🎉 Celebrating 25 Years of GameDev.net! 🎉

Not many can claim 25 years on the Internet! Join us in celebrating this milestone. Learn more about our history, and thank you for being a part of our community!

Back to Game Design and Theory

Can good gameplay exist w/ a poor interface?

Dak Lozar · 2000-12-12T06:04:15

I''ve been coaxed into play EverQuest (EQ)... again. A few of my friends have been playing this game for some time. I on the other hand had been playing Ultima Online(UO). I played UO for exacltly 3 years and had played Asheron''s Call (AC) and EQ during this period. I didn''t like EQ because of the interface and I didn''t like AC because of the lack of play. This discussion is not about the multiplayer aspects of these games, I''m simply using these three games as a point of reference. As I said, I''ve been playing EQ for about a week this time. And the thing that frustrates me the most about this damn game is the GUI. I''m convinced that the thing was designed by idiots- and even worse, it makes smart people adapt to it. My friend Kressilac is a very smart guy (at least, I think so) and yet, he has adapted to the game in a way that makes me think just a little less of him Kressilac says that using the keyboard (or hotkeys) illiminates much of the interface woes. But, as a player of UO, and a long time computer user, I tend to like pointing and clicking. I first started on Unix and shell based OSes and enjoy some of the benifits from a shell or a CLI, but in a game, I want to point and click darn you! Is the gameplay enough to make you adapt to the UI? And should gameplay be enough to allow people to overlook a poorly designed interface? IMO, the two are connected and good gameplay with a poor interface is poor overall. Just as poor gameplay with a good interface is poor overall in my book. How many of you (if any) are playing EQ and tollerate the interface? Even if you haven''t played EQ, what''s your thinking on this? Dave "Dak Lozar" Loeser