How have CRPGs influenced RPGs?

[scourger]

For me, the effect is negative. I think D&D, in particular, has become a table-top emulation of a computerized RPG. In some ways, the inter-connectivity of the rules and the codification of everything into rules mechanics is a good thing. But, it's too complex. DMs aren't computers, and players can't expect so many "power-ups" and "saved games."

 

[Arashi Ravenblade]

I say it was negative. New players and new DM's who grew up with these games tend to not just get inpsiration but completly rip them off.
I for one while not being that old (im only 23) didnt grow up with video games i didnt have a playstation until i was in the 9th grade and i got a PS2 during 2001 and an x-box in 2003, i never played a Final Fantasy game until 2001 and didnt play part 7 until 2003, i had only played 10 and 9 (which after playing those 2 first i wonder what the big todo is about 7 but personal tastes i guess).
Thing is when i started to DM D&D specifically and exclusivly from my friends i didnt have anything to draw upon, i had never read a D&D novel or played any of it's video games until Baldurs Gate for PS2 came out. Now since then i have become a Video Game fiend but it doesnt really affect me, aside from the Forgotten Realms games, which in my Campaign are canon.
Point is that younger gamers who grew up on video games dont have very original characters or if they DM it bears a striking resemblence to a video game you played. That goes for people my age too who grew up with every system along the way, im playing in a game right now that while it's claimed as original seems relativly close to Resident Evil.
Something that scourger mentioned reminds me that also alot of player expect or even demand that the DM warn them of a potentially fatal encounter so they can save.
UM...NO you screw up you Die, you get raised or make another character. That kind of attitude has come from the " I grew up on video games generation." Guovg players i guess.
Now dont get me wrong this isnt entirly bad, sometimes it is the only way a new palyer who has never played tabletop can relate and im tolerant in that regard, but when you have played and played and played and you still are playing Leon or Cloud or Chrono or Dante or whatever else you think is cool then im sorry but you lack imagination.

 

[DragonLancer]

CRPG's have brought new players into the hobby, but they have brought with them a lot of baggage. In my experience (and thats all it is), players who come from that background are the ones most likely to be powergamers, and disruptive with it.

On the other hand, CRPG's have brought people into the hobby and thats a good thing. Now if we could get games that taught people roleplaying skills rather than hack n' slash play, things would be better IMO.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

It gets more players into the game. That's good for the hobby. Any bad habits they derive from their shady CRPG past can be beaten out of them by us grognards. Also, I think that it, and the CCG industry, have helped to raise the standards for art design a certain amount.

 

[Psion]

I have never beleived in any claim to the effect of crpgs made trpgs into diablos/clickfests/whatever.

I do beleive that some good creative outcomes came out of it. I honestly wonder if some of the more interesting and well respected settings would have came about and/or been as well accepted if not for the influence of final fantasy.

That said, the biggest negative impact I have seen is that it has pulled people away from groups. trpgs strongly relies on having players, so I consider this a significant negative impact.

 

[kolikeos]

first off, i'm pretty sure the effect has been more in the other direction, rpgs effecting computer games, and mostly for the better.

the most obvious positive affect was getting me into gaming. i only started playing dnd after i played planscape torment.
some games may give good insperation to gms and players, i myself am taking parts of the story from kotor into my compaign.
the most negative effect imo comes from the mmorpgs, sure they might bring new blood to the table but those players will want hack n' slash and are likely to be powergamers, and will likely be disappointed.

 

[Xorial]

I can think of a number of ways that computer roleplaying has had a negative effect. First off, there is not an ounce of roleplaying to a computer game. The mmorpg's like Everquest are closer, but they are still not roleplaying. Most quest evolve around going out, killing a dozen or so monsters, grabbing a specific item, then bringing it back. Sound familiar? You say that is how alot of D&D adventures run? Then I made my point. As an older gamer, I remember alot of the older adventures that involved more problem solving and actual DM/player interaction. Alot of that is gone now, replaced by a dice roll to determine if you figured the riddle out. It's nice to have defined skills & stuff, but you still should use your brain & have to roleplay in character, using silly voices & all, to try & convince the local thieves guild that it is in their best interest to let you explore the back part of their sewer lair. Not, as it is now, "I made a 27 on my Diplomacy check, is that enough?" Believe it or not, CCRPG's are in part responsible for the lack of roleplaying in today's pen & paper games.
I wont deny that their have been positive influences, but these mainly go to background material that DMs draw on, not any actual roleplaying. I'm not bashing anybody who plays the computer games, but I wish they would stop confusing the computer games with real face to face roleplaying. Just once, I think you need to try & pretty much ignore your skill ranks when you are in character & see if YOU can actually voice the reason why your group needs to explore the guild's lair....you may be surprised, I give major bonuses when my group does that...I have also been known to apply a -20 penalty to anybody who says, "I use my diplomacy skill, did I convince them?"

 

[Pseudonym]

I think that CRPGs have served mainly to give grognards yet another way to complain about "those damn kids."

 

[Digital M@]

There is nothing wrong with CRPGs, I have really enjoyed a few of them. I don't know what they may have contributed to RPGs. RPGs have always been very combat intensive, people have always liked awesomely powerful characters with cool powers and items, so none of that changed. D20 has made the game much more tactical than any previous version and much less theatrical, but I don't know if that was in any way influenced by CRPGs.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

I can think of a number of ways that computer roleplaying has had a negative effect. First off, there is not an ounce of roleplaying to a computer game.

I could not agree more. A computer RPG does not interact with players in anything even CLOSE to the manner in which REAL RPG players interact with each other and their DM - MMORPG's not at all. It is at best a misnomer to actually refer to them as RPG's. The best a computer can do at this point in RPG's is give a limited selection of programmed responses that are limited in their effects. An NPC will volunteer a limited array of interaction choices or simply pose a short list of questions that they will answer, or in posing a question or giving a statement to the player there will be a PREDETERMINED list of responses for the player that they cannot deviate from which is almost worse. That is NOT roleplaying. It is simply mimicking roleplaying interaction because it's understood that even the superficial veneer of roleplaying induces more interest in the game and moves it away from being what they really are at heart - just pretty level-grinders.

Now, that said I believe that CRPG'S have had a positive impact on RPG'S as rule systems. D&D itself suffered greatly under a vast, complex, contradictory, frustrating, inefficient set of rules. 3E/3.5 - - - IMO - - - is the best version of D&D bar none because of the clear influence that computer game rules have had upon the rules system itself. Unified resolution mechanics; game effects that work well together in a coordinated whole, rather than thousands of exceptions and unique rules; a balance of power that derives from things that actually affect the game and are not simply ignored out of hand or rendered moot as a matter of routine; these are the positive influences of CRPG's and MMORPG's. But the influence has not all been positive.

Computer games, as they naturally must, handle so much of the game for the players while enforcing their EXTREMELY limited interaction to tightly scripted events (what would be known in REAL RPG'S as "railroading") and it simply kills creativity. It kills it in old RPG players because just as they rely on the computer to feed them every adventure rather than GENERATING their own by their genuine interactivity with the game world, just as they rely on the computer to carefully delineate for them what their options are (negotiation is an option only if the NPC is PROGRAMMED to negotiate or offer it as an option), they come to rely on the DM to perform the same way. Because the game itself is now better constructed to permit that kind of approach to play everyone tends to use it as a crutch (players and DM's alike) to avoid the rules-free influences of REAL roleplaying. It kills creativity in players new to real RPG's because they haven't had the opportunity for rpg's - REAL rpg's - to train them to use their creativity. They then come into RPG's having been "taught" by CRPG's and MMORPG's that creativity does not lie in the INTERACTIVITY, it lies in the manipulation of numerical combinations in creating and building characters. THIS IS A DESTRUCTIVE IDEA as far as actual roleplaying is concerned.

The irony of course is that the very changes in rules that enable the avoidance of roleplaying were instituted to enable MORE roleplaying by eliminating the interference of rules ambiguity in gameplay. What do we see now (at least on discussion boards)? Endless debates about ultimately meaningless rules ambiguities and never once even a whisper of the old RPG battlecry - Make it up! Providing a vastly tighter and more elegant structure of rules has only made RULES into the focus (which has been, IMO, actively facilitated by WotC in a horribly ill-concieved approach to the issue inspired by CCG's rather than CRPG's.)

So, influence on RPG's - positive. Influence on GAMERS in playing RPG's - exceptionally negative.