The genre of “roleplaying games” is one of the hardest to define.  Some people define them as games with a story that the player has some control over, a role that the player can get into and make their own.  Others say that character sheets and items with a lot of numbers make the genre, where success in combat is determined by dice rolls and chance just as much (if not more than) player skill. Still others say the meat of the genre lies in the battle system, with some of the more old school fans decrying anything that isn’t strictly turn-based.

For me, the battle system is the least important thing when it comes to an RPG experience.  The battle system is intrinsic to the game design; nothing I do can or should have any effect on it.  Two things have a separate and equal station when determining if a game is an “true” RPG for me:  player agency and player customization.  One without the other is nothing more than “RPG-lite” or “RPG-like mechanics.”  However, the hallmark of roleplaying is the ability to shape both a character and a world in my own way.

 A fleshed out world with engrossing fiction, characters, and backstory is a necessary component of the genre.  But that is not the only importance of a world in which one roleplays.  A player needs to be able to have some effect on the world.  I’m not talking about a scripted story in which one saves the world, rights all of the wrongs, or finds the ancient artifact.  Those things are all well and good, but the hero does this in all types of fiction.  In books, movies, comics, and even in most video games, these things are going to happen.  In games, just like every other medium, they tend to play out the same way on repeat viewings.  This denies the medium of games one of its biggest strengths:  the ability of a player to be the one calling the shots.  I understand the need of a greater structure within the game, an overall goal within the story arc, but how the player gets there, and the things they do along the way, should be up to them.

 Equally as important to the nature of playing a specific role in a game is the capability to choose how my character gets more powerful.  This goes beyond getting more powerful weapons as I progress through the levels—even Doom has a character getting an increasingly potent arsenal further along.  The most obvious form of this is a skill tree with abilities, magic, powers, and the like to advance, but it goes further than that.  Items in the game matter, as well.  Which armor, weapons, and gear to equip is another way to fill out a character’s singular role in game world.  The more options for leveling up and getting new gear there are, the more unique and distinct a player’s avatar can become.  This is in direct contrast to the player’s avatar in most other games; while these characters advance, too, they do so along mostly predetermined paths.  In real life we choose the clothes we wear, the vehicles we drive, the electronic items that we use.  If I’m playing a character that I should be invested in, the choices of what items I can use matters.

This is why Mass Effect 2, while still a great game, fails half of the RPG test.  I can decide the fate of a galaxy, but I can’t decide with any real detail what type of armor or weapon modifications I want me or my party to use?  This strikes me as ridiculous.  That depth is simply not there.

Immersion is not something that can be done piecemeal: either a game is immersive, or it isn’t. And I find it difficult to immerse myself in a character when I can’t even tell my party members to change their stinkin’ clothes.