No Time To Play

I’ve always been a sucker for the written text, ever since I’ve learn how to read (sometime between the ages of 4 and 5). Oh, I’d watch a movie or two with starry eyes, but then I’d always return to reading books. No wonder, then, that nowadays I am fascinated by text-based computer games. You know, those things many people believe to be a thing of the past. (Which isn’t exactly true: roguelikes are alive and well, interactive fiction is experiencing a revival, and even MUDs are doing fine.)

But I never realized just how important they were in the history of computer games until I tried to draw the diagram below. Count the bold items:

Of the computer game subgenres that form the (related) RPG and adventure families, fully one third are text-based. And not just because of technical limitations back in the day; text adventures were commercially successful long after Akalabeth/Ultima launched the era of the modern CRPG.

I believe this is because text (interactive or not) is a unique medium with a specific appeal that doesn’t age, precisely because it is so basic. That it’s also low-tech is only a bonus, but an important one. It means that anyone who can write and code a little is perfectly able to make their own with no more effort than it takes to write a novel. Also, while the average computer is incredibly powerful, the more you lower the bar, the more devices can run your creation, which means a larger potential audience. And as has been pointed out a lot recently, people read more than ever anyway; it’s not like they are afraid of text.

I’m aware that the diagram is incomplete and probably flawed, so here’s the Graphviz source code if you care to work on it. Enjoy!

digraph Game_gen {
	label="Partial genealogy of RPGs and related genres\nrevision 1, 2010-08-18\nby Felix Pleșoianu -- CC-BY-SA";

	tabletop [label="Tabletop RPGs",style=bold];
	tabletop -> int_fiction;
	tabletop -> roguelikes;
	tabletop -> ultima;
	int_fiction [label="Interactive\nFiction",style=bold];
	ultima [shape=plaintext,label=Ultima];
	roguelikes -> action_rpgs [label="(via Diablo)"];
	roguelikes [label=Roguelikes,style=bold];
	action_rpgs [label="Action\nRPGs"];
	int_fiction -> semi_graphical;
	semi_graphical [label="Semi-graphical\nadventures"];
	semi_graphical -> point_n_click;
	point_n_click [label="Point&click\nadventures"];
	int_fiction -> muds;
	muds [label=MUDs,style=bold];
	muds -> mmorpgs [label="(via Everquest)"];
	mmorpgs [label="Modern\nMMORPGs"]
	ultima -> first_person;
	first_person [label="First-person\nRPGs"];
	ultima -> top_down [label="(via Baldur's Gate)"];
	top_down [label="Top-down\nRPGs"];
}

P.S. I’ve purposefully left out BBS door games such as Legend of the Red Dragon (which have spawned the modern browser-based RPG… except it’s not so simple), as well as CYOA books which are, well, not computer-based. And no, these aren’t my ideas; I’m just putting two and two together.

Why text-based games matter by Felix Pleșoianu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.