What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[Ruin Explorer]

Every role playing game with a weak story would be better as a game if the story were improved.

Before anyone tries to um actually at me, improved does not mean "increased in amount of game time dedicated to it" or anything else like that.

The best dungeon crawler would still be better if it's minimal story were somehow executed better, built a world more effectively, implied motivation more convincingly, etc.

This applies to literally any game which has any kind of story - and by "story" you mean "implied setting" even, so that's basically any game less abstract than Tetris.

You are again expanding my statement beyond its scope.

Only true if you zoom out more broadly than RPGs, which was the discussion.

RPGs are their story, just like novels.

The reason people are confused is because of your second statement here - RPGs are no more their story than most games are.

If anything, the exception is a small minority of highly abstract games where the story either doesn't exist or is irrelevant, like Tetris. But those have been a smaller and smaller % of games since forever. Even vertical-scrolling shooters often have compelling stories, RPG mechanics, and so on, these days!

I don't think RPGs "are their story" any more than most games. I don't think they're exceptional or unusual in that. You can have RPGs with almost no story, where it's "Are you a bad enough dude to rescue the president?" like Double Dragon. Or you can have incredibly elaborate and complex stories with real themes and affecting characters and ideas.

But the same is true of action-adventure games, say. Indeed it's equally true.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I don’t think it is. Does it have some of the elements of an RPG, absolutely! But it doesn’t make the cut for me.

I’m not no-true Scotsmaning - I just don’t think it fits the criteria in my book. But arguing about the criteria will get us nowhere fast, so I won’t (well, I’ll try my hardest).

You are 100% effectively no-true Scotsmaning, whether you mean to or not.

Caves of Qud, say, is not only an RPG, it's a better RPG by almost any measurement (even visual design!) than, for example, Fallout 4. The same is true of most or all true Rogue-likes. They all have implied settings (often quite distinctive ones), as well the trappings of an RPG, and you can absolutely role-play within them, and further, people tend to.

In fact, it's easier in a lot of ways to make a case that say, a JRPG isn't an RPG than a traditional Rogue-like isn't an RPG. And that's a suicide mission on par with the end of Mass Effect 2 right there!

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Ortjoganal not in terms of a game cannot do story...but much like features like maps or rad cover art on novels...the medium does not require it. The "stroy" of Donkey Kong Banana is negligible at best. Still fun.

The medium might technically not, but movies don't "require" sound or colour - or a story, actually (Koyaanisqatsi etc.). The reality though is that virtually every game, even ones which wouldn't have 40 years ago (UGH TIME PAIN WHY MUST IT BE 40 NOT 20), does have a story of some kind, even if it's mostly implied, and hell it's now often one of the major factors people judge a game on.

 

[Gradine]

Fallout 4 is still the only Fallout game I've played. I've played through it three times - Minutemen, Railroad, and BoS. Don't think I could ever side with the Institute. I've tried and failed to play it without engaging with the settlement mini-game. Building settlements is so much fun - and being able to access your resources from just about anywhere is so convenient.

I came this close to deciding to try Survival mode this time around but I didn't go for it simply because of the lack of manual saves; that's a deal-breaker for me. I really like it conceptually and how it really makes the settlement management more or less mandatory in order to get safely traverse the world anywhere.

 

[Gradine]

In fact, it's easier in a lot of ways to make a case that say, a JRPG isn't an RPG than a traditional Rogue-like isn't an RPG. And that's a suicide mission on par with the end of Mass Effect 2 right there!

This reminds me that I have absolutely seen people try to make the argument that JRPGs by and large aren't RPGs because you play a pre-defined character and make few if any choices in the story, and the massive futility of arguing with somebody the definitions of words that are deeply personally held (to say nothing of the headaches!)