John Gaby wrote:Oubliette is really a labor of love. Given today's gamers, it is clear that Oubliette will never be anything more than an niche game, but that is OK. What I would really like to do is to bring back the multiplayer aspect of the original PLATO game. Playing with other real people adds a social context which makes for a much more interesting game. Whether that could ever actually happen is somewhat doubtful, however.
As for the randomness of the character creation, that is one of the appealing aspects of the game I think. In games where you simply select what stats you want, you usually end up with a bunch of players that are carbon copies of each other. In this game, pretty much everyone is different. Whether you get a male or female, like any of your other stats is simply the luck of the draw. I remember one player of the original PLATO Oubliette who was really hard core. He would go in and roll one character at a time and take whatever he got and make the best of it!
I like the idea of a totally random party. :D
The only reason that I'd like the male/female thing is that I normally name my crew after real people. It's a big wierd that the male dwarf is named after my wife. ;)
But it's not like the portrat is shwon anywhere so it doesn't really matter.
Annnnnyhow, it might be a niche market, but niche is making a a comeback. Legend of Grimrock (basically Eye of the Beholder) is doing pretty well and Wasteland 2 has raised $2mil. There is a comunity who loves this stuff. But until I stumbled onto this accidently I had no idea it existed.
Rest assured I'll try and let people know what a great game you have here.