General News - Are CRPGs dead or dying?

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HiddenX

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Rampant Coyote tells us about the current state of CRPGs:

Are CRPGs dead or dying?

TLDR Version: Are you kidding me? We’re in the new golden age of computer role-playing games, my friends! There’s never been a better time to strap on a digital sword (or laser gun) and enjoy some dungeon-delving fun on your PC. You just have to know where to look.

Full Version: I was one of the mournful folks back in the early 2000s complaining about the lack of good Computer Role-Playing Games (CRPGs). They didn’t make ’em like they used to, most western RPGs were Diablo clones or otherwise an action-video game with some RPG elements. The giants of the last two decades who had made all those wonderful CRPGs of yore had disappeared in all but name… SSI, Origin, New World Computing, Sir-Tech, etc. And the JRPGs that made it to North America were often … Pablum. Uninspired, unexciting. It seemed that most of the CRPG creativity was going into Massively Multiplayer Online games… which were fun in their own way, but in many ways removed from the kind of experience I craved. The biggest problem came down to the simple fact that CRPGs are among the more difficult and expensive games to produce, and with the ever-rising budgets of the mainstream game companies, they had to be overly conservative in their designs or risk catastrophic failure. It felt like we’d reached… well, not an evolutionary dead-end, but certainly one that wasn’t bearing much exciting fruit.

I looked back wistfully on the “golden age” of PC role-playing games, from the late 80s until the early 90s. Oh, man, back then it seemed there were so many amazing computer RPGs coming out each year that I couldn’t afford either the time or the money to play them – and back then, I had a lot more time! But that era was done, the modern pickings were slim, and they just didn’t make ’em like they used to. [...]
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Dying? We're a decade or more past that.
PC gaming is dead.

Ask Konami if you don't believe me.
 
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Actually back in the late 80's, early 90's I would play the same games over and over again because of a lack of games I wanted to play.

Now I have a 100+ games in my backlog that I actually want to play. So I'd say, for me at least, Gaming's never been better.
 
Actually it would be better to ask when that stupid question is gonna die!
 
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The internet was not live in those days, it would have told how people consider harvest moon.

Stardew Valley is a clone of HM and people have turned quick on considering SV an RPG.

Not sure they did the same for HM when it was released.
 
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Is the person dead or dying from idiocy, who is asking "CRPGs dead or dying"?
 
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Someone should invent an internet rule, like Godwin's law or something, that stipulates that if some article asks a question as part of it's title, the answer is almost certainly always "No."
 
While I have a big backlog, made mostly of "indies" and not all of them are RPGs, the type of RPGs I used to play back in the days (aka 15-20 years ago) are pretty much extinct outside some nostalgia crowdfunding efforts.

And I kinda miss them.
 
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mercy said:
Is the person dead or dying from idiocy, who is asking "CRPGs dead or dying"?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure on a couple of the questioners, but in at least one case, it was legitimately a somewhat lapsed gamer who was looking for the kinds of games he used to play as a kid... games like the SSI Gold Box games. He didn't have the patience for an action RPG, and a quick look at the landscape made him think that they don't make those kinds of games anymore.

Current RPG fans know that the it's better than ever. But this article is directed more towards people like that. We want to encourage them to check things out.
 
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azarhal said:
While I have a big backlog, made mostly of "indies" and not all of them are RPGs, the type of RPGs I used to play back in the days (aka 15-20 years ago) are pretty much extinct outside some nostalgia crowdfunding efforts.
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RampantCoyote said:
I'm not sure on a couple of the questioners, but in at least one case, it was legitimately a somewhat lapsed gamer who was looking for the kinds of games he used to play as a kid… games like the SSI Gold Box games. He didn't have the patience for an action RPG, and a quick look at the landscape made him think that they don't make those kinds of games anymore.

Current RPG fans know that the it's better than ever. But this article is directed more towards people like that. We want to encourage them to check things out.
Click to expand...


Is it weird that I agree with both of the above sentiments? There are plenty of games floating around out there with an "RPG" tag on them. Even plenty enough for me to not be able to keep up. But at the same time, not very many of them have the same feel or features of some of the games from years ago. And a lot of times, attempted reboots seem to be met with failure sales-wise.

Pillars and Tyranny are like the older games, but they're newer and lack some of the older games features and gain new annoyances. Nothing ever really replaced the Ultima series. Wizardry only survives in JRPGs that somehow aren't as satisfying. Might and Magic had a decent clone in Grimrock, but a not so good successor in MMX. Gold Box games, and licensed D&D games in general, seem to have no current analog. I'm hopeful for the new Bard's Tale, but I honestly know nothing about it's direction. The Wasteland sequel was a rare game that met expectations for me though.

Not dead or dying, but morphing into something that lacks the old charm in most cases I guess.
 
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I think people are often looking at this with rose tinted glasses.

Many old games had a lot going for them in the past, but aren't always great today.

Some games referenced here are not easily playable for people who never played them in the first place. Games which required graphing paper are a big no no for me.

If I wanted to play with graphing paper I'd go back to technical drawing classes in school.

For me that's not entertainment but some people liked it then and found challenges in it.

Other games have horrible UIs or other "features".

Of course newer games are not always perfect. That's never going to be the case, but there are so many games now that some must fit almost every niche.


On what an RPG is defined as, I think that's a discussion that will never be agreed on. So no real point going into it.


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Pladio said:
I think people are often looking at this with rose tinted glasses.

Many old games had a lot going for them in the past, but aren't always great today.

Some games referenced here are not easily playable for people who never played them in the first place. Games which required graphing paper are a big no no for me.
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That's 100% my feeling, too. I mean, I LOVE THEM, and I still have a ton of fun playing them. There's a raw, free-form creativity there that is lacking in a lot of modern games (but often coming back in the indie stuff, which is part of why I enjoy them). But yeah, re-playing them now can take a bit of work, just getting into the old mindset, ignoring the frustrations and clunkiness long enough to really get into the game. Eventually you hit a point where all that melts away and you are just having fun. But going back and re-playing is an eye-opener. They are awesome, but they weren't perfect.

As far as the map-making stuff is concerned, there's a tool I have not tried called Grid Cartographer than doesn't do the map-making for you, but is supposed to help. I'm tempted, as it would help keep me from cheating and using someone else's (complete) map.
 
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Playing old games requires more of an investment. It will take a few minutes to get used to the ancient UI and systems in play, maybe reading the manual as well and then playing a bit. Once you get your bearings it's fun, but yes, you must invest more to get there since the systems are different from modern ones.

Grid Cartographer is great. I started mapping Wiz 6 with it. I have a very short LP of it on YouTube if you'd like to check it out. First time ever playing Wiz 6 as well as first time using Grid Cartographer. Cool program.
 
Fluent said:
Playing old games requires more of an investment. It will take a few minutes to get used to the ancient UI and systems in play, maybe reading the manual as well and then playing a bit. Once you get your bearings it's fun, but yes, you must invest more to get there since the systems are different from modern ones.
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Really depends on the game. JRPGs UI haven't changed much and since the Western developers moved to focus on console development, UI (and controls) on PC games are unusable clunky crap outside of a few exceptions and games made for PC.

As for systems in play, again, depends on the games. Some of the older stuff didn't have much systems going either, just like some modern games have a lots and still require reading. That really depends what you are playing.

The only thing that changed is that today developers stopped making manuals and relies on fan contributed Wikis instead. Not that their games don't need them to play them.
 
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