It's interesting that Disco Elysium goes against almost every single point made in the video (predetermined protagonist name, amnesia, pre-written story with mostly strict progression, weak ending variety), intentionally so for most of these, and is still widely considered one of the best RPGs of recent years

As someone who got into Fallout 1 and 2 quite recently, I can’t help but want more experiences like them.

I had to chuckle when you talked about multiple endings. Found myself talking to the screen saying: "Well, yeah. That's you, man! You did that!" Not the only one, of course, but you've been a much larger part of the reason games have multiple endings than you would probably ever give yourself credit for being.

THANK YOU! Man I Really don't like my player character being voiced. People always say "it's weird having a silent protagonist" but I've never seen it that way, YOU fill in the silence with your voice and response. These games that have the character just talk all the time is such a pet-peeve of mine.

So maybe, just maybe, it might perhaps be somewhat fair to summarize it as "RPG design for maximization of player agency"?

The part about character VO rings with me a lot :D You pick "I'm good, thanks", and then your character starts insulting the other person... :D

Kenshi comes to mind with a lot of these, although its a very open ended sort of sandbox RPG. No real ending but it’s engaging with all the characters and stories within it.

Fallout 4 would have been so great if this man was at the helm

I like the idea of RPGs with a reactive economy, like looting a store can cause it to go under and will be closed next time you visit. Even though you weren't caught there was still a consequence for being a thief.

I think of i covered the same topic it would be flagged as plagiarism, haha, i feel the same about most of these aspects, which is why Fallout and Elder Scrolls are the top RPGs to me, especially Morrowind. Im sure alot of us are curious how you feel about Morrowind specifically, it seems like it would be your cup of tea, and since you didn't work on it, but have made similar games then alot of us are curious how you feel.

What I like in an RPG is you ;)

something about transitioning from the chaos of silly youtube videos to the calm of the "hi everyone, it's me Tim" is both jarring and soothing lol

That bit about "why wouldn't I watch a movie instead" goes straight to my heart. I enjoy RPGs because it feels like I'm taking part in the story, but having a game be made like that means you almost can't have any kind of real pacing. The good thing about that is, I'm having so much fun being a part of the story that I don't even care about the pacing! Fallout New Vegas did probably the best job with this, because there's a lot of critical path but very little of it is actually required, so the story is pretty much just anything you choose to do.

You made an interesting point in this video about games forcing you to be good/evil. I think it would be interesting to see a video about morality and morality systems in game design!

i love this vlog series. Thank you for this. its been fun to watch and get a little "behind the scenes" of some of our fave games, as well as see the passion you have for just gaming in general.

I have seen a trend with RPG backgrounds being based on a profession. If at character creation. A player could choose a location of their background. This would grant a character knowledge of famous people, supply sources, locations, trade routes, haunted stories, laws, economy, wildlife, and historical events that happened in a region of the world.

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The best two RPGs I've ever played had amnesia. You're right that it's hackey but Disco Elysium and Planescape: Torment are just

Mr Talky gets to recruit people that show up to help against bosses. Mook Master!

One of my biggest criticisms of Outer Worlds was the reliance on combat to fill exploration time. If I’m gonna be a suave silver tongue devil I don’t wanna have to mass murder nameless raiders. Also the perfect ending that basically says the colony is screwed without the board is total BS. Love you Tim❤❤