rope. May have had a way to save but I never new about
it. Crawling about an abandoned dungeon killing monster collecting
weapons occassionally etc. Solid screen of Xs which either yeilded
when probed a space, a fall into the next lower level. a monster,
some treasure or a weapon. Played it a lot and would be up until
4 A.M killing time. Xs changed if they were space so that you
could tell where you had been. But each level was 3 screens of
Xa and you could move from one to the next and back again.
Never won it that game and have never won CathAngband or other
'band game, either. Still play to take my mind off troubles, and
can easily forget to eat.

> --
> Martin Read - my opinions are my own. share them if you wish.
> My roguelike games page (including my BSD-licenced roguelike) can be found at:
> http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/ [...] likes.html
> Everyone expected the Bavarian Inquisition.
But the Teutonic Knights moved quickly to institute its
secret tribunals.

later
bliss -- C O C O A Powered... (at california dot com)

--
bobbie sellers - (Back to Angband) Team *AMIGA*

"It is by will alone I set my mind in motion.
It is by the beans of cocoa that the thoughts acquire speed,
the thighs acquire girth, the girth become a warning.
It is by theobromine alone I set my mind in motion."
--from Someone else's Dune spoof ripped to my taste.

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

magnate <chrisc@dbass.demon.co.uk>:

[...]

> I don't think there is a solution to either of these. My girlfriend
> refers to *band as "the letters game",

My colleagues call it "chasing colourful letters".

> and she can't understand why it's so engrossing. Yet she enjoys
> playing Diablo II - but she enjoys the eye candy and the real-time
> movement, and the character development (stats/skills/kit - ie. what
> it has in common with roguelikes) doesn't really interest her.

About a year ago I played Sacred. It's the almost only grahpical RPG I
ever played. Been there, done that, killed the villain. Period.

I don't even remember his name. I had no desire to play it again with
the same character or try different character.


The other graphical RPG I ever played was Bard's Tale on a C64.
Recently I took a break from *band and played it again on an emulator.
(It's like my angband experience, still no winner. :-)

> People are mentally stimulated by different things, and *band appeals
> to people with a fairly specific set of characteristics or interests.

I know only three people (myself included) in real life who played
*band for significant time or are still playing it. If I compare
myself to the two others I find some similarities but they are
different similarities!

> I've never met a *bander who hadn't played any sort of pencil and paper
> RPG before playing a roguelike computer game.

I haven't. I never had any desire to. Some of my classmates in school
played D&D and we often mocked them for it. (Don't get the impression
I or the others didn't like them.)

> I can't imagine that it would appeal if you weren't already used to
> exercising your imagination in that way. Graphical FPS games, on the
> other hand, are much closer to "reality", so it's easier to imagine
> yourself in the role.

I don't think I play *band because I want to identify[1] myself with
the angband character. I do it just for fun, distraction, and
curiosity of the game mechanics. And I really appreciate that it's
turn-based so I can play in the speed I like at that moment.


[1] Probably the word "identify" is too strong but I'm too lazy to
search for more appropriate synonyms.


Ralf (on vacation for one week :-)

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

Jeda <Matthias.nospamRudo@t-online.de> wrote:
>"Juergen Frieling" <juergen@beer.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
>>Am 28 Apr 2005 08:58:15 -0700, schrieb magnate:
>>>I've never met a *bander who hadn't played any sort of pencil and paper
>>>RPG before playing a roguelike computer game. I can't imagine that it
>I just can't believe any game master can be as fair as the RNG

Quite true. We're both kinder and nastier. The main thing is, you usually
get more plot, story and freedom of action in an RPG than in a roguelike.
Of course, the flip side is that in roguelikes you can be sure of the
rules and being able to fight monsters without sudden 5 minute breaks of
"Ok, how is that done, again..?"


Otto Martin - slowly getting irritated with D&D 3.5
--
"They say dreams are your subconscious telling you something, but I
think yours might be trying to distract you while it robs a bank."
http://www.ozyandmillie.org/2004/om20040506.html

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

Tigpup writes:

>How would you 'sell' the game to people who are prepared to pay $$$
>for an off-the-shelf first person shooter, but who can't see past the
>ASCII graphics of Angband?

I wouldn't. If I cared how many people played Angband, I'd try to get
slashdot to do a 20th anniversary of Moria story. (Moria came in 1985)

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

dfTruF wrote:
> magnate wrote:
>> ...
>> I don't think there is a solution to either of these. My girlfriend
>> refers to *band as "the letters game", and she can't understand why
>> it's so engrossing.
>
> IMHO in angband the most stimulated thing is finding special, valuable
> artifacts after long time and happyness from surviving hard battles with
> uniques, without save scumming, cheating.

I found out that big part of angband addition is caused by certain level
of frustration and waiting. It seems that bad things served in just the
right size packages cause just as much addiction as good things.

Also finding a way to go around the problem instead of directly dealing
it causes some addictive feelings.

Timo Pietilä