| Draven26 said: See now I understand that but if you get technical "role playing game" technically means game where you play a role. I think in that definition just about every game released is a role playing game |
I believe there are pen and paper RPGs where you don't improve your stats, but you do play a role, like in some superhero game systems (Champions perhaps?). In this case, it is very likely one can argue that any videogame with a character about is a "role playing game".
Anyhow, I would like to see someone lay out an agreeable definition to what is an RPG, and see if that definition can get torn down. I would have to then argue, a game where you manage a team of characters and improve their stats, has a hard time being a "role playing game", because you are MANAGING a group of characters, rather than playing a single one. HOWEVER, such games usual do an emulation of pen and paper RPGs (like D&D) that then ones where you play a single character. If one sees the history of pen and paper RPGs, one sees how this came about.
On this, I should bring in an MGS4 reference. To me, MGS4 feels like a great EMULATION of a movie. This emulation of a movie is akin to what I believe the manage a party videogame "RPG" is like. It looks like someone is running an RPG, but is it really? MGS4 is a great emulation of a movie, but would anyone argue it is a movie?
As far as something being an RPG because players advance a story, that sounds like any form of interactive fiction, including adventure games, and not just RPGs (this is a response to another post).
