Role Playing Games.

[Darkandroid]

RPG, role playing game.
If an RPG is defined by it's name, all games are RPGs.
In Super Mario, you control Mario.
In LoZ, you control Link.
In Gradius, you control the pilot of the ship.

but we've come to think that RPG = Fantasy game where there is magic and such.

My question to you, dear Ninjas, is this:
Could any game be called an RPG?

[Rose]

No, it couldn't. Would you consider Madden an RPG?

[TribulatioN]

What about Solitaire?
Cause I really doubt the role of being the player flipping the cards count.

[Darkandroid]

No, it couldn't. Would you consider Madden an RPG?

You're playing in the role of a coach aren't you?

What about Solitaire?
Cause I really doubt the role of being the player flipping the cards count.

eh, depends on how you look at it.

[TheSeer]

I've come to think of RPGs as games where you control your character's development.

e.g. Fallout 3 which doesn't have any magic n' stuff in it.

[Atilla]

but we've come to think that RPG = Fantasy game where there is magic and such.

What? No. That's certainly common, but there are also plenty of sci-fi RPGs. The Fallout series, Knights of the Old Republic and d20 Modern, for example.

Anyway, with regard to computery RPGs, they're mostly defined by a focus on story and character development, whereas Mario is focused on jumping on turtles. I expect protests from PETA any day now.

[Luminaflare]

Either way the term RPG was coined before the likes of zelda and final fantasy, I mean the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons came out 1974.

[29403]

Since I don't like RPG's, I'm going for no.

[MattKestrel]

I'm glad this isn't called RPG's, otherwise I'd say no being the pedantic person I am. Not all games are rocket propelled grenades. Disturbing world image.

However, I definitely agree that all video games have you playing some kind of role. Even passive mediums like TV have you playing the role of the viewer. In fact, are there any instances in the universe at all where someone does not assume a role to fulfil an action? Isn't that basically the definition of physicality, or language for that matter?

[Yoshimo]

Yes and no, but more no.

Every game requires you to play the role of something or someone. 'True RP's, as I like to call them, have a good degree of cause and effect, large plot, items, and characters, lots. TRP's don't need to have battle systems, nor level ups. It could just be something like harvest moon withot the farming and more plot added in. While TRP's gain more 'RP' points for having level ups, it is in no way required to be in a TRP. It just gives you the feeling of 'Oh hey, I just got a bit stronger due to my hard work, just like real life!'. It certainly is, however, a common stereotype that all RPG's are fantasy swords and spells, but that because the first TRP was dungeons and dragons, a game set in medival magic worlds. Super Mario RPG is not a TRP, but just an RPG because it is missing all the cause and effect, just as if you were walking in place, instead of walking where you want to go. I just recently got my windows machine to work, and I am enjoying a great TRP, Badlur Gate II: Shadows of Amn. It has massive plot, a large array of items, the optional EXP system, being able to create your own team, adding new NPC party members to your team by doing quests, even the stereotypical fantasy and magic, and I'm not saying tat that's bad. While you can 'beat' the game, a TRP can never be actually beaten, as there is so much more you can do afterwards. I do hope that this opens your eyes to the wonderful world of TRPs, as I call them anyway.

[Tanner]

This is hilarious. When I sit down at the computer and rock out a couple rounds of Mahjong (you know, on account of my being seventy) the only role that I'm playing is my own. The only way that you can say that every game is an RPG is if you say that every board and card game is an RPG as well. Hell, you're going to have to say that life is an RPG.

[MattKestrel]

Hell, you're going to have to say that life is an RPG.

That's exactly what it is. We all fill out roles at every single moment in our life, it's the nature of humanity. To be fair, not every game is a role-playing-game in the conventional sense, but every game has you playing some kind of role, the player.

I suppose the major debate is over what we can call a role-playing game in the conventional sense, i.e. as it's being used in the industry. So I'll stop being pedantic, and leave it that not every game has the mechanics of something like Oblivion or WoW.