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CRPG BOOK RELEASED!

felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
Patron
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
17,274
Location
Terra da Garoa
My friends, it is time! I waited four years for this moment - the CRPG BOOK PROJECT IS COMPLETE!

You can download all its glorious 528 pages here: https://crpgbook.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/crpg_book_1-0.pdf

Thanks a lot to everyone who helped. This project would've been impossible without the Codex. You guys wrote most of the reviews, with Crooked Bee and Deuce Traveler in particular helping multiple times over the years. Kudos to you all :salute:

Not to mention that this is where I learned about RPGs. This book is a tribute to passion this place overflows, it was inspired by reading walls of text on forums - DraQ describing Morrowind's lore, Vault Dweller's analysis of RPG mechanics, Darth Roxor's reviews, the Neutral-Positive Battle Over PoE, interviewing devs with Bee, and so on...

:love:

Here's the official release rambling:

Four years ago I began a journey.

On Feb 5 2014 I posted the results of the RPG Codex’s Top 70 poll, in which we elected the best CRPGs of all time. But I felt that a simple list was too dry… more than the ranking, I was interested in WHY these games were good. From there came the idea of asking people to write a short paragraph talking about each title.

This became a updated version of the Codex’s Top 70, now with screenshots and brief descriptions of each game. That’s my favorite piece of content I ever made, but I still wanted more – more games, more screenshots, longer reviews, tips on mods, fan-made patches, etc. So I made a list of all the RPGs I wanted to cover and began recruiting volunteers for the “CRPG Book Project”.

Having done the Top 70 list in 3 months, I thought I could do 300 games in about 10 months or so. Ha, it took me four years… but it is done!

Dear reader, I present you the full release of the CRPG BOOK PROJECT!

doe.jpg


Across its 528 pages you’ll find information about over 400 RPGs, from the early PLATO games to modern AAA releases, as well as hidden gems, curiosities and even fan-translations. The reviews were written by a team of 112 volunteers from all around the globe – fans, modders, journalists, critics, indies and AAA developers.

Above all, this book is a passion project. Free, non-commercial, created by people who wanted to share their hobby and help others have fun. I’m very proud of what we achieved, and I would like to thank everyone who helped me on this journey.

I’ll also take this chance to address some criticism & future plans:

1) Physical Edition – This is the question I’m asked the most: “Will there be a physical edition?”. I would love to have one, but it’s something very complicated to produce – especially for a 528-page color book! Most on-demand printing services won’t do something this big, and even if I cut the book down to CreateSpace’s 480-page limit, it would be a VERY expensive book, costing over $60!​

Crowdfunding is another alternative, but I’m a Brazilian immigrant living in Japan on a temporary visa – the legal procedures & taxes involved are kinda uncharted territory. There are book-oriented crowdfunding services like Unbound, but you’ll notice that even veterans like Hardcore Gaming 101 and Guru Larry are having difficulty reaching their goals. I’m looking for alternatives, so if you have any ideas please message me.

2) Proofreading – The book hasn’t been proofread. It’s something I want to do (and get a lot of messages about it), especially since many reviewers (myself included) aren’t native english speakers, but it’s not easy – the book has over 310,000 words, which is about 2/3 of the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy! Since we have no money and it’s something I can’t do myself, we depend on the work of volunteers.

3) Extra content – There’s still about 10 minor RPGs I want to add to the book in the future, but couldn’t do it yet for one reason or another. E.g., I wanted a SpellForce series review, but couldn’t find any volunteers and my computer can’t run SpellForce 3.

There’s also a few extra articles I would like to include, such as a timeline on MMORPGs & MUDs and short introductions to old home computers, such as the C64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, TRS-80, etc, which I’m guessing many readers never saw and know little about. I had a draftfor the latter, but unfortunately couldn’t find enough teach-savvy volunteers to write them.

I hope to add the extra content, proof-read everything and make a “Editor’s Cut” re-release & physical edition sometime in the future, but I can’t make any promises, as I now need to focus on important personal things – like getting a work visa.

Still, I truly believe that the book is a worthwhile read as it stands. It has its shortcomings and issues, but hopefully it’s a flawed gem – like all the best RPGs are.

Also:

If you want to make an ebook of top 200, or oh god, top 250, yes, I can say you have no chance in hell of finish it.
The book covers 434 games.

:kfc::kfc::kfc:

(laclongquan is a bro and helped with the book, but I had to do this).
 

Heretic

Cipher
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Messages
844
Congrats, man! A very nice achievement. I'm looking forward to reading it from cover to cover.
 

Heretic

Cipher
Joined
Dec 1, 2015
Messages
844
Nice foreword, I laughed at this anecdote :)
Years later, I was reading a games magazine and
something caught my eye: a bizarre game where you
could teach farmers about crop rotation to earn XP –
but only if you had created a smart character.

I had just started playing tabletop RPGs and was
fascinated by a computer game like that. So, in 1998
I bought Fallout, which I love to this day. Not only
it’s an amazing game that breath new life into CRPGs,
but I finally knew enough English to play it properly.

My younger brother didn’t. He couldn’t do most
quests, so he just walked around and killed everyone.
But that was also allowed, and we had a lot of fun
talking about just how different our experiences was
and all the cool things we kept discovering
 

Zdzisiu

Arcane
Joined
Dec 3, 2009
Messages
3,489
Lazy HueHue, took 4 years to have other people write a book for him!

Just joking, that is one hell of an achievement and you should be immensely proud of it.

The collaborative effort must have been one hell of a job to manage.

I hope your hard work will get the recognition it really deserves and you will swim in Japanese waifus from one sunset to another!

Now I need to find the time to read this beast and maybe find a game or two to play.
 

grimace

Arcane
Joined
Jan 17, 2015
Messages
1,959
Brilliant work!

The first game I looked for was ...

.
bdGNfVA.jpg

.
 
Last edited:

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Why had the sections of MMORPGs to be cut, not enough informed reviews? I went looking for a The Secret World review. Not that'd play a filthy MMORPG, just curiosity about 'best of breed' MMORPG storyfaggotry.
 

laclongquan

Arcane
Joined
Jan 10, 2007
Messages
1,870,144
Location
Searching for my kidnapped sister
Oops~

Also congratulation, felipepepe . That was one hell of an achivement. As an ex-pro in the book field, I know how much works go into that project!

Now print it into paper form, bring it to the altar of God of Learning and burn it! BOOK TO THE BOOK GOD!
 

NeoKino

RPGCodex Ninja
Patron
Joined
May 7, 2016
Messages
1,864,638
Location
Somewhere
Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
Will give it a pirate and might buy, who am I kidding I wont buy it. I will shill for you though.

O wait its free! um excuse me.
 

felipepepe

Codex's Heretic
Patron
Joined
Feb 2, 2007
Messages
17,274
Location
Terra da Garoa
Why had the sections of MMORPGs to be cut, not enough informed reviews?
I know almost nothing about MUD, so I tried to find an expert like Raph Koster... but never found anyone willing to help.

Same for the hardware bits... sure, I could research and write about them, but I never even touched an Apple II or C64. It would feel fake. :/
 

Monty

Arcane
Joined
Mar 24, 2012
Messages
1,582
Location
Grognardia
I had a C64, even used the tape drive for a while before the glorious upgrade to a 5.25 inch floppy. Although I did some programming on it I didn't quite manage 228 games, but if that guy isn't interested and you still want to include this in future I could have a go.
 

AMG

Arbiter
Joined
Sep 15, 2012
Messages
374
Same for the hardware bits... sure, I could research and write about them, but I never even touched an Apple II or C64. It would feel fake. :/
Kinda like reviewing Grimoire while being clueless about blobbers huh?
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,787
Congrats

:kwafuckyeah:
 

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