This month's interview is a triple interview of Ben-Ohki (Insight Games, Sekai no Owari), The MeAjur Komera Waddi (Wingedmene), and Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell (First Fifth, Ohrrpgce Monthly). Although each was performed seperately and at different times, I grouped answers to the same questions together. Don't take this to mean that this is a discussion, it is not, and virtually all of the time each of us had no access to the answers of the others before answering ourselves. And BEWARE, the answers are really long and in-depth this time around... I think we three have to be the three longest-winded people in the ohrrpgce community. But there are many interesting things discussed.

 

r/r/r/r:  How long ago did you find the ohrrpgce, and how did you find it?

Ben-Ohki: I found the OHRRPGCE in, well, about July 1998, just after the time Nexus started charging to play... at any rate, I was active in the Klik Community then, IG already crushed by its rival, like a wounded animal, I guess. But my old friend Doug Peterson who ran a site called The Freeware Source (which I can't remember the url for the life of me...) had made a game in the OHRRPGCE called "Quest"(yes, one of the billions in that period.) and posted about it on the most popular Klik message board at the time, and naturally, since it was an RPG, my interest was piqued, but sadly, it seems I was the only one whose interest it caught at the time. At any rate, after I played it, I felt that it was necessary to find out how such and impressive game was made and he directed me to http://www.cyberverse.com/~spam/ which was the official homepage of the OHRRPGCE at the time, and well, I started posting, came to IRC, and the rest is history, I guess. I know a bunch of you remember my arrival back then and my release of my old game, Happy Pappy in the Land of Crappy... it was a horrible game, but hey, it made people laugh at least.

The MeAjur Komera Waddi: Originally found it via a link on a message board (kingdom of windor) that one of the players had left for the webmaster.  That was back in 97, when the ohr was still only 4 maps, and many of the options now were only to be dreamed at.

Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell: I don't remember how I found it... but I do remember when I first started using it: spring of '99. If I had to guess, I would say that I found it somewhere on the internet. If further pressed, I might say that I found it on the Hamster Republic's website. I didn't say these things though... I'm only speculating on what I -would- say if I had to. And why do you want to know, anyway? An interview? Huh?

r/r/r/r:  What games have you worked on for the ohrrpgce that are either 1) released already 2) will be released eventually?

Ben-Ohki: Well, my first real release was demo 1 of the doomed Happy Pappy in the Land of Crappy... as the name denotes, the game sucked, big time. But, well, some people seemed to like it, although I dunno why... maybe it was the charms of the adventures of a mindless happy face, a retarded monkey and the lord of the Vapid Stare. Anyway, since then, sequels have occured, but never made it. Happy Pappy 2:Happy Pappy Super, was worked on in conjunction with Kitfox4(my mentor)'s joyous Happyface series of games, having his characters Happyface and Sadface being the sons of Happy Pappy in this massively pointless and crappy sort of ripoff of Earthbound. Fortunately for everyone, it died in a hard disk crash. Then there was the 3rd one, Ultra Pappy.... it never really went anywhere and died thanks to a virus wiping out my hard disk. And now, I'm working on Happy Pappy 4: Alcohlic Fankii Primate Squeegee. Most of it is arbitrary at the moment and I don't know where I'm going with it... but, hell, that's what the first one was like! Hopefully I'll finish it eventually. Then I released a single demo of "The Night Santa Went Crazy", a sadistic, violent, freakish and bad Xmas game inspired by the song by Weird Al Yankovic by the same name. It was the first Xmas game to come around in the community, but easily dwarfed by Demonheat's incredible game, Santa's Adventure, which is a true work of art. At any rate, it's still in the works. ZzFenix has been kind enough to revamp the old graphics for me with some beautiful new ones and continue to do new ones for me in the future, so hopefully I'll have a new demo out by this coming Christmas.(BTW, The Night Santa Went Crazy demo 1 with revamped graphics is available at the OHRRPGCE Archives, ZzFenix's site.) I've also worked on a variety of other minor projects over time, Shining Holy Light, a little fantasy RPG that failed, Red Blood, a Xenogears ripoff, basically, and then Earthflight, a cheap Earthbound ripoff as well, but spoofing on things like replacing Buzzbuzz with a dung beetle instead and involving giant robotic monkeys... trust me, you all should be ECSTATIC that I never released all this crap. Anyway, there are practically innumerable others I've forgotten as well that I worked on that right now I'm in no mood to try to remember, horrible memories from my horrible early days.... anyway, now I'm working on my only real "masterpiece", well, at least... I hope it'll be one, known as Sekai No Owari: A World Ending. Tis a revolutionary(in most of its features at least) complex anime-styled RPG with a huge cast, deep plot, and the like, beautiful graphics by Charbile, scripting by FyreWulff and Charbile, and hopefully some FMVs too, to spiff things up even more. It dosen't feature original music though, that's pretty much the only unoriginal part, but, well, it's all ripped from extremely obscure sources, and I'm planning on keeping it. Moving on, then there's Ambiguity... well, I'd rather keep this distant future project that I occasionally work on more concept design for under my hat, so I won't say anything on it now... but anyway, that's about it... I'm planning on perhaps doing a sci fi/fantasy RPG too eventually, along the lines of Phantasy Star in style.... what can I say, playing PS4 again has inspired me greatly.

The MeAjur Komera Waddi: I currently don't have any games "released", if you mean "finished".  The only two games I've had a hand in that have "released" demos are Wingedmene: Part One and The Legend of Zelda: Millenial Edition.  The former I've been working on in some form or another since i originally found the engine more than three years ago.  games that i'm working on include: Wingedmene: Part Two (currently only a decision tree exists), Radar Rat Race RPG, and Saber Run (for Avian Laboratories).  Of those three, only Saber Run is actually in active production (I of course mean "I'M" actively working on it) since the other two are only being worked on in spare time.

Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell: Released game: And&. It was created for the 48 hour contest.  It isn't really about anything at all, though. Unreleased/Unfinished games: NHNT:1/5 aka First Fifth: Our Lives Are Yours is my main project, it is a traditional fantasy RPG, to most intents and purposes, although I hope to include enough in there to make it worth the playtime. If First Fifth works out, I will continue the series with Second Fifth, Third Fifth, and so on.  I am a partner in the creation of The Legend of Zelda: Millenial Edition, which is a fan game and a rpg rendition of the first two zelda games, with some added elements for the zelda comics and cartoons, etc., thrown in. I am working on another fan game, Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn, based on the fantasy book by the same name.  I am an assistant in the creation of Wingedmene: Part One, although I can not claim any part of that game's greatness: I mostly do a bit of plotscripting here and a bit of testing there.

r/r/r/r: Do you feel that ohrrpgce games can have a wide audience outside of the community (those who actually make ohrrpgce games) among people who play rpgs? By word of mouth, do you think it would be possible for an ohrrpgce game to have really big (50,000+) audience of players?

Ben-Ohki: I don't really think that's too realistic. Sadly, most of today's gamers are, well, attracted to flashy crap like Final Fantasy 7. I'm honestly sickened by the kind of morons the mainstreaming of RPGs that FF7 caused has brought in. I think RPGs are best left to those who can appreciate true masterpieces like Genso Suikoden 1-2, Tales of Phantasia(and Destiny), the Phantasy Star Series, the Megami Tensei series, and well, just about anything by Enix. But getting back on topic, let's face it. The OHRRPGCE is an engine with less than desirable sound quality, limited graphical capabilities and it runs in dos. Yes, it's a great engine, but because it's not some big cliched blockbuster game-making engine without any spiky haired 3D people running around to save the world from one ultimate evil or another while cursing and hiring prostitutes, it'd turn most people away. In most cases, I believe the people using the OHRRPGCE are generally the upper crust of the RPGing society, well, those who make RPGs for the art of making games that it is, rather than for egotistical purposes like certain individuals whom shalt remain unnamed, you know who you are. But again, let's just face it, it's considered "behind the times" on the technology scale, so I don't think we'll ever have more than a community of a few hundred using the OHRRPGCE and playing its games, no matter how much advertising by word of mouth was done. However, who knows what kind of potential HamsterWheel will have? Knowing this incredible engine that James truly took the language it was programmed in to its limits, HamsterWheel will be mindblowing, and it could be possible to target so many with it, I'm sure.

The MeAjur Komera Waddi: I don't really think it's possible to have an audience outside of the community, because the moment they learn they can make games on it as well as play, they'll want to make them, too, and thus become part of the community.  That's simply due to how attractive the ohr is compared to other role playing game engines.  The ohr has such a short learning curve that it can't help but pull more people into the community.  More importantly than anything else, that's the magic of James' creation-- that it'll get people to actually want to do something... AND be so easy that they CAN do something. of course the downside is that something so easy to use attracts a lot of lazy people who won't put the time into making something great.  That was one of the first lessons i learned about graphic programs in college: "computers make bad art really fast".  The same applys to rpgs.  Good rpgs take longer than some people have the attention span for.  Unfortunatly, by word of mouth i do not believe the ohr would develop a large audience.  Simply put, by word of mouth is not an advertising scheme that would reach a large group.  People tend to tell others about bad things they see with something rather than good things.  The ohr is good, and isn't likely to gain in popularity because it's good.  If someone in the community tells someone else about it, most likely it'll be to a fellow roleplayer.  Maybe that's not bad, but maybe there's someone out there who WOULD like to roleplay, but hasn't done it yet, so noone tells them.  I'm afraid the ohr would have to have a better advertising strategy than word of mouth to gain a massive audience.

Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell: Probably. For an analog, text adventure games started the same way, I believe... they were passed between friends, and now who hasn't heard of the Zork text adventures? 50,000 people is actually not all that many at all. In the future, as more and more people get on the internet, and as more and more people become accustomed to good games (I really hope that the people who were introduced to rpgs via Final Fantasy 7, for example, will one day go on to try the previous games out of curiosity, and may realize how much better they were, and then go on to find even better rpgs the more they explore...), more and more people may begin to play non-commercial games, and then try to make them themselves... they will look to past non-commercial games, including Ohrrpgce games, as examples.

r/r/r/r: Besides yourself, who do you consider to be the greatest game designers in the ohrrpgce community?

Ben-Ohki: Well, I definitely look up to Mewmew for his talent in the graphics department, music department, gameplay department, atmosphere department, hell, he's damn talented. J'Sang'Spar's games are always a laugh, sort of a "dare to be different" kind of thing, it was a lot of fun to work with him on SWAC:AE. Then well, Misteroo definitely, for similar reasons. The Arfenhouse games are always a laugh. And Kathryn, of course, who's done some pretty incredible stuff herself, although she's not around much anymore, but then again, who can blame her? Mew and Sephy have a lot of talent, although it gets overlooked sometimes, as does Charbile, but he seems to keep most of his secretive. Komera's done some great work, and Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell, Wingedmene and NHNT are definitely something to look fowrad to, I believe. Specplosive, heck, he's a pretty good composer, and the gameplay in Veteran RPG is top notch, in my opinion, and as such, worth applause. FyreWulff's unique features in his work have proved to be quite a refreshing break from the norm as well. I've got fond memories of Vertigo's works, from Electro to Machine Saga to even good ol' Gubo's Adventure... Byako and Harlock's works are definitely astounding to me too, from Harlock's dark take on life in Paranoia Star/Heretic, to Byako's true feudal Japan masterpiece, Edo. White Owl's FUABMX games still hold a place in my heart too, after these years... Royal is truly one of the most accomplished artists around here, it'd be a crime for me not to applaud him as well. PK-Fortis has done some great work as well, it's been great fun to watch BSF evolve into the TF it is today. Kyp Durron's done some wonderful work from his RPG based on The Slayers anime to his FF1 remix... then ZzFenix's game The Slayers(not to be confused with Kyp Durron's, as his has nothing to dow ith the anime) was quite enjoyable... and course, last, but not least, James Paige himself, having done the wonderfully charming Wandering Hamster, which I, like most, pine to see the rest of finally completed.

The MeAjur Komera Waddi: I cannot name any one person as the greatest.  I refuse to name someone as the greatest.  The moment I put the lable on someone, someone else comes along and shows themselves to be better.  Maybe it would be more accurate to say greatest so far- though the person I think would be the greatest would of course be working one/have worked on a game closely matching something I like.  What if the greatest was someone who made a historically accurate game, but since I like fantasy, I wouldn't think as highly of the greatest as I should? The best way I could answer this is to say who I respected.  On one hand, I respect anyone who's actually FINISHED a game (this would include a *few* undesireable games), and that includes a lot of people.  I respect anyone who can take one (or more) game element (music/graphics/plotscript/whatever) and make it absolutely wonderful, to the point that their game is remembered for that one thing.  Those who do things a little unexpected, those who have a better grasp of plotscripting than  I do, those who don't need to rip off Final Fantasy elements for their own game (sheepish grin, I'm such a bad girl) well... I guess about the only ones I don't respect... are those who don't finish any games they start.

Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell: Those who really care about their game, who are totally immersed in it, who see their game as an extention of themselves... those people are all at the highest level of game design. It does not matter if they happen to be poor in art technique, or if they do not understand the first thing about plotscripting, if they do not know a quarter note from a key signature, or even if they can not write a type-free textbox. If they really like their game, really take game design seriously, than they could not possibly be any better game designers than they are now. And more people fall into this category than we expect.

r/r/r/r: What do you feel is/are the essential element(s) of a good game?

Ben-Ohki: Well, I've been making games for a bit over 5 years now, and been playing them my entire life, so, well, I have more than enough experience here to work with... what I've found is that when it comes to games, especially RPGs, that you really want the player to get into, identify with, and enjoy, you should focus on the story, the character development and get a strong, unique style going that draws the player in and gets them hooked, leaving them begging for more with each new update to the game and such... I myself have yet to attain anything even remotely close to that, but, hell, I can dream, can't I? Anyway, after story, music is INCREDIBLY critical for the proper mood. Atmosphere itself is critical and music is one of the most important factors in creating a certain mood. I mean, if you see the hero's lover being abruptly decapitated and the hero goes into shock, do you want happy clown music playing? Or would you prefer something that really reflects the emotion of the moment? Heh, we all know the way to go there. And then, well, gameplay is an important factor if neither of the latter features are a big part of your project, like if you were making a non linear game like a SaGa RPG, well, I'd still reccomend focusing on music and atmosphere from one locale to the next, but then gameplay that's easy to get used to but fairly complex to keep the player learning new things and not wanting to stop playing. I mean, look at Pokemon, in retrospect, having beaten it, it's not a very great RPG, but it was the gameplay, the thrill of capturing and powering up those little monsters, that really brings one into the game. The challenge of working to get them all. It's a cheap theme, I guess, but quite effective and addictive. Then there's games like Mega Man and Castlevania... the number of sequels they've gotten are further proof of just how addictive they were in gameplay as well. Graphics, well, sadly, they're the most heavily judged part of games these days, which I rather dislike, but I suggest on focusing on those after all the aforementioned features. Make it feel nice before you make it look nice. You can tell the shallow gamers from the true devotees by whether they judge a game by graphics or not.

The MeAjur Komera Waddi: A videogame is a multimedia project, and an rpg videogame moreso.  in any multemedia project, rarely is any one thing less or more important.  before someone plays something, graphics is the most important element, because in advertising something, screenshots  of the game are quite often used.  if a game looks ugly in a magazine page, not many people are going to want to play it.  if it looks pretty, the reader is going to say: "WOW!  that looks pretty cool!  i gotta get that!" if ohr games were on sale, price would be an issue, but no one sells ohr games, so i'll skip that (lets just say, if the price is too  high, not many people will want to waste their money, if it's too low, you don't get profit) the game has to have good play mechanics,  because many gamers will put down a game they can't easily play and never pick it up again,  however, we're talking about the ohr, which is  more or less the same game play mechanics for all games (well, let's face it, how much improved can you get besides press up to make the guy go up, press down to make the guy go down...).  all ohr games move smoothly (i mean in actual hero movement), so there's no problem there. Plotscripting done well is invisible to the player.  Most people don't think about plotscripting when playing something unless the plotscripting isn't perfect.  Only if there's a bug will it be noticed.  To use  another analogy, when my father was teaching me to use the sound booth at the church I attend (to take over for him), he told me if I was doing my job, no one would notice.  If I wasn't doing my job, everyone would notice eventually.  If I wasn't there, someone else would have to bs their way through it, and it would be noticable.  Same with plotscripting.  The best plotscripts are invisible, the worst are always noticed.  Games that use fakeplotscripting are still good (many times even better), but when compared to games using plotscripting, they don't compare and it's obvious they don't use plotscripting.  Games like these get bad rap, and players will tell other players to stay away. The story is very important... especially in an rpg.  It doesn't need to be a nobel winning story, doesn't need to be realisitic... but being coherent would be a plus.  Graphics attract people, but the story keeps them glued.  The story needs not be complex or long, the earliest rpg videogames got by on a very short story. Music is not as important a factor as the  others.  A game with a mediocre soundtrack isn't going to have some player telling his friends about the great music (it'll probably  have someone making a better remix).  But a game with a great soundtrack will have people calling up other people.

Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell: I could go in to the debate about graphics vs. gameplay vs. music vs. sound effects vs. atmosphere vs. full motion video vs. big name voice actors vs. innovative features vs. well known features vs. advertising campaigns vs. the introduction vs.  the ending vs. gradiated initial exposure vs. wanting more when you are done with the game vs. graphics vs. control scheme vs. theme vs. story... *dizzyness*, but I won't, because I don't believe those aspects are at the root of what a good game is all about. They are the pieces of the puzzle, and not the picture on the puzzle. The picture on the puzzle is a person. Usually, after playing a game for awhile, you are able to tell whether the author(s) of the game were serious about game design or not. You can tell how they viewed their game. And also what ideas they have. Exceptional games are made by exceptional people. In the best games, you can learn a lot about the person who made the game. To take Shigeru Miyamoto as an example again, I have heard that he is left-handed (as is a Link). Also, reading his interviews, you get the sense of a person who likes to explore everything, try new things, a person who has a sense of simple wonder about life. That too is reflected in his games. To take another example, when you play a Hideo Kojima game, you get a sense of his person, a person concerned with modern-day civilization, modern-day society and its problems. The Megami Tensei series is another good example. It is clear that the author of those games thinks heavily about religious, psychological, and philosophical issues. Three completely different themes, and all the games by these authors reflect these themes. You don't see anything like nuclear weapons issues in a Miyamoto game, and you don't see anything like super mushrooms in a Kojima game. But these authors have one thing in common, they wish to show other people something. Each is seems to be saying  'Look at this! Isn't that something?' ...and it IS something. The reason the earlier Final Fantasy games are seen as better (by most people) is because the earlier ones did not have a half-dozen writers and directors, they only had one or two. Also, games with a consistent art style feel better than games with several different styles, for the same reason. Games with one music composer feel better than games with eight music composers. The more people work on a game, the more dilute the game becomes. I'm not recommending that every game should only be done by one or two people, but usually two hundred is too much, especially if half of them don't really understand or care about the game. And so... that is what, in the end, I look for in a game. I may not look for it consciously, though. But interesting games are made by interesting people, and there are no exceptions.

r/r/r/r: Why do you think most ohrrpgce games are never finished?

Ben-Ohki: Lethargy, feeling burnt out, etc. A lot of people start out, motivated with an idea that's great in their own head, but don't get it down quickly enough or it loses form and they lose motivation as they work on it and it falls apart. Hell, fate knows I've lost a great number of projects to such feelings, so my current goal is to make sure I don't make the same mistakes I have in the past and work on making long, unique, complex games, and focus on, most of all, enjoying working on it. If the creator can't enjoy making the game, the player can't enjoy playing it. Game making is an art and a lack of interest and/or inspiration is a major killer, when it comes to this art form. In the end, most people just don't have what it takes to finish a whole game, and especially not without help. I mean, look around you, how many people in this world do you really think could just sit down and write a 10000 page novel in a year? Not many. How many people could sculpt a life size whale out of clay? how many people could paint the wall of China? Well, you get the idea I'm expressing here, simply, some people don't have what it takes to finish their work, it's how most people are.

The MeAjur Komera Waddi: most ohr games are spur of the moment.  things are added as the author sees fit, usually as the author goes along.  the games more often than not look amaturish simply because the author said "i know, today i'll make a zelda game, tomorrow i'll make dragonball z".  okay, so maybe they didn't LITTERALLY say that.  the length of time is not why these games are so... you could spend half a year making something just by adding things as you see fit... and it'll still look like it was thrown together by a one eyed monkey on crack. what the best games have in common is that they were planned.  maybe not from day one, but many of them were planned well in advance of where they are now.  if you plan a game, you have to think about many little things and how they go together, and even then the plan winds up being revised a few dozen times anyway. planning a game- that takes more work and more time than most authors seem willing to give.  to make a great game, you have to totally devote yourself to the game.  you eat, drink, breath, live the game.  everything you think centers on the game.  you have no life besides that game.  many people don't want to be THAT absorbed into their work, they just want to play the final product and never once realized just how much work goes into it.  if they knew, they might never start or finish making even their p.o.s. game- or they may love their games enough to go through with it. i think the biggest contributor to good games is that the authors are willing to invest all their resources into it

Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell: Possible factors: Lack of a design document. Lack of percieved previous success on their past efforts of creation (of any type). Lack of extrinsic motivation (money, etc.). Lack of percieved intrinsic motivation. And I hate to say this... but percieved lack of talent (note the word 'percieved') is also a factor. People see other ohrrpgce games better than theirs, and then they give up.  Everyone want to be the best, it's imbued in the human heart, but not everyone can be the best. Realizing that is just as important in game design as it is in other parts of life. Who wants to be the best anyway? As one of my professors told me once, there are some people who sacrafice themselves... their family... their students... all in the aim of being known as a really good teacher. Is that really what we desire? Eventually, they realize it is impossible, and then give up. Same goes for game designers. Even if they actually do have less talent for creation than average, the process of making games can only improve you. No one is born with the ability to create wonderful things, that only comes with years of practice. If a person sees that his/her game isn't turning out as he/she imagined it would, that is no excuse to give up creating. Initially, a plan is paramount. A plan is what keeps the motivation high, and the momentum high. The more detailed the plan, the better the chance of it being fulfilled. The better your conception of what your game will be like, the better the chance of it being finished. The most important part of creating a game is creating a clarified and shining picture of what it will be like, even if it is extant only in your mind (although ideally it would be on paper... minds forget things, paper doesn't). Without a plan, what do you have? A .rpg file that has no direction, and a story that is made up as they go. Who wants to play something like that? Once you have that plan, IGNORE other games. Not entirely, but don't spend a lot of time looking at another game and wondering if some element from that game can fit in your game... chances are if you keep adding things you'll never get anything done. If something really looks like it will fit, add it in by all means, but don't add it in just because games x, y, and z have it. And most importantly of all, create a game you like. Usually, a person gives up on their creative effort (novel, game, or whatever) when they no longer like it, no longer inside it. If you remain inside your game long enough, it will create itself before you. If you are not absorbed in what you are creating, then I question whether you are really creating.

r/r/r/r: What do you think the future of the ohrrpgce will hold? Will better games keep being made, or have the best games already been seen?

Ben-Ohki: I think there are a few masterpieces yet to come, but the fact is, it's an aging engine, nearing completion, it dosen't exactly have the modern specs that will keep most people coming back for more, a time will come when just about everything imaginable one could accomplish with things like plotscripting has already been done and we'll end up with game after game after game ripping off of each other, sadly. As the saying goes, all good things must eventually come to an end. The OHRRPGCE community as it is now is one of them. I've seen gaming communities go under and trust me, it's not a pretty thing to see. But I think there are a few gems left we've yet to see, but the majority of them have been made and the people behind them have moved on. That's just how things are.

The MeAjur Komera Waddi:  I don't have a magic ball, and I'm no fortune teller.  You'd be better off asking nostradamus this question.  The quality of future ohr games depends soley on those who are making the games.  It's impossible to say no other great game will be made, however.  yes, the ohr is a little limited in things it can do... on the other hand- all consoles to date have had a limit on what they can accomplish.  If people made Super Mario Bros., then said that's the best the nes will ever do, then we would never have gotten Super Mario Bros. 3 (I've never heard someone say smb1 was better than smb3).  The snes and the Genesis are limited... the snes is even more limited than the genesis if you really think about it.  But the makers found ways around the limitations (okay, some of their workarounds included using add on chips like  the fx chip...)- we started with Super Mario World and ended up with Donkey Kong Country.  Those are two completely different monsters. For a more current illustration... Quest64.  Is that the best the N64 can do?  HELL NO.  If people said it was... where would Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask be?

Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell: That is for each of us to determine. I would like the community to expand, to have more talent come in, to have more people effected by the feeling of creating a rpg. There aren't too many good freeware rpg-engines out there, and of those that are, most of them are used as toys, something to play with for a few days and then give up on.  I've seen more good games for the Ohrrpgce than for any other freeware rpg-engine (even rpg-maker 95 and rpg-maker 2000). Primarily this is due to its wonderful design, but it is also due to the people using the Ohrrpgce. Success brings success, as they say. The best games are most certainly yet to come. No finished game has really approached the limit of what the Ohrrpgce can do, not in the way that The Legend of Zelda is unsurpassed as an nes game. We have no Ohrrpgce game that inspired TV shows, comics, fan fiction, fan sites, etc., yet. Until we have something like that, some classic that stands alone in its brilliance in the way Zelda stand alones in its, there will be room for improvement.

r/r/r/r: When do you think game design will be recognized as the art form that it is?

Ben-Ohki: I rather doubt it will ever be publicly recognized as the art that it is. People are hard headed and because they buy and/or download games for entertainment, they look at games as a joke and rarely ever really look at them in the more asthetic sense, the balance the people behind them create, the creative vision of the creator of the game itself, the feeling of the writer(s), artists, and the like. Games tend to be something people get to distract them from the pain and difficulty of the world, something they look to for a cheap laugh and to give them a smile, and/or in many cases, let off stress, rather than looking at a game in all the real artistic sense about it, how much hard work, heart and soul were really put into the project. There will be a select few who recognize it as art, but even within communities like the OHRRPGCE community based on game making, the majority of people would view it as a hobby, something to do for fun, distractions from life, and in some cases even ego. But there are a few of us, scattered all over the world, who make games to outlet our feelings and creative juices, in a manner of speaking. Those of us who can see it as the art it is, I believe, can probably complete our games and truly create the greatest masterpieces, as I hope to do... as much of an art form as game making is, on the same level as painters and novelists, it'll never be recognized openly on the same level as such art forms, because people tend to use such games merely for personal entertainment, and a lot of people behind games, at least, those of us who make them for free, just do it for a little hobby, but aren't serious about them, well, those such people will continue to lead public opinion to be that game making isn't an art.

The MeAjur Komera Waddi:  I don't think that there's a question of game design becoming recognized as an artform.  It's already acqknowledged as the artform it is... and several "artists" have already been recognized.  After all, there is the interactive media hall of fame.  The first three inductees were the wonders that made Zelda, Civilization, and Final Fantasy.  Game design may not be an art to the common people, but to those who spend any more time around games than the common layman, there's no doubt that it's an art. Leave it to the japanese to make it an art, though...  a guy who makes a sword in England is just a swordsmith.  A guy who makes swords in Japan is a swordartist.

Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell: Probably when we have hollywood movies and/or prime-time television shows about game designers... I wonder if there will one day be a movie about Shigeru Miyamoto's life? He certainly deserves it.

r/r/r/r: Do you feel that a person may start out as believing that game design is just a hobby or something to do for profit or for his/her ego but eventually come to understand it as something more?

Ben-Ohki: I rather doubt it... sadly, people aren't prone to change. They come and go, and few would stay to work on a game for a long time, even as a hobby. Then if it was for ego, their continued work would only be fueled by others adding to their ego... it'd inflate like a balloon and BAM! It'd pop just like that, in one big sticky mess. If anything, artistic sense is a state of mind you have to achieve. You can only achieve it through certain experiences. I for one have been raised to appreciate artwork like sculptures and paintings nad the like. Over time, I've come to appreciate art and all it's forms, well, at least, I like to hope I'm capable of doing so. Artists, though, possess a different state of mind, and general persona about themselves that's very unusual, at least, setting the standard of "usual", by people who make RPGs for hobby or ego.

The MeAjur Komera Waddi:  Oh, there's no doubt that if you do something enough, your way of thinking about it will change.  probably only the most stubborn in their thinking will retain their thinking.  I personally saw Wingedmene (before it was "part one") as a hobby, something to do on my days off from school.  I do believe that your mindset can be seen from the finished product... it happens in paintings and scupltors- and since games are just another version of art... the same applies there.  Someone doing a game for egotistical reasons often winds up making a game with a snobbish feel.  Those who make the game as a self expression will of course wind up with a game that's a reflection of themselves.  The part of the game that shines out the most will be the one that reflects most accuratly the person who made it. If the game doesn't wind up changing the author who made it, then the author really wasn't an artisan or wasn't really woking on the game... which is a trait of a p.o.s. game.

Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell: I've always seen game creation and story/world creationg as something to do for fun, but it has been only recently... within the last five years... that I've realized how much it changes a person. As long as the person does not give up creating things, they will not fail to be changed. Of course, there are always those games that were made and abandoned very quickly and didn't have much thought put into them (ashs.rpg, etc.), but you can usually spot those quickly enough.  All games have an ego-element, I believe. Even the most selfless of game developers is creating their game at least partly because it makes them feel more important. In this same way, Shakespeare wrote his plays because he wanted to feel more important. Leonardo da Vinci painted and invented and created because to do so made him, too, feel more important and alive. Also, this varies depending on what you see yourself as. If you see yourself as only your physical person, your reasons of creation are different than if you see yourself as something else, humanity in general, for example... or perhaps reasonability, or organization. If you don't see yourself (and again, this is often not expressed in logical conscious thought) as more than just your name, your job, and your social security number, it would be impossible to make a good creation.

r/r/r/r: Tell us the story of Insight Games. Why was it started? How many in it are working on Ohrrpgce games right now?

Ben-Ohki: Well, I started making games back around 1994, when I got the application Klik n' Play by Europress(now known as Clickteam, at www.clickteam.com) and released stateside by Maxis. I worked solo for a little while under the handle of MAGE, then as I got more invovled with communities, I changed my handle to Ben-Ohki, through my interest in anime, and formed Insight Games. It underwent a cooperative treaty with an up and starting anime game company which eventually rose up and struck back at IG after getting off the ground, thanks to IG support. It was crushed for awhile and I was thrown away from the Klik Community, which was deteriorating rapidly at the time. I starting taking more of an active interest in the OHRRPGCE then and started using it frequently, and after IG's initial breakdown back then, I was cautious to reopen its doors for new membership... about a year after I came to the OHRRPGCE community, I decided to try my luck, and lo and behold, I ended up with Magius and J'Sang joining early on, and gradually IG continued to expand until it became the total size of 21 that it is today. Right now, about 12 or 13 of us in total are working in the OHRRPGCE, and the rest of us are generally working on a wide variety of other kinds of projects, as the company continues to expand.

r/r/r/r: How do you come up with characters?

Ben-Ohki: I draw them from myself, often, or get inspired by various anime characters, but most of all, I like to base them on real people and experiences... and even creepier, my life has adapted to mirror more and more of the unfortunate events befalling our heroes in Sekai No Owari... it's frightening... but on the whole, I base my characters on myself and my ideals and hates.

The MeAjur Komera Waddi: You'd think most people wouldn't have problems making characters... apparently some people do.  Character creation is one of my stronger points, I believe.  I of course have some really bad characters who I almost wish I never created (such as Gemini Brashion), but luckily for me many of them were created in my early youth.  The best characters of mine are based around a flaw of mine, with the flaw magnified for their benifit.  They're all extentions of myself.  Laubea has my foul mood, Gniyalpi has my playfullness, Wingedmene has my gullability.  On one hand I'd say make the character as complete as you can, on the other hand- if a character is left incomplete, then there is freedom for the player to lay their own personality in to complete it, drawing the player to the character.

Rinku/Rydia/Raft/Rell: Character creation has been a constant for me my entire life. I began writing stories the same year I learned how to write. I don't know how I create characters, it varies greatly. Sometimes a character comes out of videogame characters that I like (Ampersand's appearance is a mix of Link and Rydia). Sometimes the character comes from people I know (Ampersand's 'personality' came from someone I met on icq random chat). My favorite characters... the ones in my main game... have a bit more work than that in them, and come from a complex mixture of how I see myself, how others see myself, and how I see others. Sometimes, for simple characters, I just take the easy way and combine a few traits from a random look through a trait dictionary... but for important characters I always try to make them coherent wholes, and write down how their lives were as children, how they respond to various things, how they talk, what they think in terms of, etc. I'm always looking for new ways to describe characters in relation to eachother. I would give a similar situation to all of my characters and then think about what each would do in that situation. It's a very thought experiment, I've found, in filling in all the details of the characters. Also, how a character is shown to the player has more importance than how you see the character, however. So it is very important to make sure the player sees the character the same way you see her/him. Their thoughts, their actions, their dialogue, their appearance, etc., all reveal that character to the player. Portraying characters realistically is an ability only acquired through constant practice and refinement.