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We’re all about leeching here at SquatSquat.Com, so I’m totally gonna leech a topic from Wiggy, namely, RPG’s vs FPS, which requires more skill? Of course, Wiggy kinda leeched dat from FPS Doug, but hey who’s keeping tabs?

So, RPG’s and FPS’s, undoubtedly the two most popular video game genre’s. Don’t believe me? Ever get an idea how many people are playing Counterstrike at any given moment? World of Warcraft? Tens of thousands. Well dang, even oldies like Everquest still have a cult following. How many games outside of these genre’s have such a mass of support behind them? Very few. But certainly no genre as a whole can boost more fans than these two.

So, now that I’m done stroking the ego of RPG and FPS fans everywhere, which I suppose is a bit presumptious on my part, assuming RPG and FPS fans everywhere actually will read this post, let’s highlight the skillz of each genre:

FPS

First person shooters first saw realization in Wolfenstein 3D, the classic pixel-rich shooter that was the also one of the first controversial games ever created as well, correct me if I’m wrong. But heated debate aside, FPS was, even in its infant stages, characterized by what has come to be known as “twitchy” gameplay. No, it’s not a 1337 ub3r term, it’s simply a word describing the “where you point is where you shoot” way of controlling your onscreen character. This gameplay culminated into the fast-paced monsters we know and love such as UT and Quake, swift games where your average life expenctancy is about 2.9 seconds. While there is a large degree of tactics involved with certain games, mostly, it comes down to who can aim and shoot faster. Strategy? Hmm, well, to a point in some team based games. But what good is strategy when your opponents headshot you before you can even get into position? Yes, my friends, twitchy gameplay reigns supreme above all else in FPS’s. While strategy and tactics are nice when everyone plays along, nothing can take the place of a dead-eye shooter.

RPG

I’d be a fool to sit here and try to think of the first RPG ever seen. It was probably ET for Atari 2600 or something around that, though that was most likely more of an early platformer than anything else. But besides the point, RPG’s are one of the oldest video game genres and have followings so powerful that perfectly sane and normal people (BWAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA) will don their Sunday best chainmail, gauntlets, and pauldrons to show support for everything RPG related. Hooray for nerds! Though we’ve seen many RPG games with pseudo-twitchy gameplay, namely, those gems known as action-RPG such as X-men Legends and the Everquest console series, the bulk of RPG’s remain a classical non-twitchy game style. You look at an enemy, press a button, and the fight is taken over by the computer while dozens of simulated dice rolls happen behind the scene. Of course, gameplay like this, while not twitchy at all, is ENTIRELY strategy. What enemies do you fight? Where do you hunt? Should you solo? Should you upgrade armor first? Or weapons? Is it worth getting pwned as a low level mage to get to the high powered spells? All these questions must be considered by the wise and accomplished RPGer, and while hand-eye coordination isn’t a factor here, planning ahead to make your hero the best he can be is no easy task. And the group dynamic? It’s ALL strategy, lest you allow your teammates to get trained by *insert overwhelming number of mobs*. And sometimes that happens even when you try not too, right Leeroy Jenkins? *nod to WoW*

So, the debate is, which requires more skill, hand-eye coordination or brainpower?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 14th, 2007 at 11:02 am and is filed under Action, Adventure, Articles, FPS, RPG, Strategy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.