Why are there almost no RPGs set in the present?

[babinro]

RPG's like to bring up opinions and decisions tied to major events like wars, politics, corruption, corporations, crime, religion, etc.

As much fun as it would be to play a current day game that involves all those touchy area's. The company/industry would get an endless stream of backlash for it. People are WAY to over sensitive about games portraying real life to make an interesting current day RPG.

Movies can get away with it, games haven't gotten that far.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

I mean, it's an interesting world that we live in

Problem is it's not interesting enough. People use videogames as a form of escapism, a fun way to just absolutely murder time and keep them all too busy doing absolutely nothing.

As such, in RPGs - which are generally even MORE used for escapism than, say, the Madden "series" - people don't want to be in the same boring world they live in. They want to go to the future and be dazzled, or go to Fantasy Land and kill themselves some trolls.

what exactly are these guys escaping from?

 

[Zingtea]

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is set in present-day L.A, but it's still about vampires and magic and stuff. Good game, but perhaps not what you meant, OP.

 

[Westaway]

It would be really lame, man. I mean, even if I were an african in an rpg, it would still be weird. For shooters it's ok, but for a role playing game? That just wouldn't work.

 

[Ifrit7th]

Over 25 posts and no one mentions Earthbound? I'm amazed. I'd have to say if you're going to do a present-day take on an RPG, that'd be the way to go; same sort of world and level of tech, just kinda off here and there.

 

[RJ 17]

I mean, it's an interesting world that we live in

Problem is it's not interesting enough. People use videogames as a form of escapism, a fun way to just absolutely murder time and keep them all too busy doing absolutely nothing.

As such, in RPGs - which are generally even MORE used for escapism than, say, the Madden "series" - people don't want to be in the same boring world they live in. They want to go to the future and be dazzled, or go to Fantasy Land and kill themselves some trolls.

what exactly are these guys escaping from?

Real bullets, mortars, and other dangerous projectiles/explosives that can actually kill them. Gotta say, nice try though.

 

[Voulan]

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines is set in present-day L.A, but it's still about vampires and magic and stuff. Good game, but perhaps not what you meant, OP.

I was going to mention that. It's essentially our world, but it's an alternate universe known as the World of Darkness. In that respect, it's about going around and doing your magical things without humans finding out - which, as a character points out, is difficult when almost everyone has some sort of camera phone with them at all times.

Another is The Longest Journey series. It's set in our world (but further in the future), the world of technology, that sits in parallel to a world of magic known as Starc. The characters can switch between each world, and face whatever is going on with both as the boundaries between the two slowly collapse.

Basically, our own world is boring on its own. But a world filled with technology to combat and study nature cannot mix with magic which essentially does the same - it's like having two different means that gain the same effects. It can't work that way. And we're getting bored of technology, and want to turn to magic. So, we need to create alternate worlds to see how this works - usually set in a period of time completely devoid of technology, since we can't imagine a world that has progressed without it. It's a horribly post-modern and Western idea, but it's the dominant one.

 

[neonsword13-ops]

Persona 4?

Set during 2011, that's close enough, right?

Even though it usually takes place in an alternate world, it still functions as a modern day, murder mystery in Japan.

 

[Vault101]

modern society doesnt really suport the old fashioned RPG method of heading off armed to the teeth to killa bunch of monsters and come back to sell all the goods

you couldnt walk 10 steps without your weopons being confiscated

 

[Pharsalus]

The sims. but seriously I can't think of any rpg's with a story and structure set in the modern era (dating sims are close). There is a very good reason for this though; RPGs are about becoming a character in an interesting setting and making a difference. It's alot easier to craft a compelling set up for that kind of story in a fantasy or sci-fi realm where we can believe that the fate of the world rests in the hands of one man. Unless you plan to kickstart that Winston Churchill RPG I've been hearing about there's just not much case to make a game.
Just thought of one the Matrix had an mmorpg a while ago, technically it's sci-fi but your in a modern era.

 

[distortedreality]

I mean, it's an interesting world that we live in

Problem is it's not interesting enough. People use videogames as a form of escapism, a fun way to just absolutely murder time and keep them all too busy doing absolutely nothing.

As such, in RPGs - which are generally even MORE used for escapism than, say, the Madden "series" - people don't want to be in the same boring world they live in. They want to go to the future and be dazzled, or go to Fantasy Land and kill themselves some trolls.

what exactly are these guys escaping from?

Exercise from the looks of it.

 

[TaintedSaint]

Parasite Eve was modern and awesome

 

[TK421]

I mean, it's an interesting world that we live in

Problem is it's not interesting enough. People use videogames as a form of escapism, a fun way to just absolutely murder time and keep them all too busy doing absolutely nothing.

As such, in RPGs - which are generally even MORE used for escapism than, say, the Madden "series" - people don't want to be in the same boring world they live in. They want to go to the future and be dazzled, or go to Fantasy Land and kill themselves some trolls.

Exactly. That is why quite a lot of people hate 'sports games.' If it is something that you can go out and do in real life, why would you want to do it for fake on a computer? The present is too familiar a time for a good RPG. People want dragons, trolls, spaceships, or other wonders that they will probably never be able to behold in their lifetime, not subdivisions and department stores.

 

[SanguineSymphony]

You like almost the entirety of the Shin Megami Tensei (Sans the Raidou games) franchise?

 

[DoPo]

it is curious that there are fantasy rpgs and sci-fi rpgs, but modern and pretty much every other time period is ignored

That's easy - there have been two major settings in fantasy: D&D ripoff Tolkien nerdfest classical fantasy and lazors! Pew-pew! future, a.k.a. sci-fi. And RPGs mainly follow in the footsteps of these two. At it's earliest, RPGs tried to cater to the fantasies of some geeks emulate known works and later RPGs tried to rip off emulate earlier RPGs and so on and so forth in a vicious cycle. Well at some point some new and slightly more original stuff branched off but the two major settings were already established and have made their way over to computer games. While some other settings are popular, the typical settings still dominate the market - both in tabletop and computer RPGs. But mostly in computer RPGs.

 

[-Dragmire-]

I think it'd be interesting to see a RPG where you play as a firefighter, action packed(unrealistically action packed, obviously. You know, set in Arson city where the world's best and largest pyrotechnics are made.) with a focus on saving people and putting out fires. The problem is that I don't see a talented studio being interested enough to make it when they could be making the next epic adventure... or at least a shooter with rpg elements.

 

[RJ 17]

I mean, it's an interesting world that we live in

Problem is it's not interesting enough. People use videogames as a form of escapism, a fun way to just absolutely murder time and keep them all too busy doing absolutely nothing.

As such, in RPGs - which are generally even MORE used for escapism than, say, the Madden "series" - people don't want to be in the same boring world they live in. They want to go to the future and be dazzled, or go to Fantasy Land and kill themselves some trolls.

what exactly are these guys escaping from?

Real bullets, mortars, and other dangerous projectiles/explosives that can actually kill them. Gotta say, nice try though.

You're contradicting yourself.

You say we wouldn't want to escape our mundane contemporary urban life by playing a contemporary urban RPG.
He says soldiers still play military games even though they are soldiers.
You then say they are escaping their life because a military game is not real.

So it works for soldiers but not for us?

I thought about editing this point into my previous statement, but I'll go ahead and put it here:

We're also discussing RPGs in this topic, not shooters. I really can't think of any people who RP while playing CoD, can you? Videogames are a form of escapism, surely you will not deny that. RPGs offer a different form of escapism - which I had previously described - than shooters. I'm not contradicting myself since bringing shooters into the conversation in the first place is comparing apples to oranges. I'll leave it at that since going further down this road will essentially be discussing the differences between RPGs and shooters and would derail this topic faster than Wolverine laying on some train tracks.

Edit: Oh, and for the record, it appears as though those soldiers are playing Halo, as such, even THEY don't want to play a contemporary version of their real life (i.e. Modern Warfare).

 

[game-lover]

Parasite Eve was modern and awesome

You get so many cool points for remembering that game. *nods*

 

[Vern]

Shenmue had it. But then again, Shenmue was really boring. Maybe that's why they don't do RPG's in modern times.

 

[Deadyawn]

Because the present is boring. Just ask anyone, they'll tell you. Interesting stuff only happens in the past or the future, never in the present. It's, like, a law or something.