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The Mass Effect 3/BioWare Thread

DalekFlay

DalekFlay

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Oh man it's always a productive discussion when we debate what an RPG really IS.
 
DraQ

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Delterius said:
An RPG is about character and as long as you play someone with a character which is well defined mechanically -- which is to say, wether their statistics as adventurers or their past choices in the story necessarily define them from other potential states, such as a party of 8 characters where you, the player, made actual choices about the character's professions, defining clear competences among them, as opposed to one single Dovahkin who can and is encouraged to everything at the same time.
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Indeed, but you can stick this layer onto about any sort of base mechanics.

IE games are basically stripped down RTS + this.
TES games and Deus Ex are clunky FPS games + this.

The term RPG doesn't tell us anything about how does the game play, other than the fact that your character(s) has/have stats that can assume different values and impact the gameplay meaningfully.
That's cool, but it doesn't exactly define a genre.

You can't have a pure cRPG, that doesn't piggyback on top of some host.
Defining cRPG mechanics is just too limited to drive a game on its own.
 
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Necroscope

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In RPGs stats are not any numbers, they represent specific aspects of a character. If stats are pretty much that mechanical layer that can be slapped onto (...) anything, then how does this play along with your earlier statement, that the acronym rpg isn't really descriptive of anything mechanically - it is or it isn't then?

A car is not a car because of additional layers of mechanics or 4 wheels; a sum of various elements constitute a car, and it can take different forms - from a F1 racer to a limousine.
 
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Lhynn

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I dunno why people get so troubled about the "what is an RPG?" thing, well come to a satisfactory answer eventually, as long as we keep asking the question and discussing it.

To me an RPG is a game that is focused on the players character statistical growth and its interaction with the world.
 
tuluse

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Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Necroscope said:
In RPGs stats are not any numbers, they represent specific aspects of a character. If stats are pretty much that mechanical layer that can be slapped onto (...) anything, then how does this play along with your earlier statement, that the acronym rpg isn't really descriptive of anything mechanically - it is or it isn't then?

A car is not a car because of additional layers of mechanics or 4 wheels; a sum of various elements constitute a car, and it can take different forms - from a F1 racer to a limousine.
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Attributes represented by numbers are not the sole domain of RPGs.

Strategy games, shooters, fighting games, and beatemups, and flight sims have all used them as well.
 
DraQ

DraQ

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Sunsetspawn said:
ugh
I hope you all get fingertip cancer.
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You can only get it from overinspecting your butthurt, which means *you* are at risk.
:martini:

Necroscope said:
In RPGs stats are not any numbers, they represent specific aspects of a character. If stats are pretty much that mechanical layer that can be slapped onto (...) anything, then how does this play along with your earlier statement, that the acronym rpg isn't really descriptive of anything mechanically - it is or it isn't then?

A car is not a car because of additional layers of mechanics or 4 wheels; a sum of various elements constitute a car, and it can take different forms - from a F1 racer to a limousine.
Click to expand...
Except in this case you have some cars that do just fine without this particular element, in addition to other kinds of vehicles sometimes sporting it and sometimes not - let's say it's air conditioning. It may make the ride more pleasant, but it doesn't transform your car or motorboat into another vehicle, is in no way essential for any of them and on it's own just isn't much good.

Hell, people strip the RPG layer from gameplay, if not the actual mechanics, every time they use trainer programs to edit their characters to be awesome at everything.

Servo said:
This conversation has taken a turn for the retarded.
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Necroscope has cast Turn Retarded on it, hence the result.
:troll:
 
eremita

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RPG is not a specific notion/idea (subject/substance) like FPS/Strategy because that notion was never established. It's simple as that. Option a) There are games, which we call RPGs. We call those games RPGs, because they share some similiar aspects (one apect doesn't depend on another - "atomistic"). The aspects of those games are not part of their substance (RPG aspects are not part of the FPS notion). If that's the case, we can treat RPG term like a predicate, thus making a game subject, which may or may not be predicated by "RPG quality/attribute"...

Option b) We may create the notion of RPG/CRPG...
 
Servo

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Wrong kind of RPG Tom.

This is an RPG:

800px-Hardenstein_2014_-_Adventurers.jpg
 
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