PC RPG Reviews for a crowd-sourced Book

Fellow RPG fans, hello!

My name is Felipe, and I'm currently working on a crowd-sourced book on cRPGs. After organizing the RPG Codex's Top 70 list, I decided to expand that into a full blown book.

The idea is to feature in-depth reviews of over 250 great cRPGs in chronological order, from Akalabeth to Might & Magic X, plus interesting articles on the genre and interviews. All that written by RPG fans from all over the world, compiled into a beautiful book with big a colored screenshots. It is a book showing what the genre has best, and how people enjoy them. A book that every review that you read you will see that it was important for the reviewer and want to play the game he just talked.

So far I've got some big developers in, like Ian S. Frazier (lead designer on the next Mass Effect) Tim Cain, Chris Avellone, Josh Sawyer and Colin McComb. I also got full support and access to the content of forums like the RPG Codex and RPG Watch (including some stuff from RPGdot), DJ Old Games, some indie developers like Iron Tower Studios, Sinister Design and Rampant Games, as well as bloggers such as cRPG Addict and modders like Durante and Wesp5.

Here's a small WIP preview: http://imgur.com/a/i3WrU

The entire project is entirely non-profit, so the final e-book will be freely available for download, under Creative Commons and all that. And if everything goes well I intend to make a paperback print also available, fully colored and in high-quality print, for those that want one. Non-profit as well, of course, sold at cost price. :)

My call for aid

Here's the list of games that will be in: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t-49SyrsdP0M5re68sDH9cB2MrPqVKwQQiFF_54VibI/pubhtml

I'm looking for fans willing to write a review of one or two of the listed games still unassigned. You can, of course, also suggest games that should be added.

BEFORE starting to write, please post on the thread about what will you do, PM me or send an e-mail to crpgbook at gmail.com. Someone might have already taken the game, or I might have extra details to discuss.

Thanks all for your time and sorry for the massive 12/12 Wall of Text. ;)

I'd be interested, but I feel your list needs a bit of.....well, tweaking. For example, Alpha Protocol: criminally underrated, and it still has no business being on a "best of RPGs" list. There simply wasn't enough there. Two playthroughs, while differing in some areas, were far too similar to warrant more than that.

The RPG Codex List is not the same as the one in the book. That one was a "TOP" list, made by over 200 users voting on their favorite PC RPGs.That's also why there's no Skyrim or Fallout 3 there.

The book is much larger, with over 250 RPGs, and in chronological order, without any sort of ranking.

Well that's far more intriguing. I don't know how to say this without either being an asshole or skirting around the issue with all sorts of creative allegories, so I'll just put it out there: the writing needs work (based on those screens). It reads too much like a blog post rather than a focused, tight article. It's too colloquial rather than professional. Please keep in mind that I'm not insulting; something like this has my utmost interest given how spectacular RPGs are as a whole, but there needs to be an overarching thesis or narrative device.

That said, the layout and design is top-notch. Well done on that, it looks extremely professional.

I understand your point, but I disagree. Matt Barton already made a book with a more "academical" approach on RPGs, separating them in eras, analyzing tendencies and all that. That's not my purpose here.

This book is part chronological catalog, part recommendation guide and part love letter to the genre. It will be written by all kinds of players, from top developers to newcomers to the genre. This is supposed to be a "coffee-table book", in the lines of that "1001 X to do before dying" series and other similar publications. It will be colloquial, passionate and entertaining.

Well that's far more intriguing. I don't know how to say this without either being an asshole or skirting around the issue with all sorts of creative allegories, so I'll just put it out there: the writing needs work (based on those screens). It reads too much like a blog post rather than a focused, tight article. It's too colloquial rather than professional. Please keep in mind that I'm not insulting; something like this has my utmost interest given how spectacular RPGs are as a whole, but there needs to be an overarching thesis or narrative device.

That said, the layout and design is top-notch. Well done on that, it looks extremely professional.

Yeah, you'll never see either of those two games listed on a "best" of anything at the Codex. For all its faults and sophomoric antics - many of the Codex users really know their RPGs. There are some serious freaks over there. Lots of knowledge - if you can get past the noise.

Good luck on your endeavor.

What the hell kind of RPG list is this without the truly IMMERSIVE and MAJESTIC SKYRIM ???

Come on, those old games had to use dice rolls/skill checks back then because technology was so damn shitty. Duh. No wonder the gameplay was so terrible.

Will buy your book Bro.

I don't do in depth game reviews ,so I can't be of assistance there, but I would be interested in the final product for sure. I'm liking the work your doing.

This book looks really professionally well made and highlights a lot of RPGs that I find to be too often overlooked. Not to mention the choices on the top 70 RPGs list, well you guys certainly appear to be very knowledgeable in RPGs and clearly demonstrate good tastes too. No Skyrim or Mass Effect 2, and several classics like Wizardry 7, Betrayal at Krondor and Arcanum are in instead.

3 questions.

1. Would some games in your list really be classified as an RPG such as X-COM UFO defense? Sure it had gear progression and learn by doing stat progression, but overall it didnt feel that much like an RPG since the clear focus here was easily strategy, the stat progression was as far as I am concerned just a means to reward players for keeping soldiers alive.

2. The layout of the pages is pretty good, are you using Latex?

3. When will the project be done, I will be really busy in the upcoming 2 weeks, so I am only posting here when I am on a break. But in 2 weeks they will be over and I can put effort into helping you guys.

Good luck with the book, I will probably buy it.

1. There's a running joke at the RPG Codex: "Define RPG".

I honestly can't. Neither can anyone I ever spoke to. Many tried, but all definitions I ever found are usually restrictive and remove some of the great classics. Yeah, X-COM doesn't have any choice story-wise, but neither had the early Wizardry games and many other dungeon-crawlers, where you're also just fighting to get to the end and keep your party alive.

So I'm using a very broad definition of RPG, and capturing many of the "hybrids" around it as well. I know this will lead to massive DRAMA from many readers, but you can't please everyone, so I'll just do what I feel is the best way to present the genre & its evolution. And yes, it will be very arbitrary.

2. No, I'm doing it myself on Adobe InDesign. I've been working in advertisement for almost 10 years now, so I've learned one or two tricks along the way.

3. Take your time, I'm in no hurry. Many of the reviewers are busy with college and asked for a month before delivering any content. The project will still take several months, but I intend to release a 50-page preview of it in a month or so, and have it done & published this year.

Thanks for your interest and support. :)

Replies in bold.

This sounds like a wonderful project! I will be looking forward to it eagerly.

If someone is still checking this, we just released a 100-page preview of the book. :)

Grab it here: http://www.mediafire.com/view/66nybf...ok_Preview.pdf

That story about Fallout and the teacher were interesting, I remember hearing it a while back too.

• Hmm, looks like someone said everything I wanted to say about Wizardry 4. The dungeon design in that game was nothing short of brilliant and the whole thing being a race against time certainly kept you at your feet. Multiple endings made for multiple replays, and those multiple endings were not the result of green, red or blue light either, unlike a certain game I wont mention.
• Regarding Mount and blade, it was Taleworlds, not Paradox Interactive who developed it. Paradox interractive became a publisher late throughout its development as a last resort from the devs to avoid bankruptcy.
• Regarding Labyrinth of Touhou, are you gonna give a nod to the sequel?

Overall, plenty of good trivia here and there, and the descriptions for each game isnt longer than it needs to be. Unless that docs list is outdated though, I feel new titles may be added and I feel a few old ones are missing (King of Dragon Pass?), good project overall thus far.