What type of Wrpg do you prefer?

In my opinion they're are two types of WRPG games:
 
Story-centric WRPG games usually have the player travel to different areas building up a party and making choices through some type of dialogue system as they fight to save the world...or destroy it.  ex: Witcher, Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Kotor.
 
While Exploration centric WRPG games place a player in a large open world and just let's him loose. The player then proceeds to join guilds, massacre towns, complete miscellaneous quest, and explore the world. ex: Oblivion, Morrowind, Gothic, Fallout.
 
If anyone can think of another type of WRPG feel free to tell me, but out of these two types which do you prefer?

exlporation, but the oblivion time era does nothing for me

I like both a lot, but I suppose I pick story heavy more linear WRPGs. They immerse me more into their world.

Dragonage/MassEffect/Witcher any day

Dragon Age type fantasy

Exploration type

I love both, but I prefer the exploration style.

Wouldn't know, as I've only played Fallout 3, of those. I like JRPGs, if that helps.

WRPGs are all the same.
 
Sorry, that was my obligatory bitter JRPG fan post.
 
Seriously though, story-centric ones. Mass Effect was great, though Dragon Age sputtered out for me once I hooked up with Alistair.

" Dragonage/MassEffect/Witcher any day "

just call them bioware and bethesda types, because they're both the main ones behind that style.
 
if the first type has good writing then that one, if it doesn't then I'd rather play a exploratory one.

It seems like Bioware vs. Bethesda to me. I like to play both types but I think I enjoy the exploration more. I love games like Mass Effect and Dragon Age but I would enjoy them even more if I could explore the world more.

The ones that BioWare are into making.  The whole ridiculously-huge open world as seen in the Elder Scrolls franchise, and most recently in Fallout 3, are completely unappealing to me.  That said, nothing's better (in my opinion) than a good, old-fashion Japanese RPG.  On a handheld, preferably.

Can an entry to the wiki be made to let me know what a WRPG is?

I like RPG's in general for a lot of reasons, although  the two important ones are an interesting story and a compelling combat system.  I think that having too much story results in long, eventually dull scenes where I just want to go off and do something else.

I like always knowing what I'm "supposed" to be doing next, but I also like being able to ignore it and do whatever I want.  I want to be allowed to do what I want, not forced to do what I'm told; I like having a set objective because when I'm lost, it gives me a clear goal to pursue.

" just call them bioware and bethesda types, because they're both the main ones behind that style. "

" @Laketown said:

" just call them bioware and bethesda types, because they're both the main ones behind that style. "

That's just silly.  What about combat/loot driven ones like Diablo, Borderlands, Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath and so on? Personally I don't prefer any over the other and love all sorts of RPGs. "

" Wouldn't know, as I've only played Fallout 3, of those. I like JRPGs, if that helps. "

" @Laketown said:

" just call them bioware and bethesda types, because they're both the main ones behind that style. "

That's just silly.  What about combat/loot driven ones like Diablo, Borderlands, Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath and so on? Personally I don't prefer any over the other and love all sorts of RPGs. "

" WRPGs are all the same. Sorry, that was my obligatory bitter JRPG fan post.  Seriously though, story-centric ones. Mass Effect was great, though Dragon Age sputtered out for me once I hooked up with Alistair. "

" @Laketown said:

" just call them bioware and bethesda types, because they're both the main ones behind that style. "

That's just silly.  What about combat/loot driven ones like Diablo, Borderlands, Dark Alliance, Champions of Norrath and so on? Personally I don't prefer any over the other and love all sorts of RPGs. "

It's hard for me to choose. I have spent an untold amount of hours in Oblivion exploring and enjoying the scenery and the music, but on the other hand I love a game with a great story. Games like Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
 
I suppose if I had to choose one "style" of RPG that I like, it would be a game with a great story. Because there is no matching an epic tale filled with anger, love, action, and some betrayal mixed in there.

Both, depending on era. As far as story-driven wrpg's go, I enjoyed the old ones like planescape more than I'm enjoying this generation. I had a really hard time getting into witcher, and after a single playthrough I don't have any interest in playing more mass-effect or dragon age. 
 
As for open-world wrpg's, the raw power of recent times has helped them immensely. I played morrowind recently for the first time after buying it off the steam sale. After putting around 30 hours into playing it and 3 hours into modding it, I reinstalled and re-modded oblivion and am playing through that for the 4th or 5th time. I wish fallout 3 had been built from the group up though, since I'm really not looking forward to playing new vegas on a 4-5 year old engine that's been buggy from the start.

Hm, never really thought of it that way, I've always thought of it as Bioware vs Bethesda D:
 
Anyway, the first type. But, really, anything that's not bland medieval fantasy.

I prefer Bethesda's type of WRPG's mainly because it's easier for me to worry about just one character. The only game I can give the exception to is Mass Effect. 

i like those bioware ones.

I like both, but between the two I'd probably pick the story-centric games. Everything BioWare makes is fantastic, and Mass Effect 2 could easily be my favourite game in years. I love the whole choose your own adventure thing and how choices impact the story, and damn if BioWare games don't have great gameplay, music, and characters to go with these stories. Looking at the list of games they've made, there's not one RPG in there that I didn't enjoy. Story-centric games are the video game equivalent of a book, and just like real books people either love them or find them long and boring. 
 
I'm also a fan of the the free-roam type, but the recent ones aren't doing much for me. Morrowind is probably my second favourite WRPG, but the more recent ones feel kind of dated and lifeless. I could overlook Morrowind having terrible combat and AI since it came out in 2002, but Oblivion came out in 2006 and Fallout 3 in late 2008. They've tried to address the combat issues since, but it still isn't enough. Oblivion's wasn't much better than Morrowind's, and Fallout 3 had some cool ideas with the VATS but it was still a pain in the ass to fight without using it since guns miss 90% of the time without super high stats. The amount of AI glitches certainly don't help you feel involved in the games, either. It's a ton of fun creating your own character and roaming around the world doing whatever you want, but I've had a better experience with story-centric WRPGs overall. 

I like them both, but I'd say story oriented RPGs have the slight edge for me, as long as they aren't boring (which is most of them to be honest). The Witcher is one of my favourites, though I do think the environments could be a bit more open, something which looks to be fixed in the sequel. 

Either type is cool with me. My all-time 2 favorite RPGs are Fallout 3 and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, so I can definitely go either way.

" Dragonage/MassEffect/Witcher any day "

Fallout 3 ... Definitely. 
 
I guess watching an entire season of Desert Punk before playing fallout 3 would do that. 
i wish they'd make a Desert Punk game in a fallout style way

I prefer the play-one-character, first person style, exploration open world style.   Daggerfall and Morrowind are the high points I think.  Oblivion just was hurt by too much voice acting, hurt the options in quests and variety.  There's a lot of other good open ended RPGs beyond Bethesda's stuff, too.
 
But I do really enjoy a good talky protagonist, story driven WRPG as well.  I adore Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Torment, and others.  I liked KOTOR at the time, and I really want to try Witcher.  I didn't care much for Dragon Age though.

I absolutely fucking hate it when games try to tell me a story, so I'm definitely an exploration type of guy.

I like both, but if I had to chose one, then it would be story-centric RPGs.

My all time favorite game is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The story, plot twist, characters and locations was all awesome, plus the whole good vs bad characters made multiple play through's very enjoyable. 

I prefer Wrpg, because they are actually role playing games (compared to jrpg's) Being able to create a character and shape them as you wish, wrpg tend to have more focus on loot, exploration and have characters and worlds i can relate to more easily.

Just realized my post turned into a wrpg vs jrpg thing... hmm fuck it! :D

I really enjoy playing Oblivion, I just get so badly distracted installing/testing out mods. 
 
But yeah, i'm more of a Bethesda guy, I try and play Bioware games, I just find them incredibly boring.

I like the story ones best.  In fact they are my favorite type of video game period.  But, I also love the exploration and loot gathering types, too.  [As someone already pointed out there are 3 types of WRPG, not 2]  I think as we head into the future it's going to be harder to distinguish which is an RPG and which is a game with RPG elements.  Shooters, action/adventure and even puzzle games all incorporate aspects we normally associate with RPGs.  I think this a good thing, but it makes me wonder what's in store for the pure RPG formula.  How will it evolve over time?

" making choices through some type of dialogue system as they fight to save the world...or destroy it.   "

Game's like Fallout and Oblivion are more my cup of tea than say Dragon Age and Mass Effect.

Story driven, though truth be known I'd say more like story driven, party based and with combat from D&D based are my very favorite. 
 
So like 
 
Planescape/Baldur's Gate/
DA/ME
Fallout

Man, gamers are so fond of labeling and categorizing everything, it's getting ridiculous. Matched only by hardcore black metal fans.  
 
I don't really like RPG's to begin with, but exploration type games usually get tiresome and boring in a game with such dull/slow/stupid combat mechanics as RPG's tend to have for some reason (seriously, why anyone would want anything other than real time combat in any game I'll never understand), so if I were to play an RPG I'd prefer it to be a straight, linear experience. I fucking hate party mechanics, though, so that limits my options considerably. 

Story-centric stuff. 
 
 
Never liked Fallout 3 or Oblivion.

I can't get enough of either, but Morrowind & Mount&Blade are my all time favorite RPGs, so open world is clearly superior in my eye when done right.
 
Recent Bethesda implementations (Oblivion, Fallout 3) have been pretty poor, though. In that case, I'll take even a mediocre "story-driven" (D&D derivative, I call them, because I always relate them to Baldur's Gate) over an open world game that isn't done well.

I enjoy both types pretty much equally, that I can't choose between the two.  Mass Effect 2 (story based) and Fallout 3 (exploration based) are two of my top favorite games of this generation.

I tend to prefer Story centric RPGs because it gives me a better idea of what I'm meant to do, and it gives me a reason to actually play the game. Which is in stark contrast to the Fallout/Oblivion type of game where there's isn't really any focus, and I tend to just get bored by their lack of direction (also I'm a bit of a completionist, and I don't want to get sucked into games that are that expansive)

" I like the story ones best.  In fact they are my favorite type of video game period.  But, I also love the exploration and loot gathering types, too.  [As someone already pointed out there are 3 types of WRPG, not 2]  I think as we head into the future it's going to be harder to distinguish which is an RPG and which is a game with RPG elements.  Shooters, action/adventure and even puzzle games all incorporate aspects we normally associate with RPGs.  I think this a good thing, but it makes me wonder what's in store for the pure RPG formula.  How will it evolve over time? "

" I like the story ones best.  In fact they are my favorite type of video game period.  But, I also love the exploration and loot gathering types, too.  [As someone already pointed out there are 3 types of WRPG, not 2]  I think as we head into the future it's going to be harder to distinguish which is an RPG and which is a game with RPG elements.  Shooters, action/adventure and even puzzle games all incorporate aspects we normally associate with RPGs.  I think this a good thing, but it makes me wonder what's in store for the pure RPG formula.  How will it evolve over time? "

They do still make adventure games from time to time.

Could you name me some recent ones?

Story centric