[Poll] Which kinds of games are RPGs?

[DraQ]

Blobbers aren't RPGs, you don't have a character you're role playing as. And IWD and IWD2 aren't RPGs either.

You have characters. Still good.
Otherwise, does a blobber or party-based H&S suddenly becomes an RPG if you solo it?

There... see? You say it yourself: "in every game you play some role". Nothing else says "Role"-Playing-Game. Literally. That's why calling a game a "Role-Playing-Game" is dumb. Every game falls into this "genre".

"In Fallout 1 you race against the clock to bring back a water chip before you vault runs out of water, it is therefore a racing game. Herp derp."

Can you *now* see the difference or are you just too impaired?

Come on. In many racing games you can "develop your skills" your car by spending points into how brakes, steering, speed, maneuvrability etc.

Upgrading a vehicle is just equipment based progression. There is no inertia. The characteristic trait of the proper role mechanics is that your decisions stick around - you define your role and then it stays defined, you can't just undefine that at a whim.

And all this influences the outcome of the game: if you don't spend any points in anything, you lose (i.e. in Need for Speed 4 or Porsche it was so). So you even have choice and consequences.

Also, just winning or losing is not a choice. It's like saying that USSR or nazi Germany were free countries because you could always choose to disobey the ruling party and get shot in the head.
That's not how fucking freedom works.

 

[Micormic]

I consider anything with character progression an RPG(ie leveling up with stats).


The bare minimum would be something like diablo or it's even more basic clones.



Whether something is a good rpg or not is an entirely different discussion.

 

[M. AQVILA]

Blobbers aren't RPGs, you don't have a character you're role playing as. And IWD and IWD2 aren't RPGs either.

You have characters. Still good.
Otherwise, does a blobber or party-based H&S suddenly becomes an RPG if you solo it?

No it's not "still good", are you retarded?
Does the game treat your solo character as a single character that you role play as? No? Then it's not a RPG.

 

[Serus]

Doom = blobber RPG
Star Control = blobber RPG
Mario Golf = blobber RPG
Sonic = blobber RPG
Infinitron = blobber RPG

All of the above games have stats of some kind, therefore they are RPGs by the modern definition.
Also Assassin's Creed = blobber RPG

What exact stats does Infinitron have? Asking for a friend...

 

[theSavant]

...

> upgrading a vehicle is just equipment based progression
Upgrading a character with weapons, armors, spells is no different.

> The characteristic trait of the proper role mechanics is that your decisions stick around - you define your role and then it stays defined, you can't just undefine that at a whim.
You must also stick to the decision in which upgrade of the car you invest. There is no turning back.

> just winning or losing is not a choice
Eventually it is in every game. And even in a racing game there are different shades of winning/losing, i.e. you can finish the game as 2nd or 3rd.

> Can you *now* see the difference or are you just too impaired?
Can you see that "Role-Playing-Game" defines absolutely nothing except that you slip into the role of someone or something, or are you too impaired?

 

[DraQ]

...

> upgrading a vehicle is just equipment based progression
Upgrading a character with weapons, armors, spells is no different.

And that's why, say, STALKER is not an RPG, duh.

> The characteristic trait of the proper role mechanics is that your decisions stick around - you define your role and then it stays defined, you can't just undefine that at a whim.
You must also stick to the decision in which upgrade of the car you invest. There is no turning back.

Or you can change your car, refit your vehicle, swap your equipment. It's easy enough to erase those choices from the game.

> just winning or losing is not a choice
Eventually it is in every game. And even in a racing game there are different shades of winning/losing, i.e. you can finish the game as 2nd or 3rd.

Role playing mechanics doesn't deal with victory or loss. It deals with changing the game that is to be won or lost.

 

[buffalo bill]

What (or which) is an RPG? I say who cares; better to ask 'what is a good game?' This latter question has a straightforward answer:

What is good? - All that heightens the feelings of power, the will to power, power itself in man. What is bad? - All that proceeds from weakness. What is happiness? - The feeling that power increases - that a resistance is overcome.

 

[theSavant]

> upgrading a vehicle is just equipment based progression
Upgrading a character with weapons, armors, spells is no different.

And that's why, say, STALKER is not an RPG, duh.

I disagree, but let's stay with racing games. When you slip into the role of a car, you are the car. And every car upgrade is equal to a stat upgrade. So it's actually both at the same time: equipment & stat progression. So it still qualifies as an "RPG".

> The characteristic trait of the proper role mechanics is that your decisions stick around - you define your role and then it stays defined, you can't just undefine that at a whim.
You must also stick to the decision in which upgrade of the car you invest. There is no turning back.

Or you can change your car, refit your vehicle, swap your equipment. It's easy enough to erase those choices from the game.

Some racing games do not allow that, and per your definition therefore qualify as an "RPG".

> just winning or losing is not a choice
Eventually it is in every game. And even in a racing game there are different shades of winning/losing, i.e. you can finish the game as 2nd or 3rd.

Role playing mechanics doesn't deal with victory or loss. It deals with changing the game that is to be won or lost.

Every decision you make in a game changes the way you win or lose. Even a dumb linear shooter plays differently when you play it a second time, because you use a different strategy or something else. So again something every game qualifies as an "RPG".


Now tell me again... what is an RPG? What clearly defines an RPG?

 

[HeatEXTEND]

CYOA (King of Dragon Pass, Game of Thrones [Telltale])

lumping those together, fake and gay

 

[Shadenuat]

When you slip into the role of a car, you are the car

 

[ProphetSword]

Proven: Racing game = RPG

Sorry, not true. While everyone has been speaking of playing a role and stats and the like, they overlooked one important aspect: All RPGs have a combat engine to resolve physical conflicts, as combat is a defining trait of RPGs. You cannot forget that.

 

[Shadenuat]

You just allowed him to name all warcraft games RPGs etc. stop giving that thing fuel.

 

[fantadomat]

The point of the poll is to have an idea of which games should be considered rpgs the next time we do the Codex Greatest RPG poll.

Discuss other genres or if you think I've misclassified a game.

 

[theSavant]

Proven: Racing game = RPG

All RPGs have a combat engine to resolve physical conflicts, as combat is a defining trait of RPGs. You cannot forget that.

A racing game has a combat engine too. You can bump other cars out of the way. It just happens that this combat engine is also a physics engine.

 

[sullynathan]

I won't bullshit you, some idiot on another forum seriously told me GTA V was an rpg because of an argument about the upcoming cyberpunk game.

 

[ProphetSword]

A racing game has a combat engine too. You can bump other cars out of the way. It just happens that this combat engine is also a physics engine.

Oh, I see now. I'm sorry. I didn't realize you were functionally retarded.

Must be hell, being this wrong all the time.

 

[theSavant]

No, it is retarded to cling to a definition of "RPG", and not even able to name the features, which clearly distinguish it from a fucking car game.

 

[Darth Canoli]

In virtually every game you play *some* role.

No, you control a character or a party, i know you know playing a role is something else, of course, most of the time, we're making shortcuts but i've been around internet for quite some time and most people don't even know what roleplaying means.
I've played countless browser "MMO" "turn-based" (different mechanism) RPG with some forum roleplaying and at least 30% of the players think they're roleplaying when talking about the game's technical issues or about their last meal.

So of course, when it comes to determine which games have RPG elements and should be named RPG, at least 30% of them have no clue, more, i'd say but it's fine, it's not like solving this issue is going to stop the global warming.

For those who have no clues but want some hints, some games are called RPG (even if they are not) because they share some RPG elements with tabletop RPG (like the character sheet with character progression, skills and such) so your regular F1 simulation isn't a RPG, mario kart isn't a RPG either.

Of course, some people go further, mostly because they despise wide audience piece-of-shit-action-"RPG" saying those aren't "RPG" either and i'd go that way to every other day of the week but not today as we're searching for a consensual definition.

First thing tomorrow, those games aren't "RPG" anymore, of course.

 

[Kruno]

Doom = blobber RPG
Star Control = blobber RPG
Mario Golf = blobber RPG
Sonic = blobber RPG
Infinitron = blobber RPG

All of the above games have stats of some kind, therefore they are RPGs by the modern definition.
Also Assassin's Creed = blobber RPG

What exact stats does Infinitron have? Asking for a friend...

bans/birthdays

 

[King Crispy]

The bad news: this thread is not an RPG.

The good news: that only leaves approximately 570,610,500,000,000,000 more things to eliminate.

 

[Kruno]

This thread is like an SJW "what is gender?" discussion.

 

[Contagium]

So, I get it now.

"RPG" is an acronym for "Racing people game".

I thought it was like a computerized version of D&D, Shadowrun, etc.

Time to pull out the Atari 2600 and level up my car in Polish Position.

 

[RNGsus]

Nobody has convinced me the rpg even exists.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Role-Playing Adventures
You band some adventurers together, equip them with whatever you can afford from the local store, and send them out to an uncertain future, with the ultimate objective of wiping out some monstrously evil being. The challenge of these games is to develop characters that can overcome the final obstacle. These games normally take longer to complete than any other type of game.

From Amiga World Magazine, November 1988.

 

[gestalt11]

I thought that during the time I was gone Codex had already got over this question entirely

Don't be silly. Codex will never be over this question. Ever.