Whats the appeal of open world western rpgs?

[irixith]

The appeal of WRPGs is almost certainly freedom, or at least the illusion of such. You can explore where you want, tackle quests in any order that suits you. Freedom of choice.

When I was a wee child, way back in the first grade, my teacher had assigned us to draw a tree. As the other children started to draw...

"What kind of tree?", I asked.
"Any kind of tree that you like!"
"Where is the tree growing?", I asked.
"Anywhere that you want it to be!"
"What colour"?, I asked.
"Any colour that you want. It can be blue if you like!"
"Trees aren't blue."
"..but this is a tree from your imagination, it can be any colour you can think of!"
"That's dumb. Trees can't be any colour."
"Lily, use your imagination. Draw any tree that you like."
"I CAN'T! I need to know what kind of tree to draw!"
"It doesn't matter what kind of tree."
"Yes it DOES! I don't KNOW what to DRAW!"
"A tree."
"Fuck you, you stupid bitch!"
*crumple paper, sulk in corner*

No word of a lie, I did say fuck you to the teacher, and I did call her bitch. The story has been recounted to me many times through fits of of laughter. Apparently it got me an expulsion, and explains why I had to go to a different school.

..but that's not the point. The point is that even as a small child, complete and utter freedom of choice was scary. I didn't know what to do without a limitation, some guidance. It's probably very much why the WRPG doesn't interest me, because I don't want to just walk into a world and say "Hmm, I guess I'll go talk to that guy over there." I want to know that I have to travel to dungeon X and retrieve stolen item Y to return to king Z. I still have the freedom to decide how to get it done, but within a defined structure. I can't comprehend just going around and doing shit until eventually I trigger some sort of endgame. That's not fun to me.

[isiolia]

There's still structure to most though. You have a main quest, someplace to go, someone to talk to or kill or whatever. You can just ignore that, or make a choice on how to proceed. It's not like most games just spawn you in as some random villager and have you stumble around blind. There's guidance aplenty.

[The Last Horseman]

Its really an appeal that has to do with how you are as a person. I'm that guy who goes out into the woods to hunt, comes back a week later with twenty deer and a great story, and how I had fun being lost as f###. Of course, the main thing that turns me off JRPG's is turned based combat. I'm very picky about what games have turn based combat, thus, JRPG's usually don't appeal.

[deathsled]

I love video games and understand the certain level of escape they provide, but open world western rpgs seem to be designed for people who really need to pretend they are drastically different than how they are in real life because their reality is pretty lame...

no offense to any of you that just looove them

[Hobie-wan]

I love video games and understand the certain level of escape they provide, but open world western rpgs seem to be designed for people who really need to pretend they are drastically different than how they are in real life because their reality is pretty lame...

So you don't play any games where you murder thousands with a ship or hand-held weaponry, are a million dollar athlete, fly through space, drive expensive cars that magically fix themselves after each race, or manipulate abstract shapes that match up and disappear? I guess you just play poker and solitaire huh?

[Korpi]

I love video games and understand the certain level of escape they provide, but open world western rpgs seem to be designed for people who really need to pretend they are drastically different than how they are in real life because their reality is pretty lame...

no offense to any of you that just looove them

Topic is roleplaying games after all...

I googled quite interesting blog entry. It describes my thoughts well, so no need to type it again in own words: http://www.animenation.net/forums/blog.php?b=330

[The Last Horseman]

I love video games and understand the certain level of escape they provide, but open world western rpgs seem to be designed for people who really need to pretend they are drastically different than how they are in real life because their reality is pretty lame...

no offense to any of you that just looove them

Saying no offense doesn't make it okay to say something offensive. Anyways, a JRPG is just the same, except you generally have less choice. Any game, in fact, is becoming something you can't be. I very much doubt your an Italian Plumber that saves princesses from turtles.

One thing I still don't get about JRPG's and some of the people who play them, is how "uppity" they get about it. I pick up Skyrim off the shelf, the dude next to me shakes his head and picks up Hyper Dimension Neptunia, saying "I'm going to play a real game" under his breath. I don't mean to say all JRPG players are like this, it just seems to be more common than I would like.

[noiseredux]

One thing I still don't get about JRPG's and some of the people who play them, is how "uppity" they get about it. I pick up Skyrim off the shelf, the dude next to me shakes his head and picks up Hyper Dimension Neptunia, saying "I'm going to play a real game" under his breath. I don't mean to say all JRPG players are like this, it just seems to be more common than I would like.

WTF? I love Hyperdimension Neptunia. And I have pretty much no interest in Skyrim. But I can't imagine anyone actually saying that.

[o.pwuaioc]

One thing I still don't get about JRPG's and some of the people who play them, is how "uppity" they get about it. I pick up Skyrim off the shelf, the dude next to me shakes his head and picks up Hyper Dimension Neptunia, saying "I'm going to play a real game" under his breath. I don't mean to say all JRPG players are like this, it just seems to be more common than I would like.

You should have made a comment about him just getting it to fap to pictures of anime chicks.

[noiseredux]

You should have made a comment about him just getting it to fap to pictures of anime chicks.

so WRPG's are not even games, and JRPG's are just mastarbutory aides. Everyone got it now?