Gamers Divided: FPS vs RPG
79The Gap Between Gamers
I know that there are many genres of video games on the market but there are really only two categories that they fall under - First Person Shooter or Role Playing. If you meet a gamer for the first time and ask them what they play it will be either of those two. I am personally a RPG fan. I don't have many FPS games on my shelf. It's not that I'm bad at them, it's just not my style. My preference goes even further to combat style and game layout. I won't play Final Fantasy or anything similar and I won't waste my time on Elder Scrolls (sorry!). There is definitely some rivalry between FPS and RPG players. Gamers generally get along very well until this topic comes up. The two sides just clash. I don't know if there is some sort of psychological reason behind a players personal preference but here is my take on the two sides:
Master Chief
First Person Shooters
FPS games usually don't require any kind of strategy or skill although die hard FPS fans will fight me on that point. You usually play only being able to see your characters forearms and whatever weapon you choose. You follow the story line completing missions of some sort and shoot all the bad guys. The only real complaint that I have against FPS games is that they are literally a dime a dozen. Every video game manufacturer has created a few, and the sad thing is, because they are so easy to create, they generally have no replay value or they are too boring to play through the first time. This definitely does not apply to every FPS game ever made, but there are too many failures floating around to make me want to play.
When I get in the mood to shoot up large quantities of baddies, I'm usually stressed out, anxious or just in a bad mood. What does that say about the people who play FPS games full time?
Link
Role Playing Games
I have always prefered RPGs over FPS. Why? Because with an RPG, you get to live someone elses life for a while, solve their problems and become the hero of time. You don't get some sort of kill record or medal, you literally save the world! I like to be able to explore and conquer - if only in an imaginary land. Some RPGs allow you to customize your characters looks, abilities and attributes. In Fable, you control the outcome of the world by your actions, which provided RPG'ers with a chance to truely be good or evil.
I don't play many games these days but when I do it's almost always an RPG. So, from what I said above about what I like about RPGs, I guess most RPG'ers are trying to avoid their own issues, escape from life and be acknowledged. I guess the world really is in trouble!
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I like both to be honest, You been up some excellent points but I think that they both have good and bad points.
I like both, too, but to say that FPS doesn't require any skill is hilarious.
Play Counterstrike: Source or Modern Warfare 2, or any FPS game online. You'll probably get tooled, I probably will, too. There's a lot of people out there that are very good at FPS games, but it's pretty impossible to measure skill in most RPGS.
Most RPGS require two things: Pressure and Time. Fable doesn't require skill if you just level up like crazy, then everything is pretty easy to kill.
Games like Castlevania 1 and Contra, which are neither, boast high difficulties and mass amounts of skill to conquer.
I don't feel that RPGs reuqire any particular skill, they're just fun to play.
You don't "waste you time" on the Elder Scrolls!? SHAME ON YOU. All your arguments have been rendered permanently invalid.
This was one of my first hubs. It is merely my thoughts on the two sides of the gamer world. I've been surprised on a regular basis at the amount of hostile comments that are left on it. Out of everything I've written, I've caught more flak for this topic. I'm not sorry about what I wrote, haven't changed my opinion, and urge you to keep an open mind when you read anything. I'm encouraged to write more hubs that have a split interest because the internet rage that overcomes people is fascinating...
You are fail.
Why?
Because you have omitted great titles such as Elder Scrolls and Fallout 3 that are combinations of FPS and RPG.
Fallout 3 is a sandbox game that allows for the complete customization of the player right down to individual actions, which ultimately alter the outcome of the game.
The fact that you think Fable is so badass, yet omit these two excellent Bethesda titles shows that you are fail.
The reality with FPS is that when you dominate a round, you realize that you are the hero of the match. When you lead your team to victory, it's not because some Japanese coder outlined the game in that way, it's because you have serious skills that outmatch your opposition.
RPGs are novels. FPS are paintball.
Dude, FPS games dont require skill? Maybe thats just because you play them without any, imo, fps games take way more skill and even strategy, in fps games, you have to aim, (which is a lot more than just point and shoot) sometimes lead your target, and all while theyre dodging/strafing and youre moving around the battlefield, and while youre doing that, you have to watch your radar to make sure that no ones sneaking up on/flanking you and in addition to that, you have to keep track of your ammo to see how much ammo you have left in the clip and how many clips you have left, AND while doing that you have to watch your health/shields/stamina so you know when to pull back, that obviously takes a lot of skill, and its all in a few split seconds. Compare that to rpgs where you just push attack/heal/summon, and the character does it for you, plus youve got all that waiting time between turns to think it over, and as far as strategy in fps games, you can choose how to engage your enemies, you can snipe at them form afar, engage them close up with a melee, flank them, have your teammates distract them while you sneak up on them, you also have to move between cover, defend your teammates, take key locations on the map, you choose which power-up/ perk you need for the battle at hand, theres plenty of strategy, also imo, rpgs are just so much more boring, they dont have the intense fun action nearly as often as shooters do, you play an hour of rpg and youve got about the same amount of action youd get in about 5 min of fps
I played loads of RPGS and FPS...and i have to be honest..every RPG ive played is fun for a while then you get bored,start to FARM,same quests over and over again..And ofcourse natural curiosty kept me from focusing on one class,i get bored with it fast and just want to get new one...problem begins when you run out of classes to tryo out..While FPS may not be as fun to someone as RPG but if you get bored by a gun,just take another..RPGS can be stressfull too...esspecially cod series with all killstreaks gls martys...youre lifespan is 20 seconds 90% of the time
But at the end of the day id like to come home from scholl,shoot some badguys for an hour or so...rest up for a while then get back into the fight
Dancemaster117's comment is fail, he hasn't played an RPG game a day of his pitiful, pubescent life. There's plenty more strategy to an RPG game than attack/summon/heal/whatever, and as far as his definition of a 'slow game', he failed to mention wonderful games like, I dunno, Diablo (1/2), Titan Quest, Dungeon Siege, which has game pacing as fast as an FPS with more though process than pointing at a barely identifiable object on the screen. Granted, also, FPS games are more prone to unfair play, glitches, bad communities, ect. Not that RPG games are not, but I have yet to see a wall of shit that is the FPS game community.
The only strategy to an FPS game made after 2003 is to point, click, and hope something happens to the other guy (IE CoD, CSS, Halo, ect, just check the Walmart game shelf). How about in an RPG game, where you have to monitor your health and your mana, or in some cases, stamina, count of arrows or bolts or ammunition for whatever gun may be, surveying the land for not only monsters but also chests, secret areas, signs pointing towards towns, ect, plan an attack, level up according to what you are (Dungeon Siege was great at this), associate with not only NPCs about shops and quests, but also players. When players enter in an RPG game, the whole dynamic changes, cause when the levels get harder, and even when the difficulty increases when they join, you have to be prepared.
Now, I'm not saying FPS games are bad, but they are certainly not the pinnacle of gaming godliness either as many make them out to be, but especially people tend to under credit a game that requires more though process, just because they dont want to think when they play a game, which is completely fine. There is also some strategy, like he mentioned, but it is not in the same ballpark as an RPG game, granted the few FPS exceptions.
It all comes down to preference really, "Do I want to play a game that requires intense though process", or, "Do I want to play a game that I can relax and kick back in?". The question might be different depending on the person, but to many, especially in our society, they want to relax when they get home from work, so they usually turn to an FPS game, which is completely understandable, but to us that play RPG games, don't be disrespecting.
This hub is a piece of shit to be honest. I was about to vomit when I finished reading this ignorant article and wondered who the fuck would actually be that retarded to sum up an article based on such a pile of shit opinion, and then I saw it was a woman who wrote it and everything made sense. Stay in the kitchen, you don't know shit about what you're talking about, cause you're a women, hence, don't have the intellectual skills to be coherent about such a deep topic as this. That's why we never quote Women philosophers... has any actually existed? Our evolutions is against you.
Everyone that think that all rpgs require is to click and wait for an action is an ignorant dumbass. Equally everyone that thinks all fps require is aim and click is probably thinking of a bad fps. But i do have qualms with CoD as there is no strategy that you claim there to be. Can't snipe, maps are doing shit all for you and community hates it(LOL HARDSCOPE N00B!!!!1111!). I've never seen anyone outside of clans and friends co-operate every one uses the same perk each fight, because they are stuck in a playstyle and rather than try to make their skill suit the game the force the game to suit them or rage quit. No one properly plays objective because they don't care about objective.
/end CoD rant
But all other fps are good namely halo and bfbc2.
Final Note: FYI Not many rpgs are still turnbased there is a rise in action rpgs and even ff requires you to think fast
RPGs require intellect and skill, FPSs require experience/time (*cough* Call of Duty *cough*)
If you play the right RPG, you'll find it's a heck of a lot harder than an FPS.
Multiplayer Call of Duty is mostly luck, over half of all kills on COD are when your enemy doesn't see you, therefore: no fair fight, no fair kill.
THIS IS THE REAL ARGUMENT THAT YOU SHOULD BE HAVING!!!!!
I wrote that to get your attention. I'm not nearly that loud mouthed.
We can whittle down this argument into 2 simple ideals.
RPG's are for escapists.
FPS's are for competitors.
MMORPG's are for both, but less of each ideal.
Making the argument that any TEAM-based game doesn't require strategy or skill is ignoring the human element, which is paramount to the greatest challenges we can offer each other as human beings - man vs. man.
Therefore, WoW and CoD and Halo all rank near the top of skilled, competitive gameplay. RPG's are mainly for escapists who wish to lose themselves in the fantasy world - to enjoy playing a new role and fulfilling fantasies and baser desires. FPS's are for people who want to challenge themselves against other players and see how they can stack up against human opponents. MMORPG's use all the aforementioned in their gaming experience. Both the FPS and MMORPG genres allow for coordination as a team and specialization as a particular class with a set of particular skills.
Herein, however, comes the REAL argument of whether turn-based gameplay is on the same level as "twitch" (FPS) gameplay. When playing against other human players these methods of competition are entirely equal save for the quickened pace of twitch gameplay. Turn-based gameplay is like a chess game, while twitch gameplay is like a chess game - only on a timer, except when you take MMORPG's into the equation. MMORPG's incorporate both styles, albeit the twitch element is used mainly to cast and recast buffs and attacks, while in the FPS the twitch also requires the player to line up a shot AND use the environment to his advantage, something most MMORPG's have yet to fully realize given their constraints. Both use the twitch factor to read opponents and choreograph their next move, however.
Mind you the only people who can really have this discussion are those at the upper tiers of their craft. If you're not supremely good at a game then you're just not getting it. You aren't grasping the finer details and nuances of the gameplay and using proper strategy.
In response to one post: luck has no more to do with FPS's than it does with RPG's. Otherwise MLG (as silly as I think it is) would not exist. Certainly the element of luck exists, but ask an MLG player and they'll tell you it doesn't really matter. In most cases, it's teamwork that wins the day. The same goes for the MMORPG, where the best players are the best not by luck but by their mastery of their particular skill set and teamwork. Luck will not help you against players who play YOU and not just the game itself.
In the end the greatest incorporation of skill, reaction time and strategy belongs to the RTS. Which shouldn't come as any surprise.
Don't get me wrong, I am most certainly not an RTS fan. But when you incorporate all the information that the pros have to comprehend AND the speed at which they do it, well, suffice to say that if those people where to learn the finer points of FPS's and RPG/MMORPG's, they'd wipe the floor with the rest of us.
In all likelihood they probably do.
And yes, I've played most every big name FPS and RPG franchise to completion or at least to considerable mastery. This includes all the big name North American releases going as far back as Final Fantasy's debut.
Not particularly proud of this time spent but it has given me a wide perspective on both these genres.
If you get anything out of this let it be the following:
RPG's are for escapists.
FPS's are for competitive players.
MMORPG's are for escapists who want to play competitively with their friends. (Considering they player AGAINST real people)
Human vs. human gameplay at best proves you're superior to another adaptive and intelligent player.
Human vs. bot gameplay at best means you broke the game and mastered it's source code, which is commendable, but not nearly on the same level as human vs. human.
This has been another anonymous post most people will never read in it's entirety.
Good gaming!
Heather. 2 years ago
I play only fps and I don't think I'm violent.. though for me its more of the rush you get when there are hordes of enemy players coming at you all at once, and the attempt you make at surviving. Well and I hate turn based games for were you aren't fully in control of when and how you attack. I fps you control the compression of the trigger, and the aim. with every rpg I've played its "ok do this, now this while you wait for that attack to recharge." and you aren't really able to control were the attack hits. I'd rather double tap someone in the skull with a pistol from across the map in halo then push a button and have the program do all of the work for me. Its much more personal the simple alignment of your weapon where ever you want leg of face followed by the compression of the trigger instead of button pressing to have the character run up hit them with a spell then turn and run right back to the same spot.
However i do understand that you more then likely play RPGs for the story where as FPS are well... shooter. You aim to kill and could care less what else is going on as long as your not the one dying.