FargoDog said:
Is it just me or are BioWare being extremely controversial recently? First the FFXIII thing, and now this, which is sure to piss quite a few MMO players off.
In both cases, Bioware has made a decent point. While I'm sure there was always a reason I was collecting Zheeva hooves in the Barrens, I couldn't tell you what it was save that I needed the experience inherent in the act in order to increment a set of numbers high enough that I could play the same game my friends enjoyed. The most common reason people cite when defending their involvement in any MMO is the "social" aspect - that is, the fun you make in the game with your friends. Games like WoW, or Eve or any of the rest do little more than give you arbitrary points where a reward is parcelled out. It is left to the player to figure out how to make that basic experience fun.
When it comes to FF13 not being an RPG, by the standard Bioware uses when
they make a game the case is ironclad. The trouble is, the term is incredibly nebulous. Literally it simply refers to a game where you play a role - something that applies to almost any game. More generally, other factors are considered that can be broadly grouped into Narrative Agency and Character Agency.
Narrative agency simply refers to the ability of a player to direct the course of the story. At the most open, you find Rougelikes where the only narrative is the one the player crafts through their actions. At the least open you find games like Modern Warfare where you proceed through an elaborate tunnel and engage in gun battles in dramatic set pieces until you reach the conclusion. Somewhere in the middle, you find games with alternate endings (Such as Deus Ex or Heavy Rain) or games where the major elements are fixed but the particulars vary (Fallout, Dragon Age). Final Fantasy 13 sits decisively on the Modern Warfare side of things as all the player can do is trudge from beginning to end and their only impact on the story is choosing to carry on with it.
Character Agency refers to the ability of a player to define their character and influence characters around the PC. At the most open, you have a game like Eve where, by virtue of the inclusion of large numbers of real people, your actions not only define who your character is but how other's respond. A brutal life of Piracy not only affects your dealings with NPCs but also causes other players to be wary (at best) of your presence causing all but the most stalwart to flee. At the least open you have a game like Final Fantasy, where the characters are all defined before hand and the player has no ability to impact either the main character or the supporting cast. Somewhere in the middle you have a game like Red Dead Redemption or Infamous, where at least some character traits can be defined by the player.
There is of course a third category, or rather an addendum to the idea of Character Agency, which is the idea of character customization. This extends beyond simply controlling how a character interacts with the world and generally delves into the actual systems that govern how the game plays. At the most open, you have a game like Oblivion or (even better) Eve Online. Such games do not offer classes in the traditional sense and allow players to pick and choose skills they believe will be useful. There is nothing to stop someone from playing a Mage specializing in Illusion magic while wearing heavy armor in Oblivion and no system that prevents a Recon specialist in Eve from branching out and trying their hand in fleet combat in a battleship. At the other end of the spectrum you have games with literally no progression in this sense. Most First Person Shooters of the modern era fall into this category as a player character is often no better equipped at the end of the game than at the beginning. Final Fantasy 13 falls short of the closed extreme, but only just. There is an ability to customize but roles are quite strictly defined regardless. Arbitrary limits are placed throughout. Your characters do advance, and while the precise path is up to the player the end result is the same regardless.
It seems to be fairly clear that by this standard, FF13 would certainly not qualify as an RPG. You have no agencey over character or narrative, and only the most limited control over customization. Even within the JRPG umbrella it stands out. While it maintains some of the mechanical tropes common to the genre, in most cases it diverges wildly. It is not at all uncommon in a JRPG to have no control over the characters or the narrative and even the idea of character customization isn't guranteed. In this respect, to compare the JRPG to the western equivlent, the JRPG is less about a role playing game than it is about a turn based, narrative focused strategy game.
In short, by Western standard, FF13 would fail to be classified as an RPG. By the Japanese standard, while it strays greatly at times, it probably maintains enough of the tropes to still be counted as being in the JRPG genre by the fans.
