Stereotypes Within RPGs

by Greg Campbell

Most people don't think of RPGs as stereotypes, or that they would have stereotypes within them. But these stereotypes often are required for an RPG to do as well as it does.

The first example, and proof to my point is Experience/Exp/XP. Most RPGs have a system of experience that you gain levels through, and improve character stats. All Final Fantasies except FFIIj used this. It's used so often because it WORKS, and so people copy it.

The next example is money. Whether it be gold, silver, gil, zenny, curri or some other form of currency, it seems that its gained from most fights. It's logical for some creatures, like humanoids, to carry it, but I'm confused as to how an animal that can't talk, write or read would carry it. Since when do lizards, ghosts and zombies go shopping?

For my third example, I'm using the age-old (in the game industry) term of calling hostile creatures monsters. Most humans would call an unknown creature a THING rather than a MONSTER, even if it was 6 feet tall and had 20 eyes. And why are there "monsters" roaming around everywhere, anyway? There have been two games that have explained it. Buzz Buzz in Earthbound/Mother 2 said that monsters were things sent by Giygas, and humans and animals that were being controlled by Giygas. FF7's Sephiroth explained about the monsters being ex-SOLDIERs, who were injected with Jenova cells and Mako energy.

Then there is the idea that the hero/party is the only hope for the world. Aren't there any other people in the world that have talent? Example: In Breath of Fire 3, there were masters all over the world. Why wasn't it them doing any of the fighting, since they knew all those skills? If they could come together and teach each other, each one would have a great chance at defeating that final enemy.

For point five, I urge you to think back to early Final Fantasies. In FF, you could BUY SPELLS! Just walk into a magic shop and pay a certain amount, and if you were the right class, you'd learn it! In FFIV, characters would learn spells based on experience levels. How is that? Were they told to forget the spell until they were level #? Did they just kill something and realize it?

Though these are stereotypes, they are needed for games, not only to help gameplay, but for the designers too.