What is an RPG?

[Mnementh]

Jumpin said:

Mnementh said:

Who the fuck does that? There were tons of video game RPGs before DQ. Dragon Quest released 1986. As I wrote before, the first video game RPGs released the same year as D&D, the game they copied: 1974. Early games were dnd, m199h, pedit5, Dungeon. Games on the Plato-system (which had some advanced capabilities) pushed graphic capabilities for RPGs, namely in moria (which had wireframe 3D dungeons) and avatar. All these games and their inspiration D&D had such an impact, that basically every student with coding abilities tried their own games, by 1980 existed many games, many of them lost now, but back then circulated in the early internet. 1980 released two other highly influental RPGs. In this year released rogue (you may have heard the name in the context of the rogue-like genre) and Akabaleth: World of Doom, which was the predecessor to the Ultima series. Dominating the early 80s were Ultima and Wizardry, and they were indeed more than prototypical, otherwise they wouldn't have been such a success. And yes, Dragon Quest pushed the borders further, but anyone saying it is the first RPG or even close too is really ignoring the rich history of RPGs.

Cool, you can ignore that sentence then if you don’t like it. The rest of what you’re saying is just kinda re-articulating my point following that statement, so I don’t object to it. But, I’m basing it off of numerous conversations I’ve had on the topic of “what is an RPG?” And many (I’d even say most) weren’t aware of RPGs before Dragon Quest  - granted, it was years ago now, back from when people were calling Ocarina of Time an RPG, so that line may be out of date.

I think it is a generational thing. Gen Z probably is not aware of games you recognize as classics. DQ is still around, but some series aren't anymore. And yeah, some might not know much about RPGs and DQ is the oldest they heard about, but for other it actually may be Baldur's Gate the oldest. I for instance when I played Baldur's Gate I hadn't even heard about Dragon Quest. I knew about the existance of the Gold box RPGs and Ultima though. It might be down to the question if your gaming experience stems mostly from console or PC. As a kid and in my youth I was a PC gamer, console was this mythical space that somehow existed with worse inputs and graphics and lesser games and ideas. After the 90s though I fell somewhat off of gaming, and it was Wii and DS that pulled me back in, now from the console side of things.

So a gamer who started out on console might have heard about DQ, but not about Baldur's Gate or Gold Box, while a PC gamer might know these but never heard of DQ. And future generation might not know either.