Solium Infernum

Bill Harris is posting beginner's guides to Solium Infernum on his blog, Dubious Quality. Take a look if you're just starting. I haven't played the game myself yet (there's just not enough time in the world for everything), but I've really enjoyed write-ups of the gameplay, such as this hugely entertaining piece from Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Normally, I'm not interested in multiplayer games (note that Solium Infernum can be played single-player, too), but that's really fun, isn't it? And I think it shows the same kind of story creation in games that I talked about previously (here and here). Of course, this is a strategy game, but I think it works particularly well for this kind of thing.

In most games, RPGs in particular, I think that single-player gaming is far better suited for story creation. Why? In multiplayer role-playing games, most people are consciously playing a game, not role-playing. Ironically, real people just don't act like real people, not given the premise of the gameworld and the roles they're supposed to be assuming.

Human beings cannot replace well-crafted NPCs, not if you want a world that makes sense. Human beings generally act as gamers. That's fine, if that's what you want. If you want to socialize with other gamers in a gaming environment, no problem. But for creating your own story in an imaginative gameworld, other gamers tend to ruin that suspension of disbelief that's necessary for all stories.

But that's not really the case with Solium Infernum, and I don't think it's entirely just because it's a strategy game, not an RPG (partially, yes, but not entirely). No, I think it's because a dedicated role-player in this setting would act like a gamer. Through genius or just accident, this title makes gaming perfectly plausible behavior for this setting and premise. And since you play a leader in Hell, not just one of the nameless minions, it's probably realistic that ambition and greed would trump fear, too (it's hard to feel fear when it's a game you can quit at any time).

At any rate, I think this game in multiplayer works remarkably well for the kind of story creation I want to see in games. In fact, since I haven't played it myself, I don't know if it would work as well in single-player. That's really unique, don't you think? Every other game I've mentioned as pointing the way to this "story creation" gaming future has been single-player - and for good reason.