Convenient storytelling

Without any pride I feel that I can safely consider myself to be pretty skilled at video role playing games (at least half-decent). I’ve played my fair share of them and the only one to ever have beaten me is The Witcher (and that was just because my PC could no longer handle it). Still, I have to admit that if not for the situation represented in today’s comic I probably would not have been able to see those ending videos I claimed as a prize.
I’ve probably lost count of how many times I’ve applied the glitchy tactic of running up to a monster, scoring a puny little harmless hit and then running away until the monster gave up and turned its back on me - only to run back up to it and do it again. With enough patience, you can get tons of experience by killing monsters you could never, ever beat at your current level in a direct, fair fight. Sure enough, in some games, some monsters will run after you longer or perhaps appears to be a bit more persistent - but in the end they all just give up and go back to where they were before some stranger just ran up to them all crazy, stabbed them for no apparent reason and then ran away. Heck, I won all 3 Gothic games that way - when I went to town to buy armor I felt as if I should’ve been buying a track suit instead of chain mail.
Personally, I’ve always thought it would be incredibly cool if monsters in games could at least hold a grudge for more than 30 seconds. Imagine what it would be like if at the beginning of the game you chopped down a bunch of goblins and mistakenly left one of them alive (or maybe he escaped). Wouldn’t it be awesome if the little guy stalked you for the greater part of the game, burning with his lust for revenge, until finally he ambushes you when you’re at your worst?
I wonder if any game has done anything like that? I mean, sure, NPCs that are essential to the plot do that all the time - but doesn’t that little and apparently insignificant goblin in my example have just as much reason to hate your guts as any “relevant” NPC?
Or wouldn’t it be amazing if you could just run through the entire game randomly stabbing people only to end up hiding up in some tower or atop some cliff overlooking the thousands of people that have amassed with the common goal of kicking your ass? But no, it seems that most NPCs are content with just chasing you for a few seconds and then just letting their revenge wait until you conveniently walk up to them again (and that’s in the few games where NPCs actually remember what you did to them).
Of course, I realize that in the past such things would’ve been beyond our capacity to program into a game - but I’d assume we’ve advanced at least enough to have a few unforgiving monsters?
Good hunting;
O
NOTE: If I was an NPC in your game, and you so much as looked at me funny, I’d hunt you and your family down and then make you watch while I did things to them all. Horrible things.


















