Get Your Facts Straight

by Thomas Manson

I write this not in rebuttal to any particular Editorial, but in fact many editorials that I have read on these pages. Also, this Editorial is not based on any particular game's theme or topic, but on my conclusion that few of RPGamer's recent editorial writers have made much of a point about anything, and really have no idea what they're talking about. I shall now commence to supporting my theory:

First off, the acronym RPG generally stands for Role Playing Game (although Rocket Powered Grenade is not an unheard of expression). The classic example of an RPG in the first sense is Dungeons and Dragons. You create a character, and effectively play the role of this Warrior, Magic-User, or Cleric as he delves into caverns and haunted forests of a referee's design. You could have your character literally try anything. You explained to a human referee what you wanted the hero of your own devising to do. He would then adjucate your action based on die rolls, charts, or his own whim. The one similarity between this game and the "Role Playing Games" of today are the fact that they both are believed to commonly take place in a "Pseudo-Medieval" setting (more on that later).

The "Role Playing Game" that is played on, say, an SNES or Playstation is much, much different. You are given a set of characters who have personalities of their own; they act, dress, and do everything except fight as some corporate guy who the Average Joe will likely never know decides they will. Player participation is limited. There are some exceptions (in the Megami Tensei series, for example, you could negotiate with demons instead of fighting them), but the choices are still limited, because of the main limit of a computing device: no mind. As long as there is no mind, options will remain limited, thus limiting the ability to do what the genre, by name, is supposed to promise: Role Playing.

My point? The politically correct thing to call an RPG would be MBS "Menu-Based Storyline." But, it won't likely happen, anyway. Screw politically correct.

The second thing that I noticed is the presumption that RPGs should be, or ever were, "Medieval." I have not personally seen an RPG (console-style or traditional), or any game, that has truly captured the spirit and feeling of the Middle Ages. And I say thank god for that. Such a game would be no fun. Imagine, having your mighty Dragon Slayer lose his sword hand to Gangreene. Or perhaps being a level 25 Stable Boy? You can't topple the Ogres, but boy can you shovel the excrement! A sword and armor don't automatically make anything Medieval. Get your facts straight.

Pressing the A button with the "finger pointer" next to "Fight" on Terra's battle menu is no more "role playing" than moving the joystick from the Down position to a Forward position and pushing a punch button to perform Ryu's Hadou Ken. Somehow RPGs have (de?)evolved from a mentally demanding game involving many humans around a table, exercising their imagination to their limits; into a set of choices (although to me it seems more a menu of limitations) and masses-pleasing FMV cutscenes, so the populace can vegetate, controller in hand, alone in front of his television, looking at the pretty CG going "Oohhh," and "Aaahh."

Now if you'll please excuse me, I am yet to finish Final Fantasy 8. I've got some vegetating to do.