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That's Not an RPG! 2016 Edition - General Column
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
That's Not an RPG! 2016 Edition - General Column
It’s a new year and that means it’s time to return again to a question I first posed last year: What exactly makes an RPG? As different genres appropriate more staples of the roleplaying genre, the waters continue to get muddier and muddier. Is Fallout 4 an RPG, for example? How about Destiny? Let’s break down exactly what makes an RPG in 2016.
Comments
I agree. Other genres -- primarily RTS, shooters and 4X started borrowing RPG elements a long time ago and became much better in the process.
At the same time, RPGs started borrowing from other genres too: Elder Scrolls, Ultima Underworld and others borrowed the first person perspective and projectile physics from shooters and became the better for it as well. The fact that some people have problems classifying Fallout 4 as an RPG just shows how complete that hybridization is now when we often can't tell whether we're playing a shooter with RPG elements or an RPG with shooter elements.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
At this point, I could really care less. Just give me a working game.
I agree. people spend too much time worrying over what acronyms to call a game. You have people who post that they are only looking for things like:
FFA, PvP, Full Loot, Territory Control, First Person, Skill Based Target, Fantasy, Sandbox, MMO, RPG...
My list is simple. I want fun games that work as promised.
Couldn't really care less about the acronyms in front of the title.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
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To me it is obvious why people use acronyms/labels/classifications.
It is the same when you look at dating sites for instance: -
It might be funny to just advertise yourself as "just looking to get laid" but most people want a little more info before they start dating
It is about wanting a particular type of game and expecting to see that type of game after you buy it.
There is absolutely nothing odd or weird about it,it is exactly like buying two tickets to a Football game,if you entered and there was no football game you would be pissed ..right?
You don't walk in to no football game and say,oh well we can't complain that it was falsely advertised as long as we get something fun to see even if it is a 3 ring circus.No you pay to see something you want to see it,end of story no special analogy or anything should be needed it is self explanatory and very obvious.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
If Fallout is considered to be a rpg, then so is Half-life.
Because half-life had a system in it to build your character to be better and more efficient with specific weapons types right?
It had a system in it you could loosely call magic right? (VATS)
I could go on but it's a waste of time. It's clear you don't know what actually makes an RPG an RPG.
While FO4 allows for run and gunning it also allows for you to make gameplay altering builds. Have you even tried a pain train build? Using your vats energy for sprinting and damage resistance and damage/kill enimies sprinting into them while using power armor?
I guess the games biggest problem was that it made the gun combat so good people couldn't look past it to see the different builds you can actually make.
If Fallout is considered to be a rpg, then so is Half-life.
I wrote a column for you! Just kidding :-) I disagree but to each their own.
Anyone who says that Fallout 4 is a shooter - play a 100% melee build. I have never fired a gun of any sort in Fallout 4 period.
One Punch Man build is the way to go.
my top MMOs: UO,DAOC,WoW,GW2
most of my posts are just my opinions they are not facts,it is the same for you too.
Yeah. I had this conversation to this on this site already.
For me gear grind character built monster horde killing games like Diablo, PoE, Grim Dawn, etc are also hack&slash games. In my country they were from their get-go in 90s they were considered as separate genre to RPG games.
Seems that in USA it is diffrent though as for them hack&slash games are some console-like action games and Diablos are RPGs. Very weird, odd and very wide understanding of RPG, with whom I stil don't agree with.
Anyone who says that Fallout 4 is a shooter - play a 100% melee build. I have never fired a gun of any sort in Fallout 4 period.
I need to try this. How much harder does it make the game?
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As a definition, I would deem an RPG as one that is story-centric. As for me, I'd rather have a game titled that before RPG anyway. An RPG, from a tabletop standpoint would be a story oriented game; D&D, Pathfinder, Vampire, etc. All these games have builds, but they also have a "personality" you can play, and they follow a story arch. How is this not the definition in the computer world too?
Three things: A story, a personality one can play, and character attributes that allow you to interact with the world. That's it. If it doesn't have those three things then it's not a Role Playing Game.
That said, it's still one of the best games of the year but an RPG......it is not.
If you go all the way back to the first RPG games, RPG games are about your character, building their story AND their abilities. For some people just providing a good setting and the underlying systems that allow them to define their character is enough. Story can be built in, or provided by the setting and community. I personally like a solid main story, but what keeps me coming back to an RPG is solid and deep character progression, without the ability to build a variety of different characters I'm usually done after 1 or 2 play throughs.
Watching a character progress through a fixed path of events with only the ability to make minor changes to their characters and the story is not an RPG, it is an interactive movie.
RPG is not simply about story. There are plenty of games out there that call themselves RPGs because they have a story, but in truth are little more than interactive movies. Don't get me wrong, a game as an interactive movie can be very good and enthralling, but that doesn't make it an RPG.
Totally agree. A story only goes so far. If story were the defining element, adventure games would be RPGs, not their own genre.
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Fallout is a Survival game with RPG elements. But it is NOT a role playing game, by the traditional standard definition.
FFVII is a RPG with snowboarding elements/gameplay. You do NOT call FFVII a snowboarding game just because it has it as a mini-game within it. FFVIII is an RPG with a card game in it. You do not call it a card game because it has that mini game in it. etc.
A Role Playing Game is a story-centric game, where story development through character development is the main focus of the game, NOT the battle/gaming style. If the battle/game style takes precedence, then that is the genre of the game. For Example, if the gameplay is via card-play, then it is a card game, regardless of how much story is in it. If it focuses on survival via FPS (which have always included some melee attacks), then it is a FPS or a survivalist game. If you are doing constant 1 vs 1/multiple battles, then it is a battle simulator. etc....
Identifying a RPG is very easy, and so is identifying the other genres. Having RPG elements does not an RPG make. Go to any local gaming store and ask the nearest shopper to bring you a RPG, and they can pick it out in a heart beat. They will not come back with "Need for Speed".
Muddying the waters and trying to blur the lines of what gamers already know is a RPG is very unbecoming of a website that has within its name "RPG". Please start calling games for what they are, and not for what you want them to be due to the widening nature of your coverage.