Why Did Everything Become an RPG?

My current project is finishing up the writing of my next book on RPG design. One thing I didn’t think about when I first started writing was just how much the genre’s cues and qualifiers have proliferated out to everything else. Today, if we were to split hairs, we could lump everything from God of War, Call of Duty, and Gran Turismo, as RPGs like Final Fantasy, The Witcher, and the Elder Scrolls. Even though RPG design has spread, that doesn’t make every game that focuses on numbers an RPG, and the subject for today’s post. <h1>RPG Progression</h1> RPG design at its very core is about abstracted or avatar-based progression. What the player is actively doing — clicking, pushing buttons, APM, is not what determines who wins or loses, but the choices and decision-making that they do. When you play a game like XCOM or Darkest Dungeon, entire battles can be won or lost based on what you do during one turn. Characters and options grow over the course of playing the game — adding more abilities and power for the player to use. The role of RPG progression is that as the player is doing something in the game, more often than not fighting enemies, they are gaining experience which in turn will lead to them leveling up and becoming stronger. An RPG leveling system is one of the easiest things to understand in terms of power — if I’m level 10, that means I’m 9 levels stronger than someone at level 1. Abstracted design provides several key advantages over games that are reliant on the player’s reflexes and APM to win. <a href="https://medium.com/@GWBycer/why-did-everything-become-an-rpg-38fbaf0f91ec">Read More</a>