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[Popple]

Role Playing games. When you think of the RPG genre, several titles may come to mind. Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest, and many more. For the longest time our definition of an RPG has been this, a game that involves some level of interactive story telling through one or more characters based around a combat system in which a party of characters faces another party of characters in a numerical based system based on a number of different variables or "stats." The most common sub genres for these games are fantasy and sci-fi.

Lately though I have been looking at the ever expanding world of gaming, and I have begun to realize that this definition is extremely outdated. A relic that has long been due for a rewrite. Let's examine the phrase "Role Playing" itself. The "Role" part obviously means that you are going to be controlling an entity other than yourself, someone with different ideals and morals than your own. The "Playing" part is almost hypocritical to this though, as it implies applying your own ideals and morals to the character you will be controlling. So, what is an RPG than? Quite simply it is you taking control of a character that is most likely vastly different to you, and having to adapt to their emotional characteristics while still suppling your own to make decisions throughout a game's storyline.

Now that we have the definition of an RPG, you may be asking what the point of the last two paragraphs was. Well, I think that they're are many games out their that deserve to be monikered with this title, regardless of whether they use the number based battling system that has been slapped onto the RPG name. Some may think that adventure games might fall into this category, but that is simply false. The Adventure genre is one of puzzle solving through item gathering and navigating dialog trees. While these elements are sometimes found in RPGs, you rarely get a chance to impact the story significantly. No, let's use a current example. For instance, Grand Theft Auto IV. In GTA4, you take the role of European immigrant Niko Bellic. On your quest through the vast landscape of Liberty City, you are tasked with making life or death decisions based upon your own moral fiber, and what you have learned about Niko's along the way. You are cast into the role of a criminal, and forced to adapt to his personality and make decisions based upon that. If this doesn't sound like an RPG, as unconventional as it may be, than I don't know what is. You may not be saving the world from ultimate evil, but you are still influencing the story in a significant way.

So as you can see, as the video game world expands, so does it's genres and it's definitions. So many games are beginning to break these genre stereotypes; it is time to rewrite them and prepare for the future that we are stepping into. As games expand, so must are perception of them.

~The_Specter

Discuss.

[Tails Doll]

I'm going to have to agree with you there. A major part of any RPG is the storyline and the characters. Oddly, Earthbound had no progressive storyline and the main characters were non-existent, yet it was considered an RPG if only because of the fighting system and gameplay.

[Francis]

I totally agree. Publishers, developers, and the media needs to stop trying to fit everything into the genre boxes. Basically the whole industry is stuck right now. They feel that a game must fit into a predefined category, and must have certain gameplay features, or else they are afraid it won't sell.

GTA is a good example, and so is Super Paper Mario, in which people had to invent a new genre called "RPG-platformer".

IMO, if you can explain what your game is all about simply by saying what genre it is (RPG, FPS, etc), then you have failed to create anything new and worth playing.

[BAMFing ARCHER]

The KOTOR series was probably one of the best RPG's I've played, especially the second one, which had SO many ways to play through it's not even funny.

[Super ShadowArticuno]

You have a very valid theory about expansion of genres and outdatred definitions. Many RPG's can barely be called Role playing games, when you look at it.

[BAMFing ARCHER]

I mean, there would be different definitions for each gaming era. I mean, nowadays, it's when you control the character's very destiny. But back in the SNES and NES days, it was really when you went out to save the world etc. etc.

[Pure-???]