A History of RPGs short essay by Matt Coleman

[Angelo85]

Matt Coleman wrote an... informative piece titled 'A History of RPGs' over at IGN.
Thoughts?

I especially like his closing remark

The RPG has been cannibalized over and over. Its gameplay mechanics are present in games that run the gamut from sports to strategy. But the future has never been more limitless for a genre that was built on the backs of pen-and-paper character sheets.

I agree. We are facing a nearly limitless future - yet we have to put up with one banal, shit, boring interactive movie after another. Mankind has the tools, but yet we lack the vision.

Just look at the lineup of likely contenders for game of the year. You don't need any more proof that the RPG is alive and well.

Yeah, just look at our Top10 RPGs of 2011 thread(s)

 

[octavius]

Matt Coleman wrote an... informative piece titled 'A History of RPGs' over at IGN.
Thoughts?

History of RPGs? Shouldn't that be "History of JRPGs"?

 

[Machocruz]

IGN. IGN never changes.

 

[LemmingCake]

Nearly every RPG gamer who was old enough to hoist a controller during the mid-'90s has the scene etched into the backs of their eyelids. Sephiroth, the one-winged angel and ubiquitous antagonist from multiple Square titles, descends from the ceiling and impales your protagonist's lady friend with his comically oversized sword. It was seriously heavy stuff for a video game at the time, and that one scene from Final Fantasy VII was a turning point for the industry. The RPG was no longer a Dungeons & Dragons clone fleshed out with stats and vacant character models. The stories could get dark, deep and definitely emotional.

Why does that last sentence remind me of Bioware?

 

[Johnny the Mule]

Avalon - Chainmail - Ze End

Only shit came afterwards.

 

[Kron]

Fallout came out the same year as Final fantasy VII.
Just saying.

 

[curry]

I didn't even bother to read it

 

[octavius]

It's weird, but in the 80's and 90's I barely knew consoles existed. Most console games were platform games of which I didn't have the slightest interest. Everyone I knew (of) had first Spectrum (in Europe), Apple II (US) or C64 (both) before moving on to Amiga, Atari ST or DOS and then on to Windows PCs.
The only Japanese CRPG I heard much about and was tempted to try untill I saw the vomit inducing anime faces, was FF 7.

But now nearly everyone (Codexers, CRPG Addict and Matt Barton being exceptions) talks about the history of CRPGs as if it mostly was Japanese console games. Was I blind at the time? Or did most of the computer gamers stop playing, while all the console kids continued playing and are now the ones who write articles and essays on the subject?

 

[Flatlander]

It's weird, but in the 80's and 90's I barely knew consoles existed. Most console games were platform games of which I didn't have the slightest interest. Everyone I knew (of) had first Spectrum (in Europe), Apple II (US) or C64 (both) before moving on to Amiga, Atari ST or DOS and then on to Windows PCs.
The only Japanese CRPG I heard much about and was tempted to try untill I saw the vomit inducing anime faces, was FF 7.

Probably a regional thing. I was very surprised when I first learned how highly regarded the Nintendo consoles are in the US.

Back when I was a kid nobody would have wanted a console, especially not a Nintendo one. They were mostly considered as technologically inferior toys used to play simplistic platform games aimed at slightly retarded 8 year olds.

 

[Luzur]

well i had a NES and a C64 when i was a kid, but i gamed more on the C64.

 

[Jaesun]

This one still is the best ones I have read, part 1 starts here:

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 1: The Early Years (1980-1983)

 

[Bruticis]

This one still is the best ones I have read, part 1 starts here:

The History of Computer Role-Playing Games Part 1: The Early Years (1980-1983)

This, Matt B. is a true bro. He has a book too, it's a very good read.

 

[Oriebam]

Can you diss their articles on their website?

 

[MMXI]

It's weird, but in the 80's and 90's I barely knew consoles existed. Most console games were platform games of which I didn't have the slightest interest. Everyone I knew (of) had first Spectrum (in Europe), Apple II (US) or C64 (both) before moving on to Amiga, Atari ST or DOS and then on to Windows PCs.
The only Japanese CRPG I heard much about and was tempted to try untill I saw the vomit inducing anime faces, was FF 7.

But now nearly everyone (Codexers, CRPG Addict and Matt Barton being exceptions) talks about the history of CRPGs as if it mostly was Japanese console games. Was I blind at the time? Or did most of the computer gamers stop playing, while all the console kids continued playing and are now the ones who write articles and essays on the subject?

Yeah. I've said multiple times that it seems like the only pre-Fallout RPGs ever mentioned on mainstream sites are SNES-era JRPGs. It gives gaming newbies the impression that western RPGs are a new phenomenon. Ask a standard Obliviontard to name the oldest RPG they know and it'll probably be something like Final Fantasy or Chrono Trigger rather than Ultima, Wizardry, Phantasie or The Bard's tale.

It gets worse over time too. People now say that western RPGs are defined as being real-time, as opposed to JRPGs that are defined as being turn-based. Games like Fallout and the Infinity Engine games are being called "too dated" while SNES RPGs are still talked about and recommended with affection.

It's painful reading "wRPG v JRPG" threads on shitty sites like gamespot. The western RPG proponents in those threads bang on about how unrealistic turn-based combat is and how Oblivion is so much better because you can LARP in it. If you were to go into a thread like that and post something about how the Gold Box games shit on JRPGs and Oblivion you'll get looked at rather oddly by both sides of the argument.

It makes me fucking rage.

 

[Murk]

It makes me fucking rage.

Endless is the battle of the righteous.

 

[Infinitron]

What I suspect is that - to the Codex's horror - most of the fans of the old Western RPGs are generally happy with the direction the genre has gone, or at least were until maybe the past couple of years (or maybe even right up until the release of DA2).

 

[Excidium]

I think most people that played RPGs in the 80's and early 90's just grew past video games.

 

[Jaesun]

As long as Publishers keep making money on these shit games, they will keep making them.

 

[MMXI]

I think most people that played RPGs in the 80's and early 90's just grew past video games, and the remainder are on the Codex.

Fixed.

Endless is the battle of the righteous.

The Quest of the Avatar is Forever.

 

[Murk]

At break of day, until our light fails, march ever on...

 

[Crooked Bee]

Not only on the Codex, I believe.

 

[Giauz Ragnacock]

I think one of the big things concerning why SNES era console RPGs get a lot of the spotlight is their pick-up-and-play nature and the greater exposure to the public they got (then again I didn't truly know anything about nor seen one until around 2004 when a friend at work started telling me about Final Fantasy 7, VtM:B, and PS:T [if I remember right, he said he always chose "raised by snake handlers"]).

What I mean by pick-up-and-play is that I rarely have to look at a manual in order to understand how the game's controls work like I have had to do for Ultima 4 and Wasteland. So, yeah, prevelance, ease of use, and the charm that can accompy youth appropriateness are probably some of the big reasons for the many fond memory writings concerning console RPGs.

Also, I found this history of CRPGs to be pretty good:

http://www.mobygames.com/featured_artic ... ction,207/

 

[MMXI]

http://www.mobygames.com/featured_article/feature,31/section,207/

Seriously?

Party-based – you are required to create a party of characters to play the game. Old-school RPG players praise this style, because they fondly remember how they imagined that their all-female party consisted of travelling pornstars and how they slept with all those monsters and how their mother discovered the erotic fantasies that they had written and... Usually exists in Dungeon Crawlers, especially the older, primitive ones, where make-believe is a must for the full enjoyment (according to veterans).

Anyway, this description should give you an idea what kind of games [Ultima and Wizardry] were. What kind of a game would a nerd create? Of course, the kind of game to boost his ego and self-perception. That's right, the early RPGs are nothing more than hardcore number-crunching dungeon crawlers that take an eternity to solve. No intellectual writing, no philosophical thoughts about humanity, no party members with bad childhood, no choices and consequences – only pure monster-killing loot games with a lot of mathematical equations to solve. And this is how the genre RPG was born. As a way for the lonely guy to feel mighty. Which means that these games were really meant for sad people.

Gold Box games however are the direct fathers of today's BioWare games. What they did was tell a moving story in a linear fashion (though still providing lots of exploration) broken up by combat. Sounds familiar? Yes, that is how to describe a JRPG when you want to sound intelligent.

Can't be fucked to read any more.

 

[Jaesun]

I'm glad you read it. I can't take too much more SANITY hits..

 

[Roguey]

I found the massive amount of smug from that Moby Games storyfan extraordinarily satisfying. Most p&p people I've known are like him and they love the direction role playing video games are going.