Do you consider point and click games as RPGs?

Have you played Kentucky Route Zero: Act 1 and 2 for the PC? It's a point and click game with an awesome story and some pretty imagery. I get to control certain characters and get to travel around to different places, much like an RPG.

This got me to think - can point and click games be considered as RPGs too?

 

According to Wikipedia: Most cast the player in the role of one or more “adventurers” who specialize in specific skill sets (such as melee combat or casting magic spells) while progressing through a predetermined storyline. Many involve maneuvering these character(s) through an overworld, usually populated with monsters, that allows access to more important game locations, such as towns, dungeons, and castles.

Extending that definition, RPG's normally contain elements that allow your characters to progress as individuals. Eg: leveling, attributes, etc.

Every single game that has ever been released has genre elements from all other genre, but at their core, the primary mechanic of its game play shows its main genre. In other words, action games like Crysis and Farcry puts you into the role of a character. Adventure games like Leisure Suit Larry and Kentucky Route Zero also puts you into a role of characters. However, they are not primarily RPG's.

 

As tinybutnotfangless said, RPGs generally are such games which allow some kind character progression. The best example for this, would be, starting out as a very weak character and constantly getting more and more powerful through battle and by gaining experience, until at the end, you are the hero of the land. Also, a real RPG almost always has a deep and complex rule system at its core, which determines chances to hit, damage dealth, character stats, e.t.c. There are many games out there that have RPG elements in them, but none are true RPGs. Point and click games can not generally be considered role playing games in the gaming sense of the word.

 

As far as I remember, the earliest RPGs are either point and click or typed with a keyboard. Did you know that the first RPG had nothing but texts? There were no pictures, everything was in words and the players had to type out the commands. So yeah, point and click is RPG as far as I'm concerned.

 

Wow. All of you have given some very nice points of view. I stand by William Quah though. I also think that Point and Click games could be considered as RPGs. Though there are no leveling ups and such in Kentucky Route Zero, you do have the ability to roam around and talk to different people and choose different replies. RPG it is.

 

I love point and click games! But it didn't bother me that much about whether it's a RPG or not. Point and Click games are great if you have a good story and they usually give you a breath of fresh air from the usual button-mashing/keyboard mashing games. Some point and click games doesn't even have the more common RPG element (leveling, weapons, etc) in them, but they are still fun to play with!

 

I see no reason why a point and click can't be considered an rpg

 

I remember the very first PC rpg that I played was a point and click. I'm on an island and the gameplay focused on puzzle solving. The game was very popular for that time. The name of the game keeps escaping me.

 

Now this got me interested. Do you remember anything else? Like the visuals, the characters, the plot, etc......
Are the characters fully-voiced? Any catchphrases? What puzzles gives you a hard time? Perhaps remembering some more details and you could finally remember the name!

 

I do as long as it has some kind of leveling progression then I don't see why not just because the mechanics are different don't make it a none RPG.

 

It was a long time ago. It was 2D I think, no voice only sounds. Basically you go to a place and use the mouse to click on things like activate this or enter a new era. I remember another one was called King's Quest which was typing commands but not this one.

 

Definitely. As the name RPG states, as long as you are role playing as a character, you are essentially in an RPG. I used to play Ragnarok and Cabal, which were largely point and click based, with the occasional hotkey for skill usage, and these to me are very much RPGs.

 

Absolutely. Some of the best games I have ever played were point-and-click (WoW if you count it). Love this feature.

 

Some games, can be like RPG ones and involve quite a bit and can be nice as well and there have been some point and click ones which are good. I think interactive ones are interesting as the puzzles can be quite demanding at time and do require more work when doing them. It is a good feeling, when the game is fun and you can level up your person up in the game and make choices which can change what you do and who is with you in the game.

 

Some point and click games are really awesome. The concept may seem really easy and may be lame but it's still a game and what's important is if you're enjoying it. I'm really not sure if it's considered RPG though.

 

Any game that allows you to play a character, level up and adventure through many maps is an RPG in my book. Don't overthink it and if you put some time into the game while see it climbing to the top then it's definitely an RPG.

 

Sure, I don't think it makes a difference. A lot of computer games in general run on point and click.

 

Was it Myst you were thinking of? I bought the game on a whim and while I was a bit confused on what to do, I kept going and it became fun as I was able to get the hang of the puzzles. It didn't hurt that the artwork for the game was nice.

 

I think RPG is defined by the games' system and not how you play the game. Since RPG stands for 'Role Playing Game', if your playing as something or someone and you have some sort of role in the game to fill in then it is an RPG no matter what type of control scheme or gameplay mechanic the game is offering.

 

I do agree that Point and Clicks are 'RPG' games. You, as a character, have to progress in a story by bettering yourself. While you don't technically 'level up' per say in a P&C, you do have to find necessary items to progress in the story. That's qualification enough for me.