Genuine Rpg's (like Fallout & Baldur's Gate) have been (nearly) systematically destroyed by the corporate copy & paste FPS model, based on Morrowind, then Oblivion, Stalker, System Shock, Bioshock and many others....
The rational alternative, is a boycott of the greed-based corporate copy & paste Pseudo-Rpg scam.
Honestly I just don't believe that all that's keeping "genuine RPG's" from being produced is a corporate scam. I'll agree with the greed angle. I've deplored it and the way the traditional rpg is perceived as niche in a lot of posts (that you may not have read, so I'll let you off on that one .
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But I'm not ready to stop buying and playing good games while waiting for the Holy Grail to come along, so I have to put up with change. It's a fact of life.
It's the FPS-Action-MMORPG era.
Yes, it is--and so rpgs need to find their feet and start competing if they want to survive. This doesn't mean they have to become the "enemy', but they have to be as good.
I agree that the large corporate conglomerates are not doing rpg gamers a service by insisting that all games be huge cross-platform money makers first, and quality, authentic games last.
But I think cRPG's themselves have a share in the problem. As we've discussed here on the forums before, the new millenium has produced very little that's new in the rpg. It's become an increasingly limited, formulaic exercise repeating well-worn game themes like the Chosen One, the amnesiac hero, the plot by the evil whatever to destroy the known universe, and often is no more than a beat the bad guy and assemble the artifact chase. Indie games are not a great exception to this, so it isn't all a corporate plot.
And you can keep facilitating it, subsequently eradicating genuine Rpg's, by purchasing, promoting and discussing the FPS clickfests.
I can understand your point about purchasing and promoting games that you feel threaten what you prize in rpgs, but I don't understand how discussing what's going on, how rpg's can be improved or impacted by something, facilitates the erosion of the genre. Discussion is how people communicate.
Worshiping at the shrine of games past is not the answer if you want to see more RPG's. Making better games that push the envelope, whether by adapting and reinventing what works in other genres( FPS=RPG is a claim I never made, btw) or by being a more creative and competent developer, can only help bring the genre out of the doldrums.
In My Humble Opinion, of course.
