RPG elements?

FsEtNrDaEtR92 · Post by **FsEtNrDaEtR92** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 6:05 am

This term seems to enjoy being thrown around in the gaming universe, so much that the definition of the term changes constantly. If you do a google search (using the words "RPG elements") some of the first results are about Gears of War 3 possibly having RPG elements (God help us all). Games like Bioshock and Dead Rising claim to have these RPG elements that are little more than upgrades acquired through a currency that isn't physical money itself. Seeing these examples make me beg the question: what exactly qualify as legitimate RPG elements?

I feel that this "elements" can be divided into a few categories:
Growth
Statistics
Combat

Growth- Obviously implying abilities, skills, traits, or other similar terms often acquired through experience points. Obviously we've got the classic level system where you acquire enough xp to continue to the next level, and some involve raising skill levels separately. Either way, the character needs to have some method of growing stronger in stages.

Statistics- Actions within the game need to be determined by a set function of mathematics the affect the outcome of a certain situation. Dice rolls, skill checks, and all processes similar are determined strictly by numbers, not physical skill or ability. This may have conflict with Action-RPGs, but I hardly accept them as a legitimate branch as it's mostly an excuse for idiots to pretend that they know something about RPGs.

Combat- Combat should be based on a combination of the first 2 categories, the level and statistics applied to them affect the outcome of all situations within combat. Hits and misses, criticals, and other various attack should be a function of numbers.

I'd hardly call this the complete list of RPG elements, as there were some I wasn't sure to include such as storyline, character development, and setting, as most of these should be in a game anyway but are just more frequent in RPGs. Some other smaller subcategories included navigation and inventory, but are also in other types of games. However, I do believe all of these apply to an RPG as basic as Final Fantasy and as complex as say Fallout or the early years of Ultima and TES.

I'd like to get some more input on the subject as to what else qualifies for "RPG elements." It's pretty outrageous how developers can be seen as intelligent or great because they included a cheap upgrade system and called it an RPG element.

And yes, typing "RPG elements" 10+ times is just as aggravating as reading it.

CloudNineGT · Post by **CloudNineGT** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 11:45 pm

Any pen and paper game ought to spell this out pretty clearly.

RPG Element. Roleplaying.

Hammer · Post by **Hammer** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:13 am

Mass Effect was amazing.

Jesus Christ · Post by **Jesus Christ** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:20 am

You were not paying attention and stepped in something rotten.

-3 Perception.

Caleb · Post by **Caleb** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 3:16 am

Truth or Consequences.

popscythe · Post by **popscythe** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 6:59 am

Hammer wrote:Mass Effect was amazing.

8/10, you almost got me (because you're a wow fan and it's believable coming from you).

Hammer · Post by **Hammer** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:32 am

I'm actually not a WoW fan, I am a fan of PvP and WoW was all there was for the past 5 years.

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 7:35 am

tbh, I found WoW pvp to be horrible and shit. Did you ever look at Guild Wars? I loved pvp in that, till I burnt out on keeping up with the metagame.

Hammer · Post by **Hammer** » Tue Jul 28, 2009 5:45 pm

I also found WoW PvP to be shit in objectives. However movement, fluent and responsive actions as well made it fun to me.

I played guild wars, but, its lack of "MMO" turned me off to it. That and nothing really played like the warrior class from WoW.

Nothing about WoW is particularly amazing I agree, it's just all there was for MMO gaming for such a long, long time.

FsEtNrDaEtR92 · Post by **FsEtNrDaEtR92** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 6:00 am

I hear the PVP in Warhammer is really good, but I tend to avoid MMOs entirely.

Hammer · Post by **Hammer** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 6:29 am

I gave Warhammer a try and it was awful, Probably why it's down to 3 servers now.

jetbaby · Post by **jetbaby** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 7:46 am

Haha is it really?

Stainless · Post by **Stainless** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 9:27 am

ha, that's pretty funny. I stopped playing Warhammer a while back, some serious balance issues in that game, not to mention fuck all content.

Shitheap · Post by **Shitheap** » Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:48 pm

WoW is the only MMO out there I can think of that even has the potential for fun pvp. I played WAR for a month when it came out, it sucked, then I gave it another try just a few months ago, and it was better, but it was still about as fun as a bag full of rotting dicks.

I think it's the movement that's the handle. In WoW you're free to run around and stuff. You can do that in WAR too, but there are so many snares, and you bump in to other people and the ever-present lag, that it just feels slow, stilted, sluggish, and so on. Compared to WoW, in WAR you PvP like old people fuck. Not to mention that the entire game is based around it. If you don't do battlegrounds(I don't give a shit what they call them in WAR, scenarios or whatever the fuck), you'll take ages to level up and probably end up having to go to the elf area for want of quests.. Urgh..
In BC, it was the battleground grind that killed the game for me.

Battlegrounds and arenas, along with the death of world PvP, turned every aspect of the game in to a grind, rather than all but PvP. It was atrocious. Also it didn't help that the only class I played, the only class that ever partially interested me was Warlock, so I was on a roller coaster ride of going from piss weak to ridiculously powerful from month to month, because the devs were too busy jerking off in to wads of cash or something to do anything more substantial than just listen to the playerbase when making balance changes.

Superhaze · Post by **Superhaze** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 12:51 am

What the fuck are you talking about. The PvP in Warhammer is fucking aeons better than Wow. In pvp there issnt no-clip, so tanks etc. can, if done properly, form a shieldwall that is impossible to just run through. In turn this means that casters and healers actually need to stay back and count on a solid wall of tanks keeping them alive. If you have lag issues you have shitty internet issues.

All in all, your a dipshit. Secondly, I did play warhammer a while, wassnt my cup of tea, but seriously, how can anyone find Wow more amusing? Sure, there is a lack of content now, but compared to wow in its intitial no-expantions days, it is just as bad.

Shitheap · Post by **Shitheap** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 1:02 am

Superhaze wrote:What the fuck are you talking about. The PvP in Warhammer is fucking aeons better than Wow. In pvp there issnt no-clip, so tanks etc. can, if done properly, form a shieldwall that is impossible to just run through. In turn this means that casters and healers actually need to stay back and count on a solid wall of tanks keeping them alive.

Yeah, in theory. In practice it's just mindless AoE spam while all the classes that don't have an AoE to spam just take up space. I also imagined a wall of tanks turning the game in to some kind of violent rugby, but it just didn't happen. There are too few choke points and the playerbase isn't large enough to find hardcore players to actually coordinate with, so the battlegrounds are like a chicken coop, just like WoW, except the chickens are bumping in to each other.

Superhaze wrote: If you have lag issues you have shitty internet issues.

what
Are you sure we're talking about the same game? The interface itself is laggy, I've never met anybody who claimed to not have lag issues with that game.

Superhaze · Post by **Superhaze** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 1:12 am

User error.

Hammer · Post by **Hammer** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 7:00 am

Superhaze wrote:What the fuck are you talking about. The PvP in Warhammer is fucking aeons better than Wow. In pvp there issnt no-clip, so tanks etc. can, if done properly, form a shieldwall that is impossible to just run through. In turn this means that casters and healers actually need to stay back and count on a solid wall of tanks keeping them alive. If you have lag issues you have shitty internet issues.

All in all, your a dipshit. Secondly, I did play warhammer a while, wassnt my cup of tea, but seriously, how can anyone find Wow more amusing? Sure, there is a lack of content now, but compared to wow in its intitial no-expantions days, it is just as bad.

They both suck. WoW just sucks a wee bit less, and has about 10 million more people playing than WAR which has less than 30k now.

What a shame, I had high hopes for WAR too.

spacemoose · Post by **spacemoose** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:14 am

buttcutpsycho heh

Superhaze · Post by **Superhaze** » Thu Jul 30, 2009 8:36 am

I never said I had high hopes for War. I said I find it impossible to understand why people would prefer a shitty cartoon-adventure-grind, when they could play a slightly less shitty Warhammer-adventure-grind. srly!