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CRPG Addict - Building a CRPG Glossary

by Arhu, 2015-08-21 10:52:10

Stumbled upon this while compiling the review roundups. CRPG Addict identified various CRPG phenomena for which he suggested there ought to be terms and asked his audience for help. Commenter Giauz et al. came up with a bunch of names for these situations I bet most of us have experienced themselves before:

  • Slight of Dice
    The rhythm that you fall into while repeated re-rolling attributes during character creation, causing you to accidentally blow past the perfect set of statistics. And/or the combination of horror and rage you feel when this happens.
  • Prolonged Prototyping or Roll-playing or Stat Eugenics
    The act of growing so obsessed with character creation that you never actually play the game. 
  • Non-Player-Person (NPP) Limbo
    After you've taken a break from your game for a week or two, the uncomfortable period in which you don't want to continue with the old character but it seems too soon to create a new character. 
  • Ten-Clicks Rick
    Rapidly pressing buttons to escape from a conversation you've already experienced, only to click (or hit "A") one too many times and end up asking the same question again. 
  • So Clo-RESET
    The moment, around the 2/3 point of the game, that you start to feel like you haven't been playing optimally, and that you should probably restart and do it right this time. 
  • The Prestige Corollary
    Related, the perverse desire to hit "New Game" when you've already invested 120 hours in your existing one. 
  • Role-play the Fool
    The rationalizations that you go through while repeatedly extending your allowable game time. (At the start: "I'm only playing for four hours, tops. Then I need to study." After four hours: "Two more hours. I don't have that much material." After two more hours: "All right. I'll just finish this quest and I'm hitting the books." After another hour: "It's more important that I'm relaxed for the test than it is to have a head full of useless knowledge anyway." After three more hours: "Playing games is pretty much as relaxing as sleep is.") 
  • Omni-Club President
    The tortuous backstory that you invent for your character to justify joining the thieves' guild, the fighters' guild, the mages' guild, the paladins' circle, the temple, and the assassins' guild all in the same game.
  • Reaper's Stopwatch
    The high positive correlation between likelihood of death and the number of minutes since your last save. 
  • Immaculate Screen Junk
    Character portrait and icon options that someone obviously took a great deal of time to create and yet it's impossible to imagine anyone using them.
  • Gandalf's Weed Madness alternatively Richard British
    The urge to perform CRPG-related activities in real life. (Thanks to Oblivion and Skyrim, I can't pass a field of wildflowers without wanting to stop my car and grab my Swiss Army Knife.) 
  • Macguffin Withdrawal
    The vexing feeling that somewhere--maybe back in the Dwarven ruin you explored six hours ago--you missed a chest. 
  • Schultz Detour
    Undertaking a three-hour journey back to a previously-explored dungeon because a walkthrough informed you of a missed area that will give you 160 more gold pieces and 28 more experience points.
  • Queptoventure
    Feeling the need to explore every corner of a new location, such as visiting a friend's house or going to a store, looking for hidden Easter eggs and treasures. Along the way, seeing the "Employees Only" and barricades as either later plots or level boundaries.
  • Unlearned fencelessness
    Accidentally forgetting that a two foot tall barrier won't actually stop you.
  • Premature Expiration
    The intense loss of excitement that comes after the first death.
  • The 'Next' Temptation
    The desire to save your life before having a conversation so you can safely say the wrong thing, just to see what happens. (Related, the Sands of Time had that in the final cut scene *grin*).

Sounds familiar? I'm sure there are more.

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