What makes a game a RPG?

[Therumancer]

...Hence attempts to re-define RPG, while still hopefully retaining the associations the people making the new definition...

"redefine"... I love the euphemism you are using there . I have noticed most RPG games have changed over the years, going from number crunching to numberless RPGs (every calculation happens behind the scenes, if anything is happening at all). Some people might even say that the RPG genre have been butchered, dumbed down; making it more main stream. While other people have found a new experience with RPG games that wasn't possible before due to limitations in technology and money.

By your definition RPG games have (nearly) gone extinct. I personally don't know what to think. The old Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale era has passed and I do miss it. Even Final Fantasy changed over the years. Each installment is becoming less "Final Fantasy-ish". But I don't know... I don't know whether RPG games have gotten better or worse or just different. I guess the old school die-hards/elite might say RPG games have lost their essence. Hmmm...

That is correct, RPGs are pretty much exitinct. What are being called RPGs now are usually not RPGs at all.

As I explained the core comes down to how the game is played and the reliance on statistics rather than player control and abillity. Things like storylines, fancy graphics, interactive dialogue, have nothing to do with it despite what people might want to claim, those all trappings that can be added to any game and from which every game genere from action to RPGs will benefit from.

Nearly extinct does not mean entirely gone though, we STILL see a number of them coming out, and there is a solid market for them. The issue is simply that being able to make a profit is not good enough for the current game industry, they want the biggest profits possible. Thus creating an action game with some customization options and a storyline and some dialogue, tossing "RPG" on it to make it sound smart, and throwing it out to the casual market is the unusual way things are done right now because more money can be made from that than say "Baldur's Gate" which is going to have your typical "Bro", "Frat Boy", or other casual get bored from a lack of immediate visceral satisfaction, especially if they aren't smart enough to figure out the mechanics, or worse yet might actually have to read or learn something... that lowers the overall sales. A game worshipped by nerds and smart people will never make as much money as one that sells strongly to the casual, mainstream gamer.

 

[Adam Cammock-Sands]

simple, numbers and wenches

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I hate people who use the 'roleplaying' argument, it's inane. Games will never allow the absolute freedom to 'roleplay', nor does playing as a digital avatar make a game an RPG.

The term RPG refers to gameplay elements borrowed from DnD and other tabletop games, the only element of said games that could be fully replicated in video games. It was originated by Richard Garriot's Ultima series, and the Wizardry series, which later inspired the first true "JRPG' as we know it, Dragon Quest. Therefore, games that continue from that lineage, and share that gameplay- level ups, epic quests, character growth and story, customization, etc., are RPGs. Not all games that HAVE those elements are RPGs, but the culmination of all these elements do. That's why Final Fantasy is an RPG, and why Skyrim is an RPG, and why Call of Duty or Gran Turismo are NOT RPGs.

This should end the thread right here. While it's true that every game has you take on a certain role to play as, RPG games are derived from DnD and...well, I quoted the guy and I'd flub the meaning by paraphrasing.

 

[fletch_talon]

you have to consider the defining features of the game.
You have stats and you take on the role of characters in "Need for Speed" and "Call of Duty" but in the end, the game is primarily about racing and shooting, hence one is a racer, and the other is a shooter.

When the gameplay plays a backseat to the story, or when the gameplay revolves around leveling up to overcome obstacles, or when your choices play a big part in progressing in the game. These are what define an RPG.

At least I think that covers everything.

 

[])rStrangelove]

-choosing a role/type
-changable equipment
-levelling system
-some storyline to follow
-interaction or grouping with other characters

 

[Mau95]

It overlaps. Final Fantasy is also a simulation; all games are simulations.

 

[thedevildancer]

yhatzee said it best its all about specialization if you create something that you can do but you cant do nothing else thats a role you not just can but must go into a role like a warrior or a mage not heres a sword heres a spell have fun

Thank you Rex Harrison.

its my second language you don't have to be a asshole about it