{"id":21836,"date":"2018-02-13T01:08:53","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T14:08:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/?p=21836"},"modified":"2025-11-17T19:20:18","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T08:20:18","slug":"convergent-superficialities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/convergent-superficialities\/","title":{"rendered":"Superficialities or Convergent Evolution? By Raul Miranda with Mike Bourke"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The detail in this image is incredibly rich. Art by thefairypath via pixabay.com, background and magical effect by Mike. Treat yourself, click on the image for a larger version in a new tab!<\/p><\/div>\n

\nI get all sorts of articles offered to me here at Campaign Mastery. Some are completely irrelevant to the purpose of the site, others so poorly written as to be unpublishable. On rare occasions, one hits the ball out of the park. Some, however, are like this guest article: very well written, articulate in making its point, but only indirectly relevant to tabletop RPGs, let alone how to be more successful at running them, and that’s what the site is all about.<\/p>\n

And, on very rare occasions, one arrives that prompts new thoughts in response to the author’s submission that lift it out of that almost-good-enough compartment into something Campaign Mastery is proud to be associated with. So read what Raul has written, and I’ll be back with some thoughts in response.
\n– Mike\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Are All Games Becoming RPGs? A Guest Article by Raul Miranda<\/h3>\n

You may have noticed it happening when you were selecting your character class in Destiny. Or perhaps whilst working your way through Fifa’s story mode. It could even have hit you when choosing your career path in Stardew Valley. Wherever you look these days, in the online gaming world, RPG elements have spread through the industry like wildfire. From character leveling, to loot and inventory systems, many games have borrowed from the RPG genre, and in most cases it seems to work extremely well. But why is this, and is it always right to do so?<\/p>\n

It all started on a board<\/h5>\n

The early days of the RPG, or role-playing games to give them their full title, introduced us to class systems in games that were previously confined to niche games such as Dungeons & Dragons (which, by the way, is making a surprise comeback<\/a>) [Actually, it’s neither making a comeback nor surprising that it’s popular, it’s just that the mass media have noticed it again, IMO – Mike]<\/em>. Different characters had different abilities, and progression systems allowed characters to develop with the player. If you happened to pick a character that was good at fighting, your game would be very different than if you had picked a stealthy character. These characters would also progress through the game, and the character would improve in their particular area of expertise.<\/p>\n

The reason this sort of game mechanic has slowly infiltrated other gaming genres is multi-faceted. An often overlooked reason, is that gamers enjoy having unique experiences. When we enjoy a game, we often recount tales of our experiences to friends, and these stories are never as vivid as when we feel a connection to the character we control. It can be as simple as choosing a characters clothes, but these little unique changes build a bond with the characters that we play with. This is also a huge reason why simply allowing a player to name their own character in some of the more ‘story-driven’ online games has become so popular. It is a simple tactic by game developers, but one that has deeper repercussions than we imagine. <\/p>\n

This level of customization has obviously become a lot deeper in recent years, with some online shooters in particular allowing for a staggering amount of customization and leveling. Looking at the likes of Battlefield 1, and comparing it to the initial version of Unreal Tournament, can illustrate just how far these RPG elements have traveled<\/a> outside of their natural home. As you play your character gains experience, and with this comes the ability to purchase better weaponry. The different character classes also allow for different abilities within the game. Medics can heal teammates, Assault class allows for heavier guns, and the Scout class can pick off rivals from a distance with their use of sniper rifles. This may sound very obvious, but it wasn’t long ago that these classes didn’t exist outside of the role-playing game.<\/p>\n

Mobile levels up<\/h5>\n

It is not just console and PC games that have been given the ‘RPG makeover’ either. Mobile games are littered with RPG-style elements<\/a> too, these days. In fact, mobile games could even be said to suit some RPG elements even better than their ‘full-fat’ brethren; with a lot of mobile games being lighter on ‘action’, due to the fact you don’t usually have a controller (apologies to the Switch owners out there, as you people are straddling two worlds!), and leveling up and customization of characters have become intrinsic parts of the game play. All you have to do is look at the likes of Fallout Shelter, Tiny Towers, or Hill Climb Racing to see how important leveling has become in these games.<\/p>\n

Are the elements always needed?<\/h5>\n

Is it always a good thing though? Well, the answer to this is a firm no. Not every online game should have RPG elements. If you were to instill these nuances in a game like Starwhal or Rocket League, you would take away a lot of the appeal. Games like these rely on a ‘fairness’ factor, and as such, any type of character building would make the game far too slanted in the favor of those who have been playing for longer. They do, however, take the customization concept from RPGs in the form of different ‘skins’, so even when we find evidence of games that really shouldn’t be merged with lots of RPG elements, we can often find that they still have a little ‘role-playing’ in their heart. <\/p>\n

So for those of you who love RPGs, you can happily boast about how you favorite genre has shaped gaming more than most. If you happen to hate RPGs [then you’re probably reading the wrong blog – Mike],<\/em> perhaps a little recognition wouldn’t go amiss, seeing as your favorite game will most probably owe some of its success to those old fantasy RPGs you dislike so much. Either way, it looks like character progression, leveling systems, and character customization<\/a> are here to stay, and that should be something that we can all agree, is a good thing.<\/p>\n

\n
About the Author:<\/h5>\n

Raul is a freelance writer, based in the UK, that specializes in ‘all things tech’ with a large side order of gaming. After spending five years in the corporate field, he has found himself now writing for various publications across the web, on subjects that are close to his heart, and is much happier for it.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A Tale Of Two Industries: A Reaction, by Mike<\/h3>\n

It’s inarguable that RPGs and Online Gaming appear to be converging, with RPG elements becoming ubiquitous in computer games, and it’s easy to see why. There are distinct forces at work in both spheres pushing trends toward a similar end-goal.<\/p>\n

In the tabletop domain, what started with digital dice-rollers is now rapidly evolving into a completely interactive gaming environment that permits tabletop gaming at a distance. No player need never be isolated again!<\/p>\n

I have to admit that I’ve never had the time to investigate fully the current state of the art in these systems; it’s entirely possible that they are even more advanced than I have given them credit for. Certainly, more and more GMs of my online acquaintance are signing up to play or run games on platforms such as Twitch or Roll20.<\/p>\n

At the same time, MMOs and “Computer RPGs” are becoming more flexible and incorporating more elements from Tabletop gaming all the time. Again, it’s easy to see why, but it might require a bit more description for tabletop players who may not be quite as familiar with them.<\/p>\n

The advantages of RPG elements<\/h5>\n

There was a time when the only hooks that “computer games” had to keep players going back for more, buying sequels and expansions, or putting coins into slots, were improved graphics and addictive game-play.<\/p>\n

The first is technologically-restricted, and it perpetually grows harder and harder to stand out from the crowd. 3D with 32-bit color (which some games now use) is pretty close to photo-realism – it’s now down to 3D-modelling and rendering engines, and processing speeds, and those are often functions of game-play.<\/p>\n

Tetris surprised everyone with it’s phenomenal success. It had very limited graphics, but simply oozed addictive game-play. The same could be said for Pac-Man and several other of the classic games.<\/p>\n

But innovative and addictive game-play is hard, and change that is not for the better, purely as a point of distinctiveness, actually inhibits player satisfaction.<\/p>\n

That leaves only the third plank of game design, the one that I haven’t yet mentioned: story.<\/p>\n

Story Progressions<\/h6>\n
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Simple Story Progression<\/p><\/div>\n

Stories in computer games started simple; there was only one path to victory, and any wrong choice or action resulted in the need to start over. Some games permitted resumption from a fixed reset point prior to the failure, which minimized the annoyance.<\/p>\n

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Superficial Story Progression<\/p><\/div>\n

It wasn’t long before program sophistication permitted multiple paths to victory, and perhaps even crafted victory message variations. But these were, in reality, simple progressions branching off from the core progression, and the depth was illusory.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, for the first time, story could carry a game despite a slightly dodgy interface and generation-old graphics.<\/p>\n

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Artificial Story Progression<\/p><\/div>\n

Multiple outcomes and multiple varieties of “winning” brought new levels of sophistication to stories.<\/p>\n

At first, this was an artificial development; choices that did not progress the character within the plotline didn’t really make much difference to the outcome; plots were no better nor worse than a choose-your-own-adventure book. Players had only the illusion of choice, or at best, could choose which of a small handful of railroad tracks on which their game’s story would run.<\/p>\n

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Complex Story Progression with multiple concurrent narratives<\/p><\/div>\n

Up to that point, Tabletop RPGs were clearly more advanced than computer games in terms of story, at least in the hands of a half-competent GM, because of the interactivity with players. But Computer Game developers were learning fast, and game plots were becoming more sophisticated and reactive, often with multiple goals that could be pursued, some mutually exclusive. Still, the holy grail was interaction between two (or more) real players; random numbers and personality profiles could never match the creativity of another human.<\/p>\n

That’s where MMOs come into the picture. World Of Warcraft was the first, and it is no coincidence that it borrowed heavily from the stockpile of fantasy RPG elements. These days, MMOs seem to be a dime a dozen, some better-executed than others.<\/p>\n

Characterization<\/h6>\n

The second element that computer games drew from RPGs was characterization, first of characters encountered (where it could be faked with narrative) and then with restricted interactions. Slowly, these became more sophisticated in their presentation of personas, and more interactive.<\/p>\n

This is not all that surprising; the best stories are an outgrowth of characterization, and it’s hard to keep characterization consistent without pre-programming responses and restricting interactions.<\/p>\n

It is impossible to experience the growth in storytelling sophistication beyond artificial progressions without one of two things: interaction with other players who have the capacity to reshape the game, or a strength of characterization that yields a variety of significant responses based not on pure randomness but on stimuli provided by the player and responses.<\/p>\n

Character Progression<\/h6>\n

Character progression is another aspect of computer games that appears, at first glance, to have been imported from tabletop gaming, but in reality, there have been upgrade paths in computer games for a very long time – consider the ship enhancements in Galaga. Heck, even the capacity to earn additional lives can be considered a limited character progression.<\/p>\n

In reality, character progression in computer games has mirrored the structure of the narratives that drive, and result from, more sophisticated storytelling. They started simple and linear, evolved through the stages of superficial and artificial progressions, and are now the driving force of complex progression, in which outcomes and encounters vary with the development path chosen by the player.<\/p>\n

The form that this progression typically takes has been borrowed from tabletop RPGs because both have the same objective for this subsystem to achieve: the simulation of a complex individual within a rules structure. The only difference is that in a computer game, the rules structure is often covert and implied, part of the programming, while in a tabletop game it is overt, manipulable, and customizable.<\/p>\n

This distinction is under siege by certain games, however. One of my long-time friends has been playing a computer game for years for which hundreds or thousands of “mods” and patches have been released that totally transform the game-play and the game functions available. He started writing about the mods that he had selected and why they had been chosen and in the course of doing so, found himself writing a novelization of the ship, it’s crew, and their adventures within the game environment.<\/p>\n

And, of course, the D&D adaptions by SSI, starting with 1988’s Pool Of Radiance, which I wrote about when discussing The Success Of DnD<\/a>, showed that tabletop RPG rules, or a simplified subset thereof, could form the foundations of a computer game (to be fair, my memory is that a computer-based adaption of Empire Of The Petal Throne called Tekumel predated Pool Of Radiance, but I’m uncertain of the dates involved).<\/p>\n

Depth Of Interaction<\/h6>\n

The final RPG element that I am going to discuss in relation to computer games deals with the environment itself, and is also a manifestation of the increased sophistication of plotlines. It used to be that games would not permit you to interact with anyone who was not directly relevant to the plotline; then you could interact with characters who were outside of this plotline, but they were ciphers, cardboard cutouts who were exactly the same every time and in every interaction. This was followed by side-quests with dedicated characters, and then with interactions with real characters created and operated by other players.<\/p>\n

Matching this increase in the levels of interaction that were possible was an increase in the number of ways that a character could interact with, and influence, the development of the game environment or world. But this was the big advance that made MMORPGs different from their forebears – for the first time, characters engaged independently in similar quests could interact and\/or compete, and when one succeeded, the resulting change to the status of the game world, or its repercussions, could (and would, if they were significant enough) be felt by every other player whether they were involved in that particular quest or not.<\/p>\n

Of course, both forms of interaction were inherently a feature of tabletop games practically from the very beginning. Some would say that this was the ultimate responsibility of the GM: to create and roleplay NPCs, to create adventures and administrate the consequences.<\/p>\n

The advantages of these elements<\/h6>\n

One of the great limiting factors on game-play in computer games was always that, after a while, you had done it all. You had explored every alternate ending, completed every side-quest, toyed with every known Easter egg. Simple structures limited the popularity and repeat potential of games, and superficial and artificial enhancements to the sophistication only increased the number of such paths and convolutions beyond the point of tedium. Hence the appeal of a game environment and plotline that are always evolving and never static, that emerge as a shared property of the mutual exploration of the world.<\/p>\n

Are Computer RPGs really<\/em> RPGs?<\/h3>\n

Computer games may have been progressively integrating RPG elements into their structures, but – as with tabletop gaming – the most important decision is always what to leave out, and that’s a lesson that game developers are having to learn the hard way.<\/p>\n

There is a progressive continuum between “pure action” games with no RPG elements whatsoever, and fully immersive interactivity experiences like an MMORPG, with the latter virtually indistinguishable from a tabletop game save that it has pretty pictures to illustrate the action. Any given game to which you point these days will fall somewhere on that spectrum, and the debate is always over where to put the dividing line.<\/p>\n

To a certain extent, I wish the computer games industry had chosen its own terminology to distinguish itself from tabletop RPGs; certainly, “games” and “RPGs” as search terms pull up a lot of irrelevant results because both industries use these terms to mean subtly different things, but English (and Google) conflate them – and there is some overlap.<\/p>\n

When I read someone’s twitter profile and they describe themselves as a “gamer”, with no clarification, I am sometimes offended by the arrogance as though this were the only type of gaming that existed – because what they mean by the term is that they play and are interested in their type of gaming<\/em> with limited interest in anything else. I’m sure some of them are wonderful people who meant absolutely no offense, but why make me do all the hard work of interpreting nuances within your profile?<\/p>\n

And, certainly, as this evolution continues, so these interests will continue to converge. There’s already a huge degree of overlap behind the scenes. There are undoubtedly lessons for the computer gaming industry in plot structure and rules structure that can be found in tabletop RPGs. Convergence will be almost complete when this information flow begins to reverse – books on narrative structuring for CRPGs that have some insight useful to an TTRPG GM, for example. We aren’t quite there yet (so far as I am aware), but we’re fast approaching that point.<\/p>\n

Not every game with RPG-sourced or related game elements is an RPG, regardless of the use of that term by the marketers responsible for promoting and selling copies of the game. It’s even arguable that any game that isn’t an MMORPG is actually an RPG – by the tabletop RPG standards and definition. When you hear debate raging over whether or not games like Assassin Creed: Origins are or are not RPGs, what’s really driving the debate – and what’s ultimately at stake – are the nuances of the definition of what is an RPG. Essentially, such debates arise because a game falls on one side of that boundary line for some, and on the other side for others.<\/p>\n

The Bandwagon Effect<\/h3>\n

There is always a strong bandwagon effect in Computer RPG development. Sideways scrollers were ‘in’ for a while, and then Vertical Scrollers, and then early pseudo-RPGs, and then sports sims, and now it’s RPGs. Every new game needs to incorporate RPG elements in order to be viewed as credible. Unlike previous such trends, however, this one is becoming sustained because of the huge advantages that RPG-related elements offer to a computer game from a sales and marketing perspective.<\/p>\n

To whatever extent a game is enhanced by the incorporation of RPG elements, that’s a good thing, but there is a downside that is only reluctantly being acknowledged. As with games that used to tout a new advance in graphic realism, it’s all too easy for game-play to stagnate, and even for games that boast nothing but incredible game-play to face additional barriers to acceptance.<\/p>\n

It took almost a decade for Rubik’s Cube to go from being a concept and teaching aid to being a toy and a world-wide success. The first version of Tetris was released in 1984 and it was five years before the massively-popular game-boy version was released. These days, development costs for both types of product have skyrocketed, as has the investment required to bring a successful product to market, and part of that rise has been the shift in the balance between game-play and story.<\/p>\n

I do worry that in this rush to incorporate story, game-play is being lost.<\/p>\n

Every computer game should be judged on its merits during its development cycle, and only those RPG elements that represent a positive contribution incorporated. But I can’t see that happening until a new terminology evolves in the marketing department, one that identifies in a positive way those games that are not full CRPGs. Nevertheless, at the very least, internal discussions on the point are beginning, as evidenced by articles such as Raul’s, that are questioning the underlying assumptions.<\/p>\n

Any game that fits anywhere on that spectrum between pure game-play and pure-RPG should be welcome, with the determining factors always being how much fun they are to play<\/em> and how strongly they engage the player.<\/em><\/p>\n

And, ironically, that’s a lesson that tabletop RPG GMs also sometimes need to relearn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I get all sorts of articles offered to me here at Campaign Mastery. Some are completely irrelevant to the purpose of the site, others so poorly written as to be unpublishable. On rare occasions, one hits the ball out of the park. Some, however, are like this guest article: very well written, articulate in making […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[67,70,74,221],"tags":[155,116,286],"series":[],"class_list":["post-21836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dnd","category-gm-ing","category-mike","category-opinion","tag-dd","tag-game-mastery","tag-opinion"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1toiD-5Gc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21836"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21836"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54681,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21836\/revisions\/54681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21836"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.campaignmastery.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=21836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}