I never understood why people enjoy RPGs like Diablo or old school. What's so fun about a game that plays itself for you?[/quote]
Like many things you either get it or you don't. That is why there are differant generes of games, not everything is for everyone. An RPG is sort of a mental excercise about management, building, and making desicians. In many cases trying to find a solution within the thought processes of a character and what they can do rather than within your own.
Like paper and pencil RPGs, some people just do not get it, that however does not mean it shouldn't exist.
The problem as I see things is that right now there are a lot more people that don't get real RPGs than do. More people means more money. While RPGs are a "safe" and stable niche market that has always existed, the development costs and player base result in less profits at the best, so companies are increasingly trying to find ways to create games that will maintain a lot of that niche market while drawing in the more mainstream, casual gamer. Truthfully I suspect the failures will eventually lead companies back to safe niche development (a decent profit is still a decent profit) especially with increasing competition in the "mainstream market" and how many ways it's going to be split up as the number of gamers eventually tops out and stops growing. Understanding that does not make me as an RPG player any happier, since really I want to play my RPGs, not wait for market forces to cause the pendelum to swing back the other way for a bit as people retreat to niche development.
I'll also be painfully obvious in saying that some of it comes down to the fact that a lot of people just don't have good reflexs and such, and as such find shooters and other twitch games to be annoying. As Yahtzee once pointed out, something like VATS in Fallout 3 is a "system for lobster accountants", I suppose on some level that is accurate, as there are plenty of people who can't twitch very well and still want to play games. All of the stats and such make for a good mental exercise.
I for example play both "Twitch" and RPG games, though I am primarily an RPG gamer. Simply put I have decent timing, but it takes me quite a while to learn action games in many cases. Plus to be honest I feel RPGs tend to have more depth with the differant systems and such, to me shooters and such started to seem more or less identical a long time ago. However consider that I started playing FPS games with the original Wolfenstein 3d a long time ago, when I downloaded the shareware version off of a BBS system! A lot of people make similar claims but the truth is most are liars since there just weren't that many gamers back then compared to the people making the claim of being an original FPS junkie. What's more when I DLed that game I was actually talking to people over Echos (how many people know what they were? Lol) comparing the merits to the original Silas Warner game for the Commodore 64. Not to mention stuff like "Castle Smurfenstein" for the C-64 games. Oh oh.. and of course "Assault On Smurf Village". This was the 80s so abusing Smurfs who were a lot more common and prevelant was a mainstay.
The bottom line is that as I've gotten older I HAVE slowed down (especially with my problems and meds), but also there are only so many times I can line up a gun at the bottom of the screen or a targeting sight, and shoot something before it gets old, no matter how many bells and whistes they add. I watched innovation after innovation added to these games over a while, and sure while they keep expanding them it takes something really special (like say Bioshock) to get me interested simply because of the core gameplay. For whatever reason RPGs just never got old the same way.
Like many things you either get it or you don't. That is why there are differant generes of games, not everything is for everyone. An RPG is sort of a mental excercise about management, building, and making desicians. In many cases trying to find a solution within the thought processes of a character and what they can do rather than within your own.
Like paper and pencil RPGs, some people just do not get it, that however does not mean it shouldn't exist.
The problem as I see things is that right now there are a lot more people that don't get real RPGs than do. More people means more money. While RPGs are a "safe" and stable niche market that has always existed, the development costs and player base result in less profits at the best, so companies are increasingly trying to find ways to create games that will maintain a lot of that niche market while drawing in the more mainstream, casual gamer. Truthfully I suspect the failures will eventually lead companies back to safe niche development (a decent profit is still a decent profit) especially with increasing competition in the "mainstream market" and how many ways it's going to be split up as the number of gamers eventually tops out and stops growing. Understanding that does not make me as an RPG player any happier, since really I want to play my RPGs, not wait for market forces to cause the pendelum to swing back the other way for a bit as people retreat to niche development.
I'll also be painfully obvious in saying that some of it comes down to the fact that a lot of people just don't have good reflexs and such, and as such find shooters and other twitch games to be annoying. As Yahtzee once pointed out, something like VATS in Fallout 3 is a "system for lobster accountants", I suppose on some level that is accurate, as there are plenty of people who can't twitch very well and still want to play games. All of the stats and such make for a good mental exercise.
I for example play both "Twitch" and RPG games, though I am primarily an RPG gamer. Simply put I have decent timing, but it takes me quite a while to learn action games in many cases. Plus to be honest I feel RPGs tend to have more depth with the differant systems and such, to me shooters and such started to seem more or less identical a long time ago. However consider that I started playing FPS games with the original Wolfenstein 3d a long time ago, when I downloaded the shareware version off of a BBS system! A lot of people make similar claims but the truth is most are liars since there just weren't that many gamers back then compared to the people making the claim of being an original FPS junkie. What's more when I DLed that game I was actually talking to people over Echos (how many people know what they were? Lol) comparing the merits to the original Silas Warner game for the Commodore 64. Not to mention stuff like "Castle Smurfenstein" for the C-64 games. Oh oh.. and of course "Assault On Smurf Village". This was the 80s so abusing Smurfs who were a lot more common and prevelant was a mainstay.
The bottom line is that as I've gotten older I HAVE slowed down (especially with my problems and meds), but also there are only so many times I can line up a gun at the bottom of the screen or a targeting sight, and shoot something before it gets old, no matter how many bells and whistes they add. I watched innovation after innovation added to these games over a while, and sure while they keep expanding them it takes something really special (like say Bioshock) to get me interested simply because of the core gameplay. For whatever reason RPGs just never got old the same way.