by Protagonist X » Mon May 12, 2003 1:52 pm
Two definitions to clarify, then.
First, by "do not move," I'm thinking of the Final Fantasy series, Bard's Tale, etc. In this, the genre is mostly suffused with games that are (to me) like some Pavlovian experiment with a rat in a Skinner box. I feel when playing FF or Bar'd Tale as though a food pellet will drop out of the disk drive after X number of spacebar presses. OR whatever keys they're mapped to on a Playstation. In this, your friend is pretty much correct.
As a side note, the second definition is RPG: what games qualify, and which ones don't? Your character moves in Fallout, but it's turn based and not real time. Position does matter on the board for certain weapons, though. Parasite Eve is an RPG with an arcade component -- one "moves" in combat, around the thing being fought. Ditto Panzer Dragoon Saga. Baldur's Gate is in real time, and the SSI D&D RPG, the "Gold Box" games, are like Fallout: turn based, but moving is in some sense integral.
So in summary: I'm tempted to agree with your friend, but we'd need to know more about which games are considered RPGs and which aren't, as well as a truly comprehensive listing of RPG titles to compare the criteria against. These two things would give us a conclusive answer.
Am I the right person to answer either of these?
No. I know next to nothing about RPGs as a group -- just some trivia about a few games I've played. And for that matter, I've never managed to play any of the Final Fantasy series on any platform.
Two definitions to clarify, then.
First, by "do not move," I'm thinking of the Final Fantasy series, Bard's Tale, etc. In this, the genre is mostly suffused with games that are (to me) like some Pavlovian experiment with a rat in a Skinner box. I feel when playing FF or Bar'd Tale as though a food pellet will drop out of the disk drive after X number of spacebar presses. OR whatever keys they're mapped to on a Playstation. In this, your friend is pretty much correct.
As a side note, the second definition is RPG: what games qualify, and which ones don't? Your character moves in Fallout, but it's turn based and not real time. Position does matter on the board for certain weapons, though. Parasite Eve is an RPG with an arcade component -- one "moves" in combat, around the thing being fought. Ditto Panzer Dragoon Saga. Baldur's Gate is in real time, and the SSI D&D RPG, the "Gold Box" games, are like Fallout: turn based, but moving is in some sense integral.
So in summary: I'm tempted to agree with your friend, but we'd need to know more about which games are considered RPGs and which aren't, as well as a truly comprehensive listing of RPG titles to compare the criteria against. These two things would give us a conclusive answer.
Am I the right person to answer either of these?
No. I know next to nothing about RPGs as a group -- just some trivia about a few games I've played. And for that matter, I've never managed to play any of the Final Fantasy series on any platform.