That's why I've never gotten into the original Final Fantasies or any other old-school RPGs, though I am waiting for EarthBound to hit the VC, just to try it. I never really liked the way that many RPGs, Japanese and Western alike, required lots of leveling up and micromanagement. It was a bit thrilling at first; wandering into a new town, seeing all there was to see, buying the new weapons; after I realized basically the entire game was like that, I simply quit. FF6 was better than FF1 and FF2, but not enough to hold my interest. And in others, the micromanagement was what killed me. Fire Emblem, for example. The fact that party members who fall in battle are gone for good is simply infuriating to me. It's like you're playing a chess tournament and someone says to you, "Hey, you can't do that. You lost that rook in the last game. It's not yours to use anymore."

That's why I feel that a more open-ended and free RPG would be a better choice. In the Elder Scrolls games, you get a large world to explore, free of restrictions and boundaries. You can choose how your character fights, how they talk, what they react to; you can basically write a story by living it. And it's all very open. As long as you keep the difficulty level moderately low, the few occasions where key story characters can die are not hard to do with all your friends alive. Jauffre's not going to die unless you're careless with him or you do the deed yourself. For example, Barnabas could use a bit more psychic power than we saw on the show and see, "Oh, this errand I'm going to do for someone puts Roger's life in danger. Am I going to just do it and let Roger die, or am I going to save him?" Or the player could simply ambush Roger, turn him into a vampire, and have him kill everyone in town. Player-driven experience is the best way to experience Dark Shadows as a video game, and I think that can best be done as a point-and-click adventure or a free-form RPG. Other genres are definitely viable, but wouldn't let us do what many of us have always wanted to do: walk into Collinsport and unravel all of its many secrets.

Oh, and if anyone wants a taste of The Elder Scrolls to see a bit of what I'm talking about, the games are, in order: Arena (1991, T, DOS, available for free download at elderscrolls.com), Daggerfall (1994, M, DOS), Morrowind (2002, T, Windows 98+/Xbox), and Oblivion (2006, M [formerly T], Windows XP+/360/PS3).

EDIT: My first topic and it turns into a popular topic within a week. I expected to only get a few posts on here. I've made topics on far more popular subjects on boards with many more active members that have crashed and burned. I'm quite pleased with this.

Another possibility. I was basing my RPG on Western RPG philosophy (Elder Scrolls and the like) instead of Eastern RPG philopsophy (Final Fantasy and the like), but Eastern-style could work, as well.

Dark Shadows: The Game: Barnabas Ate My Neighbors

I've heard a lot about it, but unfortunately have never played it. I do think that that could make a fun little DSh (to distinguish between DS the show and DS the system) game. I can see a whole line of Dark Shadows games now that I never thought possible, from action games to role-playing games to point-and-click adventure games. XP Honestly, it doesn't seem like the kind of show that would lend itself well to gaming, but once the ideas start flowing...

Though it couldn't be as epic in scope as one for the PC or consoles, I think a DS DSh game along the lines of Hotel Dusk or Trace Memory (the former of which I've completed and the latter I haven't started yet) could be good, as well.

As far as other Dark Shadows games go, I think we've covered most of the major genres: action, adventure, RPG... A Dark Shadows-themed Tetris game could be fun, but only as a free Flash game or something. I simply can't see some genres, like first-person shooters and strategy, either real-time or turn-based, fitting in, though. Well, maybe a first-person shooter, but that'd have to be an awfully linear Collinwood.

I apologize about my previous post needing modification to hide the spoiler about Gabriel and Edith. I always forget stuff like that. >_>

...I need to start doing my own research instead of relying strictly on the official companions. They kind of painted it to sound like those storylines had next to no viewers. And, yes, I never thought of it that way. The die-hard fans probably did watch it all the way through to the end, while the casual fans dropped out.

Well, those storylines just didn't have the highest ratings, so that's what I meant.

I don't think the Leviathan arc was that bad. Granted, I found Jeb to be thoroughly unlikeable, and the relationship between Jeb and Megan rubbed me the wrong way, but I found everyone fawning over Jeb or one of his child forms to be rather amusing. Actually, it was a lot like the fourth season of Angel, but I'm getting off-topic here. Megan's mad thrashing about while calling for Barnabas was pretty hilarious, too. Sorry to say I'm with the majority, though, when I say that I didn't really like 1840 or either Parallel Time. Well, I liked 1840 a little, but I could have done without the Parallel Times, though admittedly I found the fact that there was a Buffy (spelled differently, granted) on Dark Shadows to be amusing, too.

My explanation:

Barnabas, fed up with Willie spending too much time on Roxanne and not enough on helping him, kidnapped Roxanne and chased her around Collinwood. She escaped via the Stairway Through Time into... oh, let's say 1954. She married a man by the last name of Drew and had a daughter, also named Roxanne. I'm positive the writers had all this in mind.

All kidding aside, I think the writers just forgot about her. They completely forgot about Angelique pulling a Josette and Jeremiah on Maggie and Quentin, too, and that was around the same time, no?