RPGs expanding videogame frontiers

by Matt Davison

First, let me say that I am incredibly intrigued by the sharing of ideas that takes place in forums such as these. It's the kind of thing that I could have only dreamed about five years ago as an opportunity to take part in or at least read other people's thoughts on subjects that I myself find interesting. So, in the same spirit, I would like to share my little bit as well.

The RPG is expanding the possibilities of videogames as a perfectly viable artform. With as few words as possible, I will try to explain what I mean. First, I need to make clear my interpretation of art -- art for me is a man made work, by whatever medium, that makes you feel somewhere else. It changes your state of mood by placing you in a different atmosphere and surrounds you with an ambience of a new place, a new town, meeting new people and learning about their personalities. It can place you in a castle, a neo-tech city, on the roaming plains of a vast frontier... RPGs do all this and more. What RPGS do is to take every conceivable medium -- music, film, still art, literature, and even acting -- and roll it all in an interactive experience. This truly inspires and moves us. As the medium inevitably develops and gains prestige, it will also make it the richest artistic medium that exists.

Take a look at all the great movies of all time -- The Godfather, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Citizen Kane, The Matrix, Braveheart, and just about any of the best movies that you can think of -- they take us to places and scenarios we have never seen before and make us believe that they are real. Not only believe their reality, but care about the outcome of their worlds. This is the work of great art. Yet what movies could do through a purely passive state, videogames can do a tremendous amount more through the prying and exploration that their "real-time" worlds provide.

RPGs are better -- they are the interactive medium.

Through the characters of RPGs, through these "roles" that we "play," we become a party to all of their universal human emotions in different locations in a world. As we learn about the characters and their world, it leaves an uneraseable mark on our souls, as with all works of great art.

Yet the medium of videogames is still very young, and has yet to fully shake off the shackles of their stereotype as passive entertainment -- as a novelty. Much like videogames, the "moving pictures" were once a mere primitive novelty as well. But with the progression of both technology and creative initiative, they began to break into the broad boundaries of truly great art.

An RPG is a journey of life and, at least thus far, have been about exploring a world and completing some sort of tasks. Its the journey along the way that makes the game what it is, as the characters find out more about their world and themselves and, in the process, we gain a broader perspective of our world and ourselves. Who knows what sorts of new places and characters we may see take form as more and more creative minds go to work in this artform full of possibilities?