What constitutes an RPG?

Okay, I'm setting the record straight once and for all. I've heard far too many people using the term "RPG elements" to describe games that have no resemblance to an RPG, whatsoever! The Legend of Zelda series is not an RPG series! It's a fucking adventure series!! Devil May Cry does not have "RPG-like" elements to it!! It's a fucking action game!!

These are the three rules that determine an RPG. No RPG must have all of these rules, but an RPG must have at least one of these things.

1) Combat is turn-based, allowing for greater depth of strategy and focusing on tactical maneuvers moreso than quick-response or hand-eye coordination.

2) The combat is handled in a multi-character party configuration. The management of a party of individuals, their equipment, stats and abilities is a focus of the game.

3) Character-building is based on experience points or some similar derivative (like FF10's skill grid). Character levels are the standard method of improvement, but other methods do exist.

Those are the three cardinal rules of an RPG. Without at least one of those rules, the game is not a fucking RPG.

Devil May Cry does not have "RPG-like" elements just because Dante can purchase new abilities with Red Orbs. Devil May Cry is an action game. The focus of the game is on, you guessed it, action. Not strategy, stat-building, party-management or story.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is not a goddamned RPG. It is an adventure game. It focuses on exploration and puzzle-solving, not strategy, stat-building, party-management or story.

STOP THROWING AROUND THE TERM "RPG" JUST TO DESCRIBE SOME GAME YOU LIKE. YES, WE UNDERSTAND THAT YOU'RE A FAN OF FINAL FANTASY 7, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN THAT EVERY OTHER GAME YOU LIKE IS A GODDAMNED RPG. STOP IT. NOW.

Zelaron.com is a RPG game!

Explain that one.

Characters earn experiences (postcount) and hopefully have some sort of improvements by doing so.

Turn based...battles. You post, I post, he posts, she posts.

Party configuration - bunch of idiots (I won't mention who...) started flooding the flame forum (or any forum) for the pure purpose of pissing the mods off.

Well, that's a sketchy comparison at best. Post count doesn't equal experience or increased intelligence. Look at Randuin.

The turn-based argument actually works.

And the party-configuration would only really apply if one member was managing several different logins at once.

But, I did say that an RPG only requires one of those three rules, so I suppose (if Zelaron was a game) that it would be a fringe-RPG. Just barely, but it would still count.

Some characters might have a cap in their abilities...

But on topic of things, it also annoys me when people say, "And the game has RPG elements in it too, you will like it if you like RPG!" while the game has nothing to do with a RPG game, at all.

Party configuration - bunch of idiots (I won't mention who...) started flooding the flame forum (or any forum) for the pure purpose of pissing the mods off.

And "Pimpiroth's" comment about Devil May Cry is primarily the reason I started this thread. It just drives me fucking bonkers to see people toss that term around so willingly.

Anyone else see a connection?

My brother never said DevilMayCry was an RPG. He said it had RPG elements.

They dont have to have all of those to be a RPG right? Is D2 an RPG? It isnt turn based like D&D

D2 uses elements from D&D but I don't consider it to be an RPG. It's too shitty.

I never played D2 so I don't even know what kind of RPG elements it even would have.

I never played D2 so I don't even know what kind of RPG elements it even would have.

Stat building

but, its suppose to be an action game

Stat building but, its suppose to be an action game

Stat building is a big thing in RPG's but that doesn't automatically make it an RPG though.

Now to be perfectly fair rpg merely means Role Playing Game a game in which you play as another character and make decisions for that character fits a loose definition of an RPG. On another note, we can all agree that dungeons and dragons is an RPG. D&D created the roll playing genre yet that does not require maintainance of a party it can be played by one person with one pc, its just slightly less interesting