Role-playing video game | History & Examples

Final Fantasy

role-playing video game, electronic game genre in which players advance through a story quest, and often many side quests, for which their character or party of characters gain experience that improves various attributes and abilities. The genre is almost entirely rooted in TSR, Inc.’s Dungeons & Dragons (D&D; 1974), a role-playing game (RPG) for small groups in which each player takes some role, such as a healer, warrior, or wizard, to help the player’s party battle evil as directed by the group’s Dungeon Master, or assigned storyteller. While fantasy settings remain popular, video RPGs have also explored the realms of science fiction and the cloak-and-dagger world of espionage.

Multiplayer RPGs

World of Warcraft

Persistent multiplayer game worlds, known as massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), have their origin in early text-based multiuser dungeons played on mainframe computers and minicomputers. Because the introduction of graphics in RPGs pushed early PCs and telephone connection speeds to their limits, most of the first graphical multiplayer RPGs settled for small worlds limited to a few players. For example, AOL’s Neverwinter Nights (1991–97) at first limited the game world to a few dozen players on its proprietary dial-up network. Similarly, Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo (1997), an action-oriented game with some RPG elements, which was originally released for Windows OS and later for the Mac OS, included the ability for four players to enter the game’s world together by signing up through the company’s Battle.net game-hosting service.

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The most popular early MMORPGs for Windows OS were Electronic Arts’ Ultima Online (1997– ) and Sony’s Everquest I & II (1999– ). Though still persisting, the number of subscribers to these games declined significantly as MMORPGs with improved graphics were released. Sony also runs the game server for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XI (2002– ), also known as Final Fantasy XI Online, for the PlayStation 2, Windows OS, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360; its large user base is concentrated in Japan, where it is highly popular.

The leaders in the “second generation” of MMORPGs include Blizzard’s World of Warcraft (2004– ) for Windows OS and Mac OS, Turbine, Inc.’s Lord of the Rings Online (2007– ) for Windows OS, and Electronic Arts’ Warhammer Online (2008– ) for Windows OS. World of Warcraft became so popular that it created an employment category, known as “gold farmer,” in China, where thousands of players accumulated game resources to sell through various online venues.

William L. Hosch