From: starr-daniel@yale.edu (Daniel Starr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Re: ***** Proposed RFD:  c.s.i.p.g reorganization  -- please examine
Date: 24 Jan 1993 14:14:02 -0500
Organization: Yale University Science & Engineering UNIX(tm), New Haven, CT 06520-2158
NNTP-Posting-Host: minerva.cis.yale.edu
Keywords: RFD split group

In article <1ju7ahINNmtk@oak8.doc.ic.ac.uk> kw@doc.ic.ac.uk (K. Wong) writes:
>In article <908@ulogic.UUCP> hartman@ulogic.UUCP (Richard M. Hartman) writes:
>>[...]
>>The only distinction between .adventure and .rpg as presented
>>is whether the character improves during the progress of the game.
>>I don't really think this distinction is a significant one & would
>>suggest merging the two groups.  Or come up with a better distinction.
>>
>	Well, I think there may be a number of RPG/Adventure fans who think
>the opposite. True, a character in RPGs "improve" as it were wereas in
>adventures they do not. However, that's not the only diff. Compare any
>Ultima/Wizardry to, say, any King's Quest. There's quite a big difference,
>though I'd be hard pressed to actually to put it to words.

In practice, the difference between the games we call 'role-playing' and the 
ones we call 'adventure' on the computer is just this:

In a CRPG, the properties of things in the game are described by a consistent
system; in an adventure game, each thing has unique properties according to
its role in the game and need not have anything in common with anything else.

Thus, enemies in CRPG's are described by their combat skills, attack types
and resistances; while enemies in adventure games are described by what
special object you need or special ritual to perform.  Buildings in CRPG's
are described by their locations on a grid, and the placement on that grid of
various wall types, door types and furniture; buildings in adventure games
are individually-drawn backdrops which can be from entirely different
perspectives from the scene 'outside' them.  People in CRPG's generally have
a number of standard things you can talk to them about; people in adventure
games usually have predefined conversations with the player's character,
over which the player may have little or no control.

Of course, CRPG's have their special cases as well, where the Deadly Dragon
can only be harmed by the Mystic Mace.  But by and large, the people, places
and things in CRPG's represent particular instances of a general template,
while every piece of an adventure game is individually designed, for better
or for worse.

I personally find that this makes well-designed CRPG's seem much more real
to me; they seem to be consistent, and have an existence of their own aisde
from the player's quest, while adventure games give me the feel of a
Rube Goldberg machine, with everything set up for the player to trip it --
John Smith just happens to have the Arglebargle that Jill wants, who just
happens to know the password to the Myrtle Club, in which coincidentally
there is a left-handed pair of scissors, which is needed to...

But at any rate, 
CRPG = systematic / template design
Adventure = each element unique.

-- 
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