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[Vibhor]

Okay this is a question that has been bugging me for ages due to the psuedo intellectuals of escapist forums.
I just want to know if everyone is retarded or not.
So go ahead and define what YOU consider a RPG.

[cameron]

roleplaying

I think people make too big a deal of sticking to conventions brought over by pen and paper games

[Rex_Nex]

Is good ol' Jim bugging you? He is the king of pseudo-intellectuals.

[Vibhor]

roleplaying

I think people make too big a deal of sticking to conventions brought over by pen and paper games

Fuck, my fault.
I mean computer RPG, not DnD

EDIT: Now that I think about it, attributes and "Numbers" play an important part in role playing.

Is good ol' Jim bugging you? He is the king of pseudo-intellectuals.

No I like him because he knows he is retarded. I mean the community who thinks they are always right. And also the usual using opinions as facts bullshit but what ever.

[Draco18s]

EDIT: Now that I think about it, attributes and "Numbers" play an important part in role playing.

To which I reply:

I think people make too big a deal of sticking to conventions brought over by pen and paper games

You (Vibhor) are Roll Playing, not Role Playing.

Role Playing Games, for me, require that I be able to drive the story my way.  If I don't want to be a goody two shoes Lawful Stupid paladin, then god damn it, let me be who I see the character as.  Choices have to have meaning, and the best kinds are the ones where choices that appear meaningless at the time effect the outcome far later in the game (ah la Chrono Trigger).

Obviously the game can't have every possibility planned, but I Do Not Want Final Fantasy linearity (and this hyperlinearity is what made me stop playing RPGs: I discovered that the choices I made were 100% meaningless causing little more than two lines of differing dialog, tops¹).

¹Character A: "We should save [NPC]!"
You: [yes/no]

You: No, we can't it's too dangerous to go back.
Character A: You're right, lets go back to town...

You: Yes, we should!
Character B: But it's too dangerous!  We'll all die!
Character A: You're right, lets go back to town...

[Ivefan]

RPG <---> Hack & Slash
Consider it to be on a scale.
The more options in actions & dialogue the more RPGish. Linearity does not affect the scale.

Planescape tornment, Baldurs gate, Fallout 1&2 , KOTOR is what i consider RPG.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

RPG <---> Hack & Slash
Consider it to be on a scale.
The more options in actions & dialogue the more RPGish. Linearity does not affect the scale.

Planescape tornment, Baldurs gate, Fallout 1&2 , KOTOR is what i consider RPG.

DING DING DING. You win.

[ndkid]

roleplaying

I think people make too big a deal of sticking to conventions brought over by pen and paper games

Fuck, my fault.
I mean computer RPG, not DnD

EDIT: Now that I think about it, attributes and "Numbers" play an important part in role playing.

I think you've pretty much hit the nail on the head unintendedly, there. What computers refer to as a RPG is related to DnD, which was created to be what modern video gaming parlance would likely call a Tactical RPG: turn-based battles (not too dissimilar from TBS games) combined with plot pieces and genre conventions from adventure games (from the IF-style of Zork through the Sierra golden age). This is pretty unrelated to "role-playing" in its more common modern usage, which tends to convey some amount of let's-pretend and put-yourself-in-their-shoes decision making structure that usually does not exist in video games that bill themselves as RPGs.

[cameron]

I wouldn't say that more choice or options makes a game more rpg-ish, just that it tends to be easier to engage in a story where you can ensure the main character always picks the most believable option rather then rely on the writer to do it for you.

[Sergius]

Okay this is a question that has been bugging me for ages due to the psuedo intellectuals of escapist forums.
I just want to know if everyone is retarded or not.
So go ahead and define what YOU consider a RPG.

To be an RPG, it has to have grind.

And people willing to do something because some barkeep told them to.

And plus signs followed by numbers. Like "+3".

(this list is not exhaustive)

[GlyphGryph]

I think RPG is a pretty meaningless term.

Descriptively, though, they are most often Interactive Fiction games combined with Number Management+Grind games.
I was going to say a personal narrative was also an important ingredient, but then I remembered most people would consider, say, FF6 an RPG, despite the fact that it's not personal.

So I don't even know.

But I do know Ergon/Logos has more choice depth than most games that consider themselves "RPG's", so choice depth definitely isn't a major factor in whether or not something is considered such.

[Levi]

The problem with genre labels is that a lot of things will never quite fit in one, no matter what your definition.

[Draco18s]

So go ahead and define what YOU consider a RPG.

[GlyphGryph]

We ARE talking about what we consider to be an RPG. It's a term for communication, and thus we are talking about what we consider the traits most likely to be communicated by using it.

Should we be talking about what we WISH RPG meant instead?

[Draco18s]

This doesn't look personal to me:

they are most often

most people would consider

Sergius is also describing what [games in the RPG genre] do, rather than what he thinks they should be.

Unless he thinks that RPG games should be mindlessly grindy games about doing things bartenders tell you to do in exchange for +4 frying pans of doom.