VGC's Anonymous/"General" Topic:

[kashell]

Nah, I'm not taking it personal. I never cared for those terms so I don't use them.

[desocietas]

So if the Ultima series was the first to introduce JRPG elements such as an overworld map with dungeons and towns, random-encounters, a party of characters to control, turn-based fighting, menu-based commands, etc.; then why do we call them JRPGs? Shouldn't we be calling them BRPGs or ERPG for British or English RPGs?

It's an interesting question, though.  I guess we call most of those games nowadays JRPGs because they originate from Japan.  If it's a Western-produced RPG (wha? where? who?), we do tend to say it's JRPG-style, etc., I think, because folks are already familiar with what a lot of Japanese RPGs are like. It seems like Japan really embraced the turn-based RPG style while other countries embraced making action-RPGs.

I didn't grow up playing Ultima and the beginning wave of RPGs.  I started off playing JRPGs on the Playstation and then eventually found out about tabletop RPGs and realized that the roots go deeper than videogames, ha.

[argyle]

What dark said, and:

I just call them RPGs. Always have and always will.

Just a way to differentiate the JRPG style of gameplay from say Diablo or Elder Scrolls. Like a run-n-gun vs. just "action game".

RPG game play is RPG game play. Just like action game play is action game play. I just play the games.

You guys are taking this too personal. It's just terminology so you can better describe the genre of game. There's is no denying there's distinct, defining differences between say Final Fantasy and Baldur's Gate; and JRPG vs. action-RPG just better defines those differences instead of explaining them each time.

It's like metal music. There is metal, which is a blanket term to include all metal music. And then there's specific types of metal like Black Metal, Thrash Metal, Glam Metal, etc.

Yeah, I'm with Burning here. Of course it's not worth arguing what game fits what category, but that doesn't mean you can't use descriptors to let people better understand what kind of game it is.

Otherwise, we could just say they're all "video games" and never distinguish further than that.

[disgaeniac]

What dark said, and:

I just call them RPGs. Always have and always will.

Just a way to differentiate the JRPG style of gameplay from say Diablo or Elder Scrolls. Like a run-n-gun vs. just "action game".

RPG game play is RPG game play. Just like action game play is action game play. I just play the games.

You guys are taking this too personal. It's just terminology so you can better describe the genre of game. There's is no denying there's distinct, defining differences between say Final Fantasy and Baldur's Gate; and JRPG vs. action-RPG just better defines those differences instead of explaining them each time.

It's like metal music. There is metal, which is a blanket term to include all metal music. And then there's specific types of metal like Black Metal, Thrash Metal, Glam Metal, etc.

Seriously?

I don't think that either one of us was taking it personally

It was an inside thing, between me n' kash - cuz we met on an rpg board where this came up all the time, got dissected to hell & back, and still, nothing was ever agreed upon

I should have done a "TL;DR" at the end of my post...

I'll add it now:

TL;DR = Life's too short!

[disgaeniac]

What dark said, and:

I just call them RPGs. Always have and always will.

Just a way to differentiate the JRPG style of gameplay from say Diablo or Elder Scrolls. Like a run-n-gun vs. just "action game".

RPG game play is RPG game play. Just like action game play is action game play. I just play the games.

You guys are taking this too personal. It's just terminology so you can better describe the genre of game. There's is no denying there's distinct, defining differences between say Final Fantasy and Baldur's Gate; and JRPG vs. action-RPG just better defines those differences instead of explaining them each time.

It's like metal music. There is metal, which is a blanket term to include all metal music. And then there's specific types of metal like Black Metal, Thrash Metal, Glam Metal, etc.

Yeah, I'm with Burning here. Of course it's not worth arguing what game fits what category, but that doesn't mean you can't use descriptors to let people better understand what kind of game it is.

Otherwise, we could just say they're all "video games" and never distinguish further than that.

True.

BUT, there's (*another*) fine line between categorizing & classifying some like & similar things together

-and-

sub-dividing & sub-categorizing everything way too much (like G*Faqs does)...until - instead of telling you more about something - it's overdone to the point where, instead of clarifying, as they're intended too...there's so many of them + so much overlap + so little differences between one & the other that...it has the opposite effect of causing more confusion; ya know?

[argyle]

What dark said, and:

I just call them RPGs. Always have and always will.

Just a way to differentiate the JRPG style of gameplay from say Diablo or Elder Scrolls. Like a run-n-gun vs. just "action game".

RPG game play is RPG game play. Just like action game play is action game play. I just play the games.

You guys are taking this too personal. It's just terminology so you can better describe the genre of game. There's is no denying there's distinct, defining differences between say Final Fantasy and Baldur's Gate; and JRPG vs. action-RPG just better defines those differences instead of explaining them each time.

It's like metal music. There is metal, which is a blanket term to include all metal music. And then there's specific types of metal like Black Metal, Thrash Metal, Glam Metal, etc.

Yeah, I'm with Burning here. Of course it's not worth arguing what game fits what category, but that doesn't mean you can't use descriptors to let people better understand what kind of game it is.

Otherwise, we could just say they're all "video games" and never distinguish further than that.

True.

BUT, there's (*another*) fine line between categorizing & classifying some like & similar things together

-and-

sub-dividing & sub-categorizing everything way too much (like G*Faqs does)...until - instead of telling you more about something - it's overdone to the point where, instead of clarifying, as they're intended too...there's so many of them + so much overlap + so little differences between one & the other that...it has the opposite effect of causing more confusion; ya know?

Well sure, anything can be overdone. Kinda like when people try to break down what constitutes an "RPG" at all - those conversations go downhill fast, and nothing is ever decided. But take a step back from that overanalyzing, and if someone tells me they like "RPGs" I have a general idea of what they're into. If they say they like "JRPGs" that gives me a little better view, and if they say "I love Final Fantasy games" then I get exactly what they mean.

[karyann]

Same, just finished up finals week which is always fun ha. 

How did it go? You have finals in January? That's new to me! 

[pacpix]

Same, just finished up finals week which is always fun ha. 

How did it go? You have finals in January? That's new to me! 

Well I am still in highschool, so my schedule is probably different. They went pretty well! Despite failing every test except last week's in AP Calculus this year through constant retesting and spending extra time with the teacher I pulled off an 84 for semester. This last semester was not too bad, but for my final semester I have 3 AP tests to go along with normal finals as well as my senior research project and presentation. That should be fun ha

[MJMaranan]

Wow...  High school student has AP classes and staff responsibilities here in VGCollect.   

[abe]

So... I'm on the east coast of Canada and we're just getting that nasty snowstorm today. Most of the city has been shut down, which includes the university I attend. Yay for more time for games! Hopefully we won't lose our power, but I've charged up all of my thingamajigs in case.

[bobster]

So... I'm on the east coast of Canada and we're just getting that nasty snowstorm today. Most of the city has been shut down, which includes the university I attend. Yay for more time for games! Hopefully we won't lose our power, but I've charged up all of my thingamajigs in case.

I'm on the eastern part of Pennsylvania and I was really hoping we'd get hit by that storm. Unfortunately, we're only on the edge so we've only gotten 3 inches in the last two days . Boo for going into work!

[redblaze57]

Got around 5" here in Central Jersey so far. I hear it's a lot worse by the coast.

[kashell]

It's about 40 degrees in Nashville and no snow. So...yay?

[argyle]

It's about 40 degrees in Nashville and no snow. So...yay?

Yep, I keep hoping we get one of those rare "OMG it's snowing in the South! Grab all the milk & bread you can carry then stay home until the crisis is over!" 1" "snowstorms", but it's not looking likely this year.

[amauriel]

Yeah, Columbus, Ohio didn't get nearly enough of the snow. We got enough to close schools and make my commute triple in time yesterday morning, but not enough to make work think we needed a day off.