Ubisoft - Calls The Division an RPG

Ubisoft is calling Tom Clancy's The Division "an RPG".

Credits to Couch for this and the links below.



More information.

More information.

game looks nice though

Nothing new, really. Pretty much a majority of players I hear call all games that feature character progression (leveling/skillpoints/etc) an rpg. And, really, this leads back to what is an rpg. Going purely by name, a role playing game, most games that offer you the option to play different roles (either narratively, or purely in gameplay) could be called rpgs. Of course there are different degrees to it. But I always find it funny that hardcore rpg players are so insecure to have their genre associated with not-so-hardcore rpg games.

The only thing I do dislike, is that companies know that slapping on the rpg label will broaden their potential market. Especially since most people enjoy having some sort of character progression.

Full disclosure: I really like what The Division is shaping up to be, and will certainly play it. I just hope Ubisoft doesn't find a way to screw things up, like they usually do. It's already bad enough that I'll have to login to both Steam and Uplay. We'll see.

I guess it's hard to blame them, based on what's going on with some other big-name franchises that are still calling themselves RPGs even though they probably shouldn't be. Looking at you, Mass Effect 3 and Fallout 4.

Dem…seriouz?! Orkz dizaprovez…

Ubi lost touch with reality, it seems…

They can call it an RPG all they want, it wont make it one… same goes for Todd's garbage

The way I see it, it has at least as much right to use the label as most of the games I see praised around here. A role playing game isn't necessarily about rules and tacticts, as most of the "revival of the 90s movement" has been about. People who like Dungeons & Dragons and other silly games like that usually play them as boardgames without boards, but that doesn't mean they are right (even if the majority thinks so). Role playing games should be about role playing, and, as you can't really play your role entirely free in a videogame as you do playing around a table, well then it'a mostly about choices and consequences, story, immersion, interaction. Character builiding, progression and crafting are just the cogs in the machine.

Wait, what? Is RPG suddenly a marketing term now? It used to indicate a niche game. I guess The Witcher 3, Skyrim and so on changed that. Ah well.

Some tag-lines:

Online - Open World - RPG

Only on next gen - Tailor made for next-gen consoles

AS PART OF THE DIVISION, HARNESS STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNOLOGY: BOTH NETWORKED AND PROTOTYPED. LOOT FALLEN FOES AND CRAFT NEW, IMPROVED GEAR. COMPLETELY CUSTOMIZE YOUR GO-BAG, AN AGENT’S ONLY SUPPLIES IN THE EVENT OF COLLAPSE, AND COMMUNICATE WITH THE OTHER AGENTS AT ALL TIMES WITH YOUR SMART WATCH. CUSTOMIZE YOUR AGENT WITH THOUSANDS OF WEAPON TYPES, SKILL COMBINATIONS, GEAR AND MUCH MORE. THE CHOICES YOU MAKE CAN HELP FORGE A RECOVERY OR PLUNGE THE CITY DEEPER INTO CHAOS.

So its an open world console shooter with enough RPG elements to allow the pedants to formulate strong enough arguments for any denial of its RPGness to be futile beyond healthy venting. Ironically, it might even be 'more' RPG than Fallout 4.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Wait, what? Is RPG suddenly a marketing term now? It used to indicate a niche game. I guess The Witcher 3, Skyrim and so on changed that. Ah well.

It became a marketing term long before Skyrim (I personally think WoW popularity is the cause). It's just that they didn't push it as much as they do now in their ads. Everything has RPG elements these days and by RPG elements I mean character progression, usually very shallow ones.

Don't know and don't care if it's an RPG or not. I am looking forward to playing it though. I already preordered a couple copies for my son and I.

Originally Posted by lackblogger
Ironically, it might even be 'more' RPG than Fallout 4.

I do not understand that alleged irony. Fallout 4 REALY IS an RPG, even if The Division might no be. I advise you to look up the definition of "RPG" urgently (and I do not mean rocket-propelled grenade).

Ugh, sorry mark, but it's really a stretch calling FO4 a RPG. It has some RPG elements, sure, but its hardly a real RPG. Weak dialogue, weak reactivity, boring quests, boring enemies, boring locations, dumbed down character progression etc.


If anything, its an open-world console shooter with RPG elements. Like someone has said.

Wide as the ocean, but 1 inch deep

Originally Posted by luj1
Ugh, sorry mark, but it's really a stretch calling FO4 a RPG. It has some RPG elements, sure, but its hardly a real RPG. Weak dialogue, weak reactivity, boring quests, boring enemies, boring locations, dumbed down character progression etc.


If anything, its an open-world console shooter with RPG elements. Like someone has said.

Wide as the ocean, but 1 inch deep

Everything you mention there are your personal opinions about it - you find the dialogue and reactivity to be weak, you find the quests, enemies and locations to be boring and for you the choice to trade skills for perks with levels (I am assuming this is the part of character progression you don't like) was "dumbed down". But that doesn't make a non-RPG out of Fallout. It could mean it's a boring, dull RPG (your opinion, not mine), but still an RPG. Anyway, I don't think that "RPG" is that a powerful label for someone to use it as a marketing tool.

There is very little opinion in my post


Interesting quests? No, just go and kill a few raiders, man. Except for the settlement building stuff, every single quest so far involved going somewhere and murdering everything. There are no alternative paths, there is no use of skills or speech to do thing differently. You go to the location, you kill everything that moves, grab the thing you need (if even) and that’s it. Its just tedious, like having to “clear” every raider in a maze like factory… yeah totally deep quests

Ridiculously dumbed down character development system. No more Traits
, skills are GONE, just the same simplified idiotic “character building” as Skyrim. Most attributes have NO consequence, you can have 1 in intelligence and still hack computers or have most dialogue options.Furthermore you can use all weapons regardless of type right from when you find them …

Dialogue? The classic dialouge system has been replaced with a mass effect style console wheel. What choices are there ? Yes and No for the most part. Come on. And dialogue leads to the SAME result no matter what you say (!?). Companions don’t die, neither do most named NPCs, you cannot dismiss Dogmeat . But the worst part is the "go clear this place" that every faction has…

so yeah….I don't think I need to continue…. its not my opinion , its facts. I've played the game and am not remotely impressed, don't be a fanboy mark

Online - Open World - RPG

Ubisoft's lies obviously and trying to cash in on recent RPGs popularity.

From those tags it's probably MMO avoidware similar to overhyped garbage Destiny.
Ubisoft's idea what RPGs are doesn't exist. If it did, Ubisoft would have make at least one in pase few years instead of releasing just South Park which wasn't even their own design.

Ubisoft and Origin, which is the most irrelevant?? Photo finish, in my opinion, they both suck….and not in a good way!

Originally Posted by luj1
T
so yeah….I don't think I need to continue…. its not my opinion , its facts. I've played the game and am not remotely impressed, don't be a fanboy mark

I'm not a fanboy, I'm pretty sure I like the game and was not influenced by hype or marketing (nor was there really that much marketing for the game and the hype was self-generated. After all, it's Fallout). As for facts and not opinions, well, if you don't like "opinions", and you feel there's too much subjectivity attached to the word, choose another of your liking: belief, judgement, stance, perpective, point of view. Facts they are not.

What Ubisoft did to MMX… disgusting,..,.. take a famous IP and drench it dry, then leave it . Theyre not even releasing updates, they said they're abandoning it. A bunch of capitalist fakers

Originally Posted by Mark0
Facts they are not.

Is it not like I said it is? Its exactly how I said it is. Just read my post again.

Its an RPG only marginally. If FO4 is an RPG, then No One Lives Forever 1-2 is also. Then Quake is also a RPG. Because youre playing a role, no? You have some statistic, like a healthbar no? Then ALL games are ROLE PLAYING. See the problem of having a loose definition?

Its as much a RPG as facebook games are. In depth its most similar to them anyway