Command or Control?

[Siberys]

Something I've always wandered about gamers, specifically to RPG games and gamers of that genre.

When a game is made, you can either command your character or character(s) to go in a certain direction, attack this, sneak up on that, or whatnot. Then another game is made, and you can have a character that you completely control, when, where, and how you sneak, how far you draw your bow string and where you shoot it, which way you swing your sword, and everything else.

So, my question is, do you perfer a command system in a game, where you click on something and your character goes there or performs the command on its own, or do you like to control your character and decide what to do and exactly how to do it? Or maybe you perfer a blend of that sort of thing?

I prefer a full out command system, like in games such as Neverwinter Nights and Icewind Dale 2. It makes it easy to control your character and gives the developers more concentration on other necessities of a game. Like for instance bioware. Their stories, while not the greatest, are always at least plotlines and can be considered stories in a game like neverwinter nights and it's expansions. But then there are games that they made like Jade Empire, cool character system and a lot of control with your character, but it's really lacking in story elements.

So yeah, I definitely perfer a birds eye view command like system, as no matter how linear the game is, the story in the game always seems to come out shining. Baldurs Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights, Planescape, Titan Quest, etc, they all had well written stories even if the game itself wasn't that good.

So what do you like?

[DesR85]

Since I'm more accustomed to playing a lot of non-RPG games and action-oriented titles, I tend to prefer complete control over a character than a command system that dictates your character's action. The reason is because since you can control your character directly, you have more control over the said character's reaction when it comes to critical tasks such as fighting and manoeuvring to mundane ones such as movement and interaction.

The command system is okay, in my opinion, but to be honest, I don't really like it very much. The reason is because you need to use the mouse a lot (make that 90% of the time), especially when it comes to walking, fighting and interacting. Not to mention that if there are too many commands, it will involve a lot of mouse clicking and that's what I particularly detest when playing these types of games. That's one of the reasons why I never liked Neverwinter Nights in the first place.

[Jeff_31]

Control.

It's more exciting and adds interaction with your environment. You feel like you are more involved in the game than with a command system.

[mr_sir]

Command system for pretty much the same reasons as Siberys, although it does depend on the game. Games where I have parties and henchman then I like to have a full and complete command system, games where its is just my character, such as the Gothic games and Morrowind, I like the control system. It just depends on my mood which I choose to play. At the moment I am going through a phase where I only want to play games with a command system so I can take my time, figure out strategies and new approaches.

Oh, I also feel that magic works a lot better in command system games as you have far more control over the spell casting and selection than you do in full control games IMO.