Il Divo wrote...
Keep in mind that any game's genre is an issue of "threshhold". Many games tend to break into multiple genres, depending on what you are playing. KotOR's swoop-racing might be considered a racing element, yet the game is still considered an RPG by most. In this case, Bioware chose not to label their genre RPG/Adventure game, despite them having many similarities to the latter with emphasis on interaction.
One reason this is such a large issue is that pen and paper allows different groups to emphasize different aspects of the game. I've had sessions which consisted entirely of combat, killing things in turn-based gameplay. And I've had game experiences where the only rolls made were sense motive checks. In the second case, interaction, dialogue, and story took on a larger role.
To a degree, you're right. I would define Diablo as an RPG, and Final Fantasy, others wouldn't.
But there is a constant, and you illustrate it, you've defined your character with some qualities and you're checking
his ability to succeed, not yours. That's what makes an RPG.
Every game has a story, that does not make something an RPG.
L.A. Noir and monkey island have predefined characters with their own story already set up, almost all of them very linear. In Mass effect you set up your story, and you set up your character. What I am getting at is, spreadsheets with calculated stats alone should not make a console/pc RPG at all. Bioware has broken that mold... ME2 is a non-traditional RPG(an action hybrid if you will), and it pisses off only the table top fanatics.
1. Predefined characters have existed in RPG's since the early 1980's with the Dragonlance system, which spearheaded more than a few modern RPG mechanics. Prior to that, it existed in a number of modules for one-time use.
2. You don't setup your story. You pick a random blurb that will be referenced once or twice at best, and never matters in any way. Picking something only counts if it actually does something.
3. You don't setup your own character, everyone uses near-identical weapons with the same skill (Yours), and uses magical powers (Whether it's making robots out of thin air, making magic vortexs, or magically changing the bullets in everyone's gun from 30 yards away). The class differences are largely superficial and could be described as animation only, since everyone can use their gun at level 2 to kill the YMIR on the first real mission, and that's as hard as the enemies get, effectively nothing else is needed.
4. Bioware didn't "Break the mold", they put a story and some interaction into a TPS. If they'd actually advertised it as a TPS, one could contend that they advanced that genre. As far as RPGs go, nothing's changed. Putting "RPG" on the box of a TPS doesn't change what an RPG is.
5. It's not a hybrid, there's no such thing. You cannot mix RPG (Character based skill) with Shooter (Player based skill), you cannot have Character Player based skill, just like you cannot have real-time-turn-based strategy. The concepts are polar opposites. Deus Ex is a fine example, it's a Shooter with it's UI crippled to force in the concept of levelling, which does absolutely nothing but reduce the degree of crippling in the interface. Once the degree is reduced to the point where the Player's skill can overcome the handicap, it's full-on Shooter.
ME2 doesn't even come that close. None of the "Skills" matter, because as I said earlier, the YMIR you kill at level 2 is as hard as it gets. You never need the leveling system. It's a TPS.
6. Actually, it annoys RPG fans, not the faceless "Fanatics" you demonize to justify your preference for shooters over RPGs. I suspect you'll find after ME3 releases that it annoys quite a bit more people than you think, especially since I was here for ME2's release and I remember quite clearly the fire-storm that created.
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