Dragon Age 2 - Call of Duty's Audience Welcome Bioware says

[DArtagnan]

Why is the genre important at all?

What's important is that it's a game you enjoy, isn't it?

 

[JemyM]

Why is the genre important at all?

What's important is that it's a game you enjoy, isn't it?

The genré is an abstract description of the games content. RPG's was once associated with "intellectual challenges", which attracts people who feel intrigued by such challenges and feel rewarded for beating them.

Such content include;
* Decisionmaking
* Puzzlesolving
* Strategybuilding

RPG's also used to include creative elements, like building a character, attracting those who like to build or create, or people who enjoyed roleplaying characters, psychology and social experimentation.

The market have moved towards a direction where the player take less and less part of the game. Where sitting back to absorb the screen for easily digestible content is the goal. All game genrés that first and foremost offered the above content is now removed from the mainstream. This includes adventuregames, strategygames, puzzlegames, simulators and managementgames. RPG was a mixed genré that gathered most of these elements, but have removed this content bit-for-bit.

This could be seen as a reversed psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was a therapy with the goal of drawing the unconscious up to the conscious in order to resolve whatever it is that makes you feel bad. Games of today have the goal of pushing the conscious into the unconscious.

 

[DArtagnan]

I still don't understand why the genre is important.

Let me rephrase, it's indeed useful as a guide when deciding to play something or not - but we all know that it means very little these days. We're going to have to see it for ourselves or read a few reviews.

Personally, I don't care in the least what Bioware calls it - or what others call it. Because it's not important.

I care about whether the game is actually good - and I'm not seeing much evidence of it being that. Perhaps an average to mildy interesting game - but not much more.

If Bioware thinks that by arguing a shooter (or whatever) with RPG mechanics into an RPG - the game changes its nature - that's fine. I don't.

I have absolutely no problem with a shooter with RPG mechanics if it's a successful merger of those genres. Personally, I don't think Mass Effect was a successful merger, so the genre was - once again - unimportant.

Maybe it's because I'm more flexible than most of you, but I don't really think so. I think most of you actually enjoy shooter elements when done well - as long as the RPG elements are also done well.

If people hear the acronym "RPG" - their brains light up with their favorites of the genre. But it's the games they see in their minds - not the actual genre. Bad RPGs existed 10-15 years ago as well, and yet they WERE RPGs.

 

[Arkadia7]

Well, hell, Bioware, why not just move to shooters completely if your jealous of their audience and sales numbers.

I can't wait to see what Dragon Age 3 will look like.

 

[DoctorNarrative]

I care about whether the game is actually good

That's all well and good, but think about it this way... if every game ever made from tomorrow on was an amazingly good shooter, would you be satisfied?

 

[DArtagnan]

That's all well and good, but think about it this way… if every game ever made from tomorrow on was an amazingly good shooter, would you be satisfied?

No, and I'm not satisfied now

I'm not saying that all games should be of the same genre, but that the genre in itself isn't important.

I wouldn't be satisfied if every new game from tomorrow was yet another traditional Bioware CRPG either.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

If I said to a shopkeeper "I want to play an asdventure games", then he or she would have given me Monkey Island 15 years ago.

Now, when I ask "I wnt to play an adventure", I'd get Lara Croft instead.

To m, action adventures and non-action adventures are two entirel different things. If I want puzzles, but get Lara Croft instead, then there's somthing wrong, in my opinion.

But : People put BOTH into ONE basket, nowadays ! The shelves, even the employees, they just don't distinguish anymore. The elctronics Chain of "Saturn" here put Gobliiins 4 into the "Kids" segment of games …

To them, there's just a big bin called "adventures", and they only distinguish between "do you want more action or less action ?" Nothing more than that.

And the same is currently happening with RPGs.

 

[DArtagnan]

The fact that genres change, doesn't mean they don't exist.

I find it unfathomable that people still insist they can lay claim to defining what an RPG should be, when it has never - ever - been agreed upon.

 

[Couchpotato]

Maybe it's because I'm more flexible than most of you, but I don't really think so. I think most of you actually enjoy shooter elements when done well - as long as the RPG elements are also done well.

If people hear the acronym "RPG" - their brains light up with their favorites of the genre. But it's the games they see in their minds - not the actual genre. Bad RPGs existed 10-15 years ago as well, and yet they WERE RPGs.

I don't mind if they include other genres. As you said I find offense when its labeled a rpg when its a basically a water down rpg clone. Or a term that's used
RPGlite.

 

[DArtagnan]

If you're going to be offended everytime someone disagrees about what an RPG should be, then you'll be an offense-expert soon enough

 

[zadokAllen]

Yawn @ Bioware "drama".

*skips off whistling a merry tune to play Drakensang*

 

[Maylander]

We've had various "what defines an RPG" discussions before. I don't intend to start a new one. In short: It's certainly an interesting question.

 

[Couchpotato]

If you're going to be offended everytime someone disagrees about what an RPG should be, then you'll be an offense-expert soon enough

To true. But you know finding offense on-line is easy. To many people
with opinions and as one comedian said there's always one asshole who can't
let things go.And with that I bid goodbye.​

 

[DArtagnan]

To true you. But you know finding offense on-line is easy. To many people
with opinions and as one comedian said there's always one asshole who can't
let things go.And with that I bid goodbye.​

I think the key is to accept that opinions invariably differ.

Oh, I've struggled with that myself - but I've come to accept that most people are pretty much insane, or that I'm some kind of truth-god.

Now, isn't that a comfortable and reasonable conclusion?

*major party icon*

 

[KapitanUnterhosen]

Not the first time BIO acknowledges that mainstream COD-like games are their main competitors, nor are they the only ones who have said so.

Even CDProj has said that there aren't that many "big" rpgs that come out in a year, so the core rpg audience will play them all regardless, rpg companies don't compete against each other trying to make a better rpg, they compete against the call of duties and grand theft autos for that mainstream console crowd. The situation won't change while the core rpg audience plays everything they put out, won't change until there are enough rpgs coming out in a year for the core audience to start choosing to buy one rpg over the other.

Briefly skimmed over the "does genre matter" discussion, my 2 cents: I thought ME2 was a very good, very enjoyable game, but it did not feed my rpg craving. I can love great games in other genres like marios or zeldas, but they won't tickle that itch that only rpgs can.
If I only cared whether a game was good or not I would've given up on rpgs a long time ago as other genres have a far larger amount of good games.

 

[zakhal]

I prefer genres because of KISS principle. It helps to categorize games and I like to keep my stuff neatly ordered.

We've had various "what defines an RPG" discussions before. I don't intend to start a new one. In short: It's certainly an interesting question.

I think the only definition left for RPG is abused. Give it a few good kicks and its anything you want it to be.

 

[zadokAllen]

the only definition left for RPG is abused. Give it a few good kicks and its anything you want it to be.

...and we have a Thought Of The Day

 

[booboo]

One of my best friends is a CoD addict - but he simply loathes "RPGs". He's tried a number (including BG, DA:O etc) - he simply finds nothing of interest in them. Granted, its a sample size of 1, but I don't think he is atypical. He's an adrenaline junkie ;-) I think that it would be false adverting to claim that an RPG like DA or DA2 (unless its changed beyond belief) will appeal to CoD players because of some superficial similarities. Of course, if they continue to streamline their RPGs eventually they will produce a game which is CoD....maybe that's what they want? It seems a sure fire way to get revenue.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

*skips off whistling a merry tune to play Drakensang*

:lol:

I'm beating the crabs right now !

 

[zadokAllen]

I'm beating the crabs right now !

*ponders random STD jokes*

I`m just out of the first area…love it , it`s just as old school as I wanted it to be
(minor gripes aside)