Well guys, it's been four months. I've gone back and forth on this and thought it over, and I've finally decided on on an ultimatum. Despite it being my second favorite game to run, I'm declaring Mushroom Kingdom Wars
dead. But it would be pretty poor to just let it go like that, so I guess I'll write out a retrospective piece about everything I learned from this game.
Mushroom Kingdom Wars: A Retrospective
Why I started itMy love of video games knows no bounds. I grew up with Nintendo systems starting with the Game Boy Color. I don't really play video games as much today because I'm busier, but I still look back fondly on my childhood of huddling over a handheld at 3 A.M., trying to finish one last level before I went to sleep. I am uncomfortable writing stories with premises I'm not familiar with, and that's why I started with "Nintendo games."
I also started it because I thought it would be really fun! And it was. I really enjoyed setting up this world that contained all my favorite elements of the video games I was familiar with. I enjoyed the back-and-forth with the players, the unpredictable actions and results, and the almost RPG-like feel of the game. It was something I
knew, even when I didn't, and the same goes for many of the players (since Mario is hands down the most well known video game character).
Why it diedA lot of reasons. Months after its last hiatus, my favorite GM, Blade Master Model 42, gave me the best writing advice I'd ever heard. It was something along the lines of "Don't get too attached to a story you haven't already written." That sentence is the reason he will always be a better GM than me. It's the reason I got disillusioned with my own story and game: I ended up enjoying the story I hadn't already written more than the story that was being written now, so the second half of the game was a mess of rushed plot, shoehorned grimdark themes and flat-out bad writing.
Another reason is I reached too high. Way, way too high. For most of the game, I built up expectations that every major sequence would be punctuated with a Flash animation, every character should be drawn, every small flashback narrated as well as a good book. But the fact remained that I wasn't able to accept that I couldn't do most of those things. I could make a half-passable effort, sure, but at the time I had only been "seriously" drawing, writing and programming for a few months. Every time I did something fancy I ended up disappointed with myself, and I became frustrated. It was enough to ween me off doing this for quite a while.
Oh, yeah. Speaking of the art and Flashes and stuff.
The mediaI have a very low attention span. Diagnosed ADD, in fact. For this reason, I find it difficult to read through and concentrate on media of any kind (forum games, stories, articles) if it doesn't have
some sort of visual component. Art makes everything better! That's the reason I decided to start incorporating it into Mushroom Kingdom Wars.
There was only one problem. Namely, the fact that I had almost no experience with art. Whoops! But I tried anyway. I drew and drew crappy drawings, got advice from applesauce machine and others (who are to this day way better at drawing), and plugged away even though I knew I was not an artist. And you know what? I discovered one of the most important lessons in life: practice makes perfect. You hear that one phrase everywhere, but you can't really understand it until you see how far each hour, day, week and month of work has taken you.
By the death of this game, I still wasn't very good at art. It wasn't until I'd started running Luigi Quest that I actually started improving much. Compared the start to the present:
I've still got a long way to go, but it's thanks to this game and the players' support that I may one day be a quality artist.
The plotThe plot was the largest death knell to this game. Well, it wasn't, but it was more the way I started putting it into everything. You see, Mushroom Kingdom Wars and Luigi Quest were always supposed to be lighthearted stories. The background behind them is large, slightly incoherent and often quite dark. But, at least most of the time, the overall tone needs to stay consistent, and that's what I'm focusing on from now on.
Since my other game in this setting is still going, I can't just spoil everything. But I will at least cover the most important part (namely, Zach's unseen flashback) in my suggestion game at a later date since it's integral to the entire story.
The futureI really enjoyed running this for you guys, but I'm starting college full time in a few days, I'm going to either have to focus on one game or put it on another hiatus (depending on my amount of homework). I know some of you much prefer player-focused games like RPGs and RPs, but I am going to stick with suggestion games for now. I'll be covering a little bit of the main team's journeys here and there after this, of course, but they will no longer be the main focus of the story. Also, Oomph will be competing in the second season of Mario Kart Grand Prix
As for if I'll ever run another RTD/RP in the future... who knows? Ones like this are intense, time consuming, and you have to love 'em to keep 'em going. I do hope to keep playing RPGs, though, so maybe we'll end up roleplaying with one another again
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Topic: Mushroom Kingdom Wars RTD: So long, a-bowser! (Read 223905 times)