Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Interview

The folks at the RPG Codex had the chance to put together an “exclusive interview” with Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning’s lead designer Ian Frazier, with most of the interview focusing on the gameplay systems of the title, and how they make it a role-playing game.

Here’s one question and its answer:

8. Talking about the destinies (the character system), you mentioned that it stems from the core RPG problem of choosing a character class before you have any idea what you’re doing. Why is it a problem?

I’ve read what Mark Nelson had to say on the subject and it didn’t sound very convincing:

(Too often this happens in role playing games,) says Nelson. (One of the very first decisions you’re asked to make, before you’ve ever swung a sword, before you’ve ever cast a spell, [is] what class do you want to be. How do you want to spend your life, for the next 100 hours in this game? You make the wrong choice, it’s not as good as an experience. “

The way I see it, if I want to play a mage or a fighter-mage (neither of which is a novelty concept), I pick a matching class and start playing. The only reason to be disappointed is if the gameplay (i.e. playing a fighter-mage) doesn’t deliver. What am I missing?

We believe that making blind choices is inherently bad. Making a decision when you don’t have any information about that decision can result in you getting something you didn’t really want, after all, and that’s no fun.

There’s a temptation to say (if every play style is good, then shouldn’t people be happy no matter what class they choose to play?) but that’s not really accurate. Whether or not a class in an RPG is (good) isn’t purely an objective thing a lot of it comes down to whether or not it matches your expectations of what that class (should) be. For example, what you want out of playing a game as a Rogue may be completely different from what I want when playing a game as a Rogue. Maybe for you, the way it feels to play a Rogue in WoW is exactly what you enjoy, but for me, the Rogue experience from Morrowind is ideal. These are completely different expectations, and both are totally valid things for a player to want. But if you and I both approached a new RPG and we both thought we wanted to be Rogues, either (or both!) of us might find out that we weren’t happy if the way that Rogues play in the new RPG doesn’t match with our expectations even if the Rogue class is (objectively) good.

In light of this, we feel it’s best to let players get a feel for how the different playstyles in the game feel before they have to commit to something, so no matter what expectations you had coming in to the game, you end up playing whichever playstyle is most fun for you in that game.