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Gamers' Philosophy III: Players: Melting Pot of Gamers
By: Robert Hall
One of the many highlights of playing role-playing games is getting to know other RPG players as you do so. Like most – if not all –gaming genres, RPGs has developed its own distinct community that has its own quirks, strengths, and pratfalls. While it’s perfectly possible for any player to play an RPG game and never have any contact with another player who also plays the genre, to do so would be indescribably boring. The great thing about RPGs is that it’s a genre which constantly seeks to outshine itself, even if that turns out to be a fruitless endeavor half the time.
Most other game genres are merely compared strictly by the overall mechanics of their gameplay. Let’s say we take two fighting game fans—one who is a fan of, say, Tekken and other who is a fan of Dead or Alive. A heated discussion may touch upon the characters, story, plot details, but the majority is going to be focused on the various gameplay elements and styles of play that the games are truly famous for. Take a trip to any fighting game-related forum, and 90% of the site will be filled with combo discussions, move list breakdowns, and tier structures. Perhaps every now and again, one will find the odd sub-forum devoted to storyline or character concerns, but by-and-large, story is not the largest concern for fans of that genre.
Other genres, such as adventure, survival-horror, or shooter games may have a relative emphasis placed on plot and character-related topics, but RPGs are, by far, more concentrated in that area. As such, people who play RPGs are challenged to absorb more information and memorize more details about the world the game creates, and not necessarily the game itself. While a hardcore first-person shooter player may have committed to memory the various weapons, ammunition, map layouts and enemy weaknesses offered within the game, an RPG player who truly wants to absorb himself into the game’s story has to recall a far greater volume of facts and trivia.
Pop Quiz: In the PlayStation game, Xenogears, what was the “Gazel Ministry”?
In all likelihood, most people reading this article won’t be able to answer the above question off the top of their heads. This is merely one obscure plot tidbit in a game that contained hundreds of names, settings, and terms. For hardcore players, the challenge is to knit together these strings of story in order to make the full tapestry of the RPG. There’s absolutely no gameplay value in knowing just what the hell a “Gazel Ministry” is, but it IS, nonetheless, important to the overall role-playing experience.
Many role-players pride themselves on their ability to be “detectives”, of sorts. Any RPG player reading this can think back to his favorite RPG story and remember what it felt like to slowly but steadily piece together the plot that is constructed within the game properly. Even fans of “open-ended” RPGs such as Oblivion or Fable and MMORPGs like World of Warcraft can still recall the hours they spent exploring, learning the little tidbits of an imaginary universe. Being an RPG player requires patience, dedication, and imagination, since most RPGs require players to spend, at the very least, a collective day of their lives assuming a new identity. (Yeah, the term “role- play” kinda speaks for itself, doesn’t it?). This reason, above all, are the reason that RPG fans are some of the most fiercely loyal gamers in the world.
One thing I’ve figured out after years spent at role-playing forum is that RPG players all have a unique definition of what makes a game “good” and, inversely, “bad”. To some, a linear plot is a prison, preventing them from exploring and playing the game as they see fit. To others, a linear plot is like a rollercoaster—you’re stuck once it gets rolling, but the ride is well worth it. Similarly, some players prefer real-time to turn-based systems. More still prefer American PC games to Japanese console titles. Every gamer has his or her preference, and these preferences are as numerous as grains of sand on a beach.
I would suppose that the diversity of role-playing fans is a benefit of having a genre that is ambiguously defined. Since the exact definition of RPG isn’t easily defined, it tends to attract many diverse types of players. If there’s any genre of gaming that could be considered a “melting pot” of interactive entertainment, RPGs most certainly fit the bill.
-- Robert Hall
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