The Importance of Playing RPGs

by Joshua Maciel

I always find it wise to open up a very abstract editorial with a very abstract title. The fact is that there is nothing "important" persey in playing RPGs, but there are several reasons that I, as an individual, do play them. Those are the things which I want to talk about. I'm trying to get down to the very basis of why I play RPGs, perhaps to give ideas to all of you to explain your penchant for these enigmatic games. I just want everyone to understand that everything in here is MY opinion. My use of the word "you" is to express MY opinions (in a fancy literary style, or something).

The first thing that always draws me to play a game is entertainment. I know that this is quite obvious, and almost seems unworthy to mention. However, I also feel that people often overlook this fact in favour of looking at RPGs as one would look at a movie. There's a large difference, and instead of wasting time repeating the fact that games are to be played for fun, I'll explain how people tend to ignore that aspect of fun.

Movies can get you to think. Books can get you to think. Both can also entertain. Both also have very limited timespans in which they're done. After you read the 200th page of a 200 page book, it's done. After you watch a 2 hour movie, it's done. Sure you can do it all over, but the fun isn't in the act of watching the movie, it's in the feeling you get out of the movie (or book).

With an RPG, the experience is quite different. You PLAY an RPG, it's not a passive act. The fun is in acting out the story, and the things you have to do to act out that story. Combat should be fun. Story progression should be fun. I don't love RPG's for that feel you get after the fact, when it all comes together, that's a love I have for movies, like the Usual Suspects, which is best appreciated after the fact. I enjoy my RPGs while playing them.

That's where I believe that this huge problem has formed in the criticalness of RPGamer visitors, and RPGamers in general. People tend to think that a game isn't worth playing because they didn't enjoy the first few hours of the story, and therefore the whole game must be terrible. These people tend to look far to the future, and decide that because it's not going to give that totalistic feel of a movie, it isn't worth playing.

The second thing that really draws me into RPGs has to do with the actual story. Not the unfolding of the story. Not the actions leading up to that advancement, but that actual story. There are times in FF8, Lunar, Grandia, Xenogears, in which I just had this incredible feeling of satisfaction. That satisfaction comes in the form of emotion. This is another way in which I feel people tend to misconstrue the quality of many RPGs.

I've heard lots of comments in my day. Selphie was annoying, Squall was a jerk, Justin and Sue were too childlike, etc. These comments usually come with this terrible connotation, one that usually earns the game the disgust of the person writing the comment. I would argue that any of these feelings, annoyance, character traits (that they deem as negative), etc. make the game good in its own right. If within the first 5 hours of the game, you have already felt that emotion towards a character, good or bad, then the game is well done.

If a game can make you feel hate, disgust, etc. towards a character, or can portray one in a certain way, then I finish the game. Anything that grips you that quickly shouldn't earn a knee-jerk "I hate it" reaction. Next time any of you feel that way, just pick yourself up, and play some more. Enjoy the fact that the game can make you feel something about someone who doesn't exist. Who knows, you may learn that there's more to the game than you would have thought otherwise.

Finally, I enjoy RPGs because when I play them, I leave my logic at the door. I open my playstation, pop the disc in, and ignore the surrounding world and all the laws and assumptions that come with it. Granted it's not perfect, and I'd probably be thrown off by a game that had the characters moving in 4 dimensions or some-such, but in general, it heightens my appreciation for the game.

Just like you don't compare a woman you're going out with to a woman you went out with in front of either of them, you don't compare RPGs while you play them. If you keep looking for differences, you're probably never going to enjoy a game more than your "favourite" because you'll notice the worse points of the new game than the good points.

And if you can somehow retreive logic from this nonsense, you may be bettered. The main points I was trying to make were to appreciate the game for the game while you're playing it, instead of for the feeling you get looking back on it, to appreciate emotion that a game brings out in you, good or bad, and also to ignore the world around you, including all other RPGs, while you play one. You'll never get a truly unbiased opinion on anything, but following these steps brings me a lot closer to an objective opinion, and I invite you all to try it.