Woah there cowboy, don't let ubisoft hear you saying those things

If only he wrote Morrowind/Oblivion and New Vegas. Those games have very well crafted the start and the world to include any created character than FO3 and Skyrim.

[quote]Like if you took the stats and character creator out of Dark Souls I feel it would play more like God of War or Force Unleashed and such. Just fighting through enemies to advance the plot.[/quote] Just like Elder Scrolls or Fallout to me. Which is fine, but I feel like you were making the distinction that they're somehow different. [quote]For me it's simply the Role Play bit, I can make a character around the nameless/faceless protagonist with my own little backstory and motivations and such.[/quote] For me it's that, plus everything else I bring from tabletop RPGs to the video game. Do I have enough Charisma to smooth talk this NPC? Do I have enough Strength to unblock this alternative route? Is my character penalised for not eating or drinking? In this right, I'd say Disco Elysium is closer to an RPG than most games that get labeled an RPG. Contrary to Ghost (and probably most people) I'm hard pressed to call Dark Souls an RPG either. It borders on it more than some games, but I'd still call it an Action/Adventure when describing it to someone who has never heard of it.

The role play name comes from the medium's history. As you know, their origin is tabletop RPGs like DnD. And in the medium of tabletop games, RPGs are defined by their roleplaying, something you don't really do in other board games. And in the beginning of the medium of video games, that was true too. There's no roleplaying in [i]Asteroids[/i], so [i]Dragon Quest[/i] distinguished itself by having a deep fantasy story where you could develop a character in different ways. The issue is, that in video games, at least modern ones, the definition of roleplaying applies to basically all games, since today's game basically all involve some level of storytelling and character building. This is why defining RPGs as games in which you play a role doesn't really hold up anymore, if you ask me. That said, I struggle to define the genre too. I basically go on a series of mechanics the game needs to have, and also how much depth there is to it. But even that leads to issues. Because the industry's basically in a place where everything is technically an RPG/action adventure hybrid. But when so many of them include only the most bare bones of skill trees and level up systems, it seems clear ro me that RPG doesn't really apply - it's instead just an influence. For instance, technically the arkham games and metroid-likes have character building, but I wouldn't call them RPGs. So what it inevitably comes down to for me is - meaningful choices. Either gameplay ones (DQ's character builds and skill points) or narrative ones (ME's dialogue options and relationships), or, in an ideal world, both - which is why [i]Dark Souls[/i] is the best RPG. Oh, there is another problem I have too. A lot of gamers (not you) seem to call a game an RPG just because it's good. And I dislike the implication of that. A game doesn't need to be an RPG to be good. And a good game isn't automatically an RPG.

Also implies that isometric TB games like Shadowrun or Divinity aren't modern.