Why did it take so long for RPG's to become popular in the west?

Azureth

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Particularly, America. True it always had a following, but it wasn't until FFVII that it really gained more mass appeal. I give Nintendo props for releasing so many of the DQ games on NES despite the real lack of popularity but still we got stuck with crap like Final Fantasy Mystic Quest because Japanese thought we were too dumb to accept anything real complex.

I think it's a real shame considering we wouldn't get translations of FF I and II, as well as FF V and a few others till quite a bit later.
 
I don't know about the gen pop, but I became hooked when FF2 came to the states, followed by Breath of Fire, then my years long obsession with Chrono Trigger. Basically SNES era was when I got into them. FF7 was just icing on my cake.
 
You werent reading the right computer magazines.
And perhaps limited your gaming experience to a single console for too long.
I cant remember how long I've been playing RPGs, its longer than my mind has cells dedicated to allow recall.
I dont even remember the transition from adventure to RPG, there was an overlap.
 
They're still not as popular as stuff like CoD, sadly.

I think it's because Americans and other westerners like Action and fast-paced gameplay for the most part, and stuff they can play with friends. Not a lot of people here are willing to sit down alone with a video game and appreciate it like a story over a long period of time.

You would be surprised how many good games have just not arrived here even recently, because they decide that the American market is for sports and action games rather than anything with a real story.
 
You mean like Zork, The Elder Scrolls, Might and Magic series, Baldurs Gate(s), Neverwinter Nights, Pool of Radiance (and the other Gold Box SSI fames), The Bards Tale, Ultima series, Wizardry series, Heroes Quest series, Dark Forces series, Jedi Knight series, Knights if the Old Republic plus probably a hundred more I cannot name of the top of my head?

Unless of course you are only referring to JPRGs.
 
Seems it might just be your perception of things OP, I beta tested EQ long, long ago in phase 2,3 and 4 and have played many over time. And would still run into people I knew now and again in later games.

I guess you're referring to consoles really, was never much of a console gamer myself when I could be online doing things.
 
Okay, I guess I should clarify: JRPG's. During the 8-bit/16-bit days JRPG's weren't nearly as popular as they were in Japan. While the Japanese were buying them in droves they always seemed to be a hard sell in America, hence why we didn't get a localised FFI till the end of the NES' lifespan and didn't get translations of FFII and III. Nor did we get a translation of FFV because they thought Americans were too stupid to understand it.
 
So Japanese Role Playing Games were more popular in Japan then the US during early consoles gaming? Who knew.
 
In truth, JRPGs were always niche, and still are, but RPGs in general have always been HUGE, especially in the PC world.
 
SSI goldbox games rocked back then. i actually just completed a bunch last years on my game nostalgia trick.

Champions of krynn
Knights of krynn
dark queen of krynn

Gateway to the savage frontier
Treasure of the savage frontier
 
Probably because the marketing and localization costs couldn't be justified by ROI. There wasn't any real market penetration for JRPGs until Final Fantasy took off on the NES. You have to remember that back in those days video games were viewed and marketed as toys. It's not the multi-billion dollar entertainment industry it is today that grew up along with the current 30-somethings who make up the majority of video game consumers.
 
Well, I don't think the convoluted and stupid story lines of many of them did themselves any favors.
 
Well, I don't think the convoluted and stupid story lines of many of them did themselves any favors.

And back in the day....unlike today figuring out WTH was going on wasn't easy. Today every game ever made has a Wikia page where you can read everything there is to know about a game shortly after it is released to the public. Way back when, you had to buy the game itself...a system to play it....and then buy a guide to the game that was only sold at that one store in paperback....


Whereas flight sims and shooters, you could just buy and play once you figured out how to install them and make an autoexec disk. Falcon 1/2/3, Apache 64, Aces series, Tie Fighter, and so on.
 
Assuming this only refers to JPRG's as western RPG's have been around since PC could only do text. Our D&D lineage runs deep.
Beyond some cultural things (games like GTA and CoD aren't big in Japan), many of them weren't good. For every Final Fantasy or Lunar there was a Lagoon or Hydlide. Ironically, the worst ones were usually the ones that weren't turn-based.
I think amongst fans, they tend to overlook how many bad ones there are. Kind of like shooters now and fighting games in the 80's.
In the NES and SNES days, the higher profile ones sold pretty well. Dragon Warrior, FF, Mana, etc.
 
Western RPG have been around since the birth of the personal home computer. This is nothing new and still have fond memories of the original ultima etc.
 
You mean like Zork, The Elder Scrolls, Might and Magic series, Baldurs Gate(s), Neverwinter Nights, Pool of Radiance (and the other Gold Box SSI fames), The Bards Tale, Ultima series, Wizardry series, Heroes Quest series, Dark Forces series, Jedi Knight series, Knights if the Old Republic plus probably a hundred more I cannot name of the top of my head?

Unless of course you are only referring to JPRGs.

Heck, before computers we used stuff called 'paper' and 'dice' for a game invented in Minnesota. You may have heard of Dungeons and Dragons?
 
...invented in Minnesota. You may have heard of Dungeons and Dragons?

Minnesota? Arneson was from Minnesota, sure, but Gygax was from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. TSR, the company that published the original D&D game, was also headquartered in Lake Geneva.
 
Heck, before computers we used stuff called 'paper' and 'dice' for a game invented in Minnesota. You may have heard of Dungeons and Dragons?

I still have my 2nd edition AD&D books in a box somewhere.
 
They're still not as popular as stuff like CoD, sadly.

I think it's because Americans and other westerners like Action and fast-paced gameplay for the most part, and stuff they can play with friends. Not a lot of people here are willing to sit down alone with a video game and appreciate it like a story over a long period of time.

As other people mentioned, RPGs have been around since the beginning, and have been popular. JRPGs on the other hand have always been a niche product.

Look at the audience though. JRPGs are a console phenomena. But if you look at the gameplay, they're really nothing more than a mixture of Ultima and Wizardry, which are western RPGs. The difference though is that western RPGs evolved to be more focused on an open world and gameplay, and JRPGs became focused on a tighter story. And unfortunately, western RPGs really didn't come out in Japan, with a few exceptions, but they needed to be made by Japanese companies such as FCI, because western companies didn't know how to make games according to the Japanese. As such, many of the western ports play like JRPGs than their PC counterparts. And as a kid, did you really want to play Final Fantasy, which can be beat by spamming the A button and not paying attention, or Super Mario Bros, which requires a bit of skill?

And Final Fantasy VII is really an outlier. In my opinion it sold because it was heavily advertised. And in those ads, it was all about the FMV.
 
As other people mentioned, RPGs have been around since the beginning, and have been popular. JRPGs on the other hand have always been a niche product.

I thought we were talking about JRPGs, honestly. I know about D&D style stuff being around forever, I just assumed that was outside the scope of the OP's discussion.
Look at the audience though. JRPGs are a console phenomena. But if you look at the gameplay, they're really nothing more than a mixture of Ultima and Wizardry, which are western RPGs. The difference though is that western RPGs evolved to be more focused on an open world and gameplay, and JRPGs became focused on a tighter story. And unfortunately, western RPGs really didn't come out in Japan, with a few exceptions, but they needed to be made by Japanese companies such as FCI, because western companies didn't know how to make games according to the Japanese. As such, many of the western ports play like JRPGs than their PC counterparts. And as a kid, did you really want to play Final Fantasy, which can be beat by spamming the A button and not paying attention, or Super Mario Bros, which requires a bit of skill?

I wasn't any good at Super Mario World, honestly (my Mom was better at it than me, had to ask for help on several levels)... and I liked Final Fantasy because of the deep, complex storyline. So yeah, Final Fantasy VI and IV along with Super Mario RPG were my favorite games for the SNES. I also liked A Link to the Past because it wasn't as fast-paced as Mario outside of boss battles. FPS games are even worse than Mario in terms of being twitch/fast-paced games, though. On the computer, I liked SimCity 2000 and Civilization (the SNES ports of those games were awful).
And Final Fantasy VII is really an outlier. In my opinion it sold because it was heavily advertised. And in those ads, it was all about the FMV.

I never got to play VII back in the day because Square wouldn't put it on the N64... I was really mad about that. I finally got to play it on the PC a few years back.
 
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As other people mentioned, RPGs have been around since the beginning, and have been popular. JRPGs on the other hand have always been a niche product.

Look at the audience though. JRPGs are a console phenomena. But if you look at the gameplay, they're really nothing more than a mixture of Ultima and Wizardry, which are western RPGs. The difference though is that western RPGs evolved to be more focused on an open world and gameplay, and JRPGs became focused on a tighter story. And unfortunately, western RPGs really didn't come out in Japan, with a few exceptions, but they needed to be made by Japanese companies such as FCI, because western companies didn't know how to make games according to the Japanese. As such, many of the western ports play like JRPGs than their PC counterparts. And as a kid, did you really want to play Final Fantasy, which can be beat by spamming the A button and not paying attention, or Super Mario Bros, which requires a bit of skill?

And Final Fantasy VII is really an outlier. In my opinion it sold because it was heavily advertised. And in those ads, it was all about the FMV.


We were constantly told that Americans didn't like JRPGs when presented with them in test groups. Americans liked more flash, boom, and then over game play rather than a ton of reading which fits with the amount of ADHD diagnosis back then. Most gaming back then was on consoles. Yes, I owned a PC but it was a mostly console world.

Places like Lik-Sang were the place to go for imports. Raleigh, NC fairgrounds flea market had a HUGE dealer of import games. I loved my NEO GEO and purchased several games for $400+ each. 30 years later and I still read every preview on Steparu's website to see what could come to the West. I'm very happy that CAVE is bringing their shooters to the West via Steam.

I also loved my MUD games. Those were the best.
 
We were constantly told that Americans didn't like JRPGs when presented with them in test groups. Americans liked more flash, boom, and then over game play rather than a ton of reading which fits with the amount of ADHD diagnosis back then. Most gaming back then was on consoles. Yes, I owned a PC but it was a mostly console world.

I tend to clash very badly with people who have ADHD in terms of personality, incidentally. I have almost the opposite problem from them, in that I can pretty much only focus on one thing at a time, like to carefully consider things from every angle, and don't like to be distracted while doing so. I actually loved reading, too.

I'm always surprised to hear this, and I can't fathom how my fellow Americans liked Action and FPS games better than JRPGs. But the statistics don't lie, I suppose.
 
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Minnesota? Arneson was from Minnesota, sure, but Gygax was from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. TSR, the company that published the original D&D game, was also headquartered in Lake Geneva.
True, but Dave Arneson is always the first one I think of when talking about D&D. He was the brains behind to role-playing concept and how to make it work.
 
Been playing since Dragon Warrior on NES and have always loved them since.
 
Minnesota? Arneson was from Minnesota, sure, but Gygax was from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. TSR, the company that published the original D&D game, was also headquartered in Lake Geneva.

I can't find the wiki page I read, but it claimed it was 'invented' while he was in MN. Perhaps I read it wrong, Wisconsin make better sense.
 
As others have mentioned, it was really a variety of factors. Its also important to remember that gaming as a whole was a much more niche pursuit back in those days, on PC and console alike. Up until around 2004 or so, PC gaming required a considerably expensive PC that needed to be upgraded frequently because a year or two down the road, you would barely be able to play newly released titles. When some people today lament "I don't need a new video card yet because software isn't forcing me to do so, I can keep playing the new games on my current hardware" I say GOOD! I don't want those days back when $2000-3000 was a minimum for a gaming quality PC! On the PC side, there were western RPGs and some JRPGs that rarely left Japan (like the MSX PC etc), and then Japanese developed consoles made their way globally with the Famicom/NES and we went from there. However, each one was a relatively expensive investment either way. Especially on the console side, video games were seen as toys for children more than anything else and even with the creativity of Japanese developers at Nintendo and elsewhere, it didn't shake that stigma...heck, we're still dealing with it a bit today!

I won't touch too much on early Western RPGs (often PC) because they already covered the likes of Akallabeth, Ultima, Neverwinter Nights, and Elder Scrolls etc... these were generally exploration focused with a player avatar at its center, taking the Dungeons and Dragons heritage and running with it. JRPGs on the other hand, became more about the characters and stories, weaving some of the Western fantasy/D&D elements, but also adding their own cultural aspects. Final Fantasy as some may know, is named such because it was really SquareSoft's last gasp - if the game didn't take off, they would have folded! With Final Fantasy and Dragon's Quest, each iteration becomes more about the character stories, going from somewhat simple D&D style "Evil guy at the heart of the dungeon is going to take over the world, the warrior(s) of Light will stop him" to getting more and more complex. By FFIV (aka FF2 in the US) it was more than just a typical RPG, but the focus was on each character you met as the adventure continued. The Dark Knight who came to terms with his misdeeds and self doubt to become a Paladin, the woman who loved him, his best friend who secretly loved that same woman, a little girl with amazing powers who later befriended the very people who killed her mother etc.. People joined your party, left, sacrificed themselves for the mission, had their own side quests and objectives, betrayed, was welcomed back, betrayed again, major plot points were revealed and the enemy you fought the entire adventure turned out to not be who he seemed etc... it as far more than just the mechanics of a RPG. Final Fantasy V (which until recently, the West missed out upon) and FFVI especially - considered one of the greatest JRPGs of all time - took things even further. Love, loss, growing up, the nature of manhood/womanhood, honor and other concepts were embedded in the journey of many characters. When I first saw the "Opera" scene in FFVI, it was absolutely mind blowing for its time and went way beyond anything expected of the media at the time. Titles like ChronoTrigger and Xenogears were to follow (and rounding out the trilogy of greatest classic JRPGs), that even embraced religious allegory and philosophical movements in their themes. This is to say nothing of titles like the Mother / Earthbound series that looked disarmingly cute and quirky but had some seriously dark themes under the surface, revealed as you play.

I list all this because at the time, except to a handful of enthusiasts, these were pretty much ignored and/or dismissed. Nobody thought video games, simplistic "save the princess from the giant monkey, with beeps and bloops for sound tracks" games could have these sorts of themes, in the West. Up to and including the Playstation 2 era (and likely, even beyond), Japan also watched the kind of games that sold en-masse for the time, and saw that "Rambo shoot em up" stuff was popular, and complex titles were often not given the credence they deserved. This, combined with the "First Video Game Censorship War" in the 90s (as opposed to the Second, which some could say is ongoing and comes from a completely different direction..) and a number of other factors, ensured that the Japanese felt in order to market properly to the West, they had to alter their games. This meant censorship, dumbing down of storylines, simplified translations that often lost cultural specificity, making games less complex or easier, and overall not bringing many games over to the West. This hit the burgeoning JRPG enthusiast culture hard, but it is still an ongoing fight today to have access to elements like Japanese audio available on Western releases. This also affected other Japanese media and culture enthusiasts at the time, such as those who enjoyed anime, film, and music and gave rise to a patchwork set of passion project and businesses to cater to this niche from importers, fan-translators / subbing, game patching, and a non-trivial amount of hacking such as modchipping for region-free or copied game titles.

Over time, as gaming became a mainstream pursuit all of the Japanese gaming niche purists grew in kind, and were able to show Japanese developers that they wanted a purist experience, no less. After gaming went from a "kids and geeks only" hobby to a mainstream or even "bro culture, Xbawks, Madden, CoD, and Beer" element, Japanese developers realized that they needed the purists who appreciated their work if they were going to stay afloat and make the kinds of games they wanted to make. Japanese business culture is in many ways, VERY slow to change and controlled autocratically from the top down, but after lots of time, effort, and pleading we're finally seeing Japanese developers and publishers releasing their titles on PC to great success, for instance. Just today, an updated version of Final Fantasy X and X2 are being released via Steam, with a HD update, Japanese audio option included, and all the International Edition upgrades! Valkyria Chronicles, once released only on PS3, is available on Steam (and it is a FANTASTIC military strategy action + JRPG title. If you don't have it and appreciate JRPGs, Anime, and strategy - you should!). Publishers like Capcom have even begun to bring their titles to SteamOS / Linux! Final Fantasy XIV is one of the greatest MMORPGs of its type and does so without giving up its JRPG roots and culture. This, combined with the open market for quality JRPGs on mobile, via Android and iOS we have the potential for a golden age after a long, hard road! We're seeing multiple Japanese developers breaking away from publishers, such as the talents behind Castlevania: Symphony of the NIght and MegaMan, offering PC-based multiplatform titles for crowdfunding. If only Nintendo will finally break away from locking their games to proprietary hardware platforms, I'd love to play Fire Emblem, Smash Bros, Legend of Zelda, and many more titles on PC or open mobile!

So yes, there have been many reasons why it took a long time for JRPGs developers and their audience to come to terms so to speak, so that both are now benefiting. Lots of external issues have causes the friction that kept both sides from reaching a common goal but hopefully going forward things will be much smoother...
 
As others have already mentioned, the FF series is the premiere JRPG. RPGs have been popular at some level since the PC age started to gain momentum in the early 80's. I spent plenty of time with Wizardy, Ultima, Might and Magic, Zork, and Bard's Tale back in the day. Ultima IV was definitely a classic in the avatar based RPGs with it's more complicated morality system. I never really got into the JRPGs as much, partly because I was in college when the NES hit and partly because I enjoyed the more detailed traditional RPGs on computers more. To me the great resurgence of the RPG was with Baldur's Gate. Even though it was buggy as all get out when it came out the graphics were beautiful for it's day and it was one of the most faithful D&D based games to date for it's day. I also loved the new action version of RPGs popularized with Diablo (a graphical version of Rogue/Nethack for all intensive purposes). The follow-on Diablo 2 kept me enthralled for years and thousands of hours. I guess the JRPGs never seemed to resonate the same way with me as the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale, Diablo, Elder Scrolls did.
 
For me, I really enjoyed the storytelling elements in the best JRPG's. Xaeos covers a lot of that in his post above. Plots and events that go beyond the simple "get strong enough to kill this evil supreme bad guy!" approach. Things that genuinely made you think and question your own opinions. Even if you didn't agree and gave them an eye roll - they were at least making some kind of statement.
At the same time, I think so many tried that and failed at it. The teams writing FF and Chrono were top notch at both telling a story and making a compelling game. Many others weren't.
For every FFVI there's an Infinite Undiscovery or a Vay. Especially when you consider that we only get like 15% of the ones Japan gets...and usually the better examples.
It's a genre that is either amazing or horrible. Not too much different from fighting or FPS I suppose.
 
RPGs are my favorite Genre and I have been playing since the Ultima/Bards Tale days, but JRPGs never appealed to me. They still don't.

Western RPGs seem more gritty(dare I say more realistic).
the-witcher-3-wild-hunt-getting-paid-best-part-of-the-job.jpg

OTOH JRPGs seem more cartoony, all the characters look like rejects from 1980's hair bands. Wielding swords bigger than the characters.
03154def19eae3245210d5fc7cea7b8e-650-80.jpg
 
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Here is an oddity for you. I bought all of The Witcher games and don't mind them at all. But I can't play them but in small spurts. I can get into a Japanese based RPG like Dragon's Dogma and sink hundreds of hours into the story in a month. I can't relate to The Witcher at all. I can't watch movies because 99% of the time my interest in them is nil. I can't stand TV shows. Dragons' Dogma looks like The Witcher and nothing like Final Fantasy. Maybe if I could customize the main character to something that appeals to me it would resonate with me?
 
As others have already mentioned, the FF series is the premiere JRPG. RPGs have been popular at some level since the PC age started to gain momentum in the early 80's. I spent plenty of time with Wizardy, Ultima, Might and Magic, Zork, and Bard's Tale back in the day. Ultima IV was definitely a classic in the avatar based RPGs with it's more complicated morality system. I never really got into the JRPGs as much, partly because I was in college when the NES hit and partly because I enjoyed the more detailed traditional RPGs on computers more. To me the great resurgence of the RPG was with Baldur's Gate. Even though it was buggy as all get out when it came out the graphics were beautiful for it's day and it was one of the most faithful D&D based games to date for it's day. I also loved the new action version of RPGs popularized with Diablo (a graphical version of Rogue/Nethack for all intensive purposes). The follow-on Diablo 2 kept me enthralled for years and thousands of hours. I guess the JRPGs never seemed to resonate the same way with me as the Baldur's Gate/Icewind Dale, Diablo, Elder Scrolls did.


When I was a kid, I remember looking down my nose at friends that were playing FF on NES. I was playing Ultima, Bard's Tale, M&M, Wizardry and the SSI D&D games on computer. I had Phantasy Star on Genesis, and thought it was a good game. But otherwise, I never got into JRPGs.

Later I was enthralled with the Baldur's Gate games and Daggerfall and Morrowind. I had a PS2 and everyone in the gaming media and internet was acting like FF X was the second coming. So I bought it and couldn't have been more disappointed. It was back when game stores still let you return merchandise within the first week. I remember the clerk was in disbelief that I wanted to exchange it. I bought MGS2 instead.

Nowadays, I don't enjoy most of the big popular western RPGs. I didn't like the Witcher. I completely skipped Skyrim. I played some of the Mass Effect games at my sister's house and found them boring. I bought FO4 for console and traded it in the next week. Not my cup of tea.

But I love FROM's souls games. Really the only RPGs I've been playing for the last 5 years. Although they're Japanese, I don't think they qualify as JRPGs.
 
Here is an oddity for you. I bought all of The Witcher games and don't mind them at all. But I can't play them but in small spurts. I can get into a Japanese based RPG like Dragon's Dogma and sink hundreds of hours into the story in a month. I can't relate to The Witcher at all. I can't watch movies because 99% of the time my interest in them is nil. I can't stand TV shows. Dragons' Dogma looks like The Witcher and nothing like Final Fantasy. Maybe if I could customize the main character to something that appeals to me it would resonate with me?


What's the story with Deep Down ? Is it vaporware ? I was looking forward to it.

I don't like the Witcher either. But one other cool RPG I forgot to mention was STALKER. I had fun with that.
 
I had buddies who used to make fun of me for playing RPGs...they called them 'reading games'. one of my friends in college saw I had FF7 and was like 'they tricked you into buying that too!!" and I'm was like 'huh?'. turns out the commercial for ff7 made it look more action than rpg so it might have been misleading if you didnt know what you were buying :D
I had a roomate who used to straight up GO TO SLEEP (full on knocked out) during the metal gear scenes that actually explained the story. admittedly, those cut scenes were long but that was the good part to me
 
The RPG that got me into RPG's in the first place is actually a Western RPG: the first Fallout. Which, if you account for my far eastern origins with no familial ties to the west, might find odd.

By the time I truly appreciated RPG's in general, I believe FF games were already off the PC's at that stage. Played Fallout 2 and then subsequently moved to other RPG's.

I played ARPGs as well, for example Diablo (all 3), and various D&D games like NWN.

However, my tastes are quite different from others. For example, I know of several communities that found it insulting (that's the word they used) that they called Fallout 3 a fallout game, whereas they tolerated Fallout:NV, I haven't heard about their opinions on FO4, but generally speaking, I found all of the newer Fallouts to be decent games, even through the buggy mess that Bethesda is known to release these open world games for (unofficial patches is the saviour of PC gaming in general).

I play FF games mostly out of brand loyalty. I played 4, 5 & 6 and they are amongst the best RPG's I have played in my life, so I have so far tried everything FF related, the list is getting longer now thanks to SE releasing all FF's on PC (the only major title that has not yet been released is XII), and despite what people have touted as deal breakers (EG disappointed in FF8, FFX, FFX-2 being a disaster, 13's combat being non-FF canon, etc), I haven't found any FF games to be terrible enough that I'd even want a refund, even if some of the combat things in the game were something I find dubious (EG Magic Drawing in FF8, 13 on PC having 30 fps dibs).

Or rather, I haven't bought any games that I was so disappointed in that I wanted a refund. Usually my brand loyalty to the game is strong enough to pull me through the games, because most of the time, I enjoy the story, so I tolerate the combat, even if it is pretty bad. I don't play RPG's for combat. In fact, I am can play and enjoy RPGs that have no combat.

I play both JRPG's and Western RPG's in mostly equal doses, though I tend to lean towards Western because Western ones are more accessible to me than JRPG's. I have played Mass Effect series and Witchers (I played through 1 completely, barely played 2 or 3, due to lack of time and hardware).

The Dark Souls games is so far the only popular RPG that hasn't appealed to me at all, and it's almost entirely because the game is designed to allow other players invading your game and kill you (and from what I know, there is no way around it). To me, I do not find that appealing at all. If I were to interact with other players, it's because I want to, not because I am forced to. This also primarily why I hate crowded or PvP (especially PvP, I find that community to be even less tolerable) servers in MMORPGs in general, so this is why I have not touched Dark Souls.
 
I had buddies who used to make fun of me for playing RPGs...they called them 'reading games'. one of my friends in college saw I had FF7 and was like 'they tricked you into buying that too!!" and I'm was like 'huh?'. turns out the commercial for ff7 made it look more action than rpg so it might have been misleading if you didnt know what you were buying :D
I had a roomate who used to straight up GO TO SLEEP (full on knocked out) during the metal gear scenes that actually explained the story. admittedly, those cut scenes were long but that was the good part to me

That's actually exactly what I thought, people focus far more on the action/combat in RPG's than the actual text, as if they DON'T want to know the story.

I personally, would even go as far as to say that the action/combat almost distracts me from the plot, so I generally don't like RPG's where combat is difficult/ IOf I wanted difficult combat, I would probably torture myself with online CoD or something, not for RPG's where I WANT to know the story, not for it to be stuck behind a wall of combat.
 
Minnesota? Arneson was from Minnesota, sure, but Gygax was from Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. TSR, the company that published the original D&D game, was also headquartered in Lake Geneva.

Minnesota, Wisconsin. Same difference. They both speak like Canadians.
 
We were constantly told that Americans didn't like JRPGs when presented with them in test groups. Americans liked more flash, boom, and then over game play rather than a ton of reading which fits with the amount of ADHD diagnosis back then. Most gaming back then was on consoles. Yes, I owned a PC but it was a mostly console world.

Ultima begs to differ. Reading for days, and an actual challenge in terms of puzzles and what not. You would think ADHD need not apply, yet ADHD loved it because it was usually one of the few things they could focus on.

And no, most gaming back then was not on consoles. In the 80's, which is the start of the computer RPG, most gaming was on Commodore 64, Apple II, and PC, and other home computers. They were actually more households with those kinds of computers by far than with consoles, and every one of them was a gaming capable system back in the day.
 
Particularly, America. True it always had a following, but it wasn't until FFVII that it really gained more mass appeal. I give Nintendo props for releasing so many of the DQ games on NES despite the real lack of popularity but still we got stuck with crap like Final Fantasy Mystic Quest because Japanese thought we were too dumb to accept anything real complex.

I think it's a real shame considering we wouldn't get translations of FF I and II, as well as FF V and a few others till quite a bit later.

OP, you should edit post to JRPGs, plz
 
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