Sibilisibili

Well, we might see it happen - Remember Reggie commenting on how MMO games would be perfect for the Revolution, and then add Miyamoto talking about Twilight Princess being the last Zelda as we know it - but would we want to? I can't answer for anyone else, of course, but I wouldn't. Ever.

First of all, Zelda has never been about 'stats', but about the player getting better with the tools given to him, while giving him ever stronger and trickier tools. Noone has ever leveled anything (Except for that second game, but it was an exception in every other way, wasn't it?), and that's the way it should be. There's no need for pointless slaying in Zelda. Secondly, don't forget that a great part of the charm of these games are their great pacing, which is easier to pull off if there's only one player racing to complete a quest (I'm probably the only one who didn't mind the sailing in Wind Waker. I'm also, by all certainty, the only one who actually cheered when I saw that first video of Celda, and felt a little sad after seeing the first shots och Twilight Princess. But that's another story).

Furthermore I'll claim that a reason for the grandure of Hyrule is the loneliness the player feels. Staring up Mount Doom and knowing you'll have to do it on your own is... It gives you that feeling of being out on the ledge, waiting to jump. It's always Link against the world. Having raiding parties, or what have you, would certainly take away from that. Sure, it could be designed to prohibit parties, but what, then, would be the point of going MMO?

When the supporting cast of these games is so well fleshed out (The battleship guy in Wind Waker is the best videogame character ever, for life) I don't see the point of replacing them with other people who will inevitably either curse at you or say something akin to ZOMG!! And if you don't allow these people to do this, again, what's the point of going MMO?

I feel about this the same way I would have felt if someone had started talking about making a Zelda X-treme Skateboarding, or Zelda Steal Horses and Beat Up Hoes a couple of years ago: It's just a fluke (Not MMOs, but making everything MMO is), and what for? But again, I wouldn't be to surprised if it actually happened.

I'd just hate to say I told you so.

kuroshi: I don't understand. That people at these trade shows wake up to realize that the inclusion of booth babes at their shows is frankly demeaning and pretty archaic at that is, beyond any doubt*, a sign of a more mature and inclusive video game-world. One could only hope that this is a sign of a general trend in the industry.

Frankly, if this means that 12 year old boys with misogynist stances to women are confined to 4chan and stay the hell away from my favorite pastime, then all is well.

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* Reading the excerpt from the exhibitor's handbook, I realize that the censorship stems more from puritan values than from any sympathy with women's rights issues. This is, of course, less good, but when the result is less sexual exploitation of the female gender for the benefit of the male and the capital frequently associated with the him, well I'm still happy (Though I suppose the question of (doing good - for bad reasons = good) is one worth discussing).