We hear it all the time these days. "It's a _____ game with RPG elements" - which usually means stats, ranks, levels, the whole number crunching dealie. My question is, who started it? Was it in an article or review, or on the back of a game case? Trying to figure this out for scholarly reasons, but I'm also interested to hear where's the first you ever heard/read it, so no answer is wrong. The earlier the better. Even the first game you heard described with it will do. E: To clarify, I'm not looking for the first RPG - just the first time someone thought to describe a non-RPG as having RPG elements.
If I'm right... It all came from the Table-top RPGs, spawning from the Dungeons & Dragons game. At least in modern terms of RPG. Then of course that translated to video gaming, with picking characters and statistics and so on. I would guess maybe the first D&D video game could be the firs RPG, made in 1980. However, I'd guess the first would have been made by D&D players, PC games that my have been passed around by up and coming devs. Most likely though, they never would've been published. Best I can gather from some research and personal thought. First time I heard RPG? I played them before I realised what they were, like most gamers I guess. Must have read it in a GameMaster magazine. No clue. I know it's my favourite genre of game, that's bout it.
Not sure on the exact game as an example, but I believe it got popular in the 90s. Earliest I heard of any examples would be SNES games. (Stuff like the Castlevania series) Here's a trope page if it's any help at all; http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RPGElements
My memory is quite fuzzy, but I believe I have learned of the term "RPG" when I first got Dragon Quest (have no memory what number it was) for the Game Boy Color. I believe I talked about it with my friends and they mentioned it as an RPG game. By history thought, I believe RPG was first mentioned on tabletop types of games like D&D.
I believe the first time I heard the term RPG was in the Pokemon series...(Red version and Blue) At the time, I was fairly knew to those types of turn based games where upon having gathered a certain number of exp, you would lvl up and have extra stats added to your base stats. The term rpg I think I read it from the Pokemon red version strategy guide...but my memory is really fuzzy; I was around...8-10 yrs old? After that, my cousins started saying the term for every game with lvl up, stat distribution elements, etc. So I guess I learned it through word of mouth. The first time rpg was used to describe a non rpg game was probably in fps(first person shooters) as I remember playing counter-strike and you would rank up to unlock new perks.
If memory serves (although I' m quite sure it' s blurry on that one) it was in French magazines trying to describe the difference between RPG and A-RPG. So probably around the time either Zelda 3 or Secret of Mana got released. As PaW pointed out the term RPG was first used to describe table top games, which combined mathematicized strategy battles and adaptive storytelling. Problem is the only thing that could survive the computerization of RPGs was the strategy/gestion/grinding half of them. By their very nature video games have to rely on pre-established rails, they can' t make stuff up on the fly like a human gamemaster can. Seems rather unfitting to still call them RPGs, but we did. On a side note, have you ever said to someone "this film has a great moviewatch ?" or "that song has a great musiclisten ?" Anyway back on topic. Saying that a game has RPGs elements, as you pointed out, means it has number crunching dealies. Which, congratulations, applies to every single freaking video game ever.
RPG elements have been integrated into gaming genres for a very long time, but they've become popular with this previous console generation in particular as it's a cheap and VERY effective means to supplementing gameplay Nearly every game has SOME RPG elements in it. Heck, technically all modern games on the PS3 or 360 have RPG elements in the form of achievements/trophies. The concept of melding RPG elements with another genre is very old. Like just one example off the top of my head, Zelda 2 is an action RPG
It is very much part of the versatility and universality of characters we can consider "RPG" based. Namely because, as PaW stated earlier, many of these ideas are derivatives based off of the world surrounding tabletop pen & paper, among other things. At the same time, the term seems to be growing looser and less collective as time goes by, among the fact that traditional RPGs themselves are being segmented into different types within the genre. Genre-blending is common when we consider elements specific to a genre as components of a large proportion of games.
Don't people describe Zelda as a game with RPG elements? That's a question for a reason. A lot of people say it now. I'm wondering if people said it when it came out.
There are so many different reasons why people call Zelda part RPG, which makes this all the more complicated. The use of stat growth (hearts and stuff) the mere fact that it's top down, the notion that you're role playing as Link when you play the game. RPG can mean a lot of thing to different people
Well Zelda 2 was definitely in that category, people compared it to I think it was Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy. Butthat doesn't really help much with finding the first use of the actual phrase, does it? hm...
First time I had played and RPG or well really heard of any was probably around the time I came across Digimon world along with Final Fantasy 4 (The one about Cecil Harvey) though, in recent years I've seen Dragons Dogma, It has RPG Elements but I'm not sure if it is an RPG but I've played the hell out of it so many times I grinded to level 150 but gave up trying to hit 200.
