I never got into D&D, but my first taste of RPGs was on the NES with Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy. I liked them, but not enough to buy them myself. I was perfectly happy playing them over at a friend's house. It wasn't until the SNES and FF4 that I got really into RPGs myself. I was especially into them during the 16-bit days. FF6 is even one of my top five favorite games of all time. But in the 32-bit era and beyond, I kind of got out of RPGs. I had too many other commitments and RPGs were getting too long for my tastes. But I still dabble in RPGs from time to time, like FF9, Tales of Legendia, or Mario RPGs.
BaD - Where do RPGs Come From?
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 On 02/02/2021 at 05:51 PM by Matt Snee See More From This User » |
What IS an RPG? Well, it could mean many things these days - pen and paper Dungeons & Dragons, or Live Action Role Playing, or Pokemon training - its definition is broad. But its name tells you the secret - role playing is about taking on a role in a fictional setting. Some forms of RPGs, like D&D, involve more collaborative storytelling between players and gamemasters. Others only have lite-RPG elements, like some FPS and 3rd Person Action Games. It's a rather vague term that covers a lot of bases these days.
Of course, RPG video games can definitely be all traced back to Gary Gygax's invention of Dungeons & Dragons. Even though RPGs exist in a lot of forms in video games, they share common ancestry. Gary Gygax was inspired to create his game from Tolkienesque tropes and the miniatures wargame Chainmail, a culmination of popular "interpretive" wargaming that rose up in niches in the 1960s and 1970s. And these can be traced back to 18th and 19th century wargames, and of course, chess.
It seems inevitable now that video games and RPGs would merge together. But at first, that wasn't certain. Systems like the Atari certainly couldn't handle an RPG. But as soon as the SMS and NES were out and about, we saw games like Dragon Warrior and Final Fantasy.
When I was young and into Dungeons and Dragons, I remember Dragon Magazine had a section for computer games. Sometimes they'd cover adventure games or anything medieval oriented, but as time went by, more real RPGs showed up in that column. It seems quaint when I look at these issues now, but at the time, the potential we take for granted with video games now was only a glimmer in our eyes.
This month I'd like to delve into my own personal relationship with RPGs (video game and not), and talk about some noted games along the way.
Let's start!
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