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Computer	Free Computer Games. Free	Computer Role-playing Game

Computer role-playing game

Computer role-playing games (CRPGs), often shortened to simply (RPGs), are a type of video or computer game that uses traditional gameplay elements found in pen-and-paper role-playing games. The term "CRPG" is more often used when referring to titles made for personal computers, as opposed to video game consoles. RPGs as a video game genre include a wide range of gameplay styles and engines. Gameplay elements strongly associated with RPGs, such as statistical character development, have been widely adapted to other video game genres.

Overview

An RPG 'status screen' as seen in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

CRPGs, in general, are derived from pen and paper-based role-playing games (RPGs) such as Dungeons & Dragons. Characters in these games are always assigned a variety of attributes such as hit points. These attributes are traditionally displayed as a numeric value to the player instead of a simpler abstract graphical representation, such as bars and meters, favored by video games in general. CRPGs also borrow the narrative structure of pen and paper RPGs. The stories featured usually involve a group of characters (a party) who have joined forces in order to accomplish a mission or quest. Along the way, the adventurers must face a great number of challenges and enemies (usually monsters inspired by science fiction and classic mythology). A sample character from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is illustrated here. The screen shows the character's name, portrait, level (LV), current/maximum hitpoints (HP), and current/maximum magic points (MP).

Character development

Through the course of a game, players are allowed to choose how they want to improve their character's (or party's) performance in terms of attributes, skills, special abilities, and equipment. These improvements are given as rewards for overcoming challenges and achieving goals. The conditions that need to be met in order to earn these rewards may vary; some games are focused on defeating enemies, while others emphasize the completion of quests. The amount of freedom players are given when choosing what to improve also varies by game; some allow highly detailed and specialized customizations (known as "builds"), while others automate the process almost entirely. In many games, players are allowed to name and create the concept of their characters, as opposed to playing the role of a pre-defined protagonist (like in most Final Fantasy games). When creating a character from scratch, players might be able to choose their race. Players choose a character class or profession (a.k.a. "job") that defines the focus of their training in different aptitudes such as weapons mastery, social skills, spell-casting, and stealth. Some games allow characters to advance in more than one of these professions, but this usually carries some form of disadvantage in order to maintain game balance.

Setting and genres

The term "genre" is commonly used to classify a CRPG's story setting. Most CRPGs are set in a fictional high fantasy world. Others feature elements from space opera and pulp science fiction; most merge elements from all those previously mentioned. Very few games take place in historic or modern settings.

Navigation

Characters in CRPGs often travel long distances or navigate through complex and maze-like locations in order to accomplish their goals; thus, many use a system of maps to help the player navigate through the game world. Starting with Akalabeth, these games feature characters moving on more than one two-dimensional (2-D) map. When the player-character in that game entered a dungeon, the viewpoint shifted from a top-down 2-D view of the world to a first-person 3-D view of a maze. Some games feature maps that must be viewed on their own separate screen, while others feature an automap that is always visible during normal gameplay. These maps commonly keep track of a character's current location and important destinations. Although these maps generally make navigation easier for the player, some games limit the visibility of the map intentionally to provide additional challenge.

Encounters

In most CRPGs, a system of "random encounters" is employed whenever the player characters wander around in dangerous places, such as enemy strongholds or the savage wilderness. At random intervals, usually when the characters are moving, an encounter occurs spontaneously. An encounter may be benign in nature, such as finding a friendly non-player character or a wandering merchant, or it may be hostile, such as being spotted by a group of enemies or walking into a trap. Encounters are more often hostile than benign. By encountering and defeating enemies, the group of characters may be rewarded with loot and experience points, just as in many pen and paper RPGs. Participating in random encounters repeatedly for the sake of amassing these rewards is referred to as grinding. Enemy characters featured in random encounters rarely have any impact on the story. Some games, instead of using a traditional random encounter system, generate the characters from a random encounter on the screen before the player is forced to interact with them. This way, the player is able to better prepare for the encounter or avoid it altogether (if possible).

Some encounters in CRPGs are not random; they happen automatically when the player reaches a certain point in the story. These encounters are usually important events and may be foreshadowed in some way. The vast majority of these non-random encounters are "bosses", enemy characters of importance who are always more difficult to defeat than any common random encounter. Other scripted encounters may include unavoidable guards, characters seeking the player's attention, or incidents that are critical to the story. Like most video games, CRPGs feature a climactic final encounter, after which the game soon reaches its conclusion.

Combat

Almost every CRPG features combat as one of the main challenges to the player. A good portion of these games are spent avoiding, preparing for, or carrying out fights. Combat is carried out in either turn-based or real-time modes. In a turn-based system, only one character may act at a time; all other characters remain still, with a few exceptions that involve the use of special abilities. The order in which the characters act is usually based on a system that depends on the characters' attributes. Active Time Battle and Conditional Turn-Based Battle System are examples of popular turn-based systems. In real-time mode, there are no turn restrictions and characters may act at any time. A variant of this mode called real-time with pause allows the player to pause the game and issue orders to all characters under his/her control; when the game is un-paused, all characters follow the orders they were given.

History

Richard Garriott's Akalabeth from 1980 is considered to be one of the first graphical CRPGs not hosted on PLATO.

Role-playing video games began in 1975 as an offshoot of early university mainframe computer text RPGs on PDP-10 and Unix-based computers, starting with Dungeon and graphical RPGs on the PLATO System, pedit5 and dnd, themselves inspired by paper-and-pencil role-playing games. Other influences during this period were text adventures, Multiple-User Dungeons (MUDs) and roguelike games. Some of the first graphical CRPGs after pedit5 and dnd, were orthanc, avathar (later renamed avatar), oubliette, dungeons of degorath, baradur, emprise, bnd, sorcery, moria, and dndworld, all of which were developed and became widely popular on PLATO during the latter 1970s, in large part due to PLATO's speed, fast graphics, nationwide network of terminals, and large number of players with access to those terminals. These were followed by (but did not always lead directly to) games on other platforms, such as Akalabeth (1980) (which gave rise to the well-known Ultima series), and Wizardry.

These early Ultima and Wizardry games are perhaps the largest influence on the later console RPG games that are now popular. Many innovations of Ultima III: Exodus (1983) eventually became standards of almost all RPGs in both the console market (if somewhat simplified to fit the gamepad) and the personal computer market. Later Dungeon Master (1987) introduced realtime gameplay and several user-interface innovations, such as direct manipulation of objects and the environment with the mouse, to first-person CRPGs.

The earliest console RPG was the Intellivision title AD&D Treasure of Tarmin (1982). Much later, in 1986, Enix made the NES title Dragon Quest (video game) (called Dragon Warrior in North America and would remain that way until the 8th game in the series). This was followed shortly by ports of the computer RPGs Wizardry and Ultima III, and by Final Fantasy (1987) by Squaresoft. Both of these games proved popular and spawned a series of sequels. Both game series remain popular today, Final Fantasy more so in North America, and Dragon Quest in Japan.

Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy both borrowed heavily from Ultima. For example, leveling up and saving must be done by speaking to the king in Dragon Quest, and in order to rest and get healed, the characters must visit the king (Dragon Quest) or stay the night at an inn (both games). The games are played in a top-down perspective, much like the Ultima games, as well. The combat style in Dragon Quest was borrowed from another series from the personal computer market, the Wizardry games.

Modern games

Warcraft III blends CRPG and real-time strategy elements.

The first CRPGs offered a single player experience. The popularity of multiplayer modes in these games rose sharply during the mid-1990s. Diablo (1996) was one of the games that heavily influenced this boost in popularity. It featured an Internet multiplayer mode that allowed up to four players to enter the same world and fight monsters, trade items, or fight against each other. MMORPGs introduced huge worlds with open-ended gameplay and thousands of interactive characters (both player and computer-controlled).

An interesting entry into the CRPG world is Pokémon (a.k.a. Pocket Monsters), a fairly simplistic set of games whose main innovation is the replacement of the party by creatures that can be captured, collected, and trained for fighting. Its success has been phenomenal, leading to a huge industry with many spin-off products, including other games, cartoons, and endless merchandise.

In 1997, a new Internet fad began. Influenced by console RPGs, a large group of young programmers and aficionados began creating independent CRPG games, based mostly on the gameplay and style of the older SNES and Sega Genesis games. The majority of such games owe to simplistic software development kits such as the Japanese RPG Maker series. This started the independent RPG video games movement.

More recently, with the advent of games like Deus Ex and Warcraft III, the idea of what it means to be a RPG has become blurred. Many non-RPG games are increasingly featuring aspects traditionally seen in RPGs, such as a skill system, experience, and dilemmas. The expansion of traditional RPG elements into 3D game engines is creating a myriad of hybrid game categories, crowding successors to earlier representations of CRPGs.

The representation of RPG elements in first- and third-person shooters is indistinguishable from the game simply incorporating a story with cut-scenes and traditional FPS problem solving, and developments to the incorporation of the genre's usual character building (such as getting better weapons). As FPS develop and increase in these characteristics it remains to be seen whether the games will simply be called FPS (or TPS), break off into a new category of FPS/RPG, or just adopt the RPG name.

Cultural differences

Due to cultural differences between developer companies based on their country of origin, two main trends or "families" of graphical RPGs exist. Each follows a certain pattern in terms of art style, storyline, and game mechanics.

Japanese (and East Asian)

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete screenshot, a typical Japanese CRPG

One of the families is the Japanese family of graphical RPGs with the Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Phantasy Star, Suikoden, Grandia and the Lunar series as clear examples. These games are commonly colorful and bright. Although these games tend to employ high fantasy settings, they barely adhere to concepts derived from european folklore and traditions. Instead, their primary source of inspiration is Japanese comics (Manga) and animation (Anime). Fantasy/science-fiction hybrid settings are very common, examples include the popular Star Ocean and Final Fantasy series. The characters in these games are designed in the same style as in Anime and usually carry either very light-hearted or very serious tones. The storyline in these games often involves an epic, ultimate battle between the forces of good and evil, and the player's characters are nearly always assumed to be good. Character races tend to be limited to humans. It is also rare or nonexistent to be able to actually choose your character's race; you are typically given no choice. In those rare cases when the player is given a choice, traditional Tolkien races such as elves, dwarves, and halflings are usually not included (in favor of particular races suited to the specific game's setting). Pen and paper-derived rules systems, such as Dungeons & Dragons d20, have never been directly implemented into these games. Japanese developers tend to create new (but similar) systems for every single game. Most games use a level-based advancement system with little or no customization involved. All characters start at level 1 and usually may not go further than level 99, although there is usually no special reward for reaching that point.

A slight variation of this family exists in Korea, Taiwan and other neighboring areas. The mechanics (i.e. combat and class/job selection) of this family of games is largely the same as the Japanese one. Differences lie in the graphics and plot. Many of those games use a somewhat different, Chinese-influenced art style and the storyline is told with a Wuxia style inspired by novels. One famous example is Sword of Xuan Yuan.

American (and other Western)

Diablo, one of the most successful western role-playing games

The other family of graphical RPGs is the western (American) one, with Baldur's Gate, Diablo and Neverwinter Nights as good examples, but also including older games like the Gold Box series. These games are often darker, almost horror-like in design and art, and the characters featuring in these games are rendered or drawn in a more realistic way according to western styles, with armor, weapons, and so on being drawn based on actual counterparts in the Middle Ages. The personalities of the characters are more varied than those of their Japanese counterparts, without any real absolutes in morality. The storyline too is often darker, with the main theme being usually an ongoing struggle, almost never ending with a total victory over whatever enemy is given. The character races are diverse and the player is usually offered various races to choose from – often based on D&D rules – including dwarves, elves, gnomes, and halflings. These races, as well as other game characters, are based on the many characters that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote about, including dwarves, wizards, and dragons (hobbits typically being represented as the nearly identical halflings). These graphical RPGs often based their game systems on the various D&D systems used at the time, sometimes even displaying dice rolls, but it is not uncommon for completely different systems to be borrowed or created for use as well.

Level advancement in western RPGs is usually not as fast as in eastern RPGs, due to lower level (or experience point) limits which in some games can be as low as level 6-8; a practice unheard of in the Japanese game market. Many western games also incorporate skill-based character progression on top of a level system. Within a skill-based progression system, players invest experience or some other progression points into specific skills and abilities in order to specialize their characters for a particular style of play.

Comparisons

A fundamental difference between Western RPGs and Japanese RPGs is the way the games' stories are structured. Western style RPGs often allow the player to make moral and/or strategic choices when solving many problems relevant to the whole story, thus making them less linear. Japanese style RPGs are usually more strict and the player's choices usually have little or no effect on the outcome of the plot. Both styles have their own advantages and disadvantages. Linear games allow the developers to tell a more logical and consistent story to the players, much like watching a movie. Less linear games lose some of their structure in order to give more freedom for the individual players to make their own story. A fair number of exceptions exist to these rules; a good example of a Japanese RPG with a fairly open and non-linear storyline is Romancing SaGa; it has become well-known in Japan because of that reason.

Other comparisons:

Death is almost always the final solution employed by the protagonists to prevent the antagonists from achieving their goals, often after reason fails.
In many games from both families, the lead player character never actually speaks, although it is implied that he/she somehow communicates with the rest of the cast. One reason for this could be so that the player (who most likely chose a name for the character at the beginning) can have a greater sense of immersion in the role. (However, in Japanese CRPGs, the tendency increasingly is for main characters to have lines, too.)
While female characters in fighting games and other types are notorious for being faster than the males but less powerful, women in RPGs of both families regularly have the potential to become just as capable at offense as their counterparts (limitations regarding a character's performance are usually determined by class/profession). That being said, female characters in RPGs are commonly typecast as healers and magicians while male characters play the roles of front line warriors and martial artists. Games that feature character creation (the vast majority being western) tend to move away from these stereotypes and often reverse them.
In most Japanese RPGs, the four Greek Primordial Elements are incorporated into the game's setting. Any spell, item, or creature may be associated with one or more of these elements. Fire may be considered strong or weak against Water, depending on the situation; the same relation applies to Air and Earth. Ice/frost/cold are sometimes considered to be separate from Water, but their relation to Fire is unchanged. In addition to these, Lightning is in most cases included as an fifth element. Additional "elements" (energy types in most cases) are often introduced as well, such as light and darkness, as well as more radical "para-elements" such as acid, poison, and spirit. In contrast, the combination of the Five Taoist "elements" (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water) are rarely seen in CRPGs, while the Bagua (concept) combination (Heaven, Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Mountain, Lightning, Marsh) remains unheard of. Western RPGs rarely incorporate elemental systems as an important part of their setting.
Both families commonly feature a variety of "status effects" that may affect characters during battles. These usually come into play when special powers and abilities (such as spells) are used. Some of these provide a character an advantage (boosted attributes, defensive barriers, regeneration) and are commonly referred to as buffs. Others hinder the character (decreased attributes, incapacitation, disease, loss of control) and are called debuffs.
In Japanese RPGs, it is common for lead characters of opposite sex who are seen interacting early on to end up romantically involved or implied to be so in the future. The first game to make the characters fall in love or drift apart based on the play style of the user was Treasures of the Savage Frontier (1992). Western RPGs rarely feature such dramatic relationships between main characters, although there are some notable recent exceptions such as Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
The main heroes of Japanese CRPGs are almost always warriors (i.e. not healers or wizards) wielding swords (i.e. not spears or staves). In most American CRPGs, character creation allows players to choose their main hero's class and weapons, resulting in more variety.

Criticisms

CRPGs often face rejection by pen-and-paper (PnP) gamers who play them. A common reason for this is because most CRPGs focus on combat and statistical character management instead of storytelling and deep character development. This trend is called powergaming. Many PnP gamers also feel that it is inaccurate to use the term "role-playing game" to describe games in which the player cannot always act on their desired intentions or influence the setting in many important ways. In CRPGs, players are mostly limited to making tactical decisions for a relatively small variety of situations.

These are common criticisms of simulated realities in general. A virtual world can create the illusion of freedom in terms of choice and motion, but players in even the most free-form CRPG must, by necessity, play within the limited world created by the game's authors. PnP gamer critics, being used to having no such pre-defined limitations, find themselves unsatisfied with the experience provided in CRPGs.

The definition of "RPG elements" in games has been blurred over time, and many gamers debate on whether some games should be labeled as RPGs or not. Some say that only games that provide a true freedom of choice and actions can be considered as RPGs. Although current technical limitations may not allow CRPGs to be as open-ended and free as PnP games, numerous games allow for considerable variation in their content delivery. Also, many of these games' graphic engines make them easily modified by enthusiasts, who with their own variations and ideas may build their own home-grown setting and stories and add new graphical content. Some games such as Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption and Neverwinter Nights have built-in "storytelling" multiplayer modes which provide one player all the functions of a Game Master.

Variant terminology

Because pencil and paper RPGs were known first in the U.S.A. (CRPGs were derived from them), computer RPGs were later given the abbreviation CRPG as they increased in popularity to avoid confusing them. In Japan, however, video game RPGs became widely popular first, so the term "RPG" (in the Latin alphabet) is used for them primarily, while the PnP versions have been cited under the retronym "PRPG".

Occasionally, a distinction is made between console RPGs and those played on a personal computer (PC). In these cases, the abbreviation "CRPG" is used to refer solely to the console games. This distinction is made in part because most console RPGs are made by or follow asian RPG trends and most computer RPGs are made by or follow western RPG trends. Differences regarding interface and hardware capabilities are also important because of their impact on the way a game is experienced. In RPGs that have been made for both consoles and PCs (or ported later from one to the other), it is common to observe significant differences between both versions.

CRPGs that feature complex, squad-based, and usually Turn-Based combat systems are known as Tactical RPGs, and may be abbreviated as "TRPGs". Some prefer to call them "Strategic RPGs", thus they may also be referred to as "SRPGs" instead.

Chronology of CRPGs

Note: These are not complete lists of all computer or console RPGs, but a list of some of the most significant, influential or well-regarded CRPGs of all time. A number of titles which were initially released for Windows were later ported to the Macintosh or to console platforms. Likewise, a number of console-specific RPGs were later ported to other consoles or to the IBM PC.