> I don't particularly care for computer RPGs (commonly referred to as CRPGs).

I think of CRPGs as games that are played on personal computers, as opposed to video game consoles. To me, that splits the classification into CRPGs, video game RPGs, and pen/paper RPGs. Sometimes a game is ported between the personal computer and the video game console, but there are stylistic differences which keep the taxonomy clear. These differences do seem to be evaporating recently, however.

>To a child of Dungeons & Dragons (been playing since the blue box came out), these Final Fantasy games or other run-around-and-kill-things video games aren't really "role-playing".

How is it not role-playing? You're playing a game. In that game, you're assuming the role of one or more characters as you guide them through their world. I'm not trying to be picky with exact dictionary definitions, either. Calling computer/video games of this type role-playing games is not unreasonable at all.

> To me, that's like saying Clue is a role-playing game because you're really playing Colonel Mustard. Or that Tomb Raider is an RPG because you have limited control over Lara Croft. Or that Doom or Quake are RPGs because you have stats for your character.
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For games such as this, you're still assuming the role of a character, but this *is* past the line of what separates RPGs from other games, since the primary focus on action isolates the player from really caring about who the character is.

> CRPGs are much more limited than real RPGs. There's a neccessity for making all the linear storylines in CRPGs: the time it takes to program the world. You only have a limited control over your character's interactions with other non-player characters. (Choose one of three questions to ask the pirate. Choose one of three responses to what he said. Keep going back until you've selected everything you can ask the pirate.)
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It's true, of course, that with pen/paper RPGs one can quickly and easily come with a much, much broader range of possible interactions between the character and the world. However, this control comes at the expense of concreteness. It's all left to the imagination. You don't get to *see* the gloomy castle or the beautiful ship sailing across the seas, or *hear* the villain cackling at you as he runs away. (Yes, such images and sounds are cliched, but they're not inherent in the nature of computer/video game RPGs, they're just stubborn traditions.)

Pen/paper RPGs are also unable to handle situations too complex to be kept track of in the minds of the players/game master/etc. If two players wanted to round up a few thousand warriors and face off in battle, there's no way you'd be able to simulate this very well without the aid of a computer.

> You can't do anything unexpected.

Well, it depends on what you mean by unexpected. In the point of view of the game designer, you usually can't, since 'unexpected' usually means a gameplay bug. For the player, though, there's no reason to believe that things should be expected (though this gets back to the fact that some themes are overused to the extent that they *can* be predicted). This might not hold for the second time you play through the game, but if that's bothersome, you can just move on to a new game.

> You have to go from point A, where you have to kill some creatures, to point B, where you have to kill some creatures, all the while encountering random groups of creatures that you have to kill. Sometimes you can go to point C, where you have to kill some creatures, on your way to point B. This is known as a side-quest.
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I prefer "normal" novels with *completely* fixed plots to Choose-Your-Own-Adventure-type stories. Not only because they're written at a more mature level, but because the plot is coherent enough to be intriguing.

In computer/video game RPGs, there is much more than "Go to town. Buy stuff. Kill monsters. Go to town. Buy more stuff." There is an underlying storyline which immerses the player into the world and the lives of the characters.

> In most of the CRPGs, you can't create a character. Your character in POAT is "Kenneth Connell". You're male. You're a technician. You can't play "Kenda Connell", a female ace reporter for the Daily Sun. In games that you can build a character, you're awarded for min-maxing. It certainly would be interesting if you could play a barbarian fighter guy who was of average strength and didn't like wearing armor. However, if you don't decide to max out your barbarian's strength and give him the best suit of armor he can afford, your character is going to die rather quickly as combat is all you do in these games.
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> Every "level" ends with a "boss" character who is more powerful than anything you've encountered, yet you still might be able to defeat him if you picked up the right weaponry/chose the correct spells.
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> Basically, you're playing a game of Quake where you can ask people pre-programmed questions and get pre-programmed responses. ("Where can I find the red keycard?" "Look by the sewer entrance.")
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CRPGs, as opposed to video game RPGs, fit this image somewhat. But hey, Quake is the BETS FPS!

> Perhaps one day there will be a CRPG that will actually allow one to fully role-play a character in a logically-consistant world.
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Probably not. I can't imagine the amount of information which would have to be stored as game data to handle all possible outcomes. Of course, you could fully role-play in a "pseudo-logically-consistent" world.

> No more going outside of the city to find bunnies and snakes slaying hordes of first-level stick-weilding characters. No more paying 200 gold coins for a suit of burlap armor. No more enormous cities that only have guild halls, weapon stores, and churches. The game Neverwinter Nights looks like a promising step in that direction. For me, I'll stick with the traditional role-playing game for a while.
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Before I had been into computer/video game RPGs, I had played a bit of D&D, but I never afterward thought of it as an RPG. I *did* think of it as "role-playing", but by the time I got used to the acronym "RPG", it had become in my mind exclusively for computer/video games.

I'll stick with video game RPGs for now. Long live the slaying of bunny hordes!

> -Faux "Wouldn't mind seeing Neverwinter Nights when it comes out." Pas

--gremlinn