The comments in CnC's article about the top RPGs of 2008 got me thinking about how gamers view RPGs. It's true that the gamer community at large looks at RPGs as the red-headed step children of the gaming world. I've heard multiple times that I cannot be a hardcore gamer simply because I prefer to heal 24 people in a raid against a red dragon rather than take head shots from the back of a moving pickup truck.
But great RPGs, RPGs that speak to the player, are breaking through that glass ceiling, as it were, and are gaining recognition with mainstream gaming media (an oxymoron in and of itself). A perfect example is G4TV's selection of Fable 2 as Game of the Year. Now, personally I don't consider this to be the best game of the year, not even the best RPG of the year, but it was a lovely game and I'm glad I played it. G4TV saw it as gaming gold and awarded it the highest of honors, knowing it was an RPG.
It's strides like this that give me hope that gamers won't shun RPGs anymore. Some of the greatest games I've played have been RPGs, and it would be a crying shame for these games not to get the recognition they deserve simply because they involve role play. 2008 gave us a handful of games that have been made popular with the larger gaming community. I'd love to say that this was because they were RPGs, but in reality these games are popular despite being RPGs. That doesn't mean I'm not hopeful, I am, and I look forward to 2009 and beyond knowing that RPGs are selling millions of copies, and gamers all over the globe are enjoying them. Despite or because, in the end I'm not sure it really makes a difference.
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