Background
The genre of role playing video game history can be
traced back to the mid-1970s. These were the results
of early university mainframe text-based RPGs on
Unix-based computers (such as pedit5, dnd, and
Dungeon) and PDP-10. The 1980s paved way for the
release of a very popular dungeon crawler, Rogue. A
deep system of gameplay was observed in the settings,
items, and monsters. Because of this, new genres of
“roguelike” clones were made.
Dungeons and Dragons is the most influential among the
role playing games made. Improvements were made since
its release. In 1988, SSI formed a series of “Gold
Box” Computer Role Playing Games with Pool of
Radiance. These were based on the Advanced Dungeons
and Dragons rules and featured an overhead tactical
display for combat and a first-person display for
movement.
The initial role playing games presented only a single
player experience for its players. However, with games
such as Diablo, multiplayer modes of the games quickly
became popular in the mid-1990s. These in turn, grew
to massively multiplayer online role-playing games
(MMORPGs) with the dawn of the internet. Everquest and
many other games were fashioned into MMORPGs.
The game mechanics and the settings found in newer
role playing games were derived from their traditional
counterparts, most especially Dungeons and Dragons.
Almost all game stories involve a party or a group of
characters that join forces to complete a “quest” or a
mission. Numerous enemies and challenges await the
players. As the game progresses, these challenges
become more and more difficult to overcome. Usually,
these obstacles are dragons, monsters, or evil persons
that are inspired by mythology, science fiction, and
more commonly, fantasy.
Character Building
It is dependent on the players how they want their
characters, or avatars, to look like and be like. They
can also modify them based on their skills,
attributes, equipment, special abilities, and
personalities. More often than not, improvements can
be given as gifts or prizes when the player or the
party achieved a certain goal or completed a mission.
In short, they have to earn these rewards in order to
for their characters to become a better player in the
next challenge.
There are different ways of rewarding the characters
of the game for accomplishing the tasks and achieving
their goals. These are based on: the training system
(skill-based system), the skill point system
(level-free system), and the experience system
(level-based system).
Progress Charts
Characters possess a variety of features such as hit
points. A status screen is traditionally displayed on
the player’s monitor. However, unlike the usual video
games, role playing games use numerical values to
describe the character or the game’s status. They do
not make use of the simpler abstract graphical
representations such as bars and meters that video
games utilize.
Interactive Fun
Online role playing games differ from it traditional
RPG counterparts in the sense that it offers both a
single and multi user experience. All online games
allow you to chat with each player no matter where he
or she is. Multiplayer games allow you to be part of a
group as well, playing with or against each other in
order to complete your quest or mission. However, if
you choose to be a single player, you will still be
part of a small group. Being an online player for
sometime, you will find yourself being the leader or
influential member of the group.
With revenues exceeding more than a billion dollars
each year, it is then, with no doubt, that online
gaming encompasses other role playing game genres.
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