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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TwinBahamut" data-source="post: 3672556" data-attributes="member: 32536">Put simply, yes. People have been applying the term Role-Playing Game to both pen and paper games and electronic games for decades now. The term is equally associated with both by large groups of people, and is equally valid.Many people argue that videogames should not be called RPGs because they have many differences from D&D, and don't reflect the D&D (or equivalent game) experience very well, but I find that logic groundless. After all, the term role-playing game is only of little applicability to D&D itself. How many people play out roles according to scripts handed out by the DM? "Role" is an acting term, not a gaming term, (playing itself is the older word for acting), and "role-playing" does not necessarily have the connotations of creating the role that many people would make you think it does. In some ways, controlling a pre-made character in a videogame RPG story is more true to the idea of "playing a role" than making your own character in a D&D campaign!Really, D&D and videogame RPGs are very different things, but I see no need to say that one or the other has no right to use the term, or that the term has necessary implications of gameplay or play style. In the end, a name or word only has value if it can be used to communicate effectively, and RPG works equally well for both.Myself, I really like good D&D campaigns with open-endedness and plot based on character action, and japanese-style videogame RPGs with pre-set characters and elaborate, interesting stories. Videogames which try for open-endedness and "the player makes the character" elements tend to be boring or uninspired.</blockquote>

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