Thread 3838324

What is an RPG?

>>3838324 (OP)
A miserable playing of roles.

>>3838324 (OP)
an RPG or Roll-Playing Game is a game where the success or failure of actions taken by the player is decided by dice rolls

>>3838324 (OP)
If it has turns, progression stats, classes and it inspires you to roleplay as someone else then it's an rpg. Anything else: mental illness.

>>3838324 (OP)
An RPG is a game where you play a role, like Super Mario Bros. I love playing the role of Mario jumping on koopas

>>3838324 (OP)
I know it when I see it

>>3838324 (OP)
My definition can be summed up to 4 points:
>1) relies on avatar strength (stats) over player skill,
>2) has a persistent game world and a persistent progress system,
>3) has a level of deliberate non-cosmetic customizability for avatar characters, and
>4) has a defined overarching goal/end state.

Each point might need some elaboration so:
>1) ARPGs are not RPGs. A Liger is not a Lion in the sense that you can't claim that Lions have stripes because Ligers have them. Saying that stripes makes the Liger more of Lion is retarded.
>RPGs aren't action games. Most older CRPGs that try to have a real time system often have to add a mechanic that cripples the action elements. The main contention is the "focus" aspect which is extremely subjective. MMORPGs have their own set of limitations similar to transition from P&P RPGs to CRPGs thus it justifies the move to real time.
>2) RPGs are in the Adventure genre spectrum and 1 & 2 are key features of it.
>3) CRPGs are based on the Pen & Paper RPGs like D&D and GURPS. 2 & 3 are part of that.
>4) Games like Rim World or Dwarf Fortress are more like RPG systems without an campaign. RPGs are built on the concept of the "Quest". This is main thing that differentiates it from war games. Also, RPGs aren't supposed to last forever. They aren't life sims.

>>3838324 (OP)
It's the name of a video game genre.
Or a game within that genre.

I swear this never used to be confusing then all of a sudden in the last 15 years we got a wave of retards who wouldn't know what their left hand was if someone didn't make an hour long youtube video explaining shit

>>3838367
my left or your left? Some people are morbidly self-absorbed and make everything relative to them. Other people are overly considerate, it trips people up because they don't expect people to see things their way and project a personality onto a person when they're just mirroring another person to be agreeable.

Like 2 guys go to a titty bar. But one of them is gay, and the other can't fathom why a gay guy would go to the titty bar with if he doesn't like tits.

>>3838367
>all of a sudden in the last 15 years we got a wave of retards who wouldn't know what their left hand was if someone didn't make an hour long youtube video explaining shit
Smart phones and the third world getting online.

>>3838324 (OP)

RPG means role playing game so logically that has to be the most fundamental and core defining trait. First and foremost we should all agree on that.

So what does that mean gameplay wise? Basically that the character sheet is king. Simple as. If the stats and skills are not meaningful or if it´s limitations can be easily overcome by player skill then it´s not an RPG. Souls games which are almost entirely player skill are not RGPs for example. Witcher games and Mass Effect are not RPGs either. Same for Dragon´s Dogma and so on and so forth.

Dragon Age Origins is an RPG, Baldur´s gate games are RPGs, Pathfinder games are RPGs, FF tactics and FF IX are RPGs, DoS games are RPGs. It´s not about being turn based or something like that, it´s about the sheets being relevant and restricting.

>>3838419
>RPG means role playing game so logically that has to be the most fundamental and core defining trait. First and foremost we should all agree on that.
Except that those of us not born after the year 2005* know that videogames RPGs are a genre of videogames that tries to mimic the tabletop RPG, which predate videogame adaptations
and those of use who were born before 1991** know that ttrpgs aren't called RPGs because "playing a role is a fundamental trait of it"

the videogames that coined the term "computer RPGs" [as opposed to regular RPGs played at a table, something we today have to specify as ttrpgs] are rouge, wizardry, ultima, might and magic, bard's tale, etc. And guess what, this is what original TTRPGs were like too, B/X D&D, AD&D1e, Traveler. You have a base/town [maybe some wilderness] and a dungeon. And the dungeon is the campaign. And "role playing" didn't mean what you think it means.
And guess what "player skill" is absolutely part of original RPG vision.

Drama "role playing" is a valid part of RPGs today, sure, just as drama is part of modern day videogame RPGs.
But it's not the centerpiece you see in it simply by looking at the term.

>>3838462
* 2005 is roughly the year we stopped getting pure genre games and everything was a mix of something
** 1991 saw the release of VtM 1e

It's named after tabletop games where each person picked a role in the party. It isn't well defined and doesn't necessarily have to do with player choice or skill.
Trying to pretend that you have a rigid definition that everyone else should follow is the pinnacle of folly. It just doesn't matter.
It's basically >>3838335 .