What is a cRPG? 2014 edition

[V_K]

I Soviet Russia one or more characters control you!

(and that's not even a joke)

 

[AN4RCHID]

An RPG is just a game wherein the core gameplay is focused on developing a character or characters.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Who cares? RPGs suck. Even the best of the genre are flawed gems at best.

 

[Drew]

Next people are going to be asking what qualifies as a game...


Anyway,

A RPG is a game in which the character's skills and abilities are what determine the outcome, not the player's skills and abilities.

 

[Excidium]

A RPG is a game in which the character's skills and abilities are what determine the outcome, not the player's skills and abilities.

Couldn't possibly be more wrong

 

[Drew]

A RPG is a game in which the character's skills and abilities are what determine the outcome, not the player's skills and abilities.

Couldn't possibly be more wrong

 

[Ranselknulf]

Well, if you are going to base the definition of RPG on what the industry labels an rpg, I think a good place to start would be a game where you have characters that level up or have points/skills they can level up also. Or some combination of the two.

An action / adventure game you don't have skills you level up or grind out, you have your preset abilities and just use them throughout the game. You might unlock an additional skill here or there, but you don't really level it up or at least there isn't an emphasis on training or grinding out skill points or levels.

The same can go for FPS games, if there is a large emphasis on training up gun points or skills points to use weapons, vehicles, or equipment then its an FPSRPG in my opinion.

 

[Excidium]

Anybody else willing to come up with definitions that were already debunked a trillion years ago?

 

[Ranselknulf]

They might be debunked in your mind, like a sjw has problems with gender definitions.

Us civilized folks know what an rpg is.

 

[Psquit]

if the shit is made for casuals then is not an rpg.

 

[Ranselknulf]

if the shit is made for casuals then is not an rpg.

That doesn't seem to be the common usage of the word. Trying to force a definition is like an english teacher running around telling everybody they are talking wrong.

This just isn't the definition for the common usage of the word rpg.

I think the adjective casual and hardcore is sufficiently descriptive enough to differentiate between the different types of easy and hard rpgs. Although, I can't really think of any difficult modern rpgs, that doesn't mean one might not some day come into existence.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Well, if you are going to base the definition of RPG on what the industry labels an rpg, I think a good place to start would be a game where you have characters that level up or have points/skills they can level up also. Or some combination of the two.

An action / adventure game you don't have skills you level up or grind out, you have your preset abilities and just use them throughout the game. You might unlock an additional skill here or there, but you don't really level it up or at least there isn't an emphasis on training or grinding out skill points or levels.

The same can go for FPS games, if there is a large emphasis on training up gun points or skills points to use weapons, vehicles, or equipment then its an FPSRPG in my opinion.

But see: Jagged Alliance 2

 

[Midair]

An rpg is a hybrid combining elements of adventure games and strategy games. The first rpg was invented by modifying a strategy game so that players engaged in a cooperative adventure.

edit: So as not to allow too many exceptions, both adventure and strategy elements must be present in significant quantity.

 

[Telengard]

With a variable medium (such as entertainment), it is an impossibility to design a tailor-made definition that fits all situations. Instead, if one wants a fixed definition, then one needs some anal-retentive guy to built up a list of the various aspects of the classic RPG, and then determine a set number for how many of those aspects a game must have for it to qualify as RPG. One less than required, and it's out. (In order to work, such a system would also need genre filters so that games are slipped into the right genre before being more directly classified.) Anything simpler than such a system will either fail or will simply be marketing speak.

TL;DR The definition of a fluid system needs to be just as fluid or it won't work.

 

[Lerk]

It's a Rocket Propelled Grenade.

With that out of the way, for me a "real" CRPG has to contain:

Character/Party building and development
Equipment & Loot
Attribute based interaction (whether you're trying to bribe a guard, or break open a chest)
Turn based combat
Exploration of environment
A framing narrative
Choices with consequences

CRPGS had their roots in PnP games, they were originally computer simulations of tabletop dungeon crawls where the CPU and RAM took the place of the DM; Gold Box and Bard's Tale series are good examples of this type of game. Any game which relies on real-time input to affect an in-game action isn't, to me, a CRPG. Much as I love EOB, Ultima etc. I don't consider them CRPGS; so the age of a game isn't necessarily an indicator.

The first game I played that contains all the criteria above was Pools of Radiance (though that's by no means the first game I played that might be considered an RPG, that was a game by Origin called Times of Lore)

The last game I played that largely satisfied my above requirements completely was...TOEE, I guess? M&M X came very close but it was very linear, so there was no C&C to speak of.

It seems to me that for some, all you need are a few "old school trappings" like levels and inventory and suddenly, it's an RPG. "Playing the role" of Commander Shepard, Geralt of Rivia, or the Avatar doesn't make the game an RPG though, because those characters are pre-defined. An RPG allows me to create my own characters. not play someone else's.

 

[Excidium]

Biggest load of uneducated bullshit so far, congratulations

 

[Ranselknulf]

Biggest load of uneducated bullshit so far, congratulations

You got to at least give me something to work with. There isn't even any substance in this post to take out of context.

 

[Jaesun]

A cRPG is a video game that attempts to simulate a Pen and Paper session of a Pen and Paper Rule System.

 

[hiver]

An RPG is a game that limits and opens paths through its content depending on:
Primary: differences in the character build.
and Secondary: player choices between those and in game choices.

This is achieved through skills, dialogue choices, different stats and gameplay choices.

Both primary and secondary features like this must be present and play off each other, influencing each other - while the differences in strength of influence between these primary and secondary core features is what determines whether the game is TRUE tm RPG or some kind of action or hybrid RPG.

 

[Sunsetspawn]

"I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description; and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that. [Emphasis added.]"

—Justice Potter Stewart, concurring opinion in Jacobellis v. Ohio 378 U.S. 184 (1964), regarding possible obscenity in The Lovers.

 

[dryan]

Anything with XP and LVLZ!

 

[felipepepe]

Anybody else willing to come up with definitions that were already debunked a trillion years ago?

Yes.

 

[Coyote]

An RPG is a Raptor Playing Game. Defining traits include:

Based on P&P (prey and predation).
An emphasis on coelurosaur-building.
Don't scale to your level. (Raptors have feathers, not scales.)
A clawsome button.

Gaming paleontologists, being hacks, often mistake Deinonychus games for RPGs.

 

[Nael]

Spoiler

 

[TripJack]

an rpg is a g that lets you p a r