Any hope for RPG's ?

[briankoontz]

The industry has a severe lack of creativity which affects all high-budget games.

Take the term "Role-playing game" - this does not in any way imply a game where one plays as a serial killer, yet all high-budget RPGs feature this.

The homogenization of the industry is near total. Even graphical style is remarkably similar across games, interface is similar, controls are similar. While this makes a new game easy to familiarize oneself with it also makes it unmemorable and unexciting.

The sheer boringness of modern high-budget games, including Dragon Age, has led to an exodus of players away from games with 100 person production teams, super intuitive control schemes, great graphics etc. toward retro games, casual games, and low budget knockoff games which are no more creative but at least less expensive.

The industry for now can get away with this nonsense because the market of gamers is growing, so while the market for retro/casual games is exploding the market for boring monotonous smooth-flowing eye candy is doing just fine, and will likely be fine for the forseeable future.

But eventually there will be a crash. The reason will be clear - a lack of creativity and innovation in the high-budget games industry.

 

[Xaositect]

No, not really. You see the RPG genre has been infected by the kind of retard fan that sucks someone like Biowares cock incessently, even when they make an RPG thats practically nothing but TPS combat. You know the kind, the ones who write "cool story bro" or post gifs when anyone criticises any game made by the developer thats attached to the dick in their mouths.

They are the real "roaring minority".

Sadly at the moment I think the overall quality of gaming for anyone with an adequate amount of braincells is clearly in decline. Its bound to happen when "how much will it sell" is the prime factor in game development and pandering to the lowest of the lowest common denominators, rather than "what can we make and can we make it the best we possibly can".

 

[Continuity]

Story adds replayability, character arcs and changing circumstances add replayability, how many types of hat I can wear just adds hours of searching my inventory again and again and again so I can take either "the stupid looking hat that I can't stand looking at but has a great bonus" vs. "jaunty cap that looks pretty slick and gives my character a bit of flair but is actively wasting an inventory slot". It's false choice.

I played NWN 1+2, I played Baldur's gate 1+2 but every time people say a thing adds depth it's a thing that just hurled me straight out of the game and into a number crunch. Every time a game breaks immersion to make me put on a new pair of shoes n+1 to replace my old pair of shoes n I'm not a character in a world, I'm a guy moving a fake guy.

RPG has many pillars, one of those is loot, I understand that some people can find it immersion breaking but then that can only be down to your own play style (i.e you don't actually have to collect everyone's trousers yahtzee). Extend your suspension of disbelief and your roleplaying to the items, ok so your thief is carrying 3 or 4 weapons - maybe hes just real paranoid and likes to be prepaired - maybe he likes to use the right tool for the right job - maybe he just has a dagger fixation. But then of course you don't actually have to carry crap around with you, thats a player choice.


Sure there is some requirement to haul loot out of dungeons but thats all part of the game: March off into the unknown, kill the monsters and bad guys, bring back the loot and be wealthy heros. That is the basic underpinning premiss of AD&D, sure you can build pretty much anything you can imagine on top of that, but ultimately that is the game.

This is basically the heart of my problem with your approach to RPGs. Diablo 2 is widely recognized as one of the definitive RPGs of the last decade, but according to your definition, it isn't an RPG. At the same time, you're telling me that some JRPGs aren't RPGs. What's going on here?

Im saying JRPGS are a seperate category altogether and I don't think their current name is entirely approapriate. I don't think Diablo 2 is an RPG despite what it is 'widely recognized' as.

i have to agree, Diablo 2 isn't an RPG, its sophisticated hack n'slash but not an RPG. In fact diablo is almost its own genre.
Divine divinity on the other hand is an RPG, and superficially the combat mechanic is very similar, its all the other stuff that tips the balance to make it an RPG, like dynamic and situational dialogue, and multiple options of resolving quests.

 

[scorptatious]

I'm currently playing through FF13 at the moment, and it doesn't cover the first two request made by RPG fans. In my opinion, I'm actually having fun with it. It isn't nearly as bad as so many people make it out to be. That's not to say I don't enjoy RPG's that are turn based and allow you to go anywhere,I just like to have a little variety in my RPG's.

Also, what's wrong with RPG's that aren't turn based? Do you guys remember games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasys 4-9? They all had the ATB system and they were all generally well-recieved.

Also, aren't most RPG's generally railroaded? Sure they can allow you to roam across a large map and tackle different quests, but most of the time, you have to go where you're supposed to go in order to get anywhere at all.

It just seems like a lot of RPG fans, (bar ones who actually make valid points about certain games.) just seem to be a bit spoiled and unappreciative.