The History of Computer RPGs

Re:The History of Computer RPGs by mwfunk on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @02:36AM (#14145932)

The term was a lot more common in the '80s and '90s. Back then, certainly in the '80s, "RPG" meant tabletop RPGs. Hence, "CRPG" (computer RPG) was needed as a separate term.

Also, in the '80s, computer RPGs were much more directly inspired by tabletop RPGs. Now video game RPGs are their own genre(s), mostly disconnected from the pen and paper games that inspired the first few generations of video games.

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Re:The History of Computer RPGs by erikb on Wednesday April 19, 2017 @07:15AM (#14146924)

I grew up with Fallout 1/2 and Diablo 2. I guess late 90s. Computer RPGs were so common in my circles, that we actually needed a distinct word for tabletop RPGs (we called them "Pen&Paper"). RPG was always the word for computer RPGs. Only through recent new connections to the "Pen&Paper" world I heard people say "cRPG", around 2015-16.

So I guess it's more about where you are starting from than the time. Even nowadays people use the term "cRPG" and even nowadays people use the term "RPG" to mean different things.

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Re:The History of Computer RPGs by mwfunk on Thursday April 20, 2017 @12:41AM (#14154020)

That makes sense. Heck, maybe the RPG vs. CRPG distinction was more '80s terminology. RPGs were a pretty well-established genre in computer and console games by the late '90s.

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