I don't really like multiple endings that much. If you end up with a lackluster one (like you can with GTA IV), you kinda spoil all the tension and drama you've built up throughout the course of the entire game. Playing it over to see a cutscene ruins the suspense of disbelief and the sense of immersion, and I don't understand why you would, play an entire game, to essentially see a video clip.

That's why I loved Persona 4, it had 4 endings I think (maybe 5, not sure, but they were at least 4), but you could see them all in one playthrough, so you didn't have to replay the game

It's clear you have NO experience with Western RPGs other than the dumbed-down Console releases. A choice is not a choice without consequence. Classes give you nothing but the most superficial changes in the gameworld, except in a few games (Mass Effect isn't one of the exceptions).

What it means to make a choice in a videogame is to actively change the game's world. In Fallout 2, if you killed children you would be labeled as a child-killer and be oucasted by many of the NPCs and even whole villages, and the bounty hunters would track you down just to kill you. Now THAT is a real choice!

I don't see how the platform matters, I'm sure they can implement that child killer thing easily. In Oblivion the guard occasionally brings up your murdering tendancies.

I don't get why a game is good if it has choices and consequences. Are "pick your own stories" books better than conventional novels?

When you play Fallout, do you play as yourself? If so, then are you truly roleplaying? Are you playing as an evil or good character? Isn't that a very cliche and shallow thing (but accepted by the likes of Fable)? Are you playing as an dashing rogue or Paladin? Aren't those all just pre-made characters, like JRPGs, except they lack the soul of a back story and personalities?

I totally grasp the concept of choice, which I don't think you understand. All of your choices from Mass Effect will spill out into the next game. In Mass Effect you can decide to let criminals live and hide in exile, continue criminal activities, gambling and more, but if you turn on them you'll have to take them out or have them arrested (This all depends on what level your speaking skills are on renegade or paragon). Consequences exist man. Mass Effect is approaching things differently, which I think is cool. In the end you either have the Paragon or Renegade ending (I wont talk about them in depth and your decisions in the ending which will affect the next game). I must play Fallout game though.

Thats pretty badass. Were the endings in cinematics or were they written out? :)

*See bold *

Actually...no. You don't play as you, but you are playing as a character whom you become and control. You have the choice to be evil or good which brings consequences whether they are on a large scale or even a small one. It's not cliche in shallow...what is cliche is having 17 year old teenagers running around in metrosexual outfits. Humans will never be afraid of choice. Choice is what makes our lives turn out the way they do. I created my character in Mass Effect, so I cannot relate that game to any JRPG i've played. They do have a pre-made character. In JRPG's you're on a one track rollercoaster, while in WRPG's you face the open world. It's not just about upping your power, it's about playing the role in becoming the character. I hope this helps. :)

WRPGs because I like guns, people with regular hairdos, and non-flaming characters.

The only difference between you and the character in WRPGs are abilities. It is very interesting and novel to play an WRPG for the first time, where you can examine yourself through your actions especially if you played in earnest and picked choices just because you wanted to (instead of getting Ending A, or being able to look all cool and evil looking like in Fable). I remember, the first WRPG I played, Deus Ex, I always randomly stole from the ATM machines without a care in the world. But I remember when I stole from an ATM in a run down hotel, and then read a file later in the same hotel, that revealed that the money was from the struggling hotel owner, I realized the magnitude of my actions (as you said earlier).

That's really cool. But then once you become a regular WRPG player the magic is gone, just like when I first played a MMO as a 12-3 year old kid. You wake up in this virtual world and there's so much mystery and unknowns, but as soon as you figure the world out, you reveal to yourself that it's just another virtual world, and it breaks the suspense of disbelief, and you just start reading faqs on how to level the best character on Oblivion, or in the case of MMO's asking for buffs and using slang terms.

As for JRPG cliches. The argument I'm going to make is this. WRPG's aren't as good as JRPGs, not because I played all of the games from both genres and judged which has a better average score. There may be very well many cliched and horrible JRPGs (especially as a lot of them are low budget ones now). The argument I instead make is that WRPGs are not as good as JRPGs due to their nature and characteristics, which cannot be changed without changing the genre/name itself.

WRPGs, force you to either play as yourself, or play as a character you create. Those characters that we create are usually cliche, but that isn't necessarily part of the nature of WRPGs. Even still, if we create a very unique character, with traits and a moral code, there's no foundation to back such a wonderful character up. No history, no bad guy you can create, no fellow characters you can create, quests, etc. All you are given are a main quest, and side quests. That is why some people have described WRPGs as "soul less". Just like role playing in a MMO, we have to pretty much use every ounce of imagination to be able to step into a unique character and immerse yourself in it. Can you play as a man seeking for revenge because your family and house got burned down in Oblivion? No, you have to start from a sewer. Can you find that person who destroyed your life? No. You can only save the world from Oblivion gates and do side quests that don't relate to the character what so ever.

It's awesome if you play as yourself, because then everything does relate to YOU. But then you're not roleplaying as well, and the novelty and suspense of disbelief wears off, and there's no reason to play another WRPG unless you keep changing as a person (which we do).

Whereas in JRPGs, they create a character for you, and the entire game backs that character up with a foundation of quests, cut scenes, scripted events that relate to it. And it manages to immerse you into that character and play as someone you aren't. If you don't actually feel like you're Cloud Strife or Squall Leonheart, then JRPGs either fail to immerse you, or you're not the type of person that gets immersed by JRPGs.

And yes it's a roller coaster. But again, if you play as yourself, it's the same thing. If you don't mind stealing, you'll keep stealing in any WRPG game. If you like killing, you're going to keep killing people in every WRPG. If you play as an "evil", "good", Han Solo-esque, etc character you're doing exactly what JRPG does, except to a very lesser degree, and without any foundation to really back up you up and develop that character.

The best WRPG for me, is a game that will change my very soul, personality, and moral code, by questioning it, even if I know that ultimately know it was a game. This isn't done by just having people call me murderer after I kill someone, or even that awesome momment in Deus Ex I described earlier. Because the only thing I got out of Deus Ex was that when I play WRPGs or video games in general, I shut off my Super Ego, and do whatever I wanted to. I already know that I am a selfish bastard, and that I only restrain myself for society and law. So the next WRPG I play better make me realize something I already didn't know.

Akvod:

...Hm.

I'll recommend Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords.