Justin Weiss: Hello, and welcome to RPGamer's latest roundtable. We have some interesting topics for you tonight as well as some reader input. So, without further ado, I'll allow everyone to introduce themselves.

Googleshng: Hello, I'm Googleshng, and I've been here for almost all of these roundtables so far.

Michael Bischoff: I'm Michael, resident media boy here for another go at the table.

Matt: Matt Fairchild here, one of this week's reader panelists who gets to express his opinions.

Justin: I'm Justin, the roundtable moderator and thus here for all of these roundtables.

Brent Fisher: I'm Brent, a newsie for RPGamer.

Justin: Ok, our first question for tonight is an interesting one, especially considering the success of the recently released Warcraft III: What do you think of the recent tendency of games to add "RPG elements" into their gameplay (like heroes with experience or the ability to gain skill levels), and how do you see this affecting "pure" RPGs in the future?

Googleshng: I don't think that's really a recent trend at all. Games have been growing "RPG elements" since FF7 came out. The only effect I see it having on actual RPGs, though, is that there's an awful lot of action games passing themselves as Action/RPGs that we end up having to cover.

Brent: I agree with Google. It's been around, it’s just that it's appearing in games that have a wider audience. Warcraft has had a vast audience for a while now. The RPG elements are thus lauded more.

Matt: I agree, and personally it looks like every genre will inevitably move closer and closer to being an RPG. It just seems natural that characters would grow stronger. As capabilities in the systems rise, they can afford more options such as leveling.

Michael: It's good to see games adding depth by incorporating elements from other genres, especially RPGs. RPGs themselves have been doing the same, however: a great example are minigames. I really see no major effects on our beloved genre as a result of other games using RPG elements.

Justin: I suppose the game that comes to my mind right off the bat is Deus Ex, which is basically a FPS with RPG elements so ingrained into the game that it wouldn't work without them. If more and more games begin doing that, I can see the possibility of current RPGs becoming an "Adventure/RPG" subset of the RPG genre.

Brent: I think it’s a foregone conclusion, even by our biased perceptions, that RPG elements are in themselves attractive. RPG games have possessed a stigma, I think, to the general gaming audience. With the introduction of mainstream accepted games into the whole medium of the industry, it stands to reason people will latch onto RPG elements. They're addictive, and fun.

Matt: In other words, Brent, pretending to be Solid Snake is just so much more fun than the nameless marine in "Doom."

Brent: Exactly.

Michael: Examples of RPGs that include other genre's gameplay elements are Xenogears with its battle arena and Final Fantasy VII with the oh-so fun Chocobo Racing. So, as you can see this sort of thing has been happening for quite some time now.

Brent: but once again, let me reiterate that Xenogears and Final Fantasy are what I lump into the past-perceptions of the 'Role Playing Game' genre. These features, which generate this discussion in the first place, are the RPG elements appearing in games that never normally would have possessed them. In turn, their inherent success IN other genres is what motivates the industry to continue this pattern. With the rise of MMORPGs as well, I consider this a veritable RPG golden age. I think RPGamer's popularity is testament to that.

Michael: Either way, anything adding to the depth of a game is certainly welcome.

Matt: Ironically, the only genre that isn't changing is arguably RPGs itself.

Googleshng: Arguably nothing. RPGs have honestly never changed one bit since the genre came about.

Michael: I'll buy that, as traditional RPGs have not become extinct.

Brent: Perhaps we're experiencing a reflex in terms of adjusted equilibrium. RPGs, in a sense, were a fantastic form of game. Still are, or we wouldn't be here. But the qualities that define it are merging into its contemporaries in the industry.

Matt: Interesting, perhaps we've seen it with other genres. Ever since Doom and Half-Life, more games have preferred an FPS style.

Matt: "RPG" will come to define a formula. Separate battle system, dialogue, and a story. A few Zeldas and Final Fantasy Tactics will vary this, but only slightly. Actual "Role-playing" isn't really important, just the formula.

Googleshng: You know, Zelda and FFT aren't really in the Classic RPG genre.

Matt: But with so many genres growing closer to actual RPGs, perhaps they should be.

Brent: Final Fantasy Tactics is what I like to call the first of the 'cross-breeds'. A merging of real-time strategy and role-playing. It unified two separate groups of gamers into one.

Googleshng: Actually, there were at least a dozen Tactical RPGs before Final Fantasy Tactics, and Zelda is a blending of Action and Adventure, with adventure being the genre that covers games like Myst, Sam and Max, and so forth. Plus it isn't quite dead yet. (Oh, and that would be turn based strategy, not real-time)

Justin: The thing about The Legend of Zelda is that it originally belonged to another genre, Adventure, that doesn't really exist anymore. All the old NES Adventure games are really now considered either Action (in the case of Metroid) or RPG (games like Zelda).

Brent: Perhaps we should confront the fact that the lines of definition are becoming blurred. Morrowind articulates my point to an extent.

Matt: And so the blending will continue as it has since Zelda, but probably with no real penalty. Traditional RPGs will remain the same, while in the future we will see FPS become EverQuake, RTS become Final Fantasy: Strategy, and just wait until we see Dance Dance Revolution: Chocobo Edition.