How CRPGs Warped My Brain, Part Four
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Fallout 1 & 2: As a latecomer to these games, the lesson I learned was a hard one about the nature of the mainstream games business rather than game design. You see, I assumed that the critical and commercial success of Fallout would lead to more games of its kind, as publishers attempted to follow its success. More hardcore RPGs, more turn-based RPGs, more non-fantasy settings, more open-ended world design with pretty notable consequences for your meaningful decisions, all that awesome stuff.
I was wrong. Publishers don't generally follow just any success. They seek to follow and overtake the biggest dogs of the field. I don't know Fallout's sales numbers, but I am pretty sure they were in a whole different league than Diablo. Guess which game ended up representing the (evolution) of the genre in the minds of the guys in the suits?
Note since becoming an indie, I have become much more business-oriented. I understand the suits, and in theory might even agree with their decision for them. But as an indie, I say, (Why get into a massive, expensive battle royale over the biggest slice of the pie when there are these smaller but still substantial slices that almost nobody is calling dib's on?)
