RPG Report & Planescape: Torment

In article <yZSdndVKc-hG0EDanZ2dnUVZ_qainZ2d RemoveThis @comcast.com>, "boolWorm"
<zip> says...
> "Leo" <Anonymous RemoveThis @anonymous.com> wrote in message
> news:tpoot350u827ekitmndj9dgkvuaf1poqks@4ax.com...
>
> > I think a game can be both an adventure game and an rpg too,
> > both a strategy game and an rpg as well. But again, arguing over the
> > distinction misses the point.
>
> I would have to disagree, to the extent that words and labels matter. I
> appreciate that you think the "rpg" genre has drifted from what you want it
> to be, or what you like about it, but I can say the same thing.

No, it is you who are trying to claim the expression for your own little
sub-genre.

> It's just
> that you and I like different things, and I would consider what you like
> about rpgs to already have a perfectly servicable category: adventure game.
> Myself, I like stats and a good system of rules for battle and exploration
> and items etc. There is no existing game category which encompasses what I
> like, other than RPG. So I'm a bit disappointed when people hold up PS:T as
> the epitome of what they're looking for in an RPG, because what they like
> about it is its adventure game aspects rather than its RPG aspects.

Not at all, it is the RPG aspects that they like.

> The best stats based RPG of the past decade was Wizardry 8, but it's hard to
> find anybody who even appreciates the game from that perspective - even
> recognizes that it was well done.

I agree completely - arguable it was the culminating point of this sub-
genre - they fixed a lot of what was broken in previous Wizardry games.
The CRPG genre has moved on, though. Note that there is no Wizardry 9
in the offing.

- Gerry Quinn

"Gerry Quinn" <gerryq DeleteThis @indigo.ie> wrote in message
news:MPG.2248a2877731c27598977b@news.indigo.ie...
> In article <yZSdndVKc-hG0EDanZ2dnUVZ_qainZ2d DeleteThis @comcast.com>, "boolWorm"
> <zip> says...
>> "Leo" <Anonymous DeleteThis @anonymous.com> wrote in message
>> news:tpoot350u827ekitmndj9dgkvuaf1poqks@4ax.com...
>>
>> > I think a game can be both an adventure game and an rpg too,
>> > both a strategy game and an rpg as well. But again, arguing over the
>> > distinction misses the point.
>>
>> I would have to disagree, to the extent that words and labels matter. I
>> appreciate that you think the "rpg" genre has drifted from what you want
>> it
>> to be, or what you like about it, but I can say the same thing.
>
> No, it is you who are trying to claim the expression for your own little
> sub-genre.

It's the historical and well accepted meaning of the phrase "RPG". When a
non-RPG game is said to have "RPG" elements, everybody knows what that
means: stats, quantitative character advancement, and a ruleset governing
the use of those stats (generally, though not necessarily, combat-focused).

To use your literal parsing of RPG, we could look at vertical scrolling
shootemups, pinball games, and flight simulators. We're either role playing
a pilot of a Z-Wing Fighter, or a guy standing in front of a pinball
machine, or a pilot of a Cesna. Full stop, they're all RPGs.

So you see, "Role Playing" is too vague a term, and too general an idea, to
define anything. Was one not "role playing" in King's Quest?

Would what people liked about PS:T fit perfectly well within the adventure
game genre?

Of course it would.

The stuff about it that sucked was precisely the stuff that made it an RPG
rather than an adventure game.