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Okay people, here is a question, What are your thoughts on the current RPG situation going on. With a lot of game developers going under, and the genre slowly being overtaken by a false genre, what do all of you suppose will happen in the near future with CRPG's and RPGs alike.

Doesn't look like there will be any future. I'm sure after a few years it'll come back big with some new game set in the dragonlance setting. But then again if NWN does really good, then things could change.

I think the future is not yet clear. There are NWN and Pool of Radiance, along with Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. However, with the financial problem that Interplay is having, and its acquistion by Titus Interactive, it's a little unsettled.

The near future looks pretty good with the release of PoR and NWN. However, history may repeat itself. Remember the GoldBox games, they were good, but it got old, and bad titles got released, RPGs kind of faded for a while. Then it was brought back into the gaming industry. Can the same thing happen twice? Well, the two time periods certainly are similar. Both started with a lot of good RPGs, but I certainly hope they will not end the same way.

Original posed by ThorrinOakenShield:
But then again if NWN does really good, then things could change.

I agree, NWN will probably change the way people play CRPGs. However, if history repeats itself, then all the good RPG we will have during the "sleepy" years will get made as modules by talented DMs.

I feel that due the time I've been playing games, I've seen that the game becomes more and more action-like.

For instance it is hard to get a good adventure game anymore, I remember games like Pandoras Directive, Under a killing moon, Bladerunner etc. Mostly these days it is FPS-games or Hack n' Slash or fast RTS games.

I feel this is a trend that will continue, because as game-consols gain larger market shares the PC-developers will try to get into that "gametype" these consols are used for, on the cost of the more "normal" PC genres, like Adventure, Strategy and RPG's.

(IMO)

I've always been a console gamer, loyal to the Nintendo brand. Until the Gamecube is released, my PC will remain as my source of gaming entertainment.

My friends have also expressed similar views, however we have always regarded the PC as being a source to the specialist type genres. Such as online stratergy, simulation and of course the RPG.

Most games today, are developed to be able to suit onto consoles. Such as Quake 3 etc. Until the release of the X-Box and the Gamecube, developers will continue to feel insecure about the future of the PC as a gaming source. RPG's rarely sell on console with few exceptions, FF and Zelda series to name a few.

RPG's have only been really popular on the PC, and with the release of future consoles being a few months away. Developers will focus more onto the other genres. A good example is of BG: Dark Allience on PS2 which is more action oriented.

It seems that the RPG genre itself is slowly changing because of misinformation, and what people want them to be. If you look at the current RPG line-up, how many of them are Hack'n'Slash? One hell of a lot. It's a trend that is begining to worry me, and the future of my gaming, because everything is becoming more action orientated, even sports games! People are crying out for more death, blood, gore, and sex appeal, and by doing so, they are killing every other genre for every one else. I say that, because when the "mob" wants something, developers have to listen, because they are the general gaming crowd. Nowadays, everything is become go kill that, go shoot this, and RPG genres are suffering the most because of it. If this trend continues, in the next ten years, we may not even have anything that can be called a "true" RPG...

In 10 years time, we wont have real strategy games and adventure games either.
FPS, RTS and Hack n' Slash.

Hopefully I'm proven wrong (it might take 11 years )

Well maybe MMPORPG will survive

MMORPGs are mostly action-oriented too. Most people who play RPGs online are only playing because they want to level up. It seems to me that the general gaming crowd is powergaming.

It's like an Freudian theory. Because you can't get any real significant power in real life, you try to get power from other sources. That to me would explain powergaming.

The Frission of RPG and action game has already begun look at Deus Ex, every review etc. i read claimed it was an RPG, does anyone think it is an RPG?

I am an action gamer for cheap (yeah right) thrills, i like blowing things up every so often, but i also played games like Grim Fandango. Grim Fandango is an interesting example, because everyone claimed that genre was dead, but then suddenly it starts a mini revival and then of course that genre died again.

Baldurs gate did a similar thing, creating a market again for RPGs and then there were a slew of cash in's. it would not surprise me if the RPG market dies during the next year and then ressurects with the release of NWN.

The problem as i see it with RPGs - from a producers standpoint - is that one has to spend most of the time writing plot and characters, where as in FPS's and other such games there is no need for plot or character interaction. The RPG will always be the less cost effective, and as always with these things, it comes down to money.

[ 09-02-2001: Message edited by: Mr Sleep ]

Originally posted by Mr Sleep:
<STRONG>The Frission of RPG and action game has already begun look at Deus Ex, every review etc. i read claimed it was an RPG, does anyone think it is an RPG?
<snip>
</STRONG>

No it wasn't - it was a great FPS, but not a RPG

Deus Ex is an action game with RPG elements implemented in it. Such elements include character development, non-linear story, etc. The way I see it is that in a few years, there would not be a hardcore RPG game anymore. The RPG genre will blend in with everything else, it has already begun, with Deus Ex.

Originally posted by Xandax:
<STRONG>No it wasn't - it was a great FPS, but not a RPG </STRONG>

I whole heartedly agree with you, but unfortunately today. If a game plot isn't linear, then it becomes stereotyped as a RPG. It would seem that the Adventure genre was the first to disappear.

Just look at any of Lucas Arts earlier games, such as Day Of The Tentacle. They aren't RPG's but are stereotyped as being such.

Well, that's just my opinion.

Originally posted by Tamerlane:
<STRONG>I whole heartedly agree with you, but unfortunately today. If a game plot isn't linear, then it becomes stereotyped as a RPG. It would seem that the Adventure genre was the first to disappear.
</STRONG>

Non-liniar, and the option of choosing if you will shoot better with sniper or shotgun - then it is a RPG, because you can choose to go right or left and develop your character *pfeee*
Actually I still think Deus Ex was pretty liniar. But still I loved it (as a FPS )

I miss good adventure games *sob*