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Computer role-playing games (CRPGs), often shortened to simply role-playing games (RPGs), are a type of video or computer game that traditionally uses gameplay elements found in paper-and-pencil role-playing games. Modern RPG games encompass a wide range of styles and types of engines and have significantly branched out.

RPG gameplay elements can be found in real-time strategy games, first-person shooters, third-person shooters, and some other types such as massively multiplayer online games. However, games that are actually called just "RPGs" are usually limited to top-down perspective point-and-click and some third-person perspective types.

Overview

An RPG 'status screen' as seen in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.

CRPGs, in general, are derivative of paper-and-pencil based role-playing games (RPGs) such as Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). For example, the vast majority of video-game RPGs assign various attributes to the characters, such as hit points (HP), magic points (MP), and levels. These games also tend to borrow the narrative structure of many paper-and-pencil RPGs; usually a group of heroes (a party) is sent on some sort of quest. Along the way, the adventurers face an endless barrage of enemies and monsters (often inspired by real-world mythology). An example is illustrated here, a status screen taken from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. It includes the character's name, portrait, level (LV), current/total hitpoints (HP), and current/total mana (or magic) points. Other information includes basic stats and what sort of weapon, armor, and accessories the character is equipped with.

Character development

Video-game RPGs sometimes involve intricate plots and character development as characters advance through a large number of statistics, items and abilities. Players must usually choose which of several possible combinations of these things to acquire for their character in order to advance, and if possible, win the game. Just as in a paper-and-pencil RPG, the characters can be of various races (besides humans, mythical ones like elves) that differ in their capacities for professions (e.g., swordsmen, archers, thieves, mages). Characters can try to advance in two of these professions, but more is not effective. A recent development has been the goal-directed notion of "jobs", temporarily taking up a profession to gain a needed skill (like lockpicking). .

Setting genres

Although the word "genre" has come to be used for a type of computer game such as a driving game or a sports game, a need still exists for the old use of the word. Most RPGs are set in a fantasy world with a vaguely medieval setting, though with magic. Many add to this science fiction elements. Few differ from these two categories. EarthBound uses a child's viewpoint of the United States (or a place implied to be so) in the twentieth century. Wasteland and Fallout are set after a nuclear war. Many games are also structured around time travel.

Layout

Starting with Akalabeth, these games feature characters moving on more than one 2-D map. When the player-character in that game entered a dungeon, the viewpoint shifted to a first-person view of a 3-D maze. An example of the scales of what games have come to display on the screen starts with the world-map. It shows a large area, but not the entire gaming world. In addition, some games use part of the screen to show an automap, showing one's location. When one moves the player-character into a town, cave, or other significant feature marked on the map, the scene shifts to a view inside a smaller-scale plan view, which can depict non-player characters and enemies. Then, when one begins combat, a combat scene is presented.

These maps are usually set up so that North is always at the top, and often most features are laid out on a rectilinear grid. Hence, unlike in the real world, one cannot become lost through disorientation, especially by following a feature that one assumes to be rectangular but which gently curves. So the layout of these maps is often in the form of a concealed maze to make one's paths take longer and more involving. Dragon Quest began the trend (in Japanese games, at least) of having the player-character take extraordinarily roundabout paths to reach destinations, guided by a limited view of the world map. Dungeons are also usually in the form of a maze, but not as complex as a garden one. Many games require lamps to see in dungeons, and present a more restricted view to make it more like a maze. The reason why the layout is only somewhat maze-like is that movement is punctuated by many combats.

Combat sequencing

Most games are designed around a system of "random encounter", in which every few steps one's characters take on the screen signals the start of an engagement with minor enemies. By defeating these, one's characters gain "experience points" just as in a paper-and-pencil RPG. But if one considers one's characters too weak, one can choose to deliberately battle many more minor villains. The difference is that the gamesmaster of a PnPRPG would consider doing this a waste of time. Computer game players demand lots of different types of minor villains (e.g., griffins, octopuses, silver knights, funny thieves, rabbits), as they're battling these all the time - some games have 200 - and dislike palette-swapped foes, which look the same as a weaker enemy one fought several scenes back but are a different color, something which was done in the early CRPGs due to lack of computer memory space. Some games have many of these imposed combats made avoidable through not coming too close to an enemy shown on the screen.

What are called "chapters" of gameplay are marked by more powerful villains called "bosses", who take some skill to defeat. These may have had some foreshadowing in the story and the defeat of each may result in setting the party off on a subsidiary quest. There may be "side quests" which result either in more experience points or the getting of special weapons or magical items that wouldn't be necessary to win the game. The game usually ends with a battle with the major villain, the one whose defeat is the main storyline of the game. Often the player has already fought this villain several times during the game in various weaker conditions, and it often turns out that there is an even more powerful villain behind this one.

History

Richard Garriott's Akalabeth from 1980 is considered to be one of the first graphical CRPGs not hosted on PLATO.

Role-playing video games began in 1975 as an offshoot of early university mainframe computer text RPGs on PDP-10 and Unix-based computers, starting with Dungeon and graphical RPGs on the PLATO System, pedit5 and dnd, themselves inspired by paper-and-pencil role-playing games. Other influences during this period were text adventures, Multiple-User Dungeons (MUDs) and roguelike games. Some of the first graphical CRPGs after pedit5 and dnd, were orthanc, avathar (later renamed avatar), oubliette, dungeons of degorath, baradur, emprise, bnd, sorcery, moria, and dndworld, all of which were developed and became widely popular on PLATO during the latter 1970s, in large part due to PLATO's speed, fast graphics, nationwide network of terminals, and large number of players with access to those terminals. These were followed by (but did not always lead directly to) games on other platforms, such as Akalabeth (1980) (which gave rise to the well-known Ultima series), and Wizardry.

These early Ultima and Wizardry games are perhaps the largest influence on the later console RPG games that are now popular. Many innovations of Ultima III: Exodus eventually became standards of almost all RPGs in both the console market (if somewhat simplified to fit the gamepad) and the PC market. Later Dungeon Master (1987) introduced realtime gameplay and several user-interface innovations, such as direct manipulation of objects and the environment with the mouse, to first-person CRPGs.

The earliest console RPG was the Intellivision title AD&D Treasure of Tarmin (1982). Much later, in 1986, Enix made the NES title Dragon Quest (video game) (called Dragon Warrior in North America and would remain that way until the 8th game in the series). This was followed shortly by ports of the computer RPGs Wizardry and Ultima III, and by Final Fantasy (1987) by Squaresoft. Both of these games proved popular and spawned a series of sequels. Both game series remain popular today, Final Fantasy more so in North America, and Dragon Quest in Japan.

Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy both borrowed heavily from Ultima. For example, leveling up and saving must be done by speaking to the king in Dragon Quest, and in order to rest and get healed, the characters must visit the king (Dragon Quest) or stay the night at an inn (both games). The games are played in a top-down perspective, much like the Ultima games, as well. The combat style in Dragon Quest was borrowed from another PC-based series, the Wizardry games.

Modern games

Warcraft III blends CRPG and real-time strategy elements.

Fairly recently, more and more multiplayer CRPGs have appeared. For instance, Diablo (1996) features a system by which different players can enter the same world and cooperate against the enemies, trade equipment, or, should they wish, kill one another. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), huge open-ended worlds with hundreds of interacting characters, have also appeared, pioneered by games like Ragnarok Online, Ultima Online, EverQuest, and Asheron's Call.

An interesting entry into the CRPG world is Pok?on (a.k.a. Pocket Monsters), a fairly simplistic set of games whose main innovation is the replacement of the party by creatures that can be captured, collected, and trained for fighting. Its success has been phenomenal, leading to a huge industry with many spin-off products, including other games, cartoons, and endless merchandise.

In 1997, a new Internet fad began. Influenced by console RPGs, a large group of young programmers and aficionados began creating independent CRPG games, based mostly on the gameplay and style of the older SNES and Sega Genesis games. The majority of such games owe to simplistic software development kits such as the Japanese RPG Maker series. This started the independent RPG video games movement.

More recently, with the advent of games like Deus Ex and Warcraft III, the idea of what it means to be a RPG has become blurred. Many non-RPG games are increasingly featuring aspects traditionally seen in RPGs, such as a skill system, experience, and dilemmas. The expansion of traditional RPG elements into 3D game engines is creating a myriad of hybrid game categories, crowding successors to earlier representations of CRPGs.

The representation of RPG elements in first- and third-person shooters is indistinguishable from the game simply incorporating a story with cut-scenes and traditional FPS problem solving, and developments to the incorporation of the genre's usual character building (such as getting better weapons). As FPS develop and increase in these characteristics it remains to be seen whether the games will simply be called FPS (or TPS), break off into a new category of FPS/RPG, or just adopt the RPG name.

Cultural differences

Due to cultural differences between developing companies based on their country of origin, there are now two certain "families" of graphical RPGs. The differences are primarily focused on the graphics and storyline, but also on statistics systems, magic systems and the like. At the basic level, though, both are pretty much the same, with attributes, statistics and levels dominating gameplay, and characters and personalities dominating the storyline.

Japanese (and East Asian)

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete screenshot, a typical Japanese CRPG

One of the families is the Japanese family of graphical RPGs with the Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, Grandia and the Lunar series as clear examples. These games are often more colorful and brighter than their western counterparts, and include the Japanese inclination to use a very loose fantasy world, not always strongly based on actual folklore or medieval times (perhaps because of a lack of familiarity thereof), but with arguably more influence from Japanese comics (manga) and cartoons (anime). Science Fiction may also have an impact on these games. Fantasy/sci-fi "hybrid" games are also common (some examples include Star Ocean and Final Fantasy). The characters in these games are usually anime-style with personalities ranging from both extremes of the spectrum. The storyline often involves an epic and final battle between the forces of good and evil, with the player nearly always fighting for the forces of good. Some exceptions include Xenogears, where there is no defined "evil" force. Character races tend to be limited to humans or completely new, created races that look just like humans; in games that do include various races, these are usually limited to a selection of humans, beastmen/women, espers (i.e. ESPers, who look just like humans but have different powers), androids and, on rare occasions (such as Tales of Symphonia), elves and dwarves, etc. It is also rare or nonexistent to be able to actually choose your characters' races; you are typically given no choice. D&D-based systems among these games do not exist; instead, Japanese RPGs often create new, unrelated "systems" for each game, even for each game in a single series. Most games use a level-based advancement with little customization involved, with level 1 as the basic level of power in the game and level 99 as the top; but recent games tend to include some customization, like occupations that can be levelled as well. Level advancement in Japanese CRPGs is also more brisk than their American counterparts, often requiring fighting only a few monsters to advance to the next level in early parts of the games.

A minor family also exists in Taiwan and other Chinese-speaking areas. The mechanics (i.e. combat and job selection) of this Chinese family of graphical RPGs is largely the same as the Japanese one. Differences lie in the graphics and plot. Many of those games use Chinese-style graphics and the storyline is told with a wuxia style, inspired by novels. One famous exmple is Sword of Xuan Yuan.

American (and other Western)

Diablo, one of the most successful western role-playing games

The other family of graphical RPGs is the western (American) one, with Baldur's Gate, Diablo and Neverwinter Nights as good examples, but also including older games like the Gold Box series. These games are often darker, almost horror-like in design and art, and the characters featuring in these games are rendered or drawn in a more realistic way according to western styles, with armor, weapons, and so on being drawn based on actual counterparts in the Middle Ages. The personalities of the characters are more varied than those of their Japanese counterparts, without any real absolutes in morality. The storyline too is often darker, with the main theme being usually an ongoing struggle, almost never ending with a total victory over whatever enemy is given. The character races are diverse and the player is usually offered various races to choose from ? often based on D&D rules ? including dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings. These races, as well as other game characters, are based on the many characters that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote about, including dwarves, wizards, and dragons (hobbits typically being represented as the nearly identical halflings). These graphical RPGs often based their game systems on the various D&D systems used at the time, sometimes even displaying dice rolls, but it is not uncommon for completely different systems to be borrowed or created for use as well. Level advancement in Western RPGs is typically very slow, and often includes rather low level (or experience point) limits, which in some games can be as low as level 6-8, unheard of in the Japanese game market.

Comparison

A large difference between American RPGs and Japanese RPGs is the way the stories are structured. Western style RPGs are generally less linear and thus allow more freedom. Japanese style RPGs are usually more linear, and the player choices usually have little to no effect on the outcome of the plot. However, it could also be said that a linear storyline allows for a tighter and more complex story, much like watching an interactive movie, than does a completely open-ended structure. A good counter-example ? a Japanese style RPG with fairly open and non-linear storyline ? is Romancing SaGa, a far more open Japanese CRPG famous for its non-linearity in Japan.

Shared characteristics

The following are universal staples applicable to many CRPGs of both cultures in general.

• Death is almost always the final solution employed by the protagonists to prevent the antagonist from achieving his or her goals, often after reason fails.
• In several cases, but not all, the lead protagonist is silent, sometimes so the player controlling them (who will likely get to name the character at the beginning) can have a greater sense of presence in the role.
• While female characters in fighting games and certain other types are notorious for being faster than the males but less powerful, women in RPGs regularly have the potential to become just as capable at offense as their counterparts. That being said, the female healer is a stereotype in Japanese CRPGs, less so in Western CRPGs where there is more character creation.
• The plot often is structured around the ancient Western theory of the four elements: Air, Fire, Water, and Earth. Spells, objects, weapons, and monsters of these elements exist to be found or defeated, and elemental relations (fire is weak to water and ice weak to fire) are often preserved. Because it seems a simple extension, other non-traditional "elements" like electricity or light may be added as well in Japanese CRPGs; Western CRPGs may use para-elements (ice, ooze, magma, smoke) and quasi-elements (lightning, radiance, minerals, steam, vacuum, ash, dust, salt) as defined by Dungeons & Dragons instead. In contrast, the Chinese "elements" of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water are not often seen in CRPGs, while the "elements" corresponding to the Bagua (concept) (Heaven, Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Mountain, Lightning, Marsh) are almost never used at all. (See the respective articles for more information on elements.)
• Related to the use of elements, there is a variety of status effects that can enter the battle. Status effects give extra ability to a player (charge energy, extra defense, reflect projectiles, absorb and heal) while others hinder opponents (frozen in ice, frozen in time, poisoned, on fire, dizzy, sleepy, shocked, shrunk, confused, paralyzed).
• Usually two lead characters of opposite sex who are seen interacting early on will end up romantically involved, or implied to be so in the future. The first game to make the characters fall in love or drift apart based on the play style of the user was Treasures of the Savage Frontier (1992).
• Direct continuations in CRPG games are rare. Most sequels to CRPGs either have nothing to do with the previous game or take place within 5-1,000 years after the events of the previous entry took place. Many RPGs take place in the same country or world, have similar places, events in history, recurring characters (Like Cid in Final Fantasy), weapons, or magic. Some people say CRPGs are like this to avoid stretching out the plot too much.

Relationship to pen-and-paper RPGs

CRPGs are sometimes frowned upon by pen-and-paper (PnP) players. Game designer Sandy Petersen has said that the worst PnP RPG session he had ever seen was still better than the best computer RPG play experience [1]. There are several reasons for this view, such as CRPGs' tendency to emphasise building a powerful character over creating a character's history and motivations. Many PnP players consider this trend to be powergaming, as opposed to actually "role-playing."

Perhaps more importantly, however, it has been argued that it is inaccurate to use the term "role-playing game" to describe games that feature character building but in which the player cannot actually make any meaningful decisions, ie. act "in character" and significantly influence both the character's personal and the game's overall progress. In games like these the character is just making tactical decisions and not necessairly role-playing.

This is a similar common criticisim of simulated realities in general. A virtual world can create incredible feelings of freedom of choice and motion, but players in even the most free-form CRPG must, of necessity, play within the rigidly defined world created by the game's authors. PnP games, similar to real life, have no such pre-defined limitations. While PnP games do have rules, players may question and reinterpret them in ways CRPGs may never be able to emulate.

Many games that are advertised to have "RPG elements" are entirely linear and offer no more role-playing opportunities than reading a book or watching a movie, but it should be noted that this certainly isn't true for all CRPGs on the market. While obvious technical and practical limitations ensure that CRPGs cannot be as open-ended and free as PnP games, where the only real limitation to the events that unfold is the participants' imagination, it is also worth noting that numerous games allow for considerable variation in their content delivery. This variation depends on the player's decisions and the character's personality. Also, many of these games' graphic engines make them easily moded by fans of the games, who with their own variations and ideas, can build their own homegrown campaigns, adding new or modified heroes, quests, items, and portraits.

Variant terminology

Because paper-and-pencil RPGs came first in the US, it was the computer RPGs that were given the abbreviation CRPG. In Japan, however, the computerized ones first gained popularity, so RPG (in the Latin alphabet) is used for them alone, while the paper-and-pencil versions have been cited under the retronym PRPG.

Occasionally a distinction is made between console RPGs and those played on the personal computer, which can have more game saves and employ more command keys, but which do not have as high a resale value. The abbreviation CRPG is unfortunately sometimes used to refer solely to the console games, leaving RPG for games for the Personal Computer or Apple by those who do not play the paper-and-pencil sort.

Those games which during the attack phase involve the movement of characters on a grid to get best striking distance from the opponent and to flee when wounded, namely, tactical RPGs, get the abbreviation TRPG. Due to the relative rarity of the word "tactical", and the prestige of the word "strategic", these are also mistakenly termed SRPGs.

Chronology of CRPGs

Note: These are not complete lists of all computer or console RPGs, but a list of some of the most significant, influential or well-regarded CRPGs of all time. A number of titles which were initially released for Windows were later ported to the Macintosh or to console platforms. Likewise, a number of console-specific RPGs were later ported to other consoles or to the PC.

Chronology of computer RPGs

Wizardry was one of the earliest graphical computer role-playing games, debuting on the Apple II in 1981.

1974: dnd (PLATO System)
1975: Dungeon (PDP-10)
1980: Akalabeth
Rogue (UNIX, ported to many other OSes later)
Tunnels and Trolls
1981: The Ultima series debuts (Apple II)
Wizardry (Apple II)
1982: Tunnels of Doom (TI99/4A)
1983: Ultima III is released, pioneering many innovations that would become standard on many CRPGs that followed (DOS, Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64, Macintosh)
Moria
Questron
1985: Bard's Tale (Apple II, later Commodore 64, Amiga, Apple IIgs, Atari 8-bit family, DOS, Macintosh)
Alternate Reality
Phantasie series debuts (Apple II, Atari ST, Commodore 64, DOS)
1986: Starflight (Apple II, Atari ST, Amiga, DOS, Macintosh)
1987: Might and Magic series debuts (DOS, Commodore 64, Macintosh)
Wasteland (Apple II, Commodore 64, DOS)
Dungeon Master (DOS, Atari ST, Amiga)
1988: Pool of Radiance, first game in the Gold Box series, uses AD&D rules and Forgotten Realms campaign world
1989: Starflight 2 (DOS)
1990: Angband
Champions of Krynn, Gold Box series, uses Dragonlance campaign world
Ultima VI (DOS)
Eye of the Beholder (DOS, Amiga, Sega CD, Super Nintendo)
1991: Neverwinter Nights, the first graphical MMORPG debuts; ran on AOL 1991-1997.
Gateway to the Savage Frontier Gold Box D&D RPG
Eye of the Beholder II: The Legend of Darkmoon
1992: Ultima Underworld (DOS, a PlayStation version was released in 1997)
Ultima Underworld II (DOS)
Treasures of the Savage Frontier Gold Box D&D RPG, perhaps the first game where an NPC can fall in love with a player character if their conduct earns it
1993: Forgotten Realms Unlimited Adventures (DOS, Macintosh)
Lands of Lore series debuts (DOS)
Eye of the Beholder III: Assault on Myth Drannor
Dungeon Hack (DOS)
1994: The Elder Scrolls: Arena series debuts (DOS)
System Shock (DOS)
1996: The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall (DOS)
Diablo series debuts (Windows, Macintosh)
Albion (game) (DOS)
1997: Fallout series debuts (Windows, Macintosh)
Ultima Online (Windows)
1998: Baldur's Gate series debuts (Windows, Macintosh)
1999: Planescape: Torment (Windows)
EverQuest (Windows, Macintosh)
Septerra Core (Windows)
System Shock 2 (Windows)
2000: Icewind Dale (Windows, Macintosh)
2001: Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura (Windows)
Gothic (Windows)
RuneScape (Java)
Anachronox (Windows)
Neverwinter Nights showcasing its powerful 3D graphics engine.
2002: Dungeon Siege (Windows, Macintosh)
Icewind Dale II released, uses D&D 3rd edition rules (Windows)
Neverwinter Nights (Windows, Macintosh, Linux version in 2003)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (Windows)
2003: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Windows, Macintosh)
Freedom Force (Windows, Macintosh)
The Temple of Elemental Evil released, uses D&D 3.5 rules, Greyhawk campaign world (Windows)
2004: City of Heroes (Windows)
EverQuest II (Windows)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II (Windows, Macintosh)
World of Warcraft (Macintosh, Windows)
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (Windows)
2005: The Matrix Online
Dungeon Siege II (Windows)
Guild Wars (Windows)
Fable: The Lost Chapters (Windows)

Chronology of console RPGs

1982: AD&D Treasure of Tarmin (Intellivision (INT)), Dragonstomper (Atari 2600 (ATR))
1986: Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) series debuts (Nintendo Entertainment System (NES))
1987: Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei (NES), Final Fantasy series debuts (NES), Phantasy Star (Sega Master System (SMS))
1988: Ys (SMS)
1989: River City Ransom (NES), Mother (NES)
1990: Crystalis (NES),
1991: Lagrange Point (NES)
1992: Final Fantasy V (SNES)
1993: Secret of Mana (Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES))
1994: Mother 2 (EarthBound), Final Fantasy VI(III in North America) (SNES)
1995: Suikoden (PlayStation (PS1)), Terranigma (SNES), Chrono Trigger (SNES), Tales of Phantasia (SNES)
1996: Super Mario RPG (SNES), Rudora no Hihou (SNES)
1997: Final Fantasy VII (PS1), Grandia (Sega Saturn (SAT))
1998: Suikoden II (PS1), Xenogears (PS1), Parasite Eve, Brave Fencer Musashi (PS1)
1999: Final Fantasy VIII, Chrono Cross (PS1)
2000: Eternal Arcadia (Skies Of Arcadia) (Sega Dreamcast (DC)), Dragon Quest VII (PS1), Vagrant Story (PS1)
2001: Final Fantasy X (PlayStation 2 (PS2)), Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance (PS2)
2002: Suikoden III (PS2), Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (PS2), Kingdom Hearts (PS2), Lost Kingdoms (GCN)
2003: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (Xbox (XBOX))
2004: Suikoden IV (PS2), Tales of Symphonia (Nintendo GameCube (GCN), The Lord of The Rings: The Third Age (PS2/XBOX/GCN)
2005: Suikoden Tactics (PS2), Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und B?e (PS2), Jade Empire (Xbox) ,Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)

List of companies

Activision
Akella
Atlus
Bethesda Softworks
BioWare
Black Isle Studios
Blizzard North
Camelot
Capcom
Enix
FTL Games
Funcom
Game Arts
Gas Powered Games
Konami
Interplay
Looking Glass Studios
Namco
New World Computing
Nintendo
Nippon Ichi Software
Obsidian Entertainment
Origin Systems
Piranha Bytes
Sir-Tech
Spiderweb Software
Square Enix (a result of the business merger of Enix and Square Co., Ltd.)
Square
Stormfront Studios
Strategic Simulations, Inc.
tri-Ace
Troika Games
Westwood Studios

Related genres

• Adventure games
• MMORPGs
• MUDs
• Real-time strategy
• Roguelike

External links

Independent CRPG websites

• RPG Codex
• RPGDot
• Sorcerer's Place
• Role Players Gaming Network - An online games-server and forums community for role players.

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