The Epic Battle: RPG vs. FPS

It seems this is a never ending affair.    The stereotypical four-eyed, dice-chucking lover of the, up until recently, text heavy, role playing game defending the honor of the thinking man’s (or woman’s) game from the aggressive numb-skull that is the fan of fast-paced killing in first person shooters.  I’m a big fan of both and love when a company tries to mesh the two.  This guy does not.

My response to him would be don’t try to kill the merchants.  They’re tough or they have a bad ass guard somewhere.  Think Oblivion.

While both genres require some good creativity, the RPG more so attempts to make you use the right side of your brain.  Figuring out puzzles, piecing together clues picked up in conversations and finding the next step in your journey to save the planet, making a new potion/spell or stringing together combinations of attacks, magic and items.  The classic staple, turn-based system, has been replaced with real-time combat.  I think in an attempt to help bridge the gap between the RPG and FPS, in other words it’s an attempt at going mainstream (MORE MONEY!)  I’m not such a big fan of this.  What first drew me into the genre was how closely it related to chess.  I loved planning out many moves ahead of time and always needing a contingency plan was like second nature.  For me, the RPG was a more complicated chess game usually with a fairly intriguing story, which helped get me into books.

While I was gaming during the time of Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein, and Doom it just wasn’t my thing.  I got a kick out of Redneck Rampage, but didn’t get to spend much time with it.

I really got into it for the first time with Halo.  Two of the rich kids got an Xbox and Halo shortly after launch and in short order we had some 4 vs 4 going on.  Almost everyone was hooked and almost everyone got an Xbox.  For a short time (very short time) not even the night with my girlfriend could compare to stalking someone down and smacking them in the back of the head.  Oh and the thrill of hitting someone with a sticky on their helmet visor and watching them run around, still makes me laugh.  There aren’t too many complexities involved in most first person shooters, though there are exceptions.  What makes it beautiful is the simplicity of it.  Most of the attention has been put into the battling that takes place, and with due reason.  People don’t buy the Halo games for the interesting conversations Master Chief has with the Marines dying all around him; they buy the games to kill aliens.

I understand some people just hate following clues, taking the time to sort materia or what have you involved in playing an RPG, just as I understand some people can’t stand the needed quick response and fairly instant death provided by the FPS.  I enjoy the hell out of them both and feel they deserve an equal amount of respect for all they have given us gamers.  I’ve lost myself in many games of many genres through the years and I’ve enjoyed most it.  Everyone comes across some crap (FFX-2!), but one thing has been universal: the crap is spread pretty evenly through all genres.  Don’t let that keep you from exploring any game experience, you may find a new love.

Please enjoy this video, I think it sums everything up nicely.