4RM3D said:
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An interesting read... thank you for elaborating. While I do not disagree with your standpoint, it does make me wonder one thing. You refer to the past and how RPG games came into being. But don't you think that definition might be outdated with the new(er) generation of games; that maybe we have altered the meaning to a new acceptable standard?
No, because I feel the proper definition of some things cannot change. The arguement that language always evolves based on the way people wind up using a word is nonsense, because while that can happen in rare circumstances over the passage of centuries it would mean it would be impossible to misuse a word and toddlers would have changed the dictionary into nonsense long ago.
That, and the simple fact that we're having this discussion because there is so much disagreement over the term and what it means. It's not like one absolute alternative meaning has slipped into common usage for decades on end or whatever.
In the case of the term RPG a lot of it comes from ignorance, and desired association. Overall not that many people have played PnP RPGs, and were introduced to RPGs through computer games... and what's more many of those things were current generation RPGS aimed at casuals. The definition is being based on what appealed to the person playing the game. The problem is that a lot of producers of games realize that with the current "geek chick" where everyone wants to be seen as a smart science fiction and gaming nerd, while still somehow being normal and socially acceptable, RPGs might not be understood but are associated with smarter nerds, so of course this kind of cred can come from being thought to play RPGs. Thus the stamp is put on a lot of things where it doesn't belong for a sort of consumer self-validation. I'm probably not articulating that well though.
Honestly your typical faux-RPG player will crank up something from before gaming was mainstream and then start complaining about how the game isn't flashy enough, and more importantly that all the numbers make their head hurt (so to speak), because your typical RPG player expects something more similar to an interactive movie and does not get that RPGs existed long before that technology even existed. In many cases the understanding of why RPG playing was associated with intelligence and a degree of social ineptitude (it can take a lot of effort to figure these things out... RPGing becoming a lifestyle or part of one in many cases... hence you know... actual nerds), and of course that causes them to realize they really aren't what they had pretensions of being in terms of intelligence and the abillity to enjoy the abstract. They really don't want what is largely an intellectual exercise, just to think of themselves as enjoying such things and wanting other people to think of them that way. Hence attempts to re-define RPG, while still hopefully retaining the associations the people making the new definition want.
Some people would say an RPG is not a stat building game (which is actually pretty close to what it is, but not an entirely accurate definition, as the idea is statistical simulation rather than improvement, although improvement exists to represent change/learning, etc...), in my case I would counter by saying an RPG is not an audio/visual "My Little Golden Book" with some buttons to mash.
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