Role Playing Games

by Zechael

I've been playing RPGs for a very, very, long time now... I started with Zeldas, moved up to Final Fantasy and Dragon warrior, started Squaresoft all the way through after that. I've even played the classic pen and paper RPGs and I do the occasional role play story with my friends every now and again. And it wasn't really until I read many of the editorials here that I've started to criticize them.

Then, once I realized that I was badmouthing Final Fantasy 7 and 8 for reasons that I really didn't believe in, I backed off. I had TONs of fun with both of them, not because of their game play as a whole or their graphics or plot... but because of the fun mixture that they all provided.

Is it really game play or graphics that we love, though? Isn't it the plot, and the characters, and the idea of these people with weaponry and skill and magic being able to do exactly what they do, thrown into a situation we hope we could succeed in if we were to go through it in their place? Let's take a quick look at RPG: Role Playing Games. Drop that last word, and we have Role Playing.

Let's define that as it should look. To take or accept the place of a character, to control them to an extent, and to guide them into a situation. Essentially, that's what it is. In Dungeons and Dragons, we didn't criticize the game when it took a sudden turn from what we were used to; We only accepted it and hoped we could deal with it. In Final Fantasy VI, suddenly we had to deal with these new abilities and *gasp!* the Magicite system where you equipped a fallen esper to a character and part of the esper's power was transformed into said character in the form of magic. Did we hate this? No. We loved Final Fantasy VI for it's innovation, and it's... graphics? I was impressed with them. They were pretty good at the time. We loved every Final Fantasy game, and not because they remained as we loved them, but because they evolved with us as we grew.

I'm not here to argue against any game, or make excuses for any company... I'm here to tell people to have an open mind. Games are made to have fun; Try doing that and you might have a better gaming experience and less to whine about.