The thread on JRPGs dying made me think about what happened to adventure games, and also now what appears to be going on with RPGs. What had happened with adventure games, is first they went graphic adventure (see Lucas Arts and Sierra) and away from text adventures (and the community of text adventure fans lamented). Then, you had the likes of Zelda and other games to, that came along. The pure action title, which was seen in arcades, ended up getting puzzles in it, and a more detailed story refinement. Now, I see what people think of action titles, and they have puzzles in them and are story drive (rather than play for points). And the pure adventure genre has gone away for the most part.
I look into sports games. There was the pure sports sim and strategy game where people would select what their teams would do, and then they would do them. You did strategy and watched the results. Then Madden comes on the scene and transforms the football genre into an action title. Yes, you had stuff like Tecmo to, which you can bring up as evidence also, but the pure manager sim isn't really around any longer. Action is part of the day.
Puzzle games? Well, Tetris came along and now the norm for puzzle games are seen as action titles, where you do things under a timer, or pure dexterity. I would say, unlike adventure games, puzzle games still have things in them that aren't action-based, though. BUT, it does look like, through action, the arcade genre has been transformed, and it is still a move by the action genre into the area of puzzles.
Strategy games? The TOP strategy genre now is seen as "real time strategy". Outside of the likes of the Civilization series, strategy games that generate interest are in real-time and require players to respond quickly to what is going on. And there is also an increase focus to fuse FPS shooter into the mix, where a commander orders people into do things, and the players follow. Action is on the march again, with some staward holdouts remaining about for pure turn-based and less hectic action. But it still looks like the action genre is trying to adopt it.
Ok, I will say that "casual games" and boardgame and cardgame stuff seem a bit immune. The genres seem to be a place where stuff not depending on dexterity remain. However, I do see there is a distinct interest in coming up with action/dexterity versions of more popular casual game genres, like Tower Defense.
Now, take the RPG genre, which was people trying to simulate Dungeon and Dragons (and other systems on the computer). What you saw was first the games would copy the heart of the game, in a form that you see in traditional JRPGs where people commanded a party. JRPGs went more linear and built up the storyline more. And western RPGs went more sandbox in their approach. Then came a need to resolve things in real-time, and provide players timers to make decisions, and then came Gauntlet, and other action/arcade titles adding stat building.
From here, we hit this generation on consoles. What are the driving things we see as RPGs? Well, Bioware and Bethesda do games, which borrow from FPS. And Borderlands ends up sitting between RPGs and FPS boldly and doing well. And then you have other games taking elements from RPGs also. Modern Warfare ended up borrowing stat building, which is a hook for RPGs. And, seeing on this success, about every FPS game out needs to have leveling up and giving players more goodies to keep them playing. It looks like that the borrowing is in full effect here. Action genre ones more is on the march, and people are wondering if the traditional JRPG is dead... and file that asking is the pure RPG genre dead, and being replaced with a fusion hybrid.
Anyone here want to argue the case for or against this?
