What DID you play during the Great cRPG Drought?

[Eyestabber]

Now that better days are upon us and we're getting some good not-completely-shit cRPG releases I almost forgot that my favorite genre remained DEAD for so long. Let's discuss the dark days of the 2005-2013 era. How DID you react to the "death" of cRPGs gaming wise? I doubt everyone just kept replaying the classics over and over. I know some friends migrated to "similar" genres (MMOs and MOBAs) while others forgot about the whole thing completely.

As for myself, well, as much as I replayed Fallout and BG series from time to time, I still felt forced to ignore the genre. NWN 1 was the biggest disappointment in my gaming career and as much as I enjoyed NWN 2 that game was still a far cry from BG2. KOTOR was fun and KOTOR 2 was gr8, but too easy to actually get my "metagaming juices" flowing. I put crazy amounts of time into NWN 2 because it was THE game that featured a rich character system I could spend hours and hours coming up with new builds. I got pretty good at it too

I remember that until 2009 NWN 2 and KOTOR 2 were the last things I even reconigzed as "well, this is an RPG". During that period I played mostly shooters and DotA. But both genres declined as well with the once-so-innovative and fun Crysis going corridor shooter with Crysis 2 and the complex and innovative Dota going kool down spam idiocy with LoL. I kept playing those games because the alternative was Dragon Age 2. ლ(ಠ益ಠლ)

2009 brought Dragon Age Origins, a very misunderstood game. Imagine you're a thirsty man traversing the desert. You're really thirsty and someone offers you a bottle of water. It really does look and taste like water so you have no reason to refuse. Years later, after arriving at a city and drinking some quality water, you realize that the "water" you tasted earlier was like 70% piss. Do you regret drinking it? You WERE really thirsty and that thing WAS like water. Sort of. You also know for a fact that the new versions of that bottle features tranny cum instead of piss, so you're kinda glad you only drank the piss. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

In 2012 I learned about AoD. That was the first time I felt hope in the horizon. The Teron Demo left me thinking "THIS. This is what those tards at bioware should've been doing!!!". Sadly, it would take another 3 years until the game was actually released. But it was well worth the wait.

I know 2013 broght some games that some here enjoy, but it didn't do much for me. I got into Dark Souls around that year, but I know that game isn't considered an RPG by most people here. IMO the Drought officially ended in 2014 with Divinity Original Sin. Incidentally that's the game that brought me to the Codex. I was so happy to see a game like that seeing the light of day that I bought 2 copies and decided to join the community that made it possible. Since RPG Watch discusses the "merits" of Dragon Age 2 unironically while the Codex has this, the choice seemed pretty obvious to me. VD's masterpiece convinced me to register an account here. A couple of other reviews sealed the deal with their "no-bullshit-in-your-face-honesty-that-is-also-funny" writing style.


Anyway, what DID you play during that time?

 

[mixer]

World of Warcraft from 2005 to 2009 ( i have very fond memories of that time, all the way up to patch 2.3 game was a blast for me, than slow but surely casualisation started), rest of the time old RPG's replays and not that much gaming. I have the same feeling about DA:O, enjoyed it when it came out but now i feel tiny bit of regret. Times were difficult.

 

[Daedalos]

Banged your mom

Also

World of Warcraft for 5-6 years
ALOT of DOTA 1, Heroes of Newerth
Counterstrike
KOTOR1,2
VTMB
Doom 3 + Quake 4
Starcraft 1, BW and Starcraft 2
Company of Heroes
GTA IV
Resident Evil 4 + 5 + 6
MK9
Star Wars: The old republic

 

[octavius]

I played some PBEM games, played lots of user made content for Thief and Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, replayed the Baldur's Gate games a lot, spent lots of time adding mods to Morrowind and Oblivion, and played lots of games that were a few years old that I bought at bargains.

Then in 2010, inspired by CRPG Addict, I started playing games chronologically, starting with Tir Na Nog, an old Spectrum game from 1984 (I was still intimidated by the old Wizardry games), and now I'm nearing the end of 1996.
I wish I started my project som years earlier.

 

[Lilura]

I replayed Jagged Alliance 2, Black Isle and Troika RPGs over and over, also dipping into ARPGs like Gothic, Deus Ex and System Shock 2. These days NWN community-made modules have alleviated things quite a bit.

 

[Spectacle]

Mount & Blade and Paradox strategy games, mostly.

 

[Tito Anic]

There was never drought for me, although i perfectly understand the question. My brightest memories from that period were: when I discovered and enjoyed playing Geneforge series, Stalker series(i consider it RPG), replaying Gothic series. Last 2-3 years i was playing Tales of Maj Eyal and now the Underrail happened.

also, Eyestabber, great post

 

[karfhud]

World of Warcraft, New Vegas, League of Legends, replays of Torment, Icewind Dale and VtM: Bloodlines... Gotta say I also enjoyed DA: Origins, I did miss a cRPG of that sort back then.

 

[Snorkack]

I grew up with consoles rather than personal computers; it was the SNES Version of Might&Magic II which initiated my slow but steady transition from console jrpgs to crpgs. There wasn't really a drought for me personally since during this period I had tons of older classics to play which I did not know about when they came out.

 

[Zetor]

MMOs (Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, City of Heroes, Guild Wars 1, World of Warcraft) and a whole lot of SNES/PSX jrpgs via emulators, mostly. Since I never owned a console before, playing through various SRPG and, yes, jrpg classics was an interesting experience.

Also tried to make the best of what the PC had to offer... which included replaying the Exile series as they became Avernum, trying out Geneforge, and playing the big name 'RPG' du jour like Witcher (bleh) and Dragon Age ('good for what it is'). I think New Vegas was the only PC RPG from the 'dark age' I spent more than ~20 hours on.

To keep the whispers of the Unspeakable Ones at bay, I occasionally replayed JA2 with a different mod (Urban Chaos, Vietnam SOG, etc) as well as giving an honest attempt at a Wiz6-7-8 or POR-COAB-SSB-POD playthrough. It was like a mantra.

edit: oh yeah, Silent Storm! A whole lot of Silent Storm (and sequel).

 

[Archibald]

Can't say for sure but I think I was mostly playing Troika games at that time, as far as crpgs go.

 

[Jimmious]

Warcraft 3 and Dota were main parts of my gaming life... Any turn based strategy games that I could get my hands on too... And of course football manager.

And a lot of rumor reading about Fallout 3... Until the first painful news of what was about to come. Damn I remember how disappointed I was very clearly. I was hoping the whole first person crap was a lie until the first actual clear confirmation from the bethesdevs

 

[Aothan]

Starcraft, Morrowind, TOEE, Dawn of War, Mar of Chaos, Dawn of War II, Aion, Path of Exile

it was, in retrospect, a fairly good continuation, however at the same time I would have liked to play a few more games in place of the additional year (or years) or so spent on some of the aforementioned games

on the other hand, all of those games are still reasonably playable to this day, albeit for lack of balance, a suitable playerbase or simply having played the same games for an extended period or ready

 

[Jedi Master Radek]

I discovered cRPGs about just before the decline started. Loved Fallouts, Planescape: Torment, Kotors, Morrowind. Remember reading about the cancellation of BG 3 without understanding it. I earned my monocle playing oblivion, slowly with every passing hour understanding why the game is bad and starting to hate it. During the dark time I went into the hibernation, was playing mostly Mount&Blade and Jedi Academy, but I did not play much. There were some classics I was saving for the future to have something new to play, like BG. And then the kickstarter of W2 came. I always believed the genre would be reborn, but I thought it would be due to lowering the barrier of entry into the industry(technology, graphical engines) and the grow of consumer base, not crowdfunding. Was expecting that in 2020s

 

[Infinitron]

From 2004 to 2010, I played what Bioware and Obsidian RPGs were available. I also played Fallout 3. Also played some RTSes and shooters and stuff but not so much that they became "my thing".

I was vaguely annoyed by the absence of titles like the Infinity Engine games during this time, but not engaged enough with the hobby to really get mad about it. I think I began to show a greater interest in things more out of boredom than anything else.

 

[Sensuki]

Call of Duty

 

[pippin]

I actually moved away from gaming around those years. There was no real reason, I just stopped playing games altogether. I came back around 2012 and almost exclusively played BG and Fallout.

 

[Eyestabber]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my biggest MP related disappointment.

 

[Jedi Exile]

you realize that the "water" you tasted earlier was like 70% piss

Well, technically piss is like 90% water, so it's water. Sort of

I mostly played older games, RPGs, ARPGs, shooters, like Fallout, Arcanum, Diablo 2, Quake and Doom... Fallout: New Vegas was pretty good too, and it was released during the decline era. I've also played lots of decline, like Fallout 3, Skyrim, Mass Effect. Not shooters though, I gave up on them after I've played Rage. Quake is still the best.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Roguelikes. So many roguelikes. May have been a dark age for big budget cRPGs, but it was the fucking glory days for roguelikes. Though it still is to an extent.

 

[Sranchammer]

It's still going on, mate.

 

[Shin]

I'm kinda ashamed to admit it, but jRPG's kinda filled the gap for me in the early drought. Played a lot of the 'classics' such as the Suikoden, the FF's and the Chrono games, some Persona and Shadow Heart games etc etc. Also found a liking to tactical jRPG's such as FF:T and Disgaea. The latter part of the drought I played a lot of Paradox games and replayed a LOT of IE games and the Fallouts.

 

[Eyestabber]

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my biggest MP related disappointment. It wasn't caused by a game, it was caused by a team.

Back in '07 I was part of a pro/semi-pro CSS team. We had everything you'd expect from a "serious" clan: our own servers, regular training, we played tournaments regularly etc. I had some "virtual bros" in that team and I keep contact with most of them to this day. One dude is even a fagbook friend.

Anyway, there was this other clan. The dudes were, well...they were BETTER than us. They always accepted our CF challenges and as much as they never CRUSHED us, they always ended up winning the CF. Until that one match...

It was a peculiar match. The first time we faced each other after a 2 months hiatus. We've been training regularly in that period and fighting other clans (and winning much more often than not). And for the first time we actually dominated those guys. 9-6 before the swap. We won. I was the second highest KDA in the team, tied with the 1st place in kills and I was REALLY really euphoric.

And then it all came crashing down. A clan mate sent me a link to a forum via steamchat. It was the guys from the other clan. Apparently their server had a new recording program/feature that could take wireframe screenshots from every player's screen. Turns out our sniper was wallhacking AND aimboting.

I felt my stomach sink. Not only our big victory was null and void but also the other smaller victories were now tarnished by that event. The thing is, the guy wasn't a "noob", he was legit good/decent. But not AS good as the sniper from the other clan...
I went on a spree, calling the hacker a "lying piece of shit nigger" everywhere I could. I uploaded my own footage from one of those anti-cheating softwares to prove I had nothing to do with that crap. Worse of it all: I learned other teamates KNEW about the hacking, tho they weren't hacking themselves.

I must have looked really retarded and at some point the other clan's server admin called me on a private chat and said something in the lines of "ENOUGH! We get it. You're legit. But the fact is YOUR CLAN IS NOT. Mind the companies you keep and stop shitposting everywhere. Also, I hear [Clan Name] is recruiting, you might wanna check that out. Friend [Clan Leader] on Steam if you're interested".

But by then my will to keep on playing competitively was completely and utterly crushed.

EDIT: my OP was brofisted by two Jedi

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Dunno man, that was the time I got into RPGs in the first time. Guess I didn't suffer a Dark Age of CRPG Decline like most people.

EDIT: That was when I found Gothic.

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

I played a LOT of Space Rangers 2.