Pink Bantha - We brake for Jawas. Maybe.

Anonymous asked: thoughts on the casualization of RPG's.

I’m not quite sure what you mean by the question. Do you want my thoughts on how role-playing is now a casual pastime, or how casual the level of input has become with respect to modern RPG’s?

A lot of people turn to media and hobbies as a form of escapism, a way of pretending that they’re someone else or have no responsibilities for a few hours every day. As video games have gotten better and more advanced, the sense of immersion has increased and players have been able to invest more of themselves in the game. That’s not to say people only play RPG’s to escape the hassles of daily life, some people are driven by a sense of accomplishment that they feel can’t be matched outside of the game world. Gamers are intrinsically motivated to save the princess (or the world/universe) because the goal is both: A.) clearly defined, and B.) reasonably obtainable. Failure is possible, but unlike reality, the player can start over from the point where they failed. It’s a very optimistic system where the only direction is positive, and, frankly, it’s preferable to “real life.”

On the casual nature on which these games can be played, I have fewer thoughts. In essence, role-playing games today function just as they have since the original paper and dice version of Dungeons & Dragons. The exact same mechanics are in place, and nothing has really changed with the exception of the user interface, the thing the player actually sees. All of the “dice rolls,” calculations, and encounters are being handled by a computer (which is much faster than a DM, by the way), so the player is treated to a role-playing game which appears to function much more like reality. That is, you don’t see any of the floating numbers that will ultimately decide whether you dodged that last strike or not. Again, this goes back to the notions of immersion and player investment. The game feels “more realistic” because things appear to happen spontaneously and obey the physical rules of the universe, with very few exceptions. At that point, the game feels very easy and natural because the game keeps track of the numbers for you. The downside is that it can kind of spoil the player into thinking that he or she never has to worry about anything complicated and they’ll tend to show a marked disinterest in anything that compels them to plan ahead or think a situation out.

Hopefully I answered the right question(s).