The Culture Genre Gap

From the days of Dragon Warrior and Heroâs Quest to the current days of Diablo II and Final Fantasy IX, there has been a clear split in the role-playing industry between the console systems and computer games. This split is even more pronounced by the tendencies of the manufacturers - console systems being more popular in Japan, while most PC game developers work outside Southeast Asia.

The fundamentals of the split were simple - both computers and consoles were budding technologies in the mid to late 80âs, and the technologies each had their advantages and differences. The computer was a more powerful tool, since it had larger storage capacity, more graphic flexibility, and a greater range of ways to input (namely joystick and keyboard, the mouse is a newer trend). The console had a far lower cost, simplicity, and a controller that catered to the simplicity of the software created for it.

In order to build on this comparison, take a game from the late 80âs for the computer, Heroâs Quest, and compare it to a console RPG, Dragon Warrior. Heroâs Quest (later known as Quest for Glory) came on four 3.5ä low-density floppy disks, or seven low-density 5.25ä disks. That totals to around 2.8 megabytes of game. It used a parsing system where you typed in what you wanted to do and the program would see if what you said contained important key words.

Dragon Warrior on the other hand, came on one simple Nintendo cartridge. Weighing in at under 10% of the size of Quest for Glory, it provided a much simpler method of adventuring around a fictional world. Instead of typing in sometimes complex commands with a keyboard, you had three main choices - bring up a menu to initiate dialogue, open a chest, climb down stairs, etc., cancel, or move.

These two games, totally different in just about every aspect are classified under more or less the same broad heading - role-playing game. Much of that grouping has been further refined by current games affecting the way we look at the classics. For instance, the addition of Baldurâs Gate to the PC lineup gives it a game whose instruction manual consists of a good portion of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Playerâs Handbook.

Since Advanced Dungeons and Dragons has long been associated with the term role-playing game, it seems fair to assume that the game created with their rules is meant to be faithful to the name and concept. What then of games like Final Fantasy IX, which is so much different from the original concept of a role-playing game, where a character would choose his role to act out different situations?

In Final Fantasy IX, you have no choice of who your character is. You are quite arbitrarily given a character that was conceived of in some think tank for Squaresoft somewhere. Yet this game is also called an RPG because console RPGs have outsold PC RPGs for so long. Dragon Warrior caught on, and has spawned its seventh numbered incarnation. Final Fantasy, created shortly afterwards, has spawned its ninth.

The things that originally separated these games - technology and cost - have changed dramatically. The cost of a computer and a console are hitting new lows as electronics become cheap, affordable, and widespread. The input systems are now more similar than ever with WebTVs in many houses causing consoles, such as Dreamcast, to come with modems and attachments. Additionally, the standard medium for games is CD for both consoles and for computers.

Despite all these technological advances, the ability to have the same games on the console systems and on your home computer, there are two distinct genres. The console systems have seen booming sales ever since Final Fantasy 7. You can see adds for Squaresoftâs latest creation on MTV, and there is a clear market base they can exploit for their money.

On the other hand, the people who play PC RPGs are most likely those who have been playing since their first computer. This market of loyalists has guaranteed at least a small following for PC RPGs to guarantee some sales. That small market prompted the release of many Îgold boxâ Advanced Dungeons and Dragons games in the early 90âs that were easy to program and cheap to produce.

In addition to that loyal following, PCs have been able to create games playable online for much longer than consoles, allowing them a head start on addictive time-consuming games. This gap is rapidly closing with all the next generation consoles having built in modems and the ability to access the Internet.

Console gamers and computer gamers are apparently two different breeds. The debate is over customization vs. commercialization, and will rage on forever. Just a handful of years ago, anyone could have pointed out a million differences between consoles and computers that made games unplayable on both. Now that the playing field is even, without each system having an overwhelming advantage in any aspect, the types of games are not changing.

The concepts that spawned games like Heroâs Quest and Dragon Warrior still continue. Each has had its successes and failures, shaping the way it created the next game in the same genre. Consoles have almost always been very limited in space and have been very limited in the types of games that could be made. Computers have been limited by a lack of standards making it difficult to get a game to run on every computer.

The concepts used to solve those problems are still used, despite their irrelevance. Every byte is precious for a console game, only now those bytes are filled with FMV instead of a game engine. The lack of standards with computers has been solved by the constant release of patches via the Internet, allowing them to push the limits of the average machine even further.

They say that history shapes our present. Although proving that would be possible, the lives of these genres of role-playing games are excellent examples. Years from now, assuming George W. Bush does not instigate a nuclear holocaust, consoles will most likely be replaced, as most electronics will, by a single electronic device for all our needs. Naturally entertainment will be one of those needs, and even if computers and consoles are turned into one device, the two genres of games will live on.

Judges' comments:
One spelling mistake - 'adds' should have been 'ads'. There were also a number of little niggly tiny grammar mistakes that just kept irritating me a little, as well as the line about the three buttons, where the author then lists 6 different functions. Although we as gamers know that one button will conceivably combine 4 of those functions, a new reader may not. This affected the coherency of the editorial.

Strength of arguments and presentation... While he makes a very good case, he doesn't especially go into how the genres are similar - a counterpoint would have been desirable, as well as helping to put his arguments as to why the two genres are kept so different into a clearer perspective. Also, looking into ways of potentially meshing the genres back into one pure 'RPG' genre could have been an option.

The author does miss a couple of other points that could have been well-implemented - there seems to be a faint bias towards PC games, stating they're more complex as opposed to the simpler console games. A point to note is that console games do on the other hand have arguably more pure story, possibly because of or reinforced by the fixed characters.

Although the editorial did fairly well in presenting itself, there is plenty of space for the author to go into more detail, as some of the more rushed points seem to have been left by the wayside, when further elaboration could have reinforced his point. Although the topic itself has been well discussed before, it was an interesting approach, particularly with discussing the development of the genere on the two platforms from its beginnings to the present day.

Although this editorial has several minor flaws, it was quite enjoyable to read and was quite interesting.