In my opinion, this style of play has to do with building up power and might. To me, it's like as if someone tries - virtually - to become the mightiest person (character) possible. It's like "I have the fastest car" to me.
I wouldn't say so, Alrik: having the fastest car means nothing: you shall never use it to its full potential in the city. Having a high-level character, on the other hand, undeniably helps you.
Excellent points, Glance. Subconsciously I utilize the term "beating a game" when it comes to console games: I suppose that's because I see no fun in actually PLAYING platformers such as Super Mario. Psychonauts is unique for this reason: I couldn't just jump over the platforms as fast as I could: I stopped to listen to a voice or watch a picture. I was constantly looking around to spot some elusive figment of imagination...concerned see Action-RPGs as past at least as long as Diablo clones are concerned. More and more companies are jumping on the MMO band-wagon which, frankly, annoys me greatly. I see MMOs as nothing but vacuum-cleaner tubes in the customer's pockets. The whole idea of playing monthly for a game I already own bothers me and after playing Guild Wars, I can't believe anyone would waste 200$ per month of a game of similar mechanics. The last RPG I found worthy? Jade Empire. I loved every single second of it and rushed the later parts because I really wanted to see how it all would end. Every location of the game was memorable and each NPC had unique traits.
I recently played Fable: The Last Chapters (just before switching to Mac) and I must say, this game was severely under-rated as a game and over-rated as an RPG. I had a LOT of fun with Fable: I'd gladly pay the full 50$ price for it but without a PC, I'll wait for the 30$ Xbox version instead. On the other hand, as an RPG, Fable's storyline is forgettable and the gameworld is way too small. I congratulate Peter Mouleneux and Lionhead for a fun approach to fantasy stat-based action games but calling it an RPG is like calling Doom 3 a real-time strategy game: not quite.
I believe I already mentioned that the actual length of modern-day games (and especially RPGs) is decreasing very quickly. You all played BG II and you know that 20 hours of gameplay is nothing when talking about this game. Take a modern title. Fable? 20-33h. KOTOR? 15-20h. Jade Empire? 11-27h. This I don't grok.
