Yes, I have forgotten I was doing this, but I’m back now, and will have a new discussion every week. So let’s get this ball rolling with a discussion of one of my favorite genres: roleplaying games.
Roleplaying games are a contentious genre; there are those who love roleplaying games and refuse to play anything else, and there are people who absolutely hate them, as their influences continue to infect other genres. There are a lot of loaded mechanics that define if something is or is not a roleplaying game or just using RPG elements, so I’ll try to break down what defines an RPG.
A roleplaying game is any game in which the player is given control over a specific character or set of characters, and is driven through a narrative by an impartial source. The player will be able to determine the actions and/or attributes of the characters throughout, choosing what he sees as the appropriate response to the circumstances, and the resolution of these actions will be determined by some randomizer inherent in the game’s system.
Now, this definition is intentionally extremely loose, because as I thought of everything that has been given the definition of a roleplaying game across the dang cosmos, this was as good as I could get. The term is just overused. It is used to define both D&D and World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy and Diablo. The term is used to define Everyone is John, for goodness. It is no wonder that the term “RPG elements” is being thrown around so often, because roleplaying itself is so loosely defined. Therefore, I can take these two ways; I can either attempt to use this space to discuss all roleplaying games, in all instances; or I can break it down into the various other qualifiers that we’ve retroactively applied; tabletop, live action, console, Western, action, etc.
The second method seems the most sane, and I will likely take on each branch individually to go into more detail. However, I do want to look at the four things that are true in nearly all roleplaying games (not all; there really is very little that is common among everything known as a roleplaying game). Those four things are focus on character, a narrative, a randomizer, growth.
Control of a character is not that foreign of concept. Nearly all electronic games have you assume the role of an onscreen avatar or invisible persona, who the player commands to interact with the gamespace. This concept is a bit less common at the table, where the “role” that you’re assuming is less compulsory. In board gaming, you don’t usually assume you’re actually representing a character in the game; you play as yourself, trying to understand and manipulate the game in a way to win. You might have a pawn to differentiate you from the others, and you may even have a unique character name and set of abilities, but you aren’t roleplaying. You aren’t even really roleplaying when you’re playing a fighting game or a first-person shooter.
The step from playing to roleplaying is when the character becomes the focus of the interaction. When the point of play becomes less about winning the game and more, to any small degree, about exploring the character that is being controlled, the realm switches to roleplaying. Sometimes, you go full bore, such as in indie tabletop games, where the only important thing is acting as your character. But even in more aggressive tabletop campaigns and electronic gaming, the character still retains focus. Sure, you still want to “win the game;” but you want to do it with THIS character. You want to explore the strengths and weaknesses of this representation of an entity and see if you can make it work. While the things you control vary greatly from game to game, you are using the things you control about the character to drive the character the way you want him or her to go. It’s your persona in the game that you care about, that you are learning more about as you are guided through the narrative.
The narrative is also pretty important to roleplaying games, which isn’t unexpected. People are well aware how story can enhance a game, and you have a hard time finding a non-puzzle game nowadays that is intentionally storyless. What sets roleplaying games apart is how much of the control of the story is put in the hands of the player. The tabletop roleplaying games obviously cannot exist without the input of the players driving the story forward, and Western roleplaying games put a lot of the decisions of how the story will develop onto the player. Even in Eastern roleplaying games, while most have a linear story path, the player still control how much story is divulged through determining who you talk to and what information you learn. The plot may be on a rail, but the player determines when it occurs.
In roleplaying games, narrative is also necessary inherently. When the focus of the gameplay shifts to the character, it also becomes necessary to ask just what the character is doing. Who is he fighting, why is he fighting them, and how is he doing it. While it can be lost in the numbers and the random encounters, there's always the sense that you are doing this for some other reason besides the fun of it.
NOTE: The existence of rogue games and MMOs throws this argument a little, and it isn't unique to RPGs, so I'll like say more on this later.
Thirdly, nearly every single RPG has a randomizer element. By no means unique, many games require Lady Luck to create a bit of a challenge, but RPGs are the only game that are so forward about the fact. You can literally see the odds the majority of the time, and the fact that you can gauge when or if an action will work must be considered at all times. The randomizer is so prominent that skill itself takes a back seat; in RPGs, it doesn't matter if you did something perfectly, there is still a small chance that the roll of a die or a poorly-timed enemy attack will rip apart your plans.
This flaw is counterbalanced by the fourth common element, growth. In many RPGs, you are given the opportunity to increase your capabilities within the gameplay, usually as a reward for continued play. What capabilities improve and how vary, from being able to raise one of three statistics maybe a total of 20 times to having complete control over 50 different attributes that you need to watch and adjust constantly, but it’s nearly a guarantee that your character is going to be significantly stronger at the end of the game than at the beginning of the game.
Whenever you hear the term “RPG elements,” this is usually what they are talking about, a system of growth. Of course, a lot of games have growth anyway, but RPGs make it more explicit. You know when you’re going to get better, and how, because there are signs of progress everywhere. There are bars, gauges, and ever-increasing numbers that mark when you are going to improve. The mean-nothing terms “Experience Point” and “Level Up” are so commonplace now that people don’t even question exactly what is being talked about. How do you quantify experience? Why is it taken as rote that people only get better after they’ve crossed over a certain point, after they’ve acquired enough experience? Now, there are other systems that try to buck these trends, but for the most part, there will be some numbers, and those numbers are going to go up.
Of course, this focus on numbers and growth and experience brings up even more discussion, but we’ll skip it for now, and merely break down these four elements and reemphasis what almost all roleplaying games are. A roleplaying game is a story of someone who is going to get better, but you’re not sure how.
And frankly, isn’t that everyone’s story? Isn’t that what we hope will happen in real life? This is why I find roleplaying games so vital, so thrilling, because while other genres put a fair amount of emphasis on decay, dwindling resources, and fighting against entrophy, roleplaying games are always about things getting better. Not necessarily easier, but at the very least, better.
So, now that we’re officially back on the horse here (I apologize very briefly for the year long delay), let’s break this down by type, starting with the roleplaying subgenre that I started with: Japanese-style roleplaying games.
Roleplaying games are a contentious genre; there are those who love roleplaying games and refuse to play anything else, and there are people who absolutely hate them, as their influences continue to infect other genres. There are a lot of loaded mechanics that define if something is or is not a roleplaying game or just using RPG elements, so I’ll try to break down what defines an RPG.
A roleplaying game is any game in which the player is given control over a specific character or set of characters, and is driven through a narrative by an impartial source. The player will be able to determine the actions and/or attributes of the characters throughout, choosing what he sees as the appropriate response to the circumstances, and the resolution of these actions will be determined by some randomizer inherent in the game’s system.
Now, this definition is intentionally extremely loose, because as I thought of everything that has been given the definition of a roleplaying game across the dang cosmos, this was as good as I could get. The term is just overused. It is used to define both D&D and World of Warcraft, Final Fantasy and Diablo. The term is used to define Everyone is John, for goodness. It is no wonder that the term “RPG elements” is being thrown around so often, because roleplaying itself is so loosely defined. Therefore, I can take these two ways; I can either attempt to use this space to discuss all roleplaying games, in all instances; or I can break it down into the various other qualifiers that we’ve retroactively applied; tabletop, live action, console, Western, action, etc.
The second method seems the most sane, and I will likely take on each branch individually to go into more detail. However, I do want to look at the four things that are true in nearly all roleplaying games (not all; there really is very little that is common among everything known as a roleplaying game). Those four things are focus on character, a narrative, a randomizer, growth.
Control of a character is not that foreign of concept. Nearly all electronic games have you assume the role of an onscreen avatar or invisible persona, who the player commands to interact with the gamespace. This concept is a bit less common at the table, where the “role” that you’re assuming is less compulsory. In board gaming, you don’t usually assume you’re actually representing a character in the game; you play as yourself, trying to understand and manipulate the game in a way to win. You might have a pawn to differentiate you from the others, and you may even have a unique character name and set of abilities, but you aren’t roleplaying. You aren’t even really roleplaying when you’re playing a fighting game or a first-person shooter.
The step from playing to roleplaying is when the character becomes the focus of the interaction. When the point of play becomes less about winning the game and more, to any small degree, about exploring the character that is being controlled, the realm switches to roleplaying. Sometimes, you go full bore, such as in indie tabletop games, where the only important thing is acting as your character. But even in more aggressive tabletop campaigns and electronic gaming, the character still retains focus. Sure, you still want to “win the game;” but you want to do it with THIS character. You want to explore the strengths and weaknesses of this representation of an entity and see if you can make it work. While the things you control vary greatly from game to game, you are using the things you control about the character to drive the character the way you want him or her to go. It’s your persona in the game that you care about, that you are learning more about as you are guided through the narrative.
The narrative is also pretty important to roleplaying games, which isn’t unexpected. People are well aware how story can enhance a game, and you have a hard time finding a non-puzzle game nowadays that is intentionally storyless. What sets roleplaying games apart is how much of the control of the story is put in the hands of the player. The tabletop roleplaying games obviously cannot exist without the input of the players driving the story forward, and Western roleplaying games put a lot of the decisions of how the story will develop onto the player. Even in Eastern roleplaying games, while most have a linear story path, the player still control how much story is divulged through determining who you talk to and what information you learn. The plot may be on a rail, but the player determines when it occurs.
In roleplaying games, narrative is also necessary inherently. When the focus of the gameplay shifts to the character, it also becomes necessary to ask just what the character is doing. Who is he fighting, why is he fighting them, and how is he doing it. While it can be lost in the numbers and the random encounters, there's always the sense that you are doing this for some other reason besides the fun of it.
NOTE: The existence of rogue games and MMOs throws this argument a little, and it isn't unique to RPGs, so I'll like say more on this later.
Thirdly, nearly every single RPG has a randomizer element. By no means unique, many games require Lady Luck to create a bit of a challenge, but RPGs are the only game that are so forward about the fact. You can literally see the odds the majority of the time, and the fact that you can gauge when or if an action will work must be considered at all times. The randomizer is so prominent that skill itself takes a back seat; in RPGs, it doesn't matter if you did something perfectly, there is still a small chance that the roll of a die or a poorly-timed enemy attack will rip apart your plans.
This flaw is counterbalanced by the fourth common element, growth. In many RPGs, you are given the opportunity to increase your capabilities within the gameplay, usually as a reward for continued play. What capabilities improve and how vary, from being able to raise one of three statistics maybe a total of 20 times to having complete control over 50 different attributes that you need to watch and adjust constantly, but it’s nearly a guarantee that your character is going to be significantly stronger at the end of the game than at the beginning of the game.
Whenever you hear the term “RPG elements,” this is usually what they are talking about, a system of growth. Of course, a lot of games have growth anyway, but RPGs make it more explicit. You know when you’re going to get better, and how, because there are signs of progress everywhere. There are bars, gauges, and ever-increasing numbers that mark when you are going to improve. The mean-nothing terms “Experience Point” and “Level Up” are so commonplace now that people don’t even question exactly what is being talked about. How do you quantify experience? Why is it taken as rote that people only get better after they’ve crossed over a certain point, after they’ve acquired enough experience? Now, there are other systems that try to buck these trends, but for the most part, there will be some numbers, and those numbers are going to go up.
Of course, this focus on numbers and growth and experience brings up even more discussion, but we’ll skip it for now, and merely break down these four elements and reemphasis what almost all roleplaying games are. A roleplaying game is a story of someone who is going to get better, but you’re not sure how.
And frankly, isn’t that everyone’s story? Isn’t that what we hope will happen in real life? This is why I find roleplaying games so vital, so thrilling, because while other genres put a fair amount of emphasis on decay, dwindling resources, and fighting against entrophy, roleplaying games are always about things getting better. Not necessarily easier, but at the very least, better.
So, now that we’re officially back on the horse here (I apologize very briefly for the year long delay), let’s break this down by type, starting with the roleplaying subgenre that I started with: Japanese-style roleplaying games.
No comments:
Post a Comment