Media Notes / Western RPG

Brief History of Western RPGs (Troper-Style)

The Primordial Era of Western RPG (1974–1980)

Basically, everything between the release of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 and the rise of the Ultima and Wizardry series in the early 80s. In this era, programming geeks fed the D&D ruleset into their mainframes and implemented text-based interfaces for players to interact with, producing the Ur Examples of the genre like, dnd and Dungeon. The very first computer RPG ever created is commonly thought to have been m199h (1974), whose source code has unfortunately been lost to time. This period is crucial to understanding the difference between pen-and-paper role-playing and role-playing video games: while the classic D&D-style RP is one part number crunching, one part freeform make-believe, and one part nerdy get-together, its video game implementations have, from the very beginning, been all about the numbers.

The Golden Age of Western RPG (1981–1993)

The '80s were the time when the RPG genre (alongside Adventure Games) dominated the PC gaming market, breezing even past The Great Video Game Crash of 1983 with hardly a scratch. 2D graphics, annual releases, and Long Runner series were in vogue (in fact, the genre still owes its longest series to this era), and RPGs regularly pushed the boundaries of contemporary gaming technology. That is not to say that all games from this era were flawless. Low production costs (compared to later periods) let developers produce many an uninspired and buggy hackjob and get away with it — at least, until the market grew saturated and they became a contributing factor in the following Dark Age. However, thanks to the Nostalgia Filter, this period's highlights are far better remembered today than its lows.

The essential series from this period include:

• Ultima (Origin, 1981–1999): The chief trailblazer of Western RPG genre, pioneering a lot of innovations that are still being rediscovered.
  • Ultima Underworld (Looking Glass Studios, 1992–1993): The first fully 3D, real time simulated world that would inspire The Elder Scrolls series.
• Wizardry (Sir-Tech, 1981–2001): Ultima's main rival that focused on conservative (and teeth-crushingly hard) Dungeon Crawling.
• The Bard's Tale Trilogy (Interplay, 1985–1988): Competed with Wizardry and M&M for the hardcore dungeon crawler crown but wound down early.
• Might and Magic (New World Computing, 1986–2002): The last of the Big Three (with Ultima and Wizardry), which focused much more on accessibility and user friendliness.
• Gold Box (SSI, 1988–1993): The Dungeons & Dragons adaptation of the Golden Age. Not so much a single series as an anthology of smaller series running on the same engine.
• The Magic Candle (Mindcraft, 1989–1993): An oddball that came out of nowhere, brought original ideas to the table, yet disappeared with little legacy.
• Quest for Glory (Sierra, 1989–1998): Sierra's fondly-remembered attempt at marrying the adventure games they're best known for with RPG mechanics.
• Eye of the Beholder (Westwood/SSI, 1991–1993): SSI's short-lived Spiritual Successor to the Gold Box.
• Realms of Arkania (Attic Entertainment, 1992–1996): One of the few European (German, to be precise) RPG series of the age to rise to fame.
• Lands of Lore (Westwood, 1993–1999): Westwood's standalone project after SSI took over Eye of the Beholder completely.

Some notable standalone games (that got either no sequel, a negligible sequel, a sequel way too long in the making):

• Rogue (A.I. Design, 1983): A dungeon crawler RPG that started its own genre.
• The Faery Tale Adventure (MicroIllusions, 1987): One of the earliest Western Action RPGs, a proto-Diablo-"clone".
• Dungeon Master (FTL Games, 1987): The first fully 3D Western Action RPG.
• Wasteland (Interplay, 1988): The game that would inspire Fallout a decade later.
• Sentinel Worlds I: Future Magic (Karl Buiter, 1988): One of first Space Operas to come out of the subgenre^note StarFlight (Binary Systems, 1986) came out two years prior.
• Darklands (MicroProse, 1992): Described by some as "the most historically accurate RPG ever".
• Betrayal at Krondor (Dynamix, 1993): One of the earliest examples of the narrative RPG subgenre (alongside late Ultima titles).

Five Golden Age studios that had a particular impact upon the genre — Origin, Sir-Tech, Interplay, New World Computing, and SSI — are sometimes dubbed its "mythic forefathers". Four of them closed during or after the subsequent Dark Age, so nearly all major Western RPG producers nowadays trace their lineage to Interplay Entertainment in one way or another.

The Dark Ages of Western RPG (1994–1996)

The Golden Age came to an end in the mid-90s due to a combination of factors. The likely main reason was the failure of the leading studios to keep up with the advances of video game technology (new storage tech like the CD, 3D graphics, full-motion video, voice acting, etc.) and the ever-mounting development costs that came with them. As a result, the Western RPG market was filled by derivative, half-baked products^note (to name a few: Daemonsgate, Menzoberranzan, Birthright, Descent to Undermountain...), while the big series of the Golden Age frustrated their fans with extended Sequel Gaps. Some, like Quest for Glory, managed to wrap up satisfactorily when they finally delivered, but others, like Ultima and Might and Magic, met rather ignoble ends.^note The M&M series had actually looked like it weathered the storm when VI released in 1998 (five years after V) to rave reviews and good sales, but the following two games couldn't keep the pace and NWC folded soon after releasing the largely unfinished IX. SSI lost the D&D license to Interplay and went out of business after 1995, and Wizardry 8 (2001) would ultimately become the Swan Song of the Golden Age.

The Elder Scrolls (Bethesda, 1994–ongoing) is the most famous title that hails from this period (even though it first came into full force during the Bronze Age, after its developer had barely survived the late 90s thanks to the buyout by ZeniMax) and bears the honor of being the oldest continuous still-running Western RPG series. System Shock (Looking Glass, 1994) was among the earliest examples of the Immersive Sim genre, and some fans still fondly remember Ravenloft: Strahd's Possession (DreamForge/SSI, 1994), Stonekeep (Interplay, 1995), and Anvil of Dawn (DreamForge/NWC, 1995). It was also during the Dark Ages that the Exile series (Spiderweb Software, 1995–1997) emerged as likely the first indie WRPG in modern sense; its creator Jeff Vogel went on to develop many successful indie RPGs over the next two decades: Nethergate (1998), Avernum (2000–2009, rebooted in 2011), Geneforge (2001–2008), Avadon (2011–2016).

The Silver Age of Western RPG (1997–2002)

The genre emerged from the turmoil of the Dark Ages in the late 1996-early 1997 with a double-punch combo of Blizzard's Diablo and Interplay's Fallout, both of which shaped the following Silver Age considerably. Gone were the Golden Age's crazy Science Fantasy antics — style consistency was now the order of things; Long Runner series were out, replaced by duologies and trilogies; instead of entire player-created parties of old, the games now focused on lone featureless player avatars; Turn-Based Combat was phased out in favor of real time (with pause); Story Branching and plot-altering choices became a norm, as did the Virtual Paper Doll trope for playable characters. Overall, the developers have adapted to the new technology standards, extended the development cycles, and upped the production values, but the full 3D leap would wait until the Turn of the Millennium (while Isometric Projection ruled the field in the meantime).

When reminiscing about the Silver Age, most people think of the Gold Box's successor — the Infinity Engine (the Baldur's Gate series, Planescape: Torment, and the Icewind Dale duology, by BioWare and Black Isle, 1998–2002), but it's unfair to reduce the entire era to it. Both Fallout and Diablo received sequels and a slew of imitators, while Deus Ex (Ion Storm, 2000), Gothic (Pirahna Bytes, 2001), Dungeon Siege (Gas Powered Games, 2002), and Divine Divinity (Larian, 2002) managed to start successful series that found their place in the Bronze Age. Other games never got a sequel and are now undeservedly forgotten: Darkstone (Delphine, 1999), Revenant (Cinematix, 1999), Nox (Westwood, 2000), Vampire: Redemption (Nihilistic Software, 2000), Arcanum (Troika, 2001), Siege of Avalon (Digital Tome, 2001), Lionheart (Reflexive, 2003), etc. The Neverwinter Nights series (BioWare/Obsidian, 2002–2009) and The Temple of Elemental Evil (Troika, 2003) would become the swan songs of this era.

It was also during the Silver Age that the MMORPG branch split off from the main genre, thanks to Ultima Online (Origin, 1997) and EverQuest (Sony, 1999).

The Bronze Age of Western RPG (2003–2018)

If Golden and Silver Age RPGs were Doorstoppers, the Bronze Age ones were Epic Movies. Having sat out on most of the Silver Age (cross-genre spin-offs notwithstanding), The Elder Scrolls came back in force to herald a new age of Western RPGs: Morrowind (Bethesda, 2002) was a massive Multi-Platform fully-3D hand-crafted Wide-Open Sandbox, and was followed shortly by Knights of the Old Republic (BioWare, 2003) — a massive Multi-Platform 3D hand-crafted narrative RPG with fully voiced dialogues. This new model of Western RPG let them challenge Eastern RPGs on their console home turf but came with heftier production costs than ever before, slowly turning the genre into a AAA domain of a few big studios, chief among whom were BioWare (which was acquired by Electronic Arts), Bethesda (which struck the deal of the century in 2007 by purchasing Fallout from Interplay), and Blizzard (mainly known for their World of Warcraft MMO, 2004–). Troika didn't survive the ill-fated release of Vampire: Bloodlines (2003) — a game well regarded today but riddled with bugs upon release — but Obsidian managed multiple times to hang on by the skin of their teeth, and CD Projekt RED joined the big club in 2007 with their Sleeper Hit The Witcher. Smaller studios and their series remained largely overshadowed by the big ones: Gothic, Dungeon Siege, Divinity, Sacred (Ascaron, 2004–), Fable (Lionhead, 2004–), Torchlight (Runic Games, 2009–), Risen (Pirahna Bytes, 2009–), etc.

Bronze Age Western RPGs were characterized by Multi-Platform releases, action-oriented combat, fully voiced dialogue, and extensive usage of in-engine cutscenes. Multiplayer, commonplace during the Silver Age, went out of favor concurrently with the rise of MMORPGs — at least, until Mass Effect 3 (BioWare, 2012) found a way to make it cool again and Divinity: Original Sin (Larian, 2014) turned it completely on its ear — but it's not to say that the genre didn't make any use of online capabilities: Downloadable Content was pioneered by Oblivion (Bethesda, 2006) and quickly picked up on by other developers, while the aforementioned Mass Effect 3 multiplayer popularized Loot Boxes in premium-priced games. On the bright side, the AAA industry has polished and codified a lot of the usability and interface features that many players have come to expect from a modern RPG, while others have called it "dumbing down for consoles".

The Western RPG Renaissance (2012–2018)

A decade into the Bronze Age, a curious phenomenon occurred in the genre: a growing number of RPG developers, both old guard and new blood, began tackling an almost forgotten market niche between AAA and Arthouse Games — the medium-budget, PC-only "B titles" a.k.a. "AA games". This flavor of Western RPG seemed to have died off (the Jeff Vogel phenomenon notwithstanding) before being rediscovered thanks to the emergence of affordable game tech and new business models. The term "Renaissance" was coined for this movement because the vast majority of such RPGs are (often explicit) throwbacks to the Golden and Silver Ages and set out to marry the gameplay and story ideas of the older games with modern advances in video game technology and gameplay design.

Common traits of a "Renaissance-era" Western RPG include:

• Developer: A small, often independent studio, either European and obscure or American and led by disgruntled industry veterans.
• Budget: Very limited (commonly under $5 million); usually Kickstarted, otherwise crowd-funded, or self-funded.
• Platform: PC-only, although commonly Multi-Platform by virtue of supporting Mac and Linux in addition to Windows.
• Distribution: Digital multi-channel, commonly including Steam, GOG.com, and other DRM-free distributors.
• Engine: Self-produced, Unity, or Unreal Engine 4 (post-2015).
• Gameplay: Manifold and complex game systems with a ton of Character Customization options but little hand-holding.
• Video: Fully or mostly 3D, but often with a fixed top-down (pseudo-isometric) view.
• Audio: Few fully-voiced characters, even when the game contains a lot of written text. A professional soundtrack.
• Story: Decidedly un-cinematic, with few prerendered and in-engine cutscenes and a focus on exploration.
• Quality: Lack of polish upon release compared to AAA titles, mitigated by the devs' quick feedback and patch cycle.
• Re-releases: A "Director's Cut" may improve graphics and restore previously cut gameplay features, using the proceeds from the original release.

An incomplete list of Renaissance-era RPGs:

• Legend of Grimrock (2012). A throwback to the Golden Age 3D dungeon crawlers Dungeon Master, Eye of the Beholder, and Ultima Underworld, self-funded by a Finnish indie dev studio.
• Path of Exile (2013). A throwback to the Silver Age dungeon crawlers, primarily Diablo II, crowd-funded by an indie dev studio from New Zealand.
• Harebrained Games' Shadowrun trilogy: Shadowrun Returns (2013), Shadowrun: Dragonfall (2014), and Shadowrun: Hong Kong (2015).
• Might & Magic X: Legacy (2014). A throwback to and reboot of the long-dead Golden Age series of dungeon crawlers, developed by a small German studio and, unlike most examples, published traditionally.
• Divinity: Original Sin (2014). A throwback to Golden Age sandbox RPGs like Ultima VII and Silver Age narrative ones like Baldur's Gate, partly self-, partly crowd-funded by the Belgian Larian Studios.
• Wasteland 2 (2014). A throwback and sequel to the Golden Age post-apocalyptic classic Wasteland and, by extension, to the original Fallout games (which codified the Silver Age), Kickstarted by former Interplay Entertainment veterans.
• Legend of Grimrock II (2014). A self-funded sequel to LoG.
• Lords of Xulima (2014). A throwback to several Golden Age series like Might and Magic, partly self-funded, partly Kickstarted by a Spanish indie studio.
• Pillars of Eternity (2015). A throwback to the Infinity Engine RPGs, Kickstarted by former Black Isle veterans.
• The Age of Decadence (2015). Notable for being in development since 2006, but only released with the advent of the WRPG renaissance.
• Underrail (2015). A throwback to Silver Age classics like Fallout, Arcanum and Neverwinter Nights, self-funded by an indie dev studio from Serbia. Often seen as a spiritual successor to Fallout 2.
• Baldur's Gate: Siege of Dragonspear (2016). A D&D-based Interquel to (their own HD remakes of) the legendary Baldur's Gate series, developed semi-traditionally by former BioWare veterans.
• Torment: Tides of Numenera (2017). A throwback to the quintessential Silver Age narrative RPG, Planescape: Torment, Kickstarted by former Interplay veterans.
• Divinity: Original Sin II (2017). A partly self-funded, partly Kickstarted sequel to D:OS.
• Shroud of the Avatar: Forsaken Virtues (2018). A throwback to the Golden Age sandbox RPGs like Ultima VII and early MMORPGs, specifically, Ultima Online, Kickstarted by former Origin Systems veterans.
• Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire (2018). A sequel to the original Pillars of Eternity, also crowdfunded on Fig.co.
• The Bard's Tale IV (2018). A throwback to and continuation of the Golden Age fantasy classic The Bard's Tale Trilogy, Kickstarted by former Interplay veterans.
• Underworld Ascendant (2018). A throwback to and continuation of Ultima Underworld, Kickstarted by former Origin Systems and Looking Glass Studios veterans. Ties in with Shroud of the Avatar.
• Wasteland 3 (2020). A sequel to Wasteland 2, crowdfunded on Fig.co this time.

Beyond these, the success of Dark Souls (whose PC version also came out in 2012) had likely been a powerful wake-up call to Western RPG creators and a major factor in the advent of the Western RPG Renaissance. Although developed in Japan, this game combined many of the Western design sensibilities with a challenge level typical for JRPGs but rarely seen in the West since the Silver Age and enjoyed great popularity with audiences on both sides of the Pacific and the Atlantic.

As it happens, the WRPG Renaissance had also coincided with the comeback of its cousin genre, the Immersive Sim, starting with the release of Dishonored in 2012.

The Modern Age of Western RPG (2019–ongoing)

The WRPG Renaissance came to a gradual close around 2018, when the last stragglers from the 2012 Kickstarter boom had been released. The era that followed saw a convergence of AAA and indie domains, with the former learning and appropriating ideas from the latter, and the indies receiving more and more recognition worldwide. Partly thanks to a creative slump of the key Silver and Bronze Age studios (BioWare, Blizzard, and Bethesda), new challengers began edging in on their AA and AAA turf. In North America, these were mainly the veteran studios that became major players during the Renaissance, like Obsidian and inXile, both of which were subsequently acquired by Microsoft, further funding their growth.

Meanwhile, European devs have become a major force in the genre for the first time in its history. The largest of these was, of course, CD Projekt RED, but mid-tier studios like Larian and Spiders and even tiny indies like ZA/UM gained a worldwide following. The event that most clearly conveyed the rise of European WRPG devs (and very likely marked the start of the Modern Age) was the 2019 announcement that Baldur's Gate III, a revival of the most iconic Silver Age series, will be taken over by Larian Studios.

---