The 7th Guest was the fist one I really cared about. I grew up watching horror movies from the age of 5, but never really played a horror game until I got The 7th Guest in a CD-ROM drive bundle for Christmas of '93. It’s not so much a horror survival game as it is a horror puzzle game, but a great game nonetheless. I’ll never forget the opening: “Old man Stauf built a house and filled it with his toys. Six Guests were invited one night, their screams the only noise…”
I feel like the MMO Star Wars Galaxies was close to it. Some people didn’t fight at all. They just were entertainers, or medics, or just made items to sell. Every thing was uniquely made. Some sellers sold stuff like crazy because their quality was so good, others struggled to make a living off of it. It was so nuanced.
And there were very very very very few jedi. I mean, I think I saw a couple in the entirety of the game after years of playing. There were very specific things each character had to do to even unlock the possibility (and no one knew what their unique unlock was). And they couldn’t easily go into cities…bounty hunters would be alerted that there was a sighting.
You could build cities with your guild and your own houses, store all your gear there. Your city could grow and you could have shops in it that people could stop by, or you could build a transport center in your city and people could use it to travel around the planet.
Your faction was based on what you did, not a pre-destined thing you chose in your character creation. Some people stayed neutral, and others went down one path or another.
It was honestly, still to this day, the best game I’ve ever played.