What gives role-playing games their longevity?
This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on “Western” role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. Ask an RPG fan for a recommendation, and you are perhaps as likely to hear about a game that’s a decade old as you would a recent release. That’s because role-playing games can stand the test of time. Take a look at GOG.com’s best-selling games, and the first eight are all RPGs, with many more filling out the top parts of the list. It would seem that with most other genres, there’s an assumption that a newer game is a better game – unless there’s some kind of terrible design choice. What makes role-playing games specifically have such long-term value?
The strong stories in role-playing games are one major reason for their longevity. Alongside adventure games, RPGs have long been at the forefront of storytelling innovations within the medium. And a story isn’t going to become outdated. I may prefer Ultima VII’s or Mass Effect 2’s interfaces and graphics to Ultima VI and the first Mass Effect, but I find the storytelling more appealing in the chronologically earlier games. Improved technology can’t make this obsolete.Continue reading What gives role-playing games their longevity?What gives role-playing games their longevity? originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 05 Oct 2012 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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