Why RPGs?

#1 I dont know what the big deal is over MMORPG's in the big fantasy D&D world, I never got into any of that, but I have played just about EVERY console RPG ever made, the grandias, the lunars, the FF's.... heck it would probably be easier to name the ones I havnt played, I even have Panzer dragoon saga and dragonforce... but anyway, thats not important, my point here is that I have all these RPG's because the RPG is NOT a game that can be played twice, even the best ones get boring the second time through (except maybe crono trigger because you could keep your stats which made it a lot more fun to replay) however I have managed to play Starcraft almost every day for years.... my point is that an RTS is kinda a more personal game, because to truly master an RTS takes a lot of time to really formulate good strategies using all the pieces, I found that most poeple just get one and stick with it for years at a time... I have tried other RTS's, but none have seemed more appealing than Starcraft.... what I'm trying to say is, once your done with an RPG you go out and get another one, but your never really done with an RTS, those can last practicaly forever :)

#2 One reason people want to make MMORPGs is that they know that it is like a drug and its really easy to get addicted. Fallout is the best C-RPG I've ever played, becouse that it feels like a true RPG(ie, its you controlling, not the pre-written story. You are the character, not someone who says yes or no on some places and choose who to attack(like almost every console RPG, but they can be fun too(espcially if the battle system is well made)).

#3 I don't know. Morrowind sold two million units and is probably one of the most replayable RPGs ever made. Eric, Chrono Trigger was a console RPG and was quite replayable, IMO.

I used to want to make an RPG because I love writing stories. I think that's what really draws people into it; the involvement of the characters and background is much more immersive than in FPS games.

#4 ya steve, chrono trigger was so great, its a shame square couldnt keep their quality up :(... man did crono cross blow. but oh well, spilled milk.... I agree with your philosophy on the RPG. I am currenyly writting two different RPG's, they are also my favorite genre, the deep story lines and emotional attachment you form to the characters really adds a special fulfillment that you get with an RPG that is lacking in other genres (such as FPS, which I hardly ever play)... but the downside to the RPG is all the leveling up you have to do, I for one have never been able to really play an entire 50 hour RPG all the way through twice, it just doenst seem worth all the waisted time leveling up just to re-read the same story, thats what was nice about crono trigger, no leveling up the second time around :)

#5 While many RPG's (and MMORPGS) take place in D&D worlds often, there are quite a few exceptions.

A lot of them have the kind of FF/chrono trigger thing (there are probably more examples) where they have futuristic stuff and medievil/magic stuff all at once. IMO these are pretty cool.
There is always the cyberpunk RPG idea which Deus Ex popularized, which is also quite cool (I think Deus Ex did have some unique elements actually. I've never heard of the Illuminati, aliens, nanotechnology, and general cyberpunk stuff all in one universe before).
The MMORPG Earth & Beyond and one that is called (I beleive) Jumpgate (there are others too, I think) are examples of space-faring RPG stuff. Star Wars Galaxies is Star Wars stuff, which isn't D&D.

There are some others. In general, I think the big problem with RPG worlds is that while they are supposed to be life-filled worlds, most of them are information voids filled with mindless monsters to kill. Morrowind, while medievil-ish, had a GOOD WORLD. They threw details all over the place. While it wasn't really truly run of the mill fantasy stuff, it was pretty close. It didn't matter though. It felt much more real than say, NWN.

If anything really needs to be done with RPGs to make them better it is too move the focus away from numbers and to the story/world. A little less stat focus, a little bit more world detail. I wonder what would happen if you made an RPG that wouldnt let you see any of your stats other than HP? That would be unfuriating to some, I bet. But if it had a really involving storyline, I wonder if people would say damn the stats and just continue on? I'm not 100% sure if they would, actually.

#6 Yes, I know that there are quite a few exceptions to the D&D midevil fantasy world RPGs are well known for.

Take the Dreamcast game Shenmue, for example...it takes place in a fairly realistic 1986...most of the stats are completely hidden from the player, and it features a fairly rich "combat engine" that is basied on fighting games...honestly it is prolly the most realistic RPG yet made...It doesn't use the concept of "character levels"...it doesn't feature a "magic" system...NPCs do more then stand around all the time...it features a realtime enviroment (not only does the sun set...but season change)...but most "RPG heads" wouldn't even consider it a RPG (for whatever extreamly lame reason).

Shenmue isn't a great game...it often gets bogged down in excessive detail...but it is great in that it pushes the "RPG envelope"...takes RPGs to places they haven't really been before (just talking about PC/console RPGs here)...

The purpose for my original post wasn't to start a debate about game 'A' being better then game 'B'. I'm just trying to figure out both why so many people want to develop RPGs, and why so many of them seem to want thier game to fit within such a narrow set of heavily established RPG cliches (D&D like worlds, "leveling", etc..)?

#7 My theory about inspiration for relatively un-imaginative delopers is: they make the types of games they want to play. They are unsure about making a new sort of game because they don't know if they will like it or not.

If you take that as a given, the reason GG has a lot of RPGs in development could be:
The majority of GG developers like RPGs. The FPS gamers must not like independant game development as much.

Why they are making RPGs with leveling and stats is because that is what means RPG to them (You mentioned this obsession with RPG = stats).