What is your personal definition of a CRPG?

A game in which you portray a living being and in which you can affect one or more actions taken by that living being.

That would put any game on the spectrum, in any case.

Yeah, that pretty much means most games ever made, it would be harder to find games not fitting that description. Pong? (Although you argue the "racket" is indeed a living being or at least controlled by one…) :D

"A role-playing game is a game where you play a role". Umm, well yes, that's actually true I suppose.
 
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I suspect he phrased it badly - not to be legal whatever but what he said was quite confusing as well as overly broad. Then again maybe in his vision nearly all games are crpgs; who knows.


Yeah, that pretty much means most games ever made, it would be harder to find games not fitting that description. Pong? (Although you argue the "racket" is indeed a living being or at least controlled by one…) :D

"A role-playing game is a game where you play a role". Umm, well yes, that's actually true I suppose.
 
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Yeah, that pretty much means most games ever made, it would be harder to find games not fitting that description. Pong? (Although you argue the "racket" is indeed a living being or at least controlled by one…) :D

"A role-playing game is a game where you play a role". Umm, well yes, that's actually true I suppose.

Exactly, and that's how I view where the spectrum begins. Pong is questionable (I believe it's an abstraction of Tennis - so maybe you're actually portraying a Tennis player), but games like Tetris and Solitaire are examples of abstract games that I wouldn't include - because I don't interpret any role as a living being.

But there's a difference between being on the spectrum and being full of RPG elements.

Then again, I don't fret about genres in general. I don't equate CRPG with "good game" - like I suppose most of the Watch would tend to do.

I do absolutely adore almost ALL traditional RPG features - but I don't consider any one of them a requisite to qualify for being on the spectrum.
 
First no one said that crpg are 'good games' 'cept you. Second why did you even ask the question what makes a crpg since you seem to consider all games crpg per above ?

Exactly, and that's how I view where the spectrum begins. Pong is questionable (I believe it's an abstraction of Tennis - so maybe you're actually portraying a Tennis player), but games like Tetris and Solitaire are examples of abstract games that I wouldn't include - because I don't interpret any role as a living being.

But there's a difference between being on the spectrum and being full of RPG elements.

Then again, I don't fret about genres in general. I don't equate CRPG with "good game" - like I suppose most of the Watch would tend to do.

I do absolutely adore almost ALL traditional RPG features - but I don't consider any one of them a requisite to qualify for being on the spectrum.
 
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First no one said that crpg are 'good games' 'cept you. Second why did you even ask the question what makes a crpg since you seem to consider all games crpg per above ?

In Darts defense, why not? Just because his definition is extremely broad doesn't mean it can't be interesting to read others? I for one found this a pretty interesting topic, since although we have much in common with each other very few of us define CRPG the same way.

In no way does the term CRPG automatically mean a "good game" however, at least not to me. To me it's probably more the opposite, I have a harder time enjoying CRPG's for what's good in them if they go wrong on pet peeves. The same isn't true of other genres.
 
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In no way does the term CRPG automatically mean a "good game" however, at least not to me. To me it's probably more the opposite, I have a harder time enjoying CRPG's for what's good in them if they go wrong on pet peeves. The same isn't true of other genres.

That's fair enough.

It was only a guess of mine, since a lot of people seem very focused on the genre - and almost seem upset when some game they don't personally consider to be an RPG - is called one by others.

But this thread was about me wanting to know what people think of the genre and its definition.

I didn't intend for it to devolve into yet another debate about this - which is why I hesitated to add my own definition :)

I do want to point out that I'm talking about being on a spectrum.

Say a spectrum like this:

Not RPG <---------------------------------------------> RPG

Something like Pong (if we pretend you're portraying a Tennis player) - would probably be:

Not RPG <PONG---------------------------------------> RPG

As in, only in the most basic and limited sense would I concede it's arguably an RPG.

I know how some people struggle when things aren't black and white, so I thought I'd better clarify.
 
Now it makes sense you enjoy imitating a ping pong ball. Thanks for the clarification.

That's fair enough.


Something like Pong

As in, only in the most basic and limited sense would I concede it's arguably an RPG.

I know how some people struggle when things aren't black and white, so I thought I'd better clarify.
 
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