Thanks for posting that. I had thought about this article a few times over the years. I always thought he did a good job of explaining what made a roleplaying game a roleplaying game. It wasn't that many years before this that 'action RPG' starting being used as a term and half the time 'rpg' was being used to mean nothing more than 'we have levels'

[–] vexikron@lemmy.zip 4 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Also by this guy's correct logic, Deus Ex is more truly an RPG than FF7.

Good luck explaining that to a JRPG fan without them becoming either manic or passive aggressive though.

Dont get me wrong, FF7 is a great story... but... as with nearly all 'RPGs'... youre not really role playing, as role playing involves meaningfully being able to ... play... the role you want... for your character(s).

Nearly all RPGs are more like role insertion: you are this character and this is how their story goes.

The Witcher and Mass Effect series both attempt to avoid this... though I'd argue that the Witcher series pulls this off far more convincingly.

Oh and of course Cyberpunk 2077, which is actually a great game now that its had years to get fixed up.

These 3 are still ultimately linear stories, but at least choices in decisions you make or things you do or do not do can have pretty significant impacts on the grander world / main storyline.

Hell, Kenshi is a better role playing game than most linear story 'RPGs' too, though you'll likely need a few dialogue expansion mods for this effect to become more obvious/convincing.