Incline Can RPG's still be RPG's in VR?

[puur prutswerk]

Character skill will become less and less relevant the further the technology advances (up untill a certain point of course where simulating character skill becomes easier).

Choices & consequences have a bright future ahead of them in VR, but isn an RPG still an RPG when it relies so much on player skill that there is hardly a character to speak of?

And what kind of solutions can you think of for rpglike gameplay in VR?

 

[agris]

VR is for industrial and design use. It’s akin to curved TVs, the newest consumer fad to drive people buying hardware they don’t need, and which provides questionable value for their money.

but it sure gives nerds a head-rush.

 

[samuraigaiden]

I don't know and I don't want to find out.

 

[Butter]

Why can't a VR game be an RPG? We already have first-person RPGs.

 

[Ranarama]

RPGs can be shit in VR. Just like everything else.

 

[Bigg Boss]

When I was a teenager I used to fantasize about how in the future there would be VR machines that you could pay to use, that would sustain your life while you teamed up with other people in some massive MMORPG dungeon crawler. If you died your character would lose everything, so high leveled characters would be like living legends. My thinking on it was rather simple though. Any simulation with C&C and detailed plot would be out of the question due to budget. This would be total VR too so you could feel everything.

 

[RNGsus]

Unless its turn based, not on your life.

 

[tritosine2k]

PS, haha good one, try DK instead, as in Dunning Krueger.

If VR displays actually existed it would expose the limitations of current realtime rendering paradigm* , but as it stands they can get away with x360/ps3 stuff for a good while longer because this gen of VR has not much else going for it than its novelty factor, even Carmack admitted it.

*For example I dont think the exploration genre Bethesda is famous for, actually exists because of said limitation.

 

[Grauken]

Character skill will become less and less relevant the further the technology advances (up untill a certain point of course where simulating character skill becomes easier).

Choices & consequences have a bright future ahead of them in VR, but isn an RPG still an RPG when it relies so much on player skill that there is hardly a character to speak of?

And what kind of solutions can you think of for rpglike gameplay in VR?

To me what you're asking for is based on a fabulously optimistic interpretation of VR that is more scifi than the actually current tech. The limit for RPGs in VR right now is less about player skill replacing character skill, but actually making a worthwhile VR game in the first place, RPG or not, that isn't just a simple arcade game but something more complex.

 

[laclongquan]

Character skill will become less and less relevant the further the technology advances (up untill a certain point of course where simulating character skill becomes easier).

Choices & consequences have a bright future ahead of them in VR, but isn an RPG still an RPG when it relies so much on player skill that there is hardly a character to speak of?

And what kind of solutions can you think of for rpglike gameplay in VR?

CS can be assistance to PS. Because, if bitches expect to shoot at moving target km away with your puny gamers' ability, bitches can think again.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

RPGs are already dead, so the OP has wrong premises or it is referring to an alternate universe.

 

[Lady_Error]

VR games are pretty bad at abstraction since they are trying to be as "real" as possible. And since turn-based mode is an abstraction, it will not translate well into VR - unlike real-time mode obviously.

It is of course possible to make even tile-based and turn-based RPG's for VR - with menus and stuff. Though in that case, why use VR at all?

 

[laclongquan]

VR games are pretty bad at abstraction since they are trying to be as "real" as possible. And since turn-based mode is an abstraction, it will not translate well into VR - unlike real-time mode obviously.

It is of course possible to make even tile-based and turn-based RPG's for VR - with menus and stuff. Though in that case, why use VR at all?

Nah, I think it work just fine. TB has an useful function of permit gamers thinking before acting, in contrast with Real time where you have to do the thinking WHILE acting.

SO TB still has its use in VR era.

 

[what am i doing]

Depends on the definition of "what is an RPG"? Personally I consider there to be many styles of RPG - with some gradation - and I do think VR can fit into some subsets of them, though I don't think VR will be any good for gaming in general for a very long time still. Some RPGs have a very great degree of abstraction, which does not in this case mean a loss of detail, but rather something like deciding that your character shoots an enemy - that's abstracted, in that you're not in first person aiming and firing but rather, selecting an enemy and choosing a "shoot" action, and (when you've attended to other matters) clicking End Turn. There are other RPGs where you actually do aim and fire, so your personal skill with a mouse affects the outcome. EYE: Divine Cybermancy is an example of this, although EYE still brings character skill into it with things like damage boosts based on Accuracy skill, or reduced recoil, or skill requirements for some weapons. Certainly EYE is a high quality RPG even if it is not the more traditional, abstracted, PnP-inspired type, and you could theoretically have a VR-based RPG that follows a similar model.

If I were speculating on other ways that a game would combine the player having some "player skill" involvement while still having "character skill" being relevant, if you had a VR RPG which had a magic system in the style of Arx Fatalis - drawing runes and aiming your spells would be done via VR controls and based on player skill, while character skill would affect things like how many spells you can cast, how powerful they are, etc - and other traditional gameplay elements like exploration and acquisition (finding and collecting the runes before you can actually cast them) would also be relevant. That's one way in which you could have an RPG using a VR system.

But for a traditional turn-based RPG viewed from a distant camera, I don't think VR really has a place. And I think that even if VR headsets become extremely high quality, extremely lightweight, with extremely good controls, the traditional monitor, keyboard, and mouse setup will remain the optimal choice for most video games.