RPG PC Games – What Makes Their Appeal So Enduring?
RPG PC games have never been so popular. Warcraft has over 11 million monthly subscribers with more arriving daily. Runescape is registered as one of the most popular MMORPG games ever. This popularity extends beyond the normal Dungeons and Dragons type fantasy game as well. Eve Online is a space opera game that has been successful for many years. Recent movie releases like Iron Man 2 has spurred public interest in superheroes and so superhero RPG games have seen the benefit as well. Both City of Heroes and Champions Online have seen an upsurge in business. So why do people play these types of games and what make their appeal so enduring?
The answer probably lies in escapism. An RPG PC game offers an opportunity for escape from humdrum daily life like few other activities. Where else can you put yourself in the position of a feudal Lord or Lady and then with a few clicks of a mouse find yourself jumping across rooftops as a superhero?
Modern PC RPG games offer an immersive experience in all sorts of fantasy and science fiction environments that it would otherwise be impossible to participate. Of course it is possible to read books about the subjects you enjoy and share the ideas of the author’s imagination, but playing a game related to those ideas presents the image made real before your eyes. Similarly you can go to the movies and see those images made real. With the advent of new 3D cinematic technology no one doubts that this experience is novel and exciting, but it lacks interactivity. It is perhaps in the area of interactivity that RPG games on the PC excel.
Today it is possible to connect a top quality home cinema type HD 3D LCD or Plasma television to a home computer and have a truly photorealistic, visually stunning experience. Combine this with a great graphics card, a quality sound card and speakers and you have an entertainment device to rival even the best cinema experience and it is interactive to boot!
So what RPG PC games offer the best immersive experience?
I am not going to recommend the usual hit games like Warcraft here. Why? Well Warcraft is a great game, make no mistake, but if you have spent good money on a top entertainment system then the cartoony graphics Warcraft just don’t cut it. Instead we are looking for an RPG PC game that will really transport you and make you feel like “being there”.
Eve Online
Photo by crazykinuxClose the curtains, turn off the lights and load up Eve Online. In the darkness of err your living room no one can hear you scream…
No, Eve is not a horror game, but rather it is an online space opera. You control a growing space empire and can take part in running this enterprise on both a close and personal level as well as stepping back and only managing the macro factors. Eve has great graphics for a space game and played like this you really will think you are in the cockpit of your own spaceship.
Eve Online offers space exploration from the comfort of your own armchair, what could be better?
Left 4 Dead and its sequel Left for Dead 2 are first person shooters based on a “survive attacks from the zombies theme”. While a FPS game wouldn’t normally be included in the RPG games category this series are definitely atmospheric and will scare most gamers.
The game is definitely aimed at a mature audience and parents need to be aware of this. The game attracted much controversy in both of its releases and actually initially failed to get an adult certificate in Australia. Yes, it is that graphic. For all that the game is a good one, well implemented with great animation and *cough* graphic content.
A thing that deserves to be mentioned is that this isn’t just a mindless shoot-fest like many FPS games. The player(s) need to cooperate with each other in order to survive and enter the next objective area. If your team mate is going to die you actually do better if you save them, rather than ignoring their peril like many games in this genre.
If you want to be scared of the dark this is a game for you.
And finally for fans of traditional fantasy style RPG games we come to Dragon Age: Origins. This game was released in 2009 and has much to offer. It is a single player game with many hours of game play. The graphics are amongst the best available in this genre, especially flame effects and the majority of the 3d modelling. The game is a clear rival to The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion in this regard. Probably the only weak point is the faces on the characters which are still good, but just slightly lower quality than the excellent standards the rest of the game sets.
Playing the game on the PC means that almost every keyboard key is bound to something, or so it seems! Thankfully many of the actions of the NPC’s in your party can be automated so if a healing spells needs to be cast you do not always need to press a button to make it happen.
Dragon Age: Origins doesn’t just provide pretty graphics and nice combat controls though, it also allows a player to explore moral decisions and have them affect the outcome of the story and the interactions with characters in the game. This game is one of the best offline games available today in the roleplaying genre.
When making a character there are a possible six origins to choose from, three classes and three races. This variety, along with the changes that individual player choices make as to how the story unfolds add to the games replayability, but of course there are also expansions available too.
This article has of course provided just a small sample of the quality role playing computer games available today. There are many more to choose from, but they should serve to illustrate what makes the appeal of RPG PC games so enduring.
Evony is a free online game, set in a fantasy medieval setting that plays in a browser window. Evony was originally called Civony and closely resembles Sid Meier’s game “Civilization”. Fans of that game will most likely like Evony too. Like most browser games Evony loads relatively quickly and requires no hard disk installation. There are no monthly fees to play the game, although there are many power up type boosts that can be bought for real world cash through a micro-transaction type process.
Evony is played in true real time which means that you can both collect resources and also have your armies and cities destroyed while away from the keyboard. Beginners get a week’s protection from combat and this does give you a decent starting chance before your larger and more powerful neighbours can come to pay you a visit.
You start the game as mayor of a town and it is your job to protect the citizens, raise an army, build civic structures, collect resources and so on. Each building can be upgraded and each upgrade costs resources, but also allows access to new units or technologies. Resources are gathered by building mines, farms, lumber mills and quarries. Each of these building can be upgraded and these upgrades increase the rate at which goods are collected. Only one building can be upgraded at a time though, so choose wisely.
Criticism of Advertising
Starting around 2009 Evony ran a series of adverts featuring women in revealing clothing and/or semi-suggestive poses. This advertising campaign drew a storm of controversy, but it also brought a large increase in the player base. I leave it up to individual conscience to decide if the companies actions were right or wrong.
It should be pointed out that images of beautiful women have been used to sell products for a very long time now. This activity is unlikely to stop any time soon. It also needs to be said that much fantasy art in general includes similar subject matter and Evony is a fantasy medieval game.
A final point that needs to be mentioned is that there are no objectionable images shown within the actual game whatsoever. The game is totally suitable for children, providing of course that you do not object to the wargaming type activities that the game is based around.
Is the Game Any Good?
For a free online browser game, yes the game is excellent. If on the other hand you want true 3d graphics and a game to stress test your latest top end graphics card then Evony is not for you.
Good Points
The game offers a lot to do if you like god games and the whole building process. The game is simple and quick to learn to play and allows for a casual gaming style. Combat is quite straight forward and occurs on an army level. The fact that the game is a true real time strategy game is probably both good and bad. For fans of RTS games then this is a good thing, but on the other hand it can make the game take up more and more of your time as the cities you build are vulnerable even if you are not at the keyboard.
Bad Points
Evony is a simple browser game and as such lacks a lot of the depth of content that many die hard RPG fans would require. This doesn’t make it a bad game, but if you are looking for immersive music and photorealistic graphics then Evony is not for you.
The single worst point I encountered was actually in Evony Age II when I allowed the program to interface with my Facebook profile. The game then sent me offers of free in game items roughly every ten minutes if only I would invite my Facebook friends to join. Anyone savvy about Facebook knows how to turn these invites off, but I really didn’y enjoy having popup windows opening all the time with yet another offer.
Should I play Evony?
If you are looking for a free online strategy game that is fantasy based and plays in a browser then there really is nothing better out there. However, Evony is not a true roleplaying game, unless of course you are trying roleplay being a general in charge of an army!
Apart from the conflict and violence that the game is about, the actual graphical content of the game is unobjectionable. Any parents concerned about adult type images being shown to their children can relax.
If you play and enjoy Facebook games like Mafia Wars then Evony plays in a very similar style. You play a bit, build a few things and go off to do other stuff and only return when your building or whatever has completed. If you like this casual style of gameplay then Evony is great fun.
With all the free online games out there Evony is one of the largest at over 18 million accounts. This success is not just due to a controversial advertising campaign, but rather to the fact that the game delivers what players want. Ultimately, Evony is a free to play game so what is there to lose?
There are a lot of RPG PC games on the market today. Some of them are awesome and some of them suck. We all have opinions on what makes a good game and I am interested in hearing your opinions. To get the ball rolling I will post my own list later in this article.
What I am interested in finding out is not just your personal top 5 RPG games, but also why you consider them to be the best.
Feel free to answer as much or as little as you feel like. Comments on this post will most likely remain open for 6 months or so, but will definitely be turned off eventually as gaming sites seem to really attract spam comments. I really don’t need those adult products beloved of spammers and I am pretty sure you don’t either.
My Personal Top 5 RPG PC Games
Warcraft
I played and enjoyed Warcraft for several years. The game offers a huge variety of activities in game. It is really hard to be bored.
Raiding was great but took a lot of preparation – knowing boss tactics, getting pots, potions and food etc. PvP was probably the best bit of the game for me as I loved the battlefields. Arena seemed a bit like rock, paper, scissors as some team make-ups would usually win when I was playing arena a lot and eventually this drove me out of it. I understand that arena is a lot better balanced these days though.
Overall Warcraft was a great game to play, I bought all the expansions and have no regrets over the huge amount of time I spent playing it.
The Elder Scrolls Series
Hard to single out a favourite in The Elder Scrolls series. I started playing them with Daggerfall and later went back to seek out a copy of Arena. Daggerfall really was groundbreaking in its day. The ability to cast levitation and fly around and stuff was really good at the time. It was the first time I had played a RPG game on the PC that I really felt free to do what I wanted and not follow the plot designed by a games developer.
The only downside to the game was it had a few bugs and it didn’t have an online component. This is something that was solved in later versions of the game. The latest release in the series The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion is again a brilliant game with amazing graphics and atmospheric content.
Diablo
Sometimes you don’t want to role-play with the elves and the pixies, you just want murderous mayhem and destruction. I guess this is where Diablo and especially Diablo 2 come in.
Diablo 2 is a fast paced point and click type combat game. I guess that, like Warcraft, the roleplaying aspect might be considered pretty thin, but this does not detract from the fun in playing the game. Although Diablo 2 is a few years old now it isn’t really showing its age as much as some other titles. On a modern PC the game flies along and has a decent level of detail in the graphics.
Diablo 3 has unfortunately recently had its release date put back again, but Blizzard seem to do this in order to preserve quality in their PC RPG games and avoid bugs. So maybe the delay, while frustrating, is a good thing in the long term?
Neverwinter Nights
Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is one of the most successful pen and paper RPG games of all time. Almost everyone with an interest in roleplaying has at least a passing knowledge of the D&D combat system and the Forgotten Realms game environment. Thankfully when Neverwinter Nights was designed the game designers mostly stayed true to the original game both in rule mechanics and in world content. There are some problems with the game regarding bugs and stuff, but these can be worked around and so they don’t play a large role in my overall assessment of the game.
This is a great game to play for anyone interested in the original Dungeons and Dragons.
City of Heroes
This might seem like a strange choice to anyone expecting a more usual fantasy based RPG games list, but there is much to be said for putting on the Lycra suit and going out to bash the bad guys.
I played City of Heroes (CoH) for a few years and made some great friends online through the game. Many of these people I have since met in real life and we get on well. Something about the game attracts a more collaborative and friendly player.
City of Heroes does suffer from a number of bugs that seem to have been around for ages and never been fully fixed. Despite this the bugs make only a minimal impression on game play and overall the game remains one of my all time favourites.
Battling bad guys in a nuclear reactor in order to be able to “respec” (change your characters powers) was a great idea and taken from the comic books from which the game derives. The new power designer and scenario editing facility is really great and allows fans to add new content to the game and so keep it fresh. Overall, for me at least, City of Heroes just beats Champions Online for my recommendation as best RPG PC game in this category.
Have Your Say
This list isn’t designed to be exhaustive. There are loads of great PC RPG games out there and this list was compiled just from memories of playing the games in the past. There are many games like Everquest, Planescape, Fallout, Final Fantasy and many others that could be here. Also, don’t think that free online games like Runescape need to be excluded. If it plays on a PC then it is a valid inclusion, even if it is a browser game.
When commenting just ensure that the game you suggest is a game that can be played on a PC and has some kind of roleplaying element to it.
Photo credits: Thumbnail image – woodleywonderworks@Flikr.com, Warcraft logo courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment, City of Heroes in game pic by Pentadact@Flikr.com
1 comment - What do you think?
Posted by Admin -
at 11:45 am
The first of the RPG PC games I want to deal with is Warcraft, also known as “World or Warcraft” or just “WoW“.
The reasoning behind this is that I played this game for over four years and are therefore have the most knowledge about it.
There is a debate however over whether a not Warcraft should be called a role-playing game as many true role-playing activities are missing from the game or downplayed. Despite these limitations it is entirely possible to play WoW as a true role-playing game.
Blizzard describes Warcraft on its homepage as an “MMO RPG” and ultimately if this is how they choose to market the game that is good enough for me.
Warcraft Provides a Diverse Roleplaying Experience
Despite what the critics may say, WoW manages to provide a truly diverse gaming experience. Starting from the time when you first make a character you are immersed in the differing cultures of the various races of Warcraft. Almost every race has its own starting area which is separate and distinct from the others. There are exceptions to this though, for example, orcs and trolls share the same starting area in an area known as “The Barrens”, but the reason for this is actually part of the lore of the game world.
(The Barrens starting zones may change radically in a new expansion called Cataclysm – due out in 2010)
Once a character has levelled up enough to leave the starting zones (level 6) then you really begin to appreciate the effort and development that has gone into the game. Moving from zone to zone in world of Warcraft is an extremely simple process; you merely pick a direction and assuming that the terrain is not impassable, you walk to it. There are no special portals involved, unless you are going off world (The Burning Crusade expansion zones) and the whole experience of travelling is seamless.
This seamless travelling may not seem like a big deal but once your character has travelled around a little and has a few of the connection points for the flying taxis in the game you will probably come to appreciate it more. A memory that stays with me of learning to play the game is the first time my character got onto a flying griffin and flew to another zone. The views from riding it generated a truly unique and great gaming experience in their own right.
Special role playing only servers are available for those wishing only to communicate in character. This offers a richer RPG experience but is not for everyone and normal PvE servers are the most common.
What about Game Content?
If admiring the terrain, music and general atmosphere of the game is not your thing then what about game content?
Warcraft offers thousands of quests of varying length. Most of these are missions which consist of simple objectives such as “travel to place X and kill 20 of the creatures there”. It is this aspect of the game that has attracted the most criticism and the most finger-pointing from programs such as Southpark. I personally enjoyed the quests in Warcraft the first two or three times, but like in many role-playing games there is an urge to make alts (alternate characters).
The first couple of times performing these quests is fun as in the initial run everything is new and on the second run you are trying to do better than you did the first time. The problem comes when you are making your fifth alt and you find yourself fighting murlocs at the water’s edge once again. I think the game designers realised that levelling alts was becoming a gamebreaker for many people and they corrected this with the hero class of death knights. The development path of this class is radically different to others and is only accessible once you have unlocked it by levelling up one of the normal races.
An area where World of Warcraft really comes into its own though is when you hit maximum level. Many players will tell you that this is not where the game ends, but rather where it begins. Levelling a character up to maximum level tends to be a solitary pursuit in Warcraft as players level vastly different rates. The game lacks a buddy or sidekick system to enable you to take your low-level friends along with you on higher-level quests. For this reason unless your friends happen to be the same level as yourself it becomes increasingly difficult or even impossible to game with them. Of course once everybody has reached maximum level this problem no longer applies.
Raiding in WoW
Raiding in World of Warcraft is a really great part of the game. In a raid groups of players team up to fight a monster that is too powerful to take down on their own, or even in a small five man team. The old raids used to be 40 players and were relatively hard to organise just because of the numbers of people involved. Players would become bored and do silly things – Leeroy Jenkins anyone?
Leeroy Jenkins Video – A Warcraft Classic
The more recent content in WoW has been tailored for 10 or 25 players. This size of raid makes raiding a much more manageable activity for casual players. As each expansion has been released new content designed for endgame raiding comes along. Successfully completing these raids allows rewards of ever better gear and access to increasingly difficult challenges. Historically, every time the maximum level In the game has been increased there has been a further half a dozen or so content patches with more raid content of a progressively more difficult nature.
While a minority of players complain that raiding was made too easy in Wrath of the Lich King (WotLK) it still requires a level of skill and collaboration amongst players that remains beyond the abilities of some.
If admiring the scenery, listening to the atmospheric music, exploring and levelling up your character and endgame raiding have all become a little boring for you than there is still hope. World of Warcraft has recently been exploring the possibility of turning the game into an e-sport. The changes are aimed at removing any random chance from the game and so making the combats more of a contest of skill.
WoW Battleground Combat Video
Warcraft has always had player versus player combat. On the PVP servers this combat can care more or less anywhere in the game world. On the PVE server this game world conflict is more restricted. Yet even on PVE servers it is possible to take part in large-scale battleground conflicts or small group combats through the arena system. Warcraft offers PVP combat on a scale to suit you, ranging from 2v2, 3v3, 5v5 arena to 40 per side battlegrounds.
Overview of the Game and General Gameplay
Warcraft is a great game. It offers much to do from the basic activities of fighting monsters, levelling up and improving gear to other optional activities such as fishing or other trade skills. For those preferring a solitary pursuit all but the final raid and heroic level content is available. For those with a more sociable bent joining a Guild and chatting and raiding with its members is also a great way to enjoy the game. Warcraft guilds themselves are a pretty diverse bunch. Some guilds are just a group of friends who socialise and use guild chat to stay in touch while others are very serious operations designed to take down the latest raid boss in the shortest period of time possible. There really is something for everyone.
The game graphics of attracted some criticism for their cartoony qualities, but considering the level of violence in the game I personally view this is a good thing. Blood splatter and gore have their place and I do not condemn any game for employing highly realistic combat graphics, it is just that world of warcraft is set in a fantasy setting and I do not think that these kind of graphic effects would add anything to the game.
At the time of writing this article World of Warcraft has in excess of 11 million players and is probably looking at passing 12 million quite soon. This makes it one of the largest and most successful MMO RPG’s in existence today. This position of market dominance has been achieved by keeping the players happy and contented with activities within the game. No one has forced the several million people to continue paying the monthly subscription. It is this very success that is probably the most powerful testimony I can offer as to how great the game really is.
If you have been considering the various RPG PC games available and have not yet made a decision as to what to play next I can thoroughly recommend World of Warcraft to you and hope one day to meet you in game.
Over the years I have played and enjoyed a large number of roleplaying games, both on and off the PC. It is my hope to turn this experience into something useful to other people. After all what could be better than writing about something you love, if doing so also helps others?
My interest in RPG games started as a teenager when a friend introduced me to a pencil and paper game called Runequest. At that time I knew almost nothing about history or mythology, so when people started talking about Elves and Centaurs I was completely lost. This experience gives me a small insight into the confusion some feel when listening or reading “l33t” speak or similar gaming slang. Of course a lot has changed since my introduction to roleplaying and a big part of that change is the current prevalence of personal computers.
Before the 1980′s PC’s were almost unknown. As the popularity of home computing grew there were several moral panics over some games and electronic gaming in general. If you believed what some people were saying at the time then you would be expecting the end of civil society!
Yes, society was changing and personal computing was a part of that, but pc games were not the whole reason for those changes.
Similarly today some people have attacked various game releases like Grand Theft Auto or Fallout for their excessive violence. As yet the sky has not fallen in, or the end of the world arrived. For these reasons it seems like the rest of us will be safe to enjoy playing video games for some time yet, despite the warnings of the vocal minority.
Aims of RPG PC Games
My aim in developing this website is quite simple really – provide good quality information for gamers about the RPG PC games available today.
To achieve this I will provide game reviews, walkthroughs, playing and power levelling guides where appropriate. The idea behind this is that a reliable review assists in making a purchase and helps avoid buying a real stinker, but what about enjoyment after purchase?
Sometimes folks want to level faster than the game is designed for. My view is that levelling speed is a personal decision. Some say that power levelling removes enjoyment from a game, but it can just as easily be fun to challenge yourself to max a character out in record time as it can be to sit down and watch an in game sunset. It is a personal choice. My goal is to provide the information to let players make good decisions and have the most fun during their gaming.
A Word About Game Related Advertising
At the time of writing this the site carries no advertising. This will change eventually and the reason is simple. If I can make a small amount of cash from this site then I can buy games with the profits!
What I do not intend to do is let advertising or other incentives dictate my reviews. If a game sucks then I will say so. Also, although at the time of writing this it seems unlikely, if a company offers me financial incentives to review something or a free copy of a game or similar I will point this out in the review.
Why?
Well, I play PC RPG games myself. Often I read glowing reviews of games that I know are awful, or full of bugs, or have some other obvious defect and yet the “review” of them is 100% positive. This is a real disservice to those reading the review. As I hate it when I see someone else doing it I have no intention of doing it myself.
Anyway, enough preaching and waffle. On with the gaming…
Modern PC RPG games offer an immersive experience in all sorts of fantasy and science fiction environments that it would otherwise be impossible to participate. Of course it is possible to read books about the subjects you enjoy and share the ideas of the author’s imagination, but playing a game related to those ideas presents the image made real before your eyes. Similarly you can go to the movies and see those images made real. With the advent of new 3D cinematic technology no one doubts that this experience is novel and exciting, but it lacks interactivity. It is perhaps in the area of interactivity that RPG games on the PC excel.
