Games - Computer role-playing game

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	Games - Computer role-playing game

Computer role-playing games (CRPGs), often shortened to simply (RPGs), are a type of video or computer game that uses traditional gameplay elements found in pen-and-paper role-playing games. The term "CRPG" is more often used when referring to titles made for personal computers, as opposed to video game consoles. RPGs as a video game genre include a wide range of gameplay styles and engines. Gameplay elements strongly associated with RPGs, such as statistical character development, have been widely adapted to other video game genres.

Overview

CRPGs, in general, are derived from pen and paper-based role-playing games (RPGs) such as Dungeons & Dragons
. Characters in these games are always assigned a variety of attributes such as hit points. These attributes are traditionally displayed as a numeric value to the player instead of a simpler abstract graphical representation, such as bars and meters, favored by video games in general. CRPGs also borrow the narrative structure of pen and paper RPGs. The stories featured usually involve a group of characters (a party) who have joined forces in order to accomplish a mission or quest. Along the way, the adventurers must face a great number of challenges and enemies (usually monsters inspired by science fiction and classic mythology). A sample character from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance is illustrated here. The screen shows the character's name, portrait, level (LV), current/maximum hitpoints (HP), and current/maximum magic points (MP).

Character development

Through the course of a game, players are allowed to choose how they want to improve their character's (or party's) performance in terms of attributes, skills, special abilities, and equipment. These improvements are given as rewards for overcoming challenges and achieving goals. The conditions that need to be met in order to earn these rewards may vary; some games are focused on defeating enemies, while others emphasize completion of the quests. The amount of freedom players are given when choosing what to improve also varies by game; some allow highly detailed and specialized customizations (known as "builds"), while others automate the process almost entirely. In many games, players are allowed to name and create the concept of their characters, as opposed to playing the role of a pre-defined protagonist (like in most Final Fantasy games). When creating a character from scratch, players might be able to choose their race. Players choose a character class or profession (a.k.a. "job") that defines the focus of their training in different aptitudes such as weapons mastery, social skills, spell-casting, and stealth. Some games allow characters to advance in more than one of these professions, but this usually carries some form of disadvantage in order to maintain game balance.

Additionally, two different systems of rewarding the player characters for solving the tasks in the game can be set apart: the experience system and the training system. The former was adopted from PnP role-playing games, most notably, Dungeons & Dragons
, and emphasizes receiving "experience points" (by winning battles, performing class-specific activities, and completing quests), which are then "invested" by the player into the neccessary skills. The second system was first introduced in The Elder Scrolls
series, particularily, in its second installment, Daggerfall, and emphasizes developing the character's skills by using them, meaning that if a character wields a sword for some time, he or she will become proficient with it. This system was later used in the Dungeon Siege series.

Both character development systems have their advantages and disadvantages. The experience system allows more flexibility and fairness in rewarding the completed tasks, but is generally unrealistic, since it is, for example, theoretically possible to develop a character's warrior skills without ever actually using them in game. The training system does not imply any reward for the completed quests, except a material one, assuming that the character trained his or her skills while working towards the set goals. However, such systems tend to over-simplification (as seen in Dungeon Siege) and are often considered a step away from classical CRPGs towards action-RPG genre. An important note about the character development system is that despite its obvious importance, it should not become the central element of the game, pushing the plot, the setting, and the characters themselves to the background.

Setting and genres

The term "genre" is commonly used to classify a CRPG's story setting. Most CRPGs are set in a fictional high fantasy world. Others feature elements from space opera and pulp science fiction; most merge elements from all those previously mentioned. Very few games take place in historic or modern settings.

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