Role-Playing Games (RPGs)

Role-playing games (RPGs) are vast worlds to explore where parties of players roam the terrain seeking treasures, objects of desire, and ways to increase their experience and health status and destroy monsters and obstacles that get in their way.

RPGs started as dungeon crawls through paper labyrinths created by “masters” (dungeon designers). A master would create an elaborate labyrinth filled with traps, monsters, and evil magic. The party would enter the maze armed with individual skills, magical abilities, and weapons. On each turn the party would try to outwit, outspell with magic, and outfight the master’s creation.

The world of the Internet has enabled millions of RPG fans to explore larger terrain and more exotic quests. The acronym MMRPG stands for massively multiplayer RPG, a game in which parties of friends or groups from around the world form to explore, collect, and fight other parties and monsters. MMRPGs have numerous parties, each on various quests and with their own goals.

An RPG has a specific goal, and after many hours of play, there is an ending. MMRPGs may have no specific ending and can be played until you’ve completed all the quests or until another MMRPG or Internet game requires your time and attention.

RPGs are not limited to Tolkien-type storylines. Space stations, the Ice Age, 15th-century European exploration, the discovery of the Americas, and futuristic scenarios can all be viable venues for an RPG. Even life today could be used, such as life in a foreign country, life on an Indian reservation, or life in an Amish community.

Top-Selling Role-Playing Games:

PC:	Anachronox, Anarchy Online, Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obsura, Asheron’s Call Dark Majesty, Baldur’s Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal, Dark Age of Camelot, Deus Ex, Diablo 2 Expansion Set: Lord of Destruction, EverQuest: The Shadows of Luclin, Summoner, Wizardry 8
Console:	Dark Cloud, Dragon Warrior 7, Dungeon Siege, Final Fantasy Chronicles, Final Fantasy X, Neverwinter Nights, Paper Mario, Pokemon Crystal, Tales of Destiny 2
Look for
PC:	Dungeon Siege, The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, Neverwinter Nights