Disclaimer: Prompted by watching WoW episode of Southpark As a sort of a gamer (not much anymore in my older age) I have always tried to understand the fascination of RPGs. While looking at them the surface, I could get excited about the plot, but then actual game play is just so blah to me. My brother in law, a few years ago, had phantasy star online and would stay up countless hours playing this game, and all I had ever seen was his character walking around and talking to other characters?! I was like, what is the point of the game? Rescue the princess? Defeat the evil empire? What? On the other hand, I've always been into ea sports, 2k sports, action/adventure games, fighting games, windows card games, FPS games like Half-Life 2 are great to play, too! So I want to know, what's the fascination with them, how did you get into them, and for an interested person, how to approach one? Also, what in the heck is a MMO?
I really haven't done much RPG except for Final Fantasy. For me it's all about really getting involved in the story. I really don't care about the battles except that they give you a sense of accomplishment. It makes you have to work to get through the story and helps to attach you more to the characters. The first RPG I did was FFVII for PC. I got tired of the battles and found a patch that basically set all my opponents hit points to zero, thus negating most battles. I just wanted the story. MMO means Massive Multiplayer Online. That's what World of Warcraft is. A bunch of people playing a game in a huge online virtual world.
MMO = Massive Multiplayer Online (Role Playing Game) I think people like them because it is something you can be very good at without putting any real physical effort into. The obsession with it is purely greed, to get more from the game, since MMORPG's usually are always getting bigger and more expansive, thus people play them longer to get whatever they want with blatant disregard to the outside world
An MMO is just like how they had WOW in the southpark episode. It's a Massively Multi-player Online game. Basically thousands of players on a server playing at the same time. As for the fascination of role-playing games, I think there's a couple reasons for it: 1. There's something intrinsically appealing about playing a character, gaining experience and leveling up. 2. RPG's (especially off-line rpg's like Final Fantasy) have some kind of storyline that gives you a more in-depth gaming experience. 3. As for the MMO rpg's, seems to me that the people who play, appreciate the ability to compete/cooperate with a large number of human opponents/allies. Where they can team up to do missions or fight each other.
I like them. Regular single player rpg's are fun because of a story line, seeing it through, building up the character or group of characters as I go. Plus in my own geekiness If there is a group of 5 or 6 in the game I always name them after Rockets, and that adds a level of amusement to see Hakeem, or Yao whooping ass, interrogating someone roughly or picking pockets on someone. A lot of times some of the conversations and things that the writers throw into the game are funny. I don't like all RPG's just the ones that I think are clever and engaging. The MMORPG's I like for different reasons. It is fun exploring something new, because the worlds are huge. There is A TON of stuff to uncover, discover, and master. It takes time, and can be very suspenseful and nerve racking but fun. Add into that the fact that you have to figure out how to work with other folks, and what each person's role is, design a strategy of what works best for you, as well as what works best for the group, and the cooperation needed to get things done is a blast. It is another challenge, that other games don't offer. The games are always growing and changing, and are so long term(infinitely) that you can set big goals and work to achieve them over long periods of time. Plus if the people you meet in the game have amusing personalities that is another pleasure. I've played Star Wars Galaxies, Everquest, EQ2, WOW, and Vanguard. WoW is fun, but requires the least strategy to be successful, and Vanguard requires the most, and also has different games within the game that really add a huge amount of content. The online games just have more content than other games. I like other games as well. I play some FPS, sports games, and the occasional platform game. But I like the RPG's most of all. Maybe I'm a nerd but so be it.
Though I don't play (and have never played) an MMORPG, I do like RPGs. I've never played them primarily because I've never had the hardware to run them....or any decent PC game for that matter. To me, it relates directly to the kind of movies and books that are my favorite genres: the Lord of the Rings-type wizards, dragons, and knights in shining armor killing hordes of baddies against-all-odds that catches my interest. Count Star Wars as well. Similarly, I've always loved to read anything from mythology and folklore I can get my hands on. Fantasy, to me, is an off-shoot of mythology, both of which have always been profoundly more interesting to me than....real life. And, yes, teachers always accused me of day-dreaming. Go figure. Edit: And what FranchiseBlade said above.
All of my coworkers were deep into WoW when it first came out. I bought it, played for about 2 hours and hated it. Having to listen to them talk about it constantly turned me away from the game even more. The only RPG I've ever liked was Dragon Warrior on NES.
I could only play certain RPGs. Unless the story was really really engaging I couldn't get into it.. cause i had a small video game attention span.. which is why I prefer sports games and FPS, etc WoW is a little different though because it allows you to go the fantasy/adventure route or to do the action/versus thing..
I had a love/hate relationship with WoW. I think I would have liked it a lot better if it were not an MMO, and you could just replace all of the other players with NPCs. I always found it very frustrating to try to find a group to go into instances with, and then when you did find a group it was constant b****ing about who wasn't doing their job well enough. Then you get into situations where a bunch of people are trying to get the same loot, and you end up getting nothing out of the whole instance and you have to find another group to start the whole process over again. I liked it better when I was just going solo.
I never really liked RPGs in my entire life not even Final Fantasy which is boring to me because it has no real gameplay just long tiresome battles that have no result. See I'm more into the action adventure genre like God of War, Grand Theft Auto 3 which I think is more RPG than just sandbox especially San Andreas where you have to level up the character to unlock hidden maps, weapons, clothing. Even the whole turf war element is taken straight from RPG. Anyway last year I bought an Xbox 360 and convinced myself to buy Oblivion because it looked so good in the trailer. Well I can now say I am finally hooked on RPGs because Oblivion is totally what I want in a game. Epic setting, massive exploration, open ended battle system, numerous quests. I just love this game and have being playing it for a long time now. In the future I am looking for this kind of RPG game and recently I saw trailer of White Knight Story which to me looks fabulous with a customized and integrated fight system and the palette idea is just too good to be true. Can't wait for this game on my PS3.
rpgs are my favorite genre of video games, but it's really hit or miss with me. Rpgs and madden are the vast majority of what I play. funny you bring up PSO because that was one of the games I got most addicted to and will probly be the only rpg I'll ever play online, but it was definitely fun for a while. As for what I look for ... the two main things I look for are story and battle system. I don't think I've ever really gotten into a rpg that had a bad battle system. On the other hand, I've looked over some blah stories because of great battle systems. When I actually want to find battles to level up my character or find some loot, or I just like beating up the baddies, then I know it's a good battle system. The other things I look for are characters, graphics, and to a smaller extent, music and presentation. Some of my favs of this past gen include GC: Paper Mario, both Baten Kaitos games, Tales of Symphonia PS2: Dragon Quest 8, Kingdom Hearts, FF12, all of the Grandia games, Dark Cloud 2
man nothing gets me hotter when me and the girlfriend play roles. Jesus do I love a nurse outfit. Ohh wait, wth are we talkin about here?
So.......is Oblivion a good place to start? I may try it again, because, like I said, reading some of the story lines become captivating, but then the game itself was so boring, maybe it was just the one's I've played. Like one poster said, "a good battle system" would probably entice me to give one a go. I do happen to think that GTA is more RPG than action adventure, which is why I think I could like the genre, is it has enough action in it. So........is Sims a RPG? Or a Sim? I liked Roller Coater Tycoon when I had it sometime ago. The simulation genre is altogether something different, no?
There's a lot of overlap now. Action games have been incorporating RPG elements the past few years and vice versa.
There's a big difference between an RPG and an MMORPG. MMORPG almost always end up being teaming up with people or getting the coolest weaponry and armor in the game. I played WoW for a while, but got bored with it. The best games I've ever played are probably true RPG's (as opposed to MMORPG's). A good RPG out now may be Neverwinter Nights 2. It's you against the machine - you don't have to worry about dufus 12 year olds that can barely spell RPG muchless play one, or ones that steal stuff from you or get your entire party/group killed by doing something stupid.
Personally, I like offline RPGs because the story keeps the game from being too repetitive. And I hate shooting/fighting games where each level is basically the same as the last. Sure, this is also the case in RPGs, but it's a lot less noticable with story-breaks. In addition, I am very bad at anything that requires quick reflexes and concentration. All of which makes RPG so suitable for someone like myself. MMORPGs never really caught my attention though. Right now, I only play Madden and offline RPGs.
oblivion is a great game to play cause you can save any time and it has a ton of stuff to do. a hundred times better than online crap that you pay for and have to do **** you dont want to do. in oblivion you can just rob houses and murder people for the hell of it.
Agreed. I love RPGs also because they are like the books i prefer to read(Fantsy). The only MMORPG is Guild wars, and i usually play them al;one, not with people online. I really hate it when some anoying kid does something stupid, and i hate it even more when people start having arguments with each other. A lot of people in those MMORPGs are very inmature. The RPG i liked best are Baldurs gate 1+2. i also liked Fable. I really want to play Neverwinternights 2, but my pc is not good enough
