Thulean Archives

If you take Morrowind as an example, a game I greatly enjoyed and played for many hours, you have the freedom to become everything. And the problem here is that you have the freedom to become everything at the same time. You can be the master thief, the master fighter, the master magic user, the master cleric, whatever, everything at the same time. And my point here is that too much freedom strips you of the opportunity to make meaningful choices. If you have a restrictions, on the other hand, you have to make meaningful choices. If your character can only become a master thief, or a master fighter, or a master magic user, and so forth, then suddenly what you decide to do matters. Your choices start to matter. It means something. I'm going to give you an example from AD&D, the Players Handbook from 1978. Here you have the different available classes, and here you have the different available races that you can play. And here you see the maximum level that you can advance to if you play a character of this race. Some of these restrictions may seem arbitrary, and for example, the numbers in brackets here are the maximum level you can advance to, um, in this class. But it's only for NPCs. And there's no explanation to why an A player character cannot become a cleric if you play one of these races. But other than that, these restrictions, they are well thought out, and they give meaning to your choice in the game. These restrictions were perfectly well understood when the guys made AD&D in the late 70s, but they were abandoned in favor of total freedom, or rather extreme freedom, in the early 2000s. In addition to giving meaning to your choices, when you play, the restrictions also promote cooperation between players,^[1] because if you have characters with different qualities, then they will need to cooperate and work together to find solutions. And this is the game design philosophy behind this game. Restrictions. And these restrictions are also applied to sex.^[2] Meaning, if you are male, you have other opportunities than females do. If you are female, you have other opportunities than males do.^[3] They are different. And naturally, the same applies to the races of the game.^[4] If you're this race or that race, different options, different opportunities. So the restrictions give you meaningful choices and challenges, and it forces you to think, cooperate, and have fun.^[5]

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1. Because no one character can do EVERYTHING on his own.
2. Or "Gender", if you prefer leftist terms.
3. Just like in real life.
4. Dwarf, Elf, Halfling, Human.
5. I use classes and races as examples here, but this applies to everything in the game. From weapons to spells, slills and abilities, etc.