What is an RPG?

[I Max95]

ive seen several threads on this subject
desputing final fantasy being an RPG and Mass Effect being one
threads that define RPGs as aking on your own role and defining it as taking a role on a role period

so i ask
what defines an RPG
if its stat building creating characters and choices than Final fantasy doesnt apply
but if its taking on a role and working with it than well....EVERY game applys

 

[BlumiereBleck]

A game in which a role is played and that role is you! SO in that context every game is a rpg!

 

[AceDefective]

i think if i can customize my character at the start then it's an RPG

 

[Souplex]

This is an RPG:

 

[Space Spoons]

I think it's ultimately a question of opinion. For example; To me, it's not an RPG if it isn't turn-based.

 

[NeutralDrow]

This thread has popped up many, many times in the year and a half I've been here. I've never any that came to a consensus; rather, each one became increasingly polarized and the discussion value worthless. I don't have many hopes for this one.

The Final Fantasy games are RPGs, certainly, and Mass Effect sounds enough like one to be one, but if someone disagrees with me, there's no way I'll convince them otherwise.

 

[PayneTrayne]

This is an RPG:

Rocket propelled ninja-ry.

This is an RPG, Rocket Propelled Grenades, they play whatever role they want. It isn't turn based because they win in one turn.

 

[TriggerHappyAngel]

An RPG, for me, is a game where you can play a character that you have customized/created yourself.

Saying that an RPG is a game where you play the role (roleplay) of someone is wrong imo. because that would apply to every game.

 

[XSA37]

An RPG is a game where you have some level of control over the development and progression of your character. In addition, an RPG usually has to have a cohesive story surrounding it and must attempt to draw the player in at some point.

 

[Savagezion]

An RPG is where you are given a role, and have the ability to NOT fulfill that role. However, you are suppose to. When the gameplay allows no deviation to step outside of your role and be punished/repremanded/ have to deal with the consequences for it, it ceases to be a role playing game as the game at that point role plays the role for you.

 

[migo]

An RPG is a game where character ability matters more than player ability. In Final Fantasy games, if your character is badass, and you fight a weak monster, it's impossible for you to lose unless you're really trying, but the press A/X to continue being complained about for Final Fantasy 13 would clearly present it as an RPG, because it's the ability of the character that matters. It would also explain why people hate Final Fantasy 8, because it's a game where player ability plays a much bigger role. Traditionally in an RPG if you put in the time, your character gets more powerful, so you have a return on investment that way. With an FPS game, if you put in hundreds of hours you might not be as good as someone who just put in ten, whereas with an RPG, there's no way the guy who was grinding for ten hours is as powerful as the guy who was grinding for one hundred.

Most games rely heavily on player ability, and if they don't, they probably count as casual games, so another way of saying it might be that RPGs are hardcore games that you can finish even if you suck at playing them.

 

[Leole]

An RPG is when you can customize your Main Character to w/e you feel like it (A nice example are Moral Decisions, Like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Even Bioshock) Of course, not every game has moral choices, like Borderlands, which is still RPG because of the different classes and Skills.

In the end, RPG ~ Customizable Main Character.

PD: I also have a cousin who loathes RPGs, so, any game he doesn't like, It's RPG. Pretty accurate actually.

 

[Durxom]

What is an RPG?

A miserable little pile of secrets! *smashes wine glass*

 

[Thaius]

RPGs are based on old tabletop games like D&D. In those, statistics and ability customization (the main role-playing feature for Final Fantasy), as well as character customization and choice (more of a WRPG thing). Way I see it, any of these featured as a prominent mechanic is an RPG, or at the very least has RPG elements. It also helps that JRPGs, like tabletop RPGs, are turn-based.

Point is, they both are. Anyone who tries to say that JRPGs aren't RPGs either doesn't understand what an RPG is, or they just don't like them and are trying to change the definition to accommodate that bias. I find the latter to be the most common.

 

[rt052192]

an rpg is a rocket propelled grenade

 

[fletch_talon]

if its stat building creating characters and choices than Final fantasy doesnt apply

Final fantasy has a leveling system and sometimes a class system too. That's a form of stat building, just not one you have absolute control over.

 

[icyneesan]

Was to lazy to read the thread or even the OP but arn't RPGs classified as a game that lets you take the role of a character who is not yourself? So couldn't all games be classified as a RPG except for those that you name your MC after you and make all his stats and skills the same as yours?

Granted anyone who makes there MC the same as them in everyway possible has to be either the greatest person or ever, or have a ego so large you could beat the final boss with it.

 

[Apocalypse Tank]

A word can be many things to different people in an objective definition.
Trying to define RPG can only be done partially from a particular perspective.

If you are familiar with the particle and wave models of light, they are analogous to the current situation.

 

[EtherEdge]

What is an RPG?

A miserable little pile of secrets! *smashes wine glass*

I ...I think I love you... =3



As for my answer to the OP, here is what I said in another thread about something somewhat similar:
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Hmm... This whole 4 page argument honestly boils down to linguistics. Yay.

The term "RPG" honestly no longer serves to convey the words "Role-Playing-Game". Instead, it has become a part of gaming lingo. No longer (or is that never before? >_>) can one look at an "RPG" and decide if the term fits based on if there is genuine role-playing.

Basically there is a big difference between a game in which you take on roles, and an "RPG".

Like ALL language, if you decide to set your own definitions of what any particular word means, please do not argue with others about whether they are right or wrong about your particular definition.

How far one chooses to stretch the term "RPG" is up to them, however please stop handling "RPG" as an initialism. Its a term from Gamer lingo, having its own meaning that is further than its original parts, much like how n00b no longer only applies to just newbies.

As a matter of background and opinion: Ever since my childhood, playing the original Final Fantasy(-ies) and the rare bout of D&D, the term RPG is used in my mind to describe a game similar to those two games. I judge a game's genre upon how close it is to either of those.

As a side-note, I have not played either of the mass effect games, I enjoy rpg's, and shoot'em ups, but that particular series held no interest for me.

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tl;dr = Semantics are a *****.