Ekim's Gamer View: RTS: The New RPG
Ekim, 2003-06-13

RPG/RTS/Action/Adventure….

Still, it looks like the trend took flight, and many developers are grabbing on to it as if their genre depended upon it. But when you look at it closely a relatively small detail becomes apparent: not all RTS games claim to be RPGs, or to have RPG elements to them. But all those that are fantasy-based RTS do! Doesn't that tell us something? Warcraft may not be the first, but certainly the most popular example of this. But browse through any gaming website's RTS section and look at the list closely. All the recent titles that are set in a fantasy setting claim to have RPG elements implemented.

Those "RPG elements" can take many forms. From unique "Hero" units that have special powers, to experience points awarded to units that gain levels between missions, it seems that anything remotely related to what we expect from an RPG is good enough for an RTS game. But not those that deal with historic events, or anything set in outer space, mind you. No, only those that have orcs and goblins and demons, or anything else that's derived from the Tolkien lore that we know and love. But why? Does fantasy automatically mean RPG now? These RPG features probably helped flesh out the RTS genre in some cases, no doubt about that, but I wouldn't go so far as saying that games like Warcraft 3, or Disciples 2, or even the upcoming LotR strategy game are RPG hybrids, as the publishers of some of these games would like us to believe. No offense to those who enjoyed and loved Warcraft 3, but I never saw anything there worth calling an RPG. I can honestly say the game was a good one, it just wasn't for me. But it was an RTS game, and although it did have some features derived from the RPG genre, there's no way I would label it as such.

RPGs influenced RTS, or is it the other way around?

Thinking back I recall that the first time we ever saw RTS games mentioning RPG features came after Baldur's Gate. The combat in BG was great, but clearly derived from RTS games. You could pause the action, issue commands on the fly, move your units to apply different strategies. Furthermore, some strategies worked in some circumstances while they utterly failed in others, so you had to think before moving your characters, and rushing them head-on into danger was generally a bad idea, unlike most other RPG game that came before it. The BG developers were visionary in designing the way that battles were fought in an RPG by looking at what was being done in other types of games to inspire their own concepts. But they never said that BG was an RPG/RTS hybrid game… No one ever did, in fact

But after that, and after the game's success, the RTS genre, which was struggling at the time, seemed to like the idea. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind seeing that RPGs have influenced another genre as much as that. What bugs me though is that some people are now confused by it. It's the same as the old Diablo debate, an ongoing war between "pure" RPG players and their action-oriented counterparts that still rages on to this day. Is Diablo an RPG or not? Is Warcraft 3 an RPG or not?

Players that enjoyed Warcraft 3 thinking that it was more of an RPG than what they used to play start thinking that they like the genre now. And all of a sudden they decide that they should give Morrowind a try because they like RPGs so much! Most of them end up utterly disappointed, of course. But by then they don't think that they have the wrong idea about RPGs, they rather think that MW was a bad RPG game! See the irony? It happens more often than you'd think…

Heresy!!!

So my point here is that hybrid games are all good, as long as publishers keep it very clear what type of game you are really playing. Warcraft 3 is a strategy game. Yes, it borrows heavily on some RPG elements that we have seen many times before, but it is an RTS game. Not an RTS/RPG, or any slashed derivative any creative marketing genius could ever come up with. It's an RTS game, period. Mixing the genre is good, but confusing the player isn't. Furthermore, a fantasy setting does not automatically mean that the game is an RPG, although most RPG games have such a setting. Fantasy is just a setting among many others.

Thought I'd clear that up once and for all. Now, you're free to torture me and put me on the pyre for the heretic that I am ;)