What Does "Old School RPG" Mean To You?
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But as much as Wizardry VII acted as a representative for (old school RPG) for me, it's hardly representative of even the games of its immediate era. It's really hard for me to really put my finger on what characterizes an (old school RPG) because seriously the genre was a lot more diverse 20 years ago than it is today (unless you include indies, who are really bringing that back).
Let's say you cut off (old school) at 15 years ago approximately the halfway point of the life of the genre to this point. Now, as of today this would actually disqualify Fallout, Baldur's Gate, and (by a hair) Diablo. What if we went a little further and just limited it to DOS-based games, eliminating the purely console games or the less popular games on other computer systems? Would there be any unifying characteristics that would set them apart from today's games, besides purely technological ones?
I'm really not sure. I played (and enjoyed) Al-Qadim: The Genie's Curse back in 1994 or so, and that was way more (action) than RPG, D&D license or not. As I've often mentioned, Ultima VII still my favorite RPG was almost ridiculously stats-light (and tactics-light) and story-heavy. The Elder Scrolls games are almost direct descendents of Ultima Underworld. You have a genre that encompasses Rogue, Starflight, Dungeon Master, the AD&D (Gold Box) games, Beyond Zork (marginally), Darklands, Twilight: 2000 (with a 3D tank (simulator) mini-game), Princess Maker (it was released for DOS, after all), Journey, Hillsfar, Space Rogue, Betrayal at Krondor, and. well, you get the idea.
