What is the True RPG Gamer?

by Brandon Blair

Shuffling through the many yellowed parchments containing editorials, opinions, and thoughts of the sort has given me another topic to put to screen...What is the True RPG gamer? Is he/she a person who spends every breath of their day in front of a tv or computer screen, battling dragons and rescuing friends from the evil clutches of a pixelated villain? Do they buy the latest games, and have a rooted history in all the finest lore and games, dating back to punch cards and the text-based adventure game? Or is it the simple fancy one takes when they hold a PSX cd in their palm, marvelling that inside this circular disc, a whole new world exists, with unconquered adventures, and unprecedented feats of strength?

Listening to the phrase "Final Fantasy Sucks," and seeing its buyers labeled as "not true RPG gamers" seems to unleash a thought process in my mind, leading up to this article. How so? In simply stating that a game, or for that matter, anything sucks, one states also that this is a proven fact, and it is always true. To a person, the game may not hold as much value, but who are we to label anything? If someone picked up Final Fantasy VII as their first RPG, who are you to say he is not a true RPG gamer? Have we been put into ranks and categories now? Many play games to escape these social cliques. If one were forced to own all the right games, and have all the right opinions, it would be simply another Hierarchy, where we establish ourselves above others, in a class-based system. "Well, he is less of a gamer than I, for he hasn't experienced Dungeons of the Deep 5X yet."

In my opinion, (as unsupported as it seems) a true RPG gamer is one who simply knows what he likes, supports this, and can effectively explain why he dislikes others, without placing a spray paint label on them, and trying to raise the masses with his demonstrations. If there is one thing I abhor, it is an RPG player who uses his 'knowledge' of RPG's to put another person into a social standard. RPG's are a very interactive thing...you can play the game, and speak to others, share your opinions on it, in a free environment. The true RPG gamer tests his luck at the games he wishes to play, and judges them fairly, and by what he feels in his heart, not by a scale manufactured by any company or magazine. Earthbound, a wonderfully knit game, was given horrible reviews by many major magazines and presses...the beginning is slow, but the entirety evolves into a wonderful array of colorful plots and stimulus; but that was their opinion. It was justified simply by the fact that they deemed it an unsatifactory game. However, this mainstream judgement affected how many of their readers looked at the game. When a friend asks your opinion on a certain game, do you give the classic, "Well, so and so magazine gave it a 2, it's a horrible game." Have you experienced it yourself? Or will you take the true RPG gamer's route, and say, "I don't know, I've not yet played it." It is debatable as to whether this title is something to be proud of...I believe it is. Being a true RPG Gamer means a deep reflection on what one is playing at the time, (Meaning he thinks of the situation he is in as he plays) and not playing a game to win necessarily, but to experience what the game has to offer...what world it has to present to the player. One who doesn't play to win notches on his belt, or stripes on his arm. If I only play 2 games my whole life, and they were simply exceptional to me, it would mean more than playing every single RPG available for the sole purpose of saying "I've defeated this game."

As the many opinions continue to fly, as I hope they will, I beseech the readers and writers of these pieces to remember one thing. The Union or Brotherhood of RPG players is not a rank based society...It is a group of people interested in discussing and experiencing life, from different perspectives, and opening their minds to new ideas. I do not own Final Fantasy I. I have not even played through much of Final Fantasy III, or Lunar Star Story(?),meaning I am unschooled in thess areas. I speak on that which I have experienced, and it is hoped that many readers will do the same.