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To be honest, I've never been quite the avid fan of RPG's that some of you, no doubt, are. I missed all the Final Fantasy games, and only managed to fit in a couple of Dragon Warrior and King's Quest games in between The Secret of Mana, and Zelda 64 and Skies of Arcadia.
But although i've never really taken to RPG's, turning to football and adventure games for my entertainment, there is definitely something special about them. It could be a lot of things... the moves, chracters, hype... but for me, it seems to be the storylines.
Like a book, RPGs seem to be able to absorb gamers into another world... something that can't be done by a Racers or Shoot 'em Ups. The sense of adventure is almost overwhelming, and no other genre can trigger the release of such emotions... tears, joy, happiness, shock, horror, disappointment.
I think everyone here, definitely over the age of 17, apreciates literature. It's not the sort of thing you 'take to' when you're young... but in a world full of pictures and sound, and technology on a silver platter, some of us oldies, like to sit down, and make our own worlds... how we want them. Now, although RPGs show you the world and don't let you create it, they do a good job of making it so un 'earth-like', that most of us wouldn't want it any other way.
Look at SOA... Moonstones? Flying Ships?... To the common man, that might seem like a joke... or at least something out of a fairytale, but to an RPG lover, it's perfect. It's unrealistic, therefore practically exempt from the limitations of a 'Physical World', it has great potential, and whadya know... it turned out to be one of, if not the best DC title out.
The one thing RPG games do lack, is multiplayer options... I know all about the MMORPG's (On-Line RPGs), but the isometric view of Legend of Mir doesn't quite enthrall you the same way a lush forest might do. Sega had the right idea with PSO, you could meet up with mates, destroy beasts in full 3D and have a chat at the same time. I know Mir is kind of 3D, and there are loads of features... but I know I'd prefer a co-op SOA On-Line to Mir anyday... maybe it's just a preferance.
Maybe it's just me... but RPGs seem to have everything going for them. People will never grow old of stories and fiction, in the same way they won't grow old of Role-Playing Games. Okay - maybe not to the same scale, but there might come a time where people just don't want to fight anymore. They don't want to race, they don't want slash demons with swords... but the burning desire for adventure will always be there... it's just human nature.
I suppose the next step is, indeed, Final Fantasy XI. Finally getting chance to play your friends from SR at a game... Take your three best friends from here... nay your 15 best freinds and go round in a group, doing whatever you want. The storyline is bound to be good, the graphics, amazing - the experience in general, undescribable. But RPG's will live on AFTER FFXI, maybe because they're timeless... Skateboarding is in, WWF is in, Centre Partings are Out and Asics trainers are out, but I don't think RPGs will ever lose their In-ness.
They're too good... and each one is different. Almost like a day in real life... no matter how many times you play the game, you'll take a slightly different route each time.
Of course, me praising RPGs is only an opinion... but one I would imagine quite a few people share.
Game
Add stuff if you want.... The Future of RPG games?
But although i've never really taken to RPG's, turning to football and adventure games for my entertainment, there is definitely something special about them. It could be a lot of things... the moves, chracters, hype... but for me, it seems to be the storylines.
Like a book, RPGs seem to be able to absorb gamers into another world... something that can't be done by a Racers or Shoot 'em Ups. The sense of adventure is almost overwhelming, and no other genre can trigger the release of such emotions... tears, joy, happiness, shock, horror, disappointment.
I think everyone here, definitely over the age of 17, apreciates literature. It's not the sort of thing you 'take to' when you're young... but in a world full of pictures and sound, and technology on a silver platter, some of us oldies, like to sit down, and make our own worlds... how we want them. Now, although RPGs show you the world and don't let you create it, they do a good job of making it so un 'earth-like', that most of us wouldn't want it any other way.
Look at SOA... Moonstones? Flying Ships?... To the common man, that might seem like a joke... or at least something out of a fairytale, but to an RPG lover, it's perfect. It's unrealistic, therefore practically exempt from the limitations of a 'Physical World', it has great potential, and whadya know... it turned out to be one of, if not the best DC title out.
The one thing RPG games do lack, is multiplayer options... I know all about the MMORPG's (On-Line RPGs), but the isometric view of Legend of Mir doesn't quite enthrall you the same way a lush forest might do. Sega had the right idea with PSO, you could meet up with mates, destroy beasts in full 3D and have a chat at the same time. I know Mir is kind of 3D, and there are loads of features... but I know I'd prefer a co-op SOA On-Line to Mir anyday... maybe it's just a preferance.
Maybe it's just me... but RPGs seem to have everything going for them. People will never grow old of stories and fiction, in the same way they won't grow old of Role-Playing Games. Okay - maybe not to the same scale, but there might come a time where people just don't want to fight anymore. They don't want to race, they don't want slash demons with swords... but the burning desire for adventure will always be there... it's just human nature.
I suppose the next step is, indeed, Final Fantasy XI. Finally getting chance to play your friends from SR at a game... Take your three best friends from here... nay your 15 best freinds and go round in a group, doing whatever you want. The storyline is bound to be good, the graphics, amazing - the experience in general, undescribable. But RPG's will live on AFTER FFXI, maybe because they're timeless... Skateboarding is in, WWF is in, Centre Partings are Out and Asics trainers are out, but I don't think RPGs will ever lose their In-ness.
They're too good... and each one is different. Almost like a day in real life... no matter how many times you play the game, you'll take a slightly different route each time.
Of course, me praising RPGs is only an opinion... but one I would imagine quite a few people share.
Game
Add stuff if you want.... The Future of RPG games?
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I don't have a beard... I hate Star Trek, and I've never had anything do with pixies!
Damn pixies... they've been stealing the teeth from under my pillow for 13 years, and blaming it on the fairies!
I'd have to have a beard.... how crap!
Damn pixies... they've been stealing the teeth from under my pillow for 13 years, and blaming it on the fairies!
I'd have to have a beard.... how crap!
*FM glances at his 4'2' poster of a scantily clad Rinoa Heartilly which hangs next to his J.R.R. Tolkien bookcase, strokes his beard, and wonders....*
I personally blame Tolkein for the multitude of beardy maniacs that inhabit Gameworlds the land over and look crazed at D20's and drink weak lemon drink from thermos.
I'm sure they're nice people, but they all have beards and like sci-fi fantasy things and have painted-posters of almost naked women draped with snakes and tigers and stuff on their cramped bedroom wall.
Not that I'm generalising or anything.
I'm sure they're nice people, but they all have beards and like sci-fi fantasy things and have painted-posters of almost naked women draped with snakes and tigers and stuff on their cramped bedroom wall.
Not that I'm generalising or anything.
Thus Sprake?
Best genre ever? - No.
My reasons are that they are generally all too similar.
They've all got that "Medieval, land of myth & magic, save the world and the Princess from the forces of darkness" thing going on. Which is fine, but when 99% of RPGs are based around this concept, it all becomes a little tiresome.
But hey, if you like that kind of thing, then I suppose you are sorted.
My reasons are that they are generally all too similar.
They've all got that "Medieval, land of myth & magic, save the world and the Princess from the forces of darkness" thing going on. Which is fine, but when 99% of RPGs are based around this concept, it all becomes a little tiresome.
But hey, if you like that kind of thing, then I suppose you are sorted.
Pixies.
Rubbish word (if amusing) for rubbish characters.
Who wants to be a pixie?
heh heh
Pixie
Rubbish word (if amusing) for rubbish characters.
Who wants to be a pixie?
heh heh
Pixie
RPG's have the right ideas, but why do they use them all on gnomes and magic and dwarves and wizards etc! Why??
Metal Gear Solid is a prime example of what I'm talking about. It combined the intensity of a 3rd person shooter, with stealth, and also the RPG element. It was very plot based, had lots of new, original ideas and so on.
I'm not a fan of RPGs, but I would be if they were stretched a little more. Deus Ex is another one, although not so much as it was an FPS game. I find most RPG's boring, just make them a bit more exciting!
Metal Gear Solid is a prime example of what I'm talking about. It combined the intensity of a 3rd person shooter, with stealth, and also the RPG element. It was very plot based, had lots of new, original ideas and so on.
I'm not a fan of RPGs, but I would be if they were stretched a little more. Deus Ex is another one, although not so much as it was an FPS game. I find most RPG's boring, just make them a bit more exciting!
Ok, jokes about beards aside, I really can't get on with RPGs.
I'm trying to understand why that is rather than just laugh and shout "BEARD" at beardy types that like beard games.
I think what it boils down to is that I don't have the time or patience to put into these games.
My life is complicated enough, and it's rare I get a moment to sit down with a game.
And when I do, I want immediate entertainment. That's why I love FPS games, stick disc in and off-you-go.
I just cannot bring myself to spend hours taking my Elf of Bwagsmangor to a sufficient level of attributes that I can take on the dragon beast of Fwapmingchapoo and retrieve the staff of Redbellendor.
And I know that's over-simplifying it but so what?
In my experience, RPG gamers are earnest folk (with beards) that spend ages arguing about whether orcs could defeat goblins if the hit points were balanced evenly and spells forbidden.
I've tried to get interested in this and I just can't.
It leaves me in tears of boredom and annoyance watching some Wood Pixie lose a fight because his defence points were lower than the Tree-Imp.
It doesn't matter that you've got a massive sword and some guns, if the elf knows the spell of mystor then you're done for.
Rubbish, not my sort of game.
Give me something with a heavily armed endomorph and aliens and I'm happy.
But the moment I hear the words "spells" or "pixies" or "dragons" my eyes grow heavy and I feel the need to grow a massive beard and play D&D and paint lead figures.
I'm trying to understand why that is rather than just laugh and shout "BEARD" at beardy types that like beard games.
I think what it boils down to is that I don't have the time or patience to put into these games.
My life is complicated enough, and it's rare I get a moment to sit down with a game.
And when I do, I want immediate entertainment. That's why I love FPS games, stick disc in and off-you-go.
I just cannot bring myself to spend hours taking my Elf of Bwagsmangor to a sufficient level of attributes that I can take on the dragon beast of Fwapmingchapoo and retrieve the staff of Redbellendor.
And I know that's over-simplifying it but so what?
In my experience, RPG gamers are earnest folk (with beards) that spend ages arguing about whether orcs could defeat goblins if the hit points were balanced evenly and spells forbidden.
I've tried to get interested in this and I just can't.
It leaves me in tears of boredom and annoyance watching some Wood Pixie lose a fight because his defence points were lower than the Tree-Imp.
It doesn't matter that you've got a massive sword and some guns, if the elf knows the spell of mystor then you're done for.
Rubbish, not my sort of game.
Give me something with a heavily armed endomorph and aliens and I'm happy.
But the moment I hear the words "spells" or "pixies" or "dragons" my eyes grow heavy and I feel the need to grow a massive beard and play D&D and paint lead figures.
I don't know why, but i'm actually looking forward to a Pokémon 3D Adventure RPG. Just like the cartoon, but an interactive one where you can interact with almost anything and, go to all the places in the series.
You have to admit, the Pokémon games have quite a future.....
Maybe i'm ill...
Game
You have to admit, the Pokémon games have quite a future.....
Maybe i'm ill...
Game
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