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<blockquote data-quote="Gradine" data-source="post: 7719197" data-attributes="member: 57112"><p>Well, here's the thing. The reason these games were called "RPGs" in the first place is because that's what D&D was and the bulk of these games were either deliberately ripping D&D off (Wizardry, Ultima, Final Fantasy I) or deliberately ripping Wizardry off (Dragon Quest, for a start). The DQ series in particular codified a lot of the gameplay tropes that would become what one defines as an "RPG" in the context of video games; experience & levels, equipment management, open worlds to explore, sprawling dungeons, random encounters, turn-based battles etc. Over the years several of these elements were tweaked (random encounters were being phased out as early as some SNES games like Lufia 2 & Chrono Trigger, turn-based battles didn't really survive the PS2-era, both are now completely passé; worlds & dungeons also shrank as production costs ballooned), but the two key gameplay tropes (experience and equipment) stuck around to continue to define the genre, even as they were cannibalized by other genres. Now, as Celebrim states, RPGs barely resemble the genre it began as, let alone anything close to the tabletop medium that spawned it in the first place.</p><p></p><p>The basic point is that computer and video game RPGs were called as such because they were cribbing gameplay elements from tabletop RPGs, not because you were "playing a role" (which you could argue every game is, depending on how strict and immersive your definition of "role-playing" is). RPGs at the time probably did more than any other video game genre besides maybe Visual Novels (which were hardly games) to provide as much as interactivity as possible regarding "role-playing". Ultima IV, for instance, may not hold up much any more, but you couldn't argue that that wasn't a game with actual role-playing involved. </p><p></p><p>Of course, the actual Tabletop RPG scene has evolved <em>way</em> beyond those gameplay elements and encompasses experiences that are practically impossible to put into a computer or video game, no matter how advanced your AI or complicated your branching narratives are. On the other hand, AAA computer and video game production has gotten so expensive and so high-stakes that it's basically impossible for these companies to take risks or experiment with genre or mechanics so literally every game is an open-world sandbox action-adventure with "RPG elements" (read: character advancement and maybe some equipment slots beyond weapon selection). Fortunately, it's never been easier for indie and small developers to jump in and start making weird or experimental games, so they've filled in the gaps, and you can argue that the indie video game scene is thriving at least to the same extent as the indie tabletop RPG scene. Games like Undertale and Legend of Grimrock have brought back old genres like the old-school JRPG and Eye-of-the-Beholder-esque dungeon crawler.</p><p></p><p>I'm rambling. Basically, the RPG genre of computer & video games essentially stole its name while it was stealing mechanics from D&D, but it's understandable why they went with it and how it ended up sticking to those specific mechanics over the years, regardless of whether the name still or ever really applied to what it was describing in the first place. Genre labels are weird like that, especially the more generic and less specific they get. Roguelikes are, by and large, a subgenre of RPG named after one game, and most modern Roguelikes have very little in common with the original Rogue anymore. There's even something of a "Souls-like" subgenre that's been riffing off of the Dark Souls formula with various degrees of mechanical tweaks (mostly playing with perspective, such top-down or 2d side-scroller).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Gradine, post: 7719197, member: 57112"] Well, here's the thing. The reason these games were called "RPGs" in the first place is because that's what D&D was and the bulk of these games were either deliberately ripping D&D off (Wizardry, Ultima, Final Fantasy I) or deliberately ripping Wizardry off (Dragon Quest, for a start). The DQ series in particular codified a lot of the gameplay tropes that would become what one defines as an "RPG" in the context of video games; experience & levels, equipment management, open worlds to explore, sprawling dungeons, random encounters, turn-based battles etc. Over the years several of these elements were tweaked (random encounters were being phased out as early as some SNES games like Lufia 2 & Chrono Trigger, turn-based battles didn't really survive the PS2-era, both are now completely passé; worlds & dungeons also shrank as production costs ballooned), but the two key gameplay tropes (experience and equipment) stuck around to continue to define the genre, even as they were cannibalized by other genres. Now, as Celebrim states, RPGs barely resemble the genre it began as, let alone anything close to the tabletop medium that spawned it in the first place. The basic point is that computer and video game RPGs were called as such because they were cribbing gameplay elements from tabletop RPGs, not because you were "playing a role" (which you could argue every game is, depending on how strict and immersive your definition of "role-playing" is). RPGs at the time probably did more than any other video game genre besides maybe Visual Novels (which were hardly games) to provide as much as interactivity as possible regarding "role-playing". Ultima IV, for instance, may not hold up much any more, but you couldn't argue that that wasn't a game with actual role-playing involved. Of course, the actual Tabletop RPG scene has evolved [I]way[/I] beyond those gameplay elements and encompasses experiences that are practically impossible to put into a computer or video game, no matter how advanced your AI or complicated your branching narratives are. On the other hand, AAA computer and video game production has gotten so expensive and so high-stakes that it's basically impossible for these companies to take risks or experiment with genre or mechanics so literally every game is an open-world sandbox action-adventure with "RPG elements" (read: character advancement and maybe some equipment slots beyond weapon selection). Fortunately, it's never been easier for indie and small developers to jump in and start making weird or experimental games, so they've filled in the gaps, and you can argue that the indie video game scene is thriving at least to the same extent as the indie tabletop RPG scene. Games like Undertale and Legend of Grimrock have brought back old genres like the old-school JRPG and Eye-of-the-Beholder-esque dungeon crawler. I'm rambling. Basically, the RPG genre of computer & video games essentially stole its name while it was stealing mechanics from D&D, but it's understandable why they went with it and how it ended up sticking to those specific mechanics over the years, regardless of whether the name still or ever really applied to what it was describing in the first place. Genre labels are weird like that, especially the more generic and less specific they get. Roguelikes are, by and large, a subgenre of RPG named after one game, and most modern Roguelikes have very little in common with the original Rogue anymore. There's even something of a "Souls-like" subgenre that's been riffing off of the Dark Souls formula with various degrees of mechanical tweaks (mostly playing with perspective, such top-down or 2d side-scroller). [/QUOTE]
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