All posts by Master Strategist

Orther

I'm actually just starting out on Medium, but, if you join their "Partner Program", they'll ultimately pay you based on how many views (and "claps") you receive on your monetized pages. I figured that it would be great to provide the RDR and historical community with some fun thoughtpiece articles while also having a shot at getting paid to do what I love (writing about history), especially since Wikia doesn't pay its wiki admins, and I've spent thousands of hours (almost my entire free time) writing for my own Historica wiki without pay. Getting to publish on Medium would potentially allow for me to have my writings count for something even greater than fun!

Of course! I'd love to answer anyone's questions!

Thanks everyone for your feedback! I'll be sure to take your encouragement and your suggestions into account when making Part Two, especially now that I have the original RDR on the Xenia emulator so I can take screenshots and write about the original!

Absolutely! The newer Assassin's Creed games have "Discovery Mode" modes in which the player can freely roam the open world and be educated about the historical setting; that in Red Dead Redemption (and 2), with regard to the Mexican Revolution, the real "Old West", cattle ranching, etc. would be a great tool!

Thanks! I love to write about history and how pop culture portrays and enhances it; please stay tuned if you're interested in how Red Dead Redemption and real American history boost each other!

To be honest, I've slightly changed my mind on this matter. I loved exploring Saint-Denis in single-player, but, in multiplayer, I never go there; I always prefer to live out the true "Wild West" experience on the "Arizona frontier" (escorting wagons out of Tumbleweed) or taking part in shootouts in the forests of Colorado or on the plains of Nebraska and Oklahoma (taking outlaw missions from the Boy in New Hanover). I always find myself gravitating either to Tumbleweed/Cholla Springs for the Sheriff Freeman and Shaky missions, to Blackwater for the Hector missions, to Valentine and Riggs Station for the Alden missions, to Flatneck Station and Valentine for The Boy missions, and - recently and surprisingly - to remote Grizzlies West for Flaco and Jake Adler missions.

Yet, throughout these travels, I'm always drawn back to Valentine, as there's nothing like riding through the beautiful plains and prairies to enter the archetypal cattle town, hitch your horse, have a drink in the lively saloon, and patronize the local businesses. Valentine has two of my favorite quest-givers - Alden and The Boy - and it has a welcoming, rural feel to it. I'd have to say that Valentine is my real favorite town, as - while I've always loved New Orleans/Saint Denis culture and the game's representation of the city - I'm not particularly drawn there during my near-daily RDR Online sessions, and I'm almost always in Tumbleweed or Valentine. Tumbleweed lacks some of Valentine's amenities, and - while I love the feeling of riding through the Southwestern deserts as a gunslinger - Valentine has all I need in one spot, while I'd have to dash across New Austin to find gratification. Sorry, Saint Denis, but Valentine has my heart!

I wish they would make gang hideouts work like they did in RDR MP; always available, marked on the map, etc. If I want to have a shootout in RDR Online, I want it to be with dozens of outlaw NPCs whose map I can steal and whose bodies I can loot. That would keep my free roam session full of fun and loot.

I agree that RDR 1 already shows the West's settlement, but note that the epilogue - set in 1914 - is still hardly different from the situation in 1911. The 1920s-30s setting would certainly show a West/Midwest where civilization has taken over, but has the rule of law come with it? I get that a Great Depression-themed game might not be one's typical Western, but it would be a perfect transition from the RDR era (genre-wise) to the GTA era, and it would show the last gasp of lawlessness west of the Mississippi. In a way, John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, et. al. were the last true outlaws.

I've said this in another chat, but I think the future of RDR should focus precisely on that: the future of the universe. Imagine riding around the Midwest during the 1930s, when horses began to fade away as automobile-mania took America by storm. A game where the protagonist plays a John Dillinger-esque, Depression-era bank robber riding with a gang of fellow outlaws, robbing banks, perhaps bootlegging, and evading the increasingly-powerful law could make for a perfect transition out of the Wild West and into the modern era, which would epitomize what RDR is about: the fall of the West and the end of a legendary era. It might have the same feel as RDR 2: being hunted down as civilization takes over, but it would make for an interesting setting, as there could be a mixture of folk and jazz in the soundtrack, multiplayer could focus on bootlegging and bank heists instead of moonshining and coach robbing, and the Tommy Gun would be the quintessential weapon of the robbers and the police. It might not be your conventional Western game, but it would make a heck of an RDR game to sort of bridge the themes of RDR and GTA together in what could be a wildly successful genre "crossover" of sorts.

I personally like Saint-Denis due to its ingame variety; I love getting to interact with different nationalities such as white Southerners, Italians, Spaniards, Creoles, African-Americans, Chinese, etc., and seeing what New Orleans might have looked and sounded like during that time. Also, the side activities in Saint-Denis were fun, as was just riding (or even walking) around.

With regard to my favorite "frontier town", though, it would probably be either Valentine or Strawberry. I love the agricultural feel of Valentine (seeing the stable workers occupy half of the town), but I love the forested and isolated feel of Strawberry, where I was stuck for two hours on my birthday shooting scores of lawmen dead because I accidentally pulled a man from his horse in front of the sheriff's office due to an accidental key-press.

I miss New Austin's vibrant RDR 1 form, as riding through Armadillo and getting into bar-fights was always fun in the first game. Overall, though, there's plenty to keep a player occupied in the new areas, and I think that Saint-Denis has the most to offer (historical recreation, cultural exploration, a diverse atmosphere, vaudeville, trams, etc.) from any of the new towns/cities.

I think a mid-20th century sequel would be cool, as Mexico was experiencing the Cristero War (which saw many Americans volunteer), the South and West were the site of several Great Depression-era bank heists, Prohibition could be a major backdrop with its own bootlegging side activities, racial tensions were high in the South (a good opportunity for Rockstar to make a poignant statement on racial equality, something which it only partly explored in RDR 2 - it didn't really mention Jim Crow), and Jack would be around Arthur's age by the time this game would take place in the 1920s. Maybe the "Roaring Twenties" aspect could be felt in Saint Denis (New Orleans) as jazz explodes, but the West was still very much untamed, and threats like Depression-era robbers, bootleggers, and - most of all - the Klan lingered in the South.

Even if the game chooses not to continue the Marston storyline, it could be focused more on the Midwest and have a John Dillinger-like setting, with a gang of Depression-era robbers and bootleggers roaming around the Great Plains and robbing banks and fighting other gangs. RDR 2 is basically a rural, more historical, and more serious version of GTA, so it could make great use of the 1920s as historical material and inspiration!