CRPG Analyzer: A checklist for computer role-playing games

What is the answer for a game like Dead Rising 3? What gives the definition pattern when applied to Dead Rising 3?
 
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In his thesis "Combining Role Playing Game Constructs Toward Real Time Strategy Games" Bradford Allen Towle makes some good short descriptions for RTS games, Simulations and CRPGs:

Real Time Strategy (RTS)
This genre allows the player to command vast armies, whether in an ancient medieval, fantasy or futuristic setting.
This game will almost always incorporate resource management and gathering, base construction, and building armies.
The player must then make strategic choices as to where to spend the resources that have been gathered.

Simulation Games
Historically, this genre has included mostly flight simulators or other such programs that give the feel of manipulating a vehicle. More recently, a new type of game has emerged, which simulate a certain situation or place. The player does not have direct control of the characters, but can build or add things to the environment in order to change they way they act. Roller Coaster Tycoon and the ever popular Sims are good examples of this new style of simulation games.

Role Playing Games (RPG)
This genre focuses on an individual or a small party of individuals. In this genre, a party of characters must progress through the story and grow stronger (level up) in order to achieve victory over whatever foes assail them. Character customization, development and advancement are vital.

This one is very specific:
Design Patterns of Successful Role-Playing Games contains patterns gleaned from a study of many traditional and cutting-edge role-playing games.
Game Summaries of the source materials are also included. (272 pgs.)
 
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Never played that game - maybe you try the Def. yourself? - you can download the forum BB-code here.

Here's is a short article about the original Dead Rising being an RPG or not.

Did the article rely on the final(?) definition of CRPG? If not, why point to that article?

What matters is to know the output of Dead Rising 3 when passed through that definition, not if one article that might not rely on that definition, decided what it is.

I already passed that game through that definition so I am curious of knowing people's own conclusions.

To size up how much tractable and practicable that definition is.
 
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Did the article rely on the final(?) definition of CRPG? If not, why point to that article?

I was just curious what other people think about the Dead Rising series in terms of CRPG elements. Of cause it has nothing to to with the definition (the article is from 2006). I can't judge about the series myself, because I simply don't know anything about it.

PS:
I watched some videos (and this) about Dead Rising 3.
Looks like a very good survival action Adventure/Shooter for me.
 
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RPG Evolution - What is an RPG?

The exact definition of a Role Playing Game, or RPG, is argued by gamers.

In an article on RPG’s, Mathew Tschirgi said “An RPG is a game in which the player controls one or more player characters in order to complete an overall quest. The game is won by solving puzzles, interacting with Non-Player Characters (NPCs), and gaining experience points by defeating enemies in turn-based or real-time combat to increase their characters' various statistics (Strength, Stamina, Agility, Intelligence, and so on.)”

While this is a good working definition, there are a few elements found in Most RPG’s.

Story line – the player controls a character or group of characters through a story. Story line is typically much more important in single player game and table top games. In MMORPGs and Muds a storyline will normally exist, but it is secondary to other game aspects.

The Final Fantasy and Chrono Cross series are known for their complex and enthralling story lines. In particular Final Fantasy VII’s story line was so powerfull that it is known to make players cry during some of the more emotional parts.

Story line control – The player is able to choose where the characters go and what they do. The amount of control varies from game to game, from small choices of which way they want to go in a maze or where to go in a town, to large choices in which a character has the ability to move through an entire world. In most RPGs, the player will eventually have a large amount of control in where they visit.

MMORPGs and Muds are known for their complex worlds. In the MMORPG World of Warcraft the players have an entire world to explore, quest and kill each other in. The world is so large that two players could play the game for months without entering the same areas.

Changing story line
– through the course of the game the players choices of action affect the world. In some games this shows as different endings, different actions cause different endings. In other games this becomes an integral part of the game with the character choosing between good, evil and more.

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) forces it’s characters to choose between the light and dark sides. Not only must they choose, but depending on how evil or good the character is causes not only different endings, but also affects how the other characters in the games treat the player’s characters. Characters that were somewhat light are given an accommodation by the Jedi Counsel, characters that were extremely dark take over the universe and rule it with an iron fist. I liked playing the dark side character.

Character creation – the player creates each character from scratch, choosing it’s name, race, class, appearance, skills and abilities. This doesn’t show up as much in RPG’s with detailed story lines but is very important in Muds and MMORPGs. Depending on the RPG, these choices might differ in the change on game play. Typically Racial and class choices cause the biggest differences, and in many the Race changes what classes are available.

In most Muds, which were only text based, the characters appearance was up to the player. The player was responsible for writing up the characters description. The more creative the player, the more impressive the characters appearance would be.

In World of Warcraft, the player is asked to choose between Human, Night Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Orc, Undead, Tauren and Troll. The player picks between male and female. The player also chooses what class his character will be; Hunter, Warrior, Shaman, Priest, Mage, Paladin, Druid or Warlock. Finally the player is shown a base character model and then asked to change the way it looks. The player is given options for hair style, hair colors, facial features and more.

Character advancement – the characters in the game become more powerful and gain new abilities as the game moves on. Most RPG’s have a leveling system where characters gain experience for completing quests and killing enemies. Typically the characters advancement and abilities are in some way controlled by the player. Players might have total control, giving them the ability to completely create each character as they wish, or partial control, giving the player a small group of options on how to advance the character.

In final fantasy X all the characters start off with set abilities. Tidus specializes in speedy, but less damaging attacks, Lulu is a black mage casting damaging spells on enemies and Yuna is a white mage casting healing spells. As the game progresses though, the player gets the option to choose what skills the characters gain. By the end of the game Tidus can still be a speedy fighter, but he will be able to heal a bit, Lulu could be a powerful fighter who has a few dark magic spells and Yuna could be completely specialized in healing.
 
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The CRPG Analyzer: A checklist for computer roleplaying games


One of most discussed questions in computer roleplaying game forums is the question: “What is a CRPG?”
You can find a lot of different answers and opinions about this question all over the net. Some say “This question never gets old” other say “Please, don’t beat this dead horse again” :)
Because we belong to the former group about one year ago Wulf, Arhu and I started a discussion trying to identify the characterizing defining elements of the CRPG genre. Others joined us and over the course of one year we created a checklist that helps to understand why a game is labeled as a CRPG or not. This article describes our approach to the leading question and presents the results.
The easy answer:
A CRPG is a computer game that belongs to the CRPG genre: A class of games that allow you to role-play an in-game character. Leads directly to the following new questions when you try to decide whether a given game belongs to the CRPG genre or not:

  • What are the characterizing elements (=recurring patterns) of computer role-playing?
  • Which of these elements are essential, which are important and which are optional?
  • Which elements distinguish CRPGs from related genres like strategy games, adventure games shooters and simulation games?
  • Are there similarities to pen&paper role-playing games?
After some brainstorming we decided to cluster characterizing CRPG elements in four main categories: Character Development, Exploration, Story and Combat. The consensus is that the main categories Character development, Exploration and Story are essential for the CRPG genre and the main category Combat is common but optional.

Character Development
Describes ways to create, change or enhance your characters in order to increase their effectiveness in the game.

Exploration
Includes how you can move through the game world, as well as everything you can find, see, manipulate or interact with, like locations, items and other objects.

Story
Concerns all narrative elements like setting, lore, plot, characters, dialogue, quests, descriptions, storyline(s) and similar, including how you can interact with them.

Combat (optional)
Describes how combat(or more general: conflict resolving) corresponds with elements of Character Development, Exploration and Story.

To deal with the fact that the CRPG label changed a lot over time - from early dungeon crawlers to modern more story driven games - and not all elements are always implemented in all subgenres a second classification method was introduced for each main category:
The checklist distinguish between essential “Must Have” elements, important “Should Have” elements and optional “Nice to have” elements. With this trick we were able to create a very flexible checklist that covers all shades of CRPGs and can recognize even the so called hybrids (Deus Ex, Spellforce, XCom etc.).

The main problems that occur when you try to characterize the CRPG genre are:

  • Today a lot of games from other genres borrow some role playing elements as a selling factor
  • The CRPG genre evolved and changed a lot over time (and will continue to change)
  • The CRPG genre is overlapping naturally with some other genres; there are no clear cut borders to the Adventure, Shooter or Strategy genre for example.
  • As in other genres like Rock Music, Horror movies, Criminal Story books etc. the answers to the the question which elements are considered essential (=necessary), important or optional depend a lot on the people you ask. So a genre-checklist can only be a representative cross section of subjective opinions of a group of people that were interviewed or involved in the creation process.
After many discussions (even on other boards like the RPG Codex), many internet and book researches, testing against a lot of games, and juggling around with the elements a consensus was reached and after many iterations the following checklist was created:


The CRPG Analyzer (Version 1.00)

The three core categories Character Development, Exploration and Story that need to be applied and quantified to determine if an interactive computerized game can be labeled as a Computer Role Playing Game (hereafter referred to as CRPG) are listed to show the necessary component elements and qualifying factors.
Any proposed or purported CRPG must contain all three core categories and their essential necessary Must Have conditions fulfilled to achieve the (minimal) CRPG status.

These core categories must maintain some form of progressive nature that will improve from when the game starts and leads to a conclusive game ending.

Each core category and the auxiliary category Combat also have related Should Have conditions; the reviewer should make a comment if a Should Have condition is not fulfilled.

So we have these scenarios to reflect the broadness of the genre:

  • At least one Must Have condition is violated => the game is not a CRPG.
  • All Must Have conditions are fulfilled => the game is at least CRPG'ish or a CRPG light.
  • All Must Have and some Should Haves conditions are fulfilled => the game is a CRPG that needs to be further qualified with (subgenre) tags and/or reviewer comments.
  • If all necessary Must Have and all Should Have conditions are fulfilled there's no further discussion necessary => the game is a true CRPG.
Optional elements are listed in the Nice to Have (NtH) list. With it you get precise information which optional CRPG elements are implemented in the game. A general game info questionnaire is added too, to do some rating.


I. The Checklist:

Character Development
Describes ways to create, change or enhance your characters in order to increase their effectiveness in the game.

  • Must Have
    C1: you can control and role-play one (=Avatar) or more (=Party) unique characters (-> not only uniform units)
    C2: you can progressively develop your characters' stats and/or abilities (-> e.g. through an in game value (usually exp. points) gained by quests, exploration, conversation, combat, …)
    C3: Checks against character stats and/or character abilities/skills are necessary to make progress and finish the game
    C4: you can equip and enhance your characters with items you acquire
  • Should Have
    C5: you can create your characters
    C6: the player needs preplanning for the development of the character(s)
    C7: the primary means of problem solving, gameworld interaction and overcoming challenges is the tactical use of character/party skills/abilities (-> the player's physical coordination skills are secondary)

Exploration
Includes how you can move through the game world, as well as everything you can find, see, manipulate or interact with, like locations, items and other objects.

  • Must Have
    E1: your character(s) can interact with the gameworld and find new locations by exploring.
    E2: your character(s) can find items that can be collected in an inventory (-> there have to be more item types than quest items, weapons, ammunition and consumable stat boosters.)
    E3: your character(s) can find information sources (-> e.g. NPCs, entities, objects that provide info)
  • Should Have
    E4: there are NPCs in the game
    E5: you can choose a path (-> there is at least some branching)
    E6: your character(s) can manipulate the game world in some way (-> e.g. pull levers, push buttons, open chests, …)
    E7: the gameworld can affect your character(s) (-> e.g. weather, traps, closed doors, poisoned areas, …)
    E8: there are initially inaccessible areas in the gameworld that can only be reached by enhancing your characters' abilities, solving quests or puzzles (-> e.g. unlock locked areas, overcome obstacles, repair bridges, dispel barriers, …)

Story
Concerns all narrative elements like setting, lore, plot, characters, dialogue, quests, descriptions, storyline(s) and similar, including how you can interact with them.

  • Must Have
    S1: your character(s) can get information from information sources (-> e.g. hints, goals, quests, skills, spells, training, …)
    S2: your character(s) can follow quests (-> there is at least one main quest)
    S3: your character(s) can progress through connected events and play their role
  • Should Have
    S4: the story is influenced by your decisions and your characters' actions and stats/abilities/skills.
    S5: your character(s) can interact with information sources (-> e.g. NPC conversation, riddle statue question, …)
    S6: your character(s) can make choices in those interactions
    S7: at least some of these choices have consequences
    S8: advancing in the story requires thinking of the player (-> e.g. irreversible choices, moral dilemma, riddles, …)
Combat
Describes how combat (or more general: conflict resolving) corresponds with elements of Character Development, Exploration and Story.

  • Should Have
    F1: Combat efficiency is in some way tied to character stats or abilities (-> e.g. amount of damage, chance to hit, weapon access, …)
    F2: Combat works with some random elements (game internal dice rolls)
    F3: Combat should provide some challenge (-> e.g. preparing, use of tactics or environment possible)

Hints:

  • A game that fulfills conditions in the categories Character and Exploration but not in Story could be a Dungeon Crawler or a Rogue-Like.
  • A game that fulfills conditions in the categories Exploration and Story but not in Character could be an Adventure game, a Strategy game or a Shooter.
  • A game that fulfills conditions in the categories Character and Story but not in Exploration could be a Simulation game or a Linear CRPG.

Tags are computer game tags that qualify the CRPG label even further:

  • Adventure-RPG: the main emphasis of the game are on Exploring and Story, less on Character Development
  • Rogue-like: the main emphasis of the game are on Exploring and Character Development, less on Story. Often features permanent death if a character dies and random generated levels.
  • Hack & Slash: many enemies, most of them easy to kill, respawning of enemies, much loot
  • J-RPG: Manga Style graphics, turn based combat, Eastern style CRPG
  • W-RPG: Western style CRPG
  • MMORPG: Many players are questing simultaneously online
  • Puzzle-RPG: the game's main emphasis are puzzles
  • Non-Combat: the game features no combat
  • Action: the combat is real time without pause
  • Strategic: additional troop (not your party) management available
  • Tactical: the game puts an emphasis on player tactical skill over character skill, often multiple squads (party splitting) are possible
  • Sneaker: combat is possible, avoiding it with stealth is better
  • Thief-like: combat is possible, avoiding it with stealth is better, thief-skills are essential (lock picking, ambush, hiding, sneaking,…)
  • Shooter: combat is mostly ranged and requires hand eye coordination and reflexes from the player
  • Sandbox: open environment where a lot of content is organized around simulation rather than story
  • Dungeon Crawler: closed environment where a lot of content is organized around dungeon interaction (traps, levers, buttons, teleports, riddles…) rather than story.
  • Fantasy
  • Historical
  • Modern
  • Post-apoc
  • Sci-fi
  • Steampunk
  • Technofantasy
  • Real World
  • Massive
  • Single + MP
  • Single-player
  • Co-Op
  • PvP
  • PvE
  • Real-time with pause: the real time combat can be paused any time
  • Real-time: the combat is real-time -> Action CRPG
  • Turn-based: the combat is turn-based
  • 1st-person
  • 3rd-person
  • Isometric
  • Top down
  • Floating camera: adds rotational control allowing full 3D navigation
  • Full control: full control over every party members action in combat
  • AI control: you only control part of the party directly, others are controlled by AI while they may accept general commands
  • subdued
  • realistic
  • whimsical
  • dazzling
1. Choice (13/13)

  • You can name your characters.
  • You can choose a gender.
  • You can choose looks or voice.
  • You can choose or create through play your own class, profession or race.
  • You can choose traits, alignment or disposition.
  • You can choose abilities.
  • You can choose spells.
  • You can modify primary stats.
  • Lots of different equipment is available.
  • Lots of different spells or abilities are available.
  • Abilities can unlock or block others or branch.
  • Character classes or development paths can be changed during the game.
  • You can have pets as party members.
2. Interdependence (6/6)

  • (Story) Character stats can change NPC disposition towards the PC.
  • (Story) Stats, abilities or spells can affect available dialogue options.
  • (Story) Unique items are in the game or can be made.
  • (Exploration) Stats, abilities or spells can affect available paths through the game world.
  • (Exploration) Stats, abilities or spells can affect the amount of things you can see, find or know in the world.
  • (Combat) Combat can be avoided due to stats (-> e.g. enemies flee.)
3. Interactivity (6/6)

  • You can create combos with spells or abilities.
  • Your character's stats can be modified by using spells or abilities.
  • Your character's afflictions can be cured by using spells or abilities.
  • You can rest or sleep.
  • Stats can limit in some way what you can equip or carry.
  • You can control party members or pets like your main character.
4. Immersion (8/8)

  • You need to specialize (-> can't have everything.)
  • You can create or choose a background story for your character.
  • You can tweak your character lots of times over the whole game.
  • You can wear normal clothes, not only armor.
  • Factions provide prizes for your deeds (-> e.g. houses, medals, ranks, …)
  • Magic is in the game in some form.
  • Your characters can be afflicted with negative status effects (-> e.g. diseases, fatigue, etc.)
  • Your characters can eat or drink.
1. Choice (4/4)

  • You can follow different paths to reach a goal.
  • You can reasonably go where you want.
  • You can return to previously visited locations.
  • There are few artificial borders, rare level loading.
2. Interdependence (6/6)

  • (Character) Char development choices can affect available paths through the game world.
  • (Character) Char development choices can affect the amount of things you can see, find or know in the world.
  • (Story) You can find and recruit new party members or tame pets.
  • (Story) Exploring off the beaten path yields rewards, e.g. optional quests, secrets or interesting locations.
  • (Story) You can visit and make use of social locations (-> e.g. taverns, inns, marketplaces).
  • (Combat) Combat can be avoided through sneaking or gameworld manipulation.
3. Interactivity (10/10)

  • You can collect items (-> there is an inventory.)
  • You can trade items for currency and better equipment.
  • You can interact with items.
  • You can break or destroy items.
  • You can repair items.
  • You can move items.
  • You can combine or disaggregate items.
  • You can gather pieces of flora or fauna for later use.
  • You can craft equipment, spells or items (e.g. alchemy).
  • Inventory size is limited.
4. Immersion (9/9)

  • There is a place you can call home.
  • You can explore lots of unique, beautiful and interesting locations.
  • Locations can evolve or change (-> e.g. town / destroyed town)
  • There are non-hostile creatures (-> e.g. wildlife)
  • Types of creatures make sense in the area they are encountered in.
  • Creatures are wandering persistently (-> no random encounters).
  • Looting makes sense (no shield on a dead wolf.)
  • Time is measured (-> e.g. there is a day/night cycle).
  • Time affects the game world (-> e.g. some things are only available at night).
1. Choice (6/6)

  • You can reasonably do what you want when you want to do it (-> quest order doesn't matter much.)
  • Some quests depend on each other.
  • Some quests rule others out.
  • Quests can be solved in more than one way.
  • You can join factions, though not all at the same time.
  • You can make moral choices (or romance choices).
2. Interdependence (7/7)

  • (Character) Character stats can change NPC disposition towards the PC.
  • (Character) Char development choices can affect available dialogue options.
  • (Character) Unique items are in the game or can be made.
  • (Exploration) You can find and recruit new party members or tame pets.
  • (Exploration) Exploring off the beaten path yields rewards, e.g. optional quests, secrets or interesting locations.
  • (Exploration) You can visit and make use of social locations (-> e.g. taverns, inns, marketplaces).
  • (Combat) Combat can be avoided through dialogue.
3. Interactivity (6/6)

  • Dialogue is fleshed out (-> there are multiple options in one conversation).
  • There is more than one game ending.
  • You can have conversations with party members or take care of pets.
  • There are many side quests.
  • State of the game changes in accordance with the player's actions.
  • You can solve or create conflicts between factions.
4. Immersion (10/10)

  • Lore is provided (-> context, faction rules, laws, history, …)
  • There are different factions (races, groups, guilds).
  • NPCs or party members are well developed (-> expansive background stories, etc.)
  • NPCs or party members interact with each other.
  • NPCs have schedules.
  • There are surprises and twists.
  • The storyline is character-driven (-> character development within the narrative.)
  • There is a proper ending or sense of closure.
  • There are memorable antagonists.
  • Your main character is defined.
1. Character Development (9/9)

  • Combat can be avoided due to stats (-> e.g. enemies flee).
  • You can control at least six characters.
  • Your characters are specialized (-> different battlefield roles).
  • Enemies are specialized (-> require different tactics.)
  • Resource management is necessary.
  • Units have multiple attack options.
  • Delayed attacks are possible (-> counterattacks, attacks of opportunity, etc.)
  • Movement-focused special abilities are available.
  • Units have multiple resistance options (-> e.g. armor, elemental resistance, etc.)
2. Exploration (9/9)

  • Combat can be avoided through sneaking or gameworld manipulation.
  • You can get a good sense of space (-> e.g. there is a grid.)
  • Combat can start at variable distances.
  • Directional facing plays a role (-> e.g. more damage from behind, flanking).
  • Terrain is variable (-> e.g. natural choke points, cover, combat bonuses).
  • Terrain can be manipulated (-> e.g. you can create barriers).
  • There are elevation effects (-> e.g. combat bonuses from higher grounds.)
  • There can be zones or items on the battlefield that reward units who get there in time.
  • There can be Zones of Danger on the battlefield (-> e.g. environmental damage).
3. Story (6/6)

  • Combat can be avoided through dialogue.
  • Combat can have different win scenarios (-> e.g. keep NPC alive, defend town).
  • Combat can have side objectives aside from "win/loss".
  • Characters don't die immediately but can be revived during combat.
  • Decisions on the battlefield have character development consequences.
  • There are memorable bosses.
1. Interface

  • How often is gameplay interrupted with loading? (rarely, sometimes, often)
  • How would you rate the game's interface? (intuitive, clunky, …)
2. Difficulty

  • How difficult is the game? (easy, normal, hard)
  • Can difficulty be adjusted?
  • How balanced is trading? (good, not-so-good, bad)
  • How balanced is combat? (good, not-so-good, bad)
  • How much reloading is necessary to beat the game (little, some, much)
  • How good is the AI? (good, medium, bad)
  • How much handholing is there? (little, some, much)
3. Gameplay features

  • Are there Easter Eggs?
  • Are there minigames?
4. Exploration

  • Is Auto-Mapping available?
  • Is Fast Travelling available?
  • Are there quest markers?
  • Is there a quest compass?
  • How much realism is there? (little, balanced, much)
  • How much looting is in the game? (little, some, much)
5. Character Development

  • Are there useless skills?
  • How would you rate character progression? (fast, balanced, slow)
  • Is there auto-leveling of some sort?
6. Story

  • Does the story follow clichéd paths?
  • How linear is the game? (linear, network-like, non-linear)
  • How would you rate the suspense? (boring, gripping, fun, …)
  • Are there pre-selected options (choice is reduced)?
7. Combat

  • How much fighting is in the game? (little, some, much)
  • Grinding: Is filler combat necessary to develop your character?

Explanations:
C1: you can control and role-play one (=Avatar) or more (=Party) unique characters (-> not only uniform units)
This is a necessary condition for roleplaying games. Contrary to pure strategy games your characters are named and unique and are not undistinguishable uniform units.

C2: you can progressively develop your characters' stats and/or abilities (-> e.g. through an in game value (usually exp. points) gained by quests, exploration, conversation, combat …)
Character progression is another necessary element. Some very rare games like Megatraveller features character progression only during the character creation process.

C3: Checks against character stats and/or character abilities/skills are necessary to make progress and finish the game
Checks against stats and skills levels during dialog combat and skill using etc. are essential and a typical feature of role playing games.

C4: you can equip and enhance your characters with items you acquire
This is another necessary condition that all CRPGs have to implement.
It would be theoretically possible to create a CRPG that doesn’t implement some kind of equipment, but I have yet to see one. The absence of equipment could be an indicator for an Adventure game. Adventure games feature often only an inventory for puzzle items.


C5: you can create your characters
This Should Have condition is important, but not necessary. Pre-created characters like in Gothic for example are quite common nowadays.

C6: the player needs preplanning for the development of the character(s)
This is another important Should Have condition that reflects the strategic aspect of character creation, progression and party mix planning.

C7: the primary means of problem solving, gameworld interaction and overcoming challenges is the tactical use of character/party skills/abilities (-> the player's physical coordination skills are secondary)
A game that doesn’t fulfill this condition is probably a more action oriented game or a shooter where the skills of the player are more important than the skills of the in-game characters.

E1: your character(s) can interact with the gameworld and find new locations by exploring.
This simple necessary condition excludes games that have no kind of exploration or gameworld interaction.

E2: your character(s) can find items that can be collected in an inventory (-> there have to be more item types than quest items, weapons, ammunition and consumable stat boosters.)
This condition is necessary to exclude Adventure games and pure Shooters. Theoretically someone could construct a CRPG without an inventory, but this would be a very rare and very special CRPG, so this is a Must Have element.

E3: your character(s) can find information sources (-> e.g. NPCs, entities, objects that provide info)
A CRPG without the chance to find any information source at all is not possible.

E4: there are NPCs in the game
This is only a Should Have condition, because especially early dungeon crawlers have often no NPCs in the game.

E5: you can choose a path (-> there is at least some branching)
You can create a linear CRPG, a “game on rails” with close to no exploring like Banner Saga, so this is only a Should Have condition.

E6: your character(s) can manipulate the game world in some way (-> e.g. pull levers, push buttons, open chests, …)
It is rare to find a CRPG without any gameworld manipulation, but possible.

E7: the gameworld can affect your character(s) (-> e.g. weather, traps, closed doors, poisoned areas, …)
Not all CRPGs can affect your characters with gameworld conditions, so this is only a Should Have element.

E8: there are initially inaccessible areas in the gameworld that can only be reached by enhancing your characters' abilities, solving quests or puzzles (-> e.g. unlock locked areas, overcome obstacles, repair bridges, dispel barriers, …)
Exploring should depend on your character abilities, too.

S1: your character(s) can get information from information sources (-> e.g. hints, goals, quests, skills, spells, training, …)
S1 is closely related to E3. After finding an information source you have to able to get information from there.

S2: your character(s) can follow quests (-> there is at least one main quest)
Does a CRPG exist without a quest at all? No, this would be a sandbox or simulation game.

S3: your character(s) can progress through connected events and play their role
At least in some ways the in-game character must be able to stay in his role when he encounters game events. Otherwise his chosen role would be meaningless.

S4: the story is influenced by your decisions and your characters' actions and stats/abilities/skills.
A two part Should Have condition. The second part is mandatory for pen&paper role-playing games; unfortunately we can’t demand it for computer role-playing games.

S5: your character(s) can interact with information sources (-> e.g. NPC conversation, riddle statue question, …)
Dialog/Interaction is mandatory for most modern CRPGs, but was not common in older Dungeon Crawlers, so this is only a Should Have condition.

S6: your character(s) can make choices in those interactions
Choices should be in a CRPG – not every CRPG features this.

S7: at least some of these choices have consequences
Consequences should be in a CRPG, too – not every CRPG features this.

S8: advancing in the story requires thinking of the player (-> e.g. irreversible choices, moral dilemma, riddles, …)
The player has to use his brain to advance through the story. Mindless Hack&Slay games or pure sandbox games in which every action is reversible are detected here.

F1: Combat efficiency is in some way tied to character stats or abilities (-> e.g. amount of damage, chance to hit, weapon access, …)
Combat that is not tied to stats and skills, indicates often a Shooter or a simple fighting game that relies only on the player’s twitch skills.

F2: Combat works with some random elements (game internal dice rolls)
Almost all CRPGs work with some kind of internal dice rolls or probability functions based on stats.

F3: Combat should provide some challenge (-> e.g. preparing, use of tactics or environment possible)
Another Should Have condition that reflects that in most CRPGs you have to use some kind of tactics to survive battles.



Bottom Line:
The checklist approach to check a game for CRPG elements works very well and is easy to execute. CRPGs, borderline games, hybrids and non-CRPGs are detected most of the time. The checklist can be useful as a first step when someone is writing a review for a CRPG.
If a user disagrees with one condition he can simply ignore it or change it from Must Have to Should Have and vice versa in his mind according to his tastes. So this solution is very flexible and user friendly. The checklist can certainly be enhanced even further, especially the part of optional elements - the Nice to Have List.
I hope this checklist encourages the discussion about gameplay elements of CRPGs that are necessary, important or simply fun!


Thanks go to all involved, especially Arhu & Wulf.
Have Fun – HiddenX
 

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Big question to start it off… development of the character. Just what constitutes the character? If it's good old D&D style then the character him/her/itself will actually be changing and growing. However, sometimes it isn't the character so much as the equipment. Maybe you've got some sort of amulet that enhances your abilities and, the more quests you do, the stronger the amulet gets. Or maybe it's just a matter of finding stronger swords and armor with more complex spells/technology?

The general gist of it, IMHO, is that your gameplay should start out simplistic. As time goes on, that gameplay gets more complex. Note that last word! It's not just a matter of the numbers getting bigger! You've got to have more options in your play style. Going from a +2 sword to a +8 sword doesn't cut it <ahem> but going from a +2 sword to a +2 sword that lets you teleport around the battle field once every couple of minutes would.

I really don't think it should matter whether that teleport ability comes from a sword or a character "talent," though.
 
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Lots of great stuff in here, thanks for all the hard work! Now I would just like to make a few tweaks… Zloth grabs his +3 Battle Axe of Tweaking

C6: I'm afraid I don't buy this one at all. Requires pre-planning? How do you even do that when you only have a vague idea about what the game is going to be throwing at you?? If I start Divinity:OS with a character that has a single point in air and another in water I may be planning to specialize in those two elements but, if I find a bunch of earth spells that work nicely for me, I'm quite likely to change that plan. By this "should have" I would be doomed to failure because I failed to pre-plan accordingly.

C7: I get where you're going with this but the player's skill does still come into play - it's just that it's mental instead of a matter of reaction times or how fast you can push a button. If you fail to figure out how to best apply your character's new abilities then you're going to get trounced. (S8 actually says this explicitly!)

E1: I think I would expand this a tad to say that the character can find locations besides the ones they are brought to via the story line. Or actually, maybe that should be mentioned in the header as it applies to the first three (IMHO).

E4: Uhoh, definition issue! I'm pretty old school so "NPC" to me is anything alive that the player doesn't control. Every monster you fight is an NPC in my book. (I can quote Gary Gygax to back my side, too, so I must be right! ;))

E5: Does going back to old locations count as "branching?" I've seen some JRPGs where the game is basically linear but they let you go back to old areas to finish of missed puzzles or look for secret rooms. You can get some pseudo-branching, too. "You've got to get the green key and the red key but you can go after either one first! Branching!"

E7: If closed doors count then I think you could replace both E6 and E7 with "there should be a gameworld" - but that's implied already by the first three must haves. Pac-Man has walls that limit your movement so the game world is affecting your character.
 
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@Zloth - Thanks for the input!

C6 I think preplanning of characters is a typical feature of CRPGs.
  • read the manual
  • plan a party mix
  • plan each character so that every skill is somewhere in the party
It's only a Should have - I want a comment from the reviewer if it's not there.

C7 I'm only talking about the player's twitch skills here (reaction time, mouse movement, clicking etc.) this should be clearly secondary.

E1 good point

E4 NPCs = characters you can interact with, that are not in party.

E6 should reflect that you can do things like cooking, build a bridge over water, set traps, build a ladder, destroy a big stone in the way, push secret buttons, open chests …

Maybe this is better?
E6: your character(s) can manipulate and change the game world appropriate to the game's setting (-> e.g. pull levers, push buttons, open chests, hack computers …)

E7 should reflect that the party (stats, skills and tactics) can be affected by the gameworld through bad weather, poisoned areas, special environments, temperature etc.

Maybe this is better?
E7: the gameworld can affect your character(s) conditions or circumstances(-> e.g. weather, traps, closed doors, poisoned areas, …) in a way that you have to learn and adapt to overcome these challenges.


E5 what do other people say? - Is backtracking branching too? I have no clear opinion about this.
 
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Does someone understand Russian?

I think the CRPG-Analyzer is discussed here.

Google translation says they are talking a lot about The Banner Saga.

Which is indeed a game that is very hard to classify.
 
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Put it in a nice .pdf for extra credibility :p
 
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Dear Green Place
Greetings, HiddenX.

I am the founder of the C.O.R.E. | Codex of RPG Elucidation. We're big fans of role-playing games and have written dozens of forum pages themselves, trying to answer the question 'What is the role-playing game?' We have also translated at least a dozen analysis and opinions on this topic by different authors.

Since you've tried to translate our reviews into English, you probably already know that your classification is to our sceptics' liking, that's for sure. We have a few quibbles, yes, but overall, this is the first system to which we have no substantive claims, really. Hope you don't mind that we decided to acquaint the Russian-speaking fans of role-playing games with your research. Thank you for your work, we do like it!

Wikipedia article is edited mostly by me, usually I add new information when new translations of articles and opinions on the definition of computer role-playing games appears on our website. The article at the moment consists mainly of cited translations from various papers (our community specializes in serious thematic articles) translated on our website (there are links to the original and to the translation).

And we had a dispute about The Banner Saga, which is a game that is very hard to classify even by your classification system.
 
Welcome to RPGWatch m00n1ight,

thank you for translating the CRPG Analyzer for Russian speaking CRPG fans.
I appreciate every effort to understand role-playing games better and maybe we can enhance the Analyzer even more.
 
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I'm busy with our CPRG Analyzer again. I could use help with definitions or short descriptions of some tags. If anyone feels up to the task, shoot. :)

As I have posted previously, I put some structure into our genre jungle and added lots of (IMO) useful tags in the process. For first-time users it would be great if a description was present for every tag, just so everyone is on the same page. Genre is mostly finished, but a description of the category itself would be nice, too. Otherwise, here's what I have so far:

(Description, maybe relating to our MH/SH check list)

CRPG - (Game is a CRPG, i.e. fulfills all MH and SH criteria)
CRPG-ish - (Game tends towards being a CRPG, i.e. fulfills all MH criteria)
Non-CRPG - (Game is not a CRPG, i.e. doesn't fulfill all MH criteria)
(Description; contrary to literary genres, game genres usually describe the gameplay rather than the setting or theme)

Adventure - The main emphasis of the game is on Exploring and Story, less on Character Development.
Dungeon Crawler - Closed environment where a lot of content is organized around dungeon interaction (traps, levers, buttons, teleports, riddles…) rather than story.
Action - The combat is real time without pause.
Hack & Slash - Many enemies, most of them easy to kill, respawning of enemies, much loot.
J-RPG - Manga Style graphics, often turn based combat, Eastern style CRPG.
MMORPG - Many players are questing simultaneously online.
Non-Combat - The game features no combat.
Puzzle - The game's main emphasis are puzzles.
Rogue-like - The main emphasis of the game are on Exploring and Character Development, less on Story. Often features permanent death if a character dies and random generated levels.
Sandbox - Open environment where a lot of content is organized around simulation rather than story.
Shooter - Combat is mostly ranged and requires hand eye coordination and reflexes from the player.
Sneaker - Combat is possible, avoiding it with stealth is better.
Strategy - Additional troop (not your party) management available.
Tactical - The game puts an emphasis on player tactical skill over character skill, often multiple squads (party splitting) are possible.
Thief-like - Combat is possible, avoiding it with stealth is better, thief-skills are essential (lock picking, ambush, hiding, sneaking,…)
W-RPG - Western style CRPG.
Where or when does the game mainly take place? What are its prevalent features?

(World)
Real World -
Alternate World -
Crossworlds -
(Landscape)
Urban -
Sylvan -
Jungle -
Maritime -
Desert -
Wasteland -
Dungeon -
Space -
Winter/Snow -
(Era)
Mythic -
Historical -
Alternate History -
Medieval -
Modern -
Futuristic -
Post-apocalyptic -
(Culture)
Asian -
Celtic -
Wild West -
(Description)

High Fantasy - Fantasy settings work with supernatural and magic elements for the plot. The most popular imaginary worlds use a medieval setting and often copy from J.R.R. Tolkien's book Lord of the Rings.
Low Fantasy -
Sci-fi - In this often futuristic setting imaginary technology is used for space and time travel and the discovery of the universe. The contact with extraterrestrial life so called aliens leads to adventures, conflicts and challenges of all kind.
Arcanepunk -
Steampunk -
Cyberpunk -
Dark -
Gritty -
Bright -
Clean -
(Description)

Vampires -
Survival -
Sword & Sorcery -
Zombies -
Coming-of-Age -
Swashbuckling -
Wuxia -
Military -
Paranormal -
Romantic -
Erotic -
Intrigue -
Science -
Political -
Weird -
Comic/Humorous -
Super Hero -
Religious/Spiritual -
Philosophical -
Fables/Fairy Tale -
Horror -

Yeah, "CRPG" has been elevated and is not a mere genre anymore, but, as others have said before, a continuum. ;)

If you find something that is missing and should be in there somewhere, or anything else, just mention it. Inspiration for some tags can be found at Fantasy Book subgenres, Wikipedia or tvtropes.org

Those tags will be easily selectable in a check list — except for classification, which will be derived from the MH/SH check list.
 
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HiddenX, did you already incorporate the little enhancements you posted above as a reply to Zloth's arguments? I'm updating the tool and might as well use the latest version, if there is one after 1.00.
 
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I'm working on a new version - felipepepe wants a version for his book as well.

I think these suggestions in reply to Mr. Zloth will be in:

E6: your character(s) can manipulate and change the game world appropriate to the game's setting (-> e.g. pull levers, push buttons, open chests, hack computers …)

E7: the gameworld can affect your character(s) conditions or circumstances(-> e.g. weather, traps, closed doors, poisoned areas, …) in a way that you have to learn and adapt to overcome these challenges.

maybe:
E5: you can choose a path (-> there is at least some branching or backtracking)

What do you think?
 
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