What's The Most Important Features of RPGs?

Couchpotato · October 30, 2014

Since my last poll has seem to stalled here is a more interesting poll for everyone. The question this time is,"The most important features of RPGs?"

Lets call this poll version two as it will allow multiple choices for voting. I will leave the poll open a for a few weeks to collect your votes this time. So vote away everyone.

Couchpotato · October 30, 2014

Sorry guys this is version two so please re-vote. You can now pick as many options as you want to. So the poll is a slight upgrade over the other one. :blush:

I picked my choices as follows.

1. Story
2. Character Creation & Customization
3. Choice & Consequences
4. Setting & Lore
5. Game Length

HiddenX · October 30, 2014

Character progression is the most important feature for RPGs, because without it a game could not be called RPG.

Humanity has risen! · October 30, 2014

The gameplay system by far. That's why Wizardry is still interesting 34 years later.

Arkadia7 · October 31, 2014

All these elements are important of course, but if I had to rank them:

1. combat system - I think this is the bread and butter of most rpgs. If a rpg has a bad combat system, forget about it. "Game Over, man!"

2. setting - more of a personal choice, I find this to be very important in whether I'm interested in the game. Very difficult to get right too. Lots of game developers try to create original settings, and fail miserably.

3. graphics and music - yep, this means eye candy and ear candy. Some purists would look down their noses at this, but I think its important in our modern era, where graphics and music have gotten more and more sophisticated, and sometimes, even mind-blowing.

4. game controls and UI - could make a strong argument to be higher on the list, for sure. If the UI sucks, it makes the whole game suffer.

5. story - A good story can really draw you into a game. If the story isn't interesting, I will usually lose interest in playing the game.

The rest of the elements I would rank lower than these.
My two coppers.

Cronis · October 31, 2014

I'd like to add a category, that might not be the most important, but I think can play a integral role in a good RPG; itemization. Games which have unique and interesting itemization makes exploration and combat that much more interesting. Finding great loot after killing some uber boss, it adds to the sense of reward imo. Diablo 1,2 and 3 all show the almost pavlovian sense of accomplishment loot can have on a game.
Discounting action RPG's as true RPGs, one could look at the effect loot has on games like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, where the truly unique items had back stories of their own which further add to the lore of the game world. I think one of the disappointing features of games like Skyrim is the rather bland itemization of the game world.
All the features mentioned above are obviously very important to RPGs, but dont discount itemization, it has its place as a important feature in RPGs.

wolfing · October 31, 2014

I think the 'gameplay' option is too ... fuzzy? I mean, to me everything is gameplay, or what exactly did you mean by gameplay?

Couchpotato · October 31, 2014

wolfing said:
I think the 'gameplay' option is too … fuzzy? I mean, to me everything is gameplay, or what exactly did you mean by gameplay?

Well I was trying to think of options. As you guys are hard to please.

But yes I get what your saying so I will add Itemization instead. Now I can not add anymore as ten options is the limit for a poll on the site.

Update: Ignore the percentages as they are off due to a forum bug. Seems the sites latest update is having a ripple effect on different functions. :raincloud:

Arhu · October 31, 2014

Couchpotato said:
Update: Ignore the percentages as they are off due to a forum bug. Seems the sites latest update is having a ripple effect on different functions.

Fixed. That was actually a forum bug (or weird feature, at least).

Morrandir · October 31, 2014

Nice survey!

I selected Story, Choice & Consequences, Character Creation & Customization and Exploration.

Maylander · October 31, 2014

It's rather complex, as it all adds up. However, I voted for the following:

- Story
- Character Creation & Customization
- Choice & Consequences
- Exploration
- Combat System

xep624 · October 31, 2014

Couchpotato said:
Sorry guys this is version two so please re-vote. You can now pick as many options as you want to. So the poll is a slight upgrade over the other one.

I picked my choices as follows.

1. Story
2. Character Creation & Customization
3. Choice & Consequences
4. Setting & Lore
5. Game Length

Thanks for letting us pick more than one option as IMHO you can't say that there is one most important feature in RPGs. Adventure games sometimes have good story too, and FPS can have good character creation and customization options as well, etc. Good RPG has usually wide set of properly implemented features

GothicGothicness · October 31, 2014

1. Story
2. Combat System
3 Character Creation & Customization
4 Setting and lore.

Why combat system above Character creation... because without a good combat system the good character creation system is kind of wasted.

purpleblob · October 31, 2014

Crap, I pressed vote now too quickly and thus only voted for story

To be honest I value NPC interactions the most in RPGs but that's not available in this poll.

I value following the most in RPGs, but not really in specific order:
Story, character creation & customisation, choices and consequences, game controls/UI and and setting & lore. I also value itemisation and graphic & music but not as much as other 5.

DArtagnan · October 31, 2014

All of them, certainly.

Problem with ranking them is that it doesn't really reflect how unique a game can be, and that even very similar games can benefit differently from enhancing one aspect over the other.

As such, it's no use trying to rank them.

I can only talk about what's been important to me, historically, given the games I've enjoyed the most - and even that's so subjective as to make the whole thing next to pointless.

Anyway, I'd say exploration is the number one aspect for me. After that comes things like progression (character creation and development), story, mechanics (including combat) and graphics/audio. Those are all equally important - but will depend on the whole.

Hexprone · October 31, 2014

I love a game with deep reactivity that makes my choices matter -- Fallout New Vegas is the recent standout here, and I have high hopes for Pillars of Eternity, even though we've seen so little of that story yet. Those are the games that mean the most to me, and that I keep going back to.

But right now I'm playing the wheels off of both Grimrock 2 and MMX Legacy and having a blast -- two games with absolutely nothing in the way of reactivity and stories out of the epic fantasy slush pile. So I have to concede that, story or no, what pulls me into a game the most is the chance to shape a hero to my liking -- and if I get to design a whole squad of heroes, so much the better.

Choice and consequence will make me care more about a game, but it's hero-building that constitutes the "rpg itch" for me.

Morrandir · October 31, 2014

purpleblob said:
To be honest I value NPC interactions the most in RPGs but that's not available in this poll.

I'm missing that one too!

crpgnut · October 31, 2014

Exploration, Itemization, and Character progression for me. Story is almost irrelevant as I'm making that up in my head and I'm better than the writers; at least for me.

blatantninja · October 31, 2014

I say story and I think NWN proves it. NWN was a great technical game, with good combat, good character advancement, in a setting with deep and rich lore and it was utterly forgettable until the mod community took over because the OC was so bad.

Story is what grabs you and keeps you coming back, IMO, and make the game stick with you long after you finish it.

crpgnut · October 31, 2014

I thought the main campaign was fine. Wasn't that the story with Airhead Beth or something like that?

What's The Most Important Features of RPGs?

The Most Important Features of RPGs?

Story

Choice & Consequences

Itemization

Character Creation & Customization

Game Controls & UI

Exploration

Graphics & Music

Combat System

Game Length

Setting & Lore

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