About a month ago I decided to update writing for my game Necrofear, which I had put on hold since the year before. I wanted a place to store all my design documents though, not connected to my hard drive, in case of a system failure. It was then that I decided to use Deviant Art, since I didn't have all that many friends on my DA, but then decided, "hey, you know what would be fun? If I had something like this for just games and stories and stuff." So I made one. A database for all my written work, all my role playing game systems and characters (Mutants and Masterminds, Dungeons and Dragons) and all my video games (RPG or otherwise.) I went through my old computers and got all the files I could to stick them into this database. Yet, while raiding the old computers, I noticed a game I did not create on there. A little executable I had yet to play.
A little game called Peggle.
For those unaware, Peggle's a simple game: Shoot a ball out of a cannon from the top of the screen in an attempt to eliminate all the orange pegs from the level in ten shots. Purple pegs give more points, green pegs activate special powers, and blue pegs just get in the way. It has a nice physics engine, but is otherwise a simple game. And yet, it's addictive. It's considered one of the top 5 addictive games of all time. Studies on it have showed it reduces depression significantly (according the study Wiki sources, by 45% with over a 500% increase in mood. I don't even know what that means, or if the researchers were on LSD when doing that study so I'm hesitant to cite it.) Why? It's gathered immense popularity, seemingly out of nowhere, but is at it's core a very basic game.
It's what we call KISS. Keep it simple, stupid. Peggle's mastered this, by offering what can be played as a simple game but with huge levels of mastery and depth allowing for a source of addiction. It does not pressure the player, the game is changing, but the core mechanics are simple, easy to grasp, and never change. All depth is entirely optional.
So why is it that RPG's fail at this?
RPG's like Final Fantasy VII gave this attempt with a complex and very well done Materia system, however the system becomes obsolete in the mid to latter part of the game due to the sheer difference in attack damage and materia based damage. Furthermore, there's no reward for using a complicated set up. If the easier, faster, less resource intensive set up wins, and the reward is the same, then the complicated and well thought one becomes obsolete. Casual players would be turned off by the system initially, as it's vast and intimidating, and more hardcore players would just ignore it altogether unless bored.
Then we end up with games like Final Fantasy Tactics. Tactics -can- be played simply, but the player will never have any understanding of the system. It's a system ludicrously hard to grasp. David Sirlin said he never played the game, because while looking at the tutorial with a friend (who had a PhD) they were overwhelmed by the complexity of the system.
This isn't necessarily true for ALL RPG's, some of them do get it right, but it's extremely rare and to be honest, I can't think of any off the top of my head (well one, I'll discuss it below). I love RPG's, they're a great style of game and a great medium in which to tell a story while interacting with a player, but RPG's don't typically break into the life of a casual gamer because they tend to be too complex, slow, or simply not interactive enough. Having to wait your turn is probably a bigger deal than we credit it.
Which may be why the Legend of Zelda is doing so well. The game is very simple. There isn't even a jump button. The game does that for you. You simply walk around and attack. As time progresses, you get various items with different properties, and there's some cool stuff you can do on the side for the more hardcore gamer, but the casual player does not have to get overwhelmed by complexity near the beginning. They can simply pick it up and gather more and more choices, until they become comfortable with the game.
So how to do this with a standard RPG? You can't simply strip away the players in combat options, or it becomes boring. However allowing for many options could easily scare away more casual players, who have not become comfortable with the RPG system yet. You could always make games reminiscent of Zelda, using similar battle systems to get those kinds of players comfortable right off the bat, and this is a great solution (and honestly, the way RPG's should be evolving in order to incorporate a larger audience and slowly suck them into the more tactical, choice intensive ones.) However, we end up with a lot of games that look similar (like western RPG's, which are all different but based and designed on the same principles, or shooters, etc.,)
RPG's are typically more diverse than that, however. I do not intend to create a standard turn based RPG that appeals to the casual gamer. I do not intend to create a tactical strategy RPG that appeals to the casual gamer. The current projects I'm working on are not meant to appeal to the casual gamer. This post is more of a mental exercise, to prove that given a circumstance it's possible to create an RPG that appeals to the casual gamer, which is extremely simple and easy to grasp at it's core, but with enough depth to appeal to the more hardcore gamer. Peggle the RPG. Just to see what kind of design that would come out.
The idea is not to create a game based off another game. Not to create a system based off another system, unless significantly expanded upon. The idea is to create something loose and flexible enough for your twelve your sister to go "hey, looks fun" after seeing it once. You should be able to explain the gameplay in a sentence or two ("hit all the orange pegs.") To have depth, and to still be categorized in RPG. It's not even really a question with a definite answer, I want to see what kind of systems any of you would come up with. Loose, unconstrained ideas. Those are fun.
I have a few ideas as to what a game like that could look like, but I'm already scared I confused most of you, and scared the rest away with this giant wall of text. Another sentence or two and I'll have a fortress.