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Channel: General Discussion (Spoiler Warning!) — Beamdog Forums
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What is an RPG?

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I simply became curious reading some of these forum posts. The various opinions on romance, character development, desires for BG II EE, or even discussions of specific games, all give slightly different views on what a good or classic RPG "should" be. I have noticed a few major themes.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT/STORY
Some people seem to love the character development. Conversation, romance, banter, etc. They want motivated, interesting fleshed out NPC's to love and hate. (BG, ME, FF...) Others see this as less important (Fans of icewind dale, Elder Scrolls or other such) [I have included story here, because I am not sure how you could tell a good story with flat and uninteresting characters, if you disagree, please correct me.]

PARTY CONTROL/STRATEGY
Others seem to be looking for a specific playstyle. Isometric views, tactical control of a varied party, class systems, etc. They want a good old fashioned D&D or FF style romp, and see things like Mass Effect as "Cover Based Shooters with RPG elements". (IWD, NWN2, BG are classic banner bearers here) Others are fine if they only control 1 character or it has a different play style (Dark Souls, Witcher, Mass Effect)

WORLD EXPLORATION
They want a world to explore, lore to learn, caves to crawl through, nooks and crannies to peek in, and secrets and marvels to find. "Non of this Linear nonsense!" is their battle cry. (Elder scrolls are probably the kings here, some might throw in Zelda or other such) Other do not really mind if they can't loot every box in the game, or wander the forbidden wilds. (DA:O, ME2)

CHOICE AND CONSEQUENCE
These folks want to be able to make the hard calls, choose their own path, and have that choice matter. They know that a game can't realistically have a written and scripted path for every outcome, but they take what they can get, and relish it. If they save somebodies life, they want to see them again, and if the game presents a terrible conundrum, they want the good and bad consequences of it all. Feel a little cheated by games with scripted stories (Pretty much all FF for example) big fans of things like: (ME, Planescape, Deus Ex, etc.) Others... don't see choice as that big a deal if the rest of it is good.

OTHER
I have no illusion that I thought of everything, so here this is.


Which of these is most important to you? Which can you let slide? What makes a "good RPG" to you?

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