Best RPG game ever

April 14th, 2010.

Roleplays were for many years my fav kind of games and still I have warm feelings for them. Have played for a few years and did a master's degree on players and their lives. Since not all of you may know what RPGs are, let's review some basic info on them.

RPG (role playing games) are a kind of games, in which player chooses his or hers character and becomes an adventurer of imaginary world. It may be ancient Greece, medieval fantasy land, futuristic earth or even other planet. Game of choice may also be played in different ways:

• cRPG: played on computers, usually by one player or a group of them, everyone in front of his or her own computer.
• RPG: played by a group of friends, usually gathered in one room and lead by game-master who creates an interactive tale in which players (usually as a team) make their decisions and stand up to consequences. More challenging, but also more fun.
• LARP: it's like a theater play, people are dressed properly to their act, speak the language that was used at time, use stylized properties and so on. Great even if your just a spectator, but requires a lot of preparations.

The goals in such games vary. Characters may evolve and change during play and gain new experiences. By practice they boost their virtual skills like Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma to name a few most common. Team usually has some tasks to do or quests to complete to gain profits, rewards and experience points, witch every character may use to increase their skills.

With a good plot all of them (cRPG/RPG/LARP) may bring a lot of fun, some knowledge, by interacting with NPCs (non player characters) players clearness of utterance improves, and they learn out of the frame thinking, so often wanted by employers. It gives a lot of subjects to chat about and become a hobby, that became quite popular in last years, when cRPG had evolved into MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online RPG). Since then many people spent most evenings in front of a screen building virtual empires (also using real money!), fighting with each other or questing for fame and fortune.

If you'll observe players and characters of their choice, three groups emerging. Players that choose very alike characters (to see how they would manage), that are just a bit better with something (kinda improved version of themselves, used to check how it would be to have specific skills and capabilities) or that are a superhero version of them. Playing with character that represents less than player can is seldom, and is usually done by people, who know the game well and need a challenge.

Players get used to the characters, change with them, cry when they die and feel great when succeeding. But after few months (years sometimes) a new, better game shows up and players drop the characters and start again. From scratch. With hope to achieve something more. With cRPGs usually a complete change of computer is also required - to much faster and rather pricy version.

What boils my brain, is that such enormous group of people spends time, money and effort on something virtual. Yes, lets say it aloud. On something nonexistent. Most people will gain nothing from it and in a few years will see that their wasted their time, because nobody remembers today's victories. It didn't made any difference for them. They didn't inherit the fame, fortune nor skills of their characters. In the virtual world any of those achievements will pass with characters.

Some would say, that MMO players try to catch a dream. To accomplish something, that they can't do in reality. They find life to be gray and dimmed, with no perspectives. Often such people claim, that once they had a dream, but it was stupid and not possible to make true anyway. To much obstacles, to much bad people around, to much of them laughing over it, to much to change and to much work. Not enough money, not enough time, not enough will, not enough of friends support, not enough of whatever was needed to follow their soul. So instead of finding ways to make it real, they run away from it to the worlds full of colors and possibilities.

Let's look around us. If we compare our bodies with computers, we have the most sophisticated CPUs ever made, integrated with GPUs that share same memory by much wider trunks. We don't need to change it once in a while to adapt to external needs - they change and adapt themselves. Can process not only view and sound, but also smell, taste and touch. And they can do, what no computer can (at least for now). They can create, react to and share our feelings.

And the game of life? Can we render such great weather or landscapes on any video card? Can we modify level of difficulty in such wide range in any computer play? In which RPG do we have so much NPCs and quests available? Where can we stand to such complex situations? Where we can have such great friends? I daresay nowhere. It's simply impossible, because all that games, however compelling they might be, are just a reflection of the life itself.

What's the main difference? Amount of effort needed to accomplish something. In real life we would have to get our ass up and do something, that would require time, thinking, skills and other stuff in order to create. And in game? Few clicks, few strokes of touchpad and Voila! We have it! Are we satisfied? Of course we are. For an hour or so.

Have you ever did something great in real life? Think about it. Seriously. Sit back, close your eyes and name a few of your greatest real deeds. Think how you felt after, how people reacted and for how long you were full of energy and happy about it.

For an hour? I sincerely doubt that. If it were really your greatest deeds you probably still feel great about it. Maybe a lot of things had to be made, maybe you had to change, maybe you had to give up some of your assets to it... but still, after all that time it doesn't matter. What matters, is that it was worth it. It was worth it then, and it still is.

Of course life has some drawbacks. There are no saves, so you have to be prepared for much more. Sometimes you have to find courage not only to continue, but to abort something, get your head up and admit aloud "I failed". To admit, that you're not so great, as you thought just a while ago. To find a way of bad situation or to truly apologize for a mistake. To ask for forgiveness knowing, that the answer may be no. Also only available re-spawn requires being a part of creator family ;)

But you know what? It's still worth it. Preparations make you re-think plans and predict what should be improved. Saying "I didn't make it" makes bad feelings but also learns how to deal with them. After few situations like that it doesn't hurt any more. It's just a consequence to digest and get up to whatever game of life brings to you. And to expect 'no' but still silently hope to hear 'yes'? To wake up slowly in arms of that only, special person? That's unbeatable.

So let's all stand up for a while. Let's get out for a walk or at least stand in the creaking balcony doors. Let's feel the sunrays or raindrops on our faces. Let's stand still and listen to the wind in the trees, to silence of plains, to the flutter of wings. Let's stand there quietly, catching the moment and breathing slowly...

... smiling to the game of life.

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