Quick Survey for my Year Eleven Research Project

Honestly, I'm not sure I should be answering any of this... But, at the very least, it looks interesting. So... why not? I will need to preface this though: There really is no one way to create a good RPG that a lot of people will play. There are many RPG's which never achieved any kind of critical success despite how well they were designed and how interesting they were. The gaming community often calls these "Hidden Gems". I only bring this up because of the nature of your questions. It seems like you're trying to find a single underlying "never fail doctrine" for creating an RPG. There really isn't one. Many on the forums will even tell you, "Do not build a game to cater to the masses. Build a game that you want to play.".

Okay, now to your questions, 'cause I find 'em sort of fun. I hope you'll indulge me a bit, I tend to get fairly verbose.

1. Why do you play Role Playing Games?

I play Role Playing Games for two reasons. The first reason is usually the story. It's been this way since I was first introduced to the genre with Final Fantasy 6 and Secret of Evermore. A good story grips me and keeps me playing to find out what's going to happen next. It also doesn't hurt if the game world is fleshed out quite a bit (like Mass Effect was with its Codex) so that it feels alive and real. I suspect this is the reason Star Trek and Star Wars have so many fans... There's a fleshed out universe in which to explore and engage yourself in. RPG's that I consider "good" will often do this. The other reason I play Role Playing Games is because they often have the most customizable ways to play a game. Oh sure, your "Call of Duty" and "Battlefield" games offer you customization in what you take to battle and how it might function... But, I find RPGs offer a much wider variety of customization that often lets you specialize your character (or avatar if you prefer) in the way you want to play. RPGs will give you thousands of loot items to equip and even enchant to fit your fighting style... They'll give you stat points so that you can determine what strengths/weaknesses you'll have as well as what Skills you'll take... Some RPGs even let you customize your armor appearance or weapon appearances along with your voice, body style, face, etcetera. Some RPGs even let you determine what classes you'll be (or turn into later on) and even what "Job" you can take in order to make some extra coin. I like customizing a character to be exactly the way I want to play a game. Those are the two reasons I play Role Playing Games.

2. What do you like to see in Role Playing Games and why?

I like to see heavily fleshed out characters as well as tons of customization options. If you're going to let me craft in your game, it better be a system in which I'm not just building "the next best thing on the list". I want to see a list that lets me mix and match and discover really cool combinations and maybe even recipes. I'm big on Customization. I'm also big on characters having their own backstories, motivations, mannerisms, opinions, and even objections. The more you flesh out characters, the more alive your world feels, and the more engaged that will make me. This one is kind of short as I kind of already answered it in the above question.

3. What do you not like to see in Role Playing Games and why?

Grind. Useless systems. Grind, of any kind, puts my teeth on edge. If I have to spend more than 2 hours on some project in an RPG I begin to get bored and annoyed. After a while, no matter how good the reward is for the grind, I just deem it "not worth the time" and move on without it. I've skipped many an optional boss, superweapon, ultimate armor, side characters, and "good ending"s because of the massive amount of grind involved. I am not a 5 year old child on a Ritalin Binge and a lack of social skills. Grind does not appeal to me because it is the laziest form of game design ever and the lack of enjoyment it produces shows. As for useless systems... I played a game once called "Champions of Norrath". It's a Dungeon Crawler RPG. The level up system was pretty worthless. Here's why: It takes 4 points into strength or dexterity to get 1 extra damage in combat. Each level up, you are granted 3 points to distribute. This effectively renders the stat points absolutely moot as it takes 2 levels to get 1 extra damage. This means, in essence, that you're going to be relying on the points you put into Skills (of which you gain ever increasing amounts as your level goes up) or what weapons you're using for damage. So, there is no reason to have the stats at all. Well, except that Strength allows you to carry more (which becomes a moot point halfway through the game as you're rolling in so much money that it's easiest to just drop the crap you won't use and keep moving instead of take time to go to the shop and sell it all). Oh, and Endurance can grant you 1 more HP healed naturally every 10 points into it... Or one more Total HP every 4 points... Magic works the same as Endurance except it's for Mana instead... Oh and Dexterity literally does jack crap except make thrown or bow and arrow weapons do 1 more damage every 4 points invested. The level up stats are completely worthless and once you figure that out, you'll be really freakin' annoyed by it. As in "why do I have stats if they don't really do anything!?". Oh, did I mention that you can just invest points into the Skills for much better gains than the stats give you? Invest 1 point and get "+15% Attack Damage". Invest another point and get "Carry 15 more pounds". Invest a third point and get "Health Regeneration up 15%"! Oh, and did I mention all these skills go up to 20? Investing 20 points into any of those skills effectively renders base stats meaningless as it's all calculated after your equipment. Lots of games have useless systems in them. Go look, I'm not even kidding... Freakin' things are everywhere.

4. What types of Role Playing Games do you enjoy playing and why?

Eh... If a Hack n Slash RPG has decent level design and a good level of customization, I can enjoy those. Roguelikes are harder for me to enjoy, but it can be done if they're not "kill crazy" affairs. Dungeon Crawler games can be fun if you've got some friends to bring along with you. Straight up RPGs where you're going through a story and getting stronger are usually where I play. Though, I am not above games like Ogre Tactics or Fire Emblem. I enjoy anything really with a good story to tell or an appropriate amount of depth and customization. Most RPGs are set in the "swords and sorcery" setting though, so I guess I play there a lot. There's a few that are set in the Space Setting or the Modern Setting, but they're kind of few and far between. Mostly, I just prefer to play any RPG that has a good story to tell. As in, things that aren't too cliché ridden or too confusing from Word One (Xenogears was one of those games for me... So was the newest Star Ocean game...). I play The Elder Scrolls and Fallout alike because I enjoy their worlds, lore, and stories. I pick up an RPG for the same reason I pick up a Novel. I want someone to show me a world from their imagination and I want it to completely sweep me away.

5. What would you like to see in a Role Playing Game and why?

Honestly? True Choice systems. What does that mean? It means games in which you are given a choice and each choice is equally valid and leads to a completely different way the game plays out. As in, if I choose to be evil, I can decide to side with evil and kill the other heroes or even set up shop somewhere else and plot to overthrow the current Big Bad so I can have his stuff when the heroes kick in his front door. Or, if I choose to spend a good chunk of cash with a particular vendor they might offer me discounts or have other wares they might sell me. Or, if I choose to be a coward and give up the Resistance to the Empire just so they won't kill me, the world will reflect the damage that could do without giving me a "Game Over" screen. I want to see this so much in a game that I'm actually trying to create one. It's become quickly apparent why developers don't make "True Choice" systems. Basically, I want my actions to matter. I don't want to run through the same dungeons regardless of choice. I don't want to see the same cutscenes from a different angle because I chose to be a badguy this time. I don't want choices that simply affect how powerful certain bosses could be. I want more agency in games. I want to feel like everything I do has real tangible and lasting consequences. I want to see it because of the real lack of replay value in any current RPG. I'm beyond "you get different endings for playing again!" nonsense. I want a game that feels like a new experience each and every single time you pick it up because every choice has lasting consequences that you wouldn't know about until you made the choice. That is a world I would like to explore. A world in which my choices matter and isn't just part of some script.

1. Why do you play Role Playing Games?

I play roleplaying games (and games in general) for the purpose of escapism and time burning. To become immersed in a world perhaps unlike this one, or one that is captures ours in a captivating and emotion-pulling way.

2. What do you like to see in Role Playing Games and why?

I like to see the designers' careful thought in everything, from the title screen to the opening cinematic (if any); the character names, designs, backgrounds. The battle system. Quality shines, and it's easy to recognize at first sight. If it's not captivating within the first ten minutes, the game misses a mark with me.

Most of all, I like to see and feel that I'm in another world, not playing a game.

3. What do you not like to see in Role Playing Games and why?

Characters that don't do anything to add flavor or substance to the world around them. Characters that are, in effect, flatter than their 2-D sprites in terms of personality.

Needless backtracking.

I hate fetch quests unless the purpose is actually good.

4. What types of Role Playing Games do you enjoy playing and why? (eg. fantasy, sci-fi)

I play all RPGs; among favorites are the sci-fi genre such as Star Ocean and fantasy such as Disgaea. So long as they're entertaining, the characters aren't stumps and the plot is coherent.

5. What would you like to see in a Role Playing Game and why?

I'd like to see a game that takes what we've seen and adds their own personality and flavor to it. Not only a step above what we've seen and loved already, but taken in a unique direction.

Think Fire Emblem's battle system, only much more refined. I'd really like to see someone make their battle engine and flow their own.