Are Offline CRPGs Dead Yet?

Matt Barton at Armchair Arcade is hard at work on a book about the history of computer role-playing games. He recently got a quick interview with Chris Taylor, designer of ridiculously-popular-yet-incredibly-boring computer-based RPG Dungeon Siege. (Obviously that’s IMO. My fellow writer and boyfriend Nick Silversides vehemently disagrees)

Do you think the current market emphasis on MMORPGs is destroying the CRPG genre?

It’s definitely taking a bite out of the pie, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say destroying. I think it will re-stabilize in the future and we’ll see more balance than what we are seeing right now. It’s all about entertainment value. if we don’t create more value on the traditional side, well, perhaps we deserve to be destroyed.

– A conversation with Chris Taylor of Gas-Powered Games – Matt Barton

I fully agree. I think a lot of people who currently play World of Warcraft and other MMOs just wouldn’t bother with an offline version. An awful lot of players (particularly the guys) aren’t there for the immersive game world or the storyline. They’re in it for the sense of progress (ding!) and the social scene.

CRPGs give you neither.

Okay, that’s not entirely true. Let me explain: So far, there have been two types of Western computer-based RPG. On the one hand you have games like Diablo and Dungeon Siege – the hack-and-slashers. On the other is the story-driven world-builders – games like Neverwinter Nights and Elder Scrolls: Oblivion.

The first group are certainly under threat from MMORPGs, if they haven’t already been killed off. The appeal of hack-and-slash RPGs lies in the sense of achievement you get through killing mobs to gain stats and levels. MMORPGS do this extremely well, with the added bonus of bragging rights. Nobody cares that you hit level the experience cap in Baldur’s Gate. If you tell people you have a level 70 Tauren Shaman you get an appreciative “Ooooo” in pretty much any gaming circle. Inside the game world you don’t even need to tell them – you can just strut about knowing that everyone can see how much better you are. A standalone RPG simply can’t compete.

Lucky for Bioware, achievers only make up a tenth of MMORPG players.

The rest are in it for social reasons, for immersing themselves in the gameworld or for a mixture of all three motivations. Standalone CRPGs can’t compete as a tool for making new friends. That’s another 10% of MMORPGers who wouldn’t touch a CRPG with a pole. Still, what with online play, non-MMORPGs can still be every bit as good when it comes to playing with your existing friends. The place they really beat MMOs is on immersiveness.

Sure, MMOs have that persistent world. In my mind, that’s their weakness. You spend all that time killing wolves and escorting Deathstalkers and not 5 minutes later the buggers have gone and trapped themselves in the farmhouse again! Complete immersion-killer. RPG servers do their bit to address outside influences but places still remain largely unchanged by your actions.

Unlike MMORPGs, standalone CRPGs don’t need to be everything to everyone. They can just be. When you do something in an offline CRPG, it stays done. You get a real sense of progression as you play. Add to that a purpose-filled storyline that isn’t padded out with days of grind and you’ve got a winner. We all want to save the world. A standalone game universe will let you do that.

There’s plenty of place for MMOs and CRPGs. It’s time that standalone games started playing to their strengths.

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