Bioware: Call of Duty is an RPG and we want that audiance.

With Dragon Age II’s release imminent, senior producer Fernando Melo feels the sequel has far more reach than Origins, even potentially attracting the same kind of crowd that flocks to gaming’s biggest franchise, Call Of Duty.

Speaking to NowGamer Melo said: “We have data that shows there are a lot of people that enjoy playing RPGs although they won’t necessarily call them RPGs. They’ll play Fallout, Assassin’s Creed and even Call Of Duty, which have these progression elements – you’re putting points into things – but they don’t necessarily associate that as an RPG. So we think that if we expand that out we’ll attract a much bigger audience.”

There’s certainly logic in his thinking, and with individuals who failed to be enticed by BioWare’s original epic actually being swayed by the sequel – not to mention the upcoming demo giving gamers a chance to sample its goods first – there’s every change Dragon Age II may succeed in this goal. 

only thing I hope for is CDProjekt bringing in those people for the witcher 2, that definitely seems deeper.

They're not technically wrong, I guess. Zelda is a survival-horror game, too.

The way of the RPG is spilling over into the other genres, making them RPGs in a sense, but even without the level progression the basic idea of an RPG has always been in every game, you take control of this dude that does stuff.

No shit. It's a group of 5 billion people.
There is no company in the universe that does not want that audience

They're aren't totally wrong since it does have some light RPG elements in the multiplayer.

I think Bioware is smart for being able to look at their competitors, realize the strengths from those brands, and implement similar gameplay styles into their games. A bad developer has a narrow view of the industry by only looking at games in a certain genre while a great developer looks at the industry as a whole. If there was an amazing leveling system in the next Cooking Mama game I would hope that developers like Bioware would look at it and undertsnad why it's so great. 

Except if Bioware would actually make a modern warfare RPG like Mass Effect I would actually play it, and I've never played a Call of Duty game.

Chill out. He's just saying that these games have pieces that are traditionally found in RPG's. They are not going to make Dragon Age an FPS.
 
And with Fallout 3, I totally agree with him. I know people who hate RPG's who love the crap out of Fallout 3, which I would most definitely consider an RPG.

I interpreted it as kind of mocking. Seriously, too many people associate stats and attribute points with RPG, completely ignoring that the term stands for ROLE PLAYING GAME. Remember the flack Mass Effect 2 got? People talking how they felt more attached to their Borderlands characters than Shepard, because you couldn't put points into lockpicking in ME2?

I don't remember allocating anything in a CoD game. 
 
Though there were rewards for shooting people in the face and they gave me more guns to use when playing lots.  The concept of an "unlock" is not an RPG element to me, just because they use the concept of "XP" to gauge how much you play and when to classify you as the next level does not increase your character's abilities.  The only thing that is in control of these skills is you as the player.  An FPS can never merge with an RPG to the point where allocating skill points becomes a factor, for then it is no longer an FPS anymore. 
 
The idea of progression isn't a concept strictly related to RPGs, though all RPGs probably have it.  It is a concept related to video games, some have it, some don't.

I would love to see COD go turn-based battle and experience the reaction from people

First JRPGs are dead, and now Call of Duty is an RPG?
 
Oh, Bioware.

Seriously? And Final Fantasy XIII is a sports game.

Everybody wants the CoD audience... Also with games like Diablo and now that all games have rpg elements, the RPG has lost it's meaning. I mean Steam lists Bioshock as an RPG...

It's political correctness gone mad!

I don't see why it's sad. A bajillion people play Call of Duty. It's a big pie. I'd want a piece of it too, if I was BIoware, especially if there are comparable design elements that might serve as a foothold into another market.

Don't complain about a perceived lack of depth in Dragon Age II until you've played the game.

I can't complain about Bioware wanting to add a little elemnt from other game styles. However, I do like a game that is done perfectly and doesn't try to be everything to everyone.    

" I don't see why it's sad. A bajillion people play Call of Duty. It's a big pie. I'd want a piece of it too, if I was BIoware, especially if there are comparable design elements that might serve as a foothold into another market. "

How is this a bad thing? I'm still playing Blops while listening to podcasts just about every night, like a crazed addict. I prestiged once because I'd never done it before, and then I hated it because I lost all of my stuff, and I was just getting into using a SPAS with a suppressor. Then I got to 50 again, and immediately prestiged again. 
 
This just in: humans like to increment integers.

Not really.
 
Then again, ME2 isn't much of an RPG either.

" Don't complain about a perceived lack of depth in Dragon Age II until you've played the game. "

Don't see anything wrong with that. CoD has a great level progression that works for the type of game it is. It's not a crazy indepth system, but you can't deny that it's there.

Bioware is right, you're just over reacting with your "spitting in the face" nonsense. It's marketing, grow up.

" They're aren't totally wrong since it does have some light RPG elements in the multiplayer. "

Role playing game.

Bioware is just stating the obvious deevolution of the genre. Heretic used to be a shooter with RPG elements, but the western interpretation of "innovation" has turned "shooter with RPG elements" into RPG. For years now, shooters have been "innovating" by taking RPG elements and RPGs have been "innovation" by taking shooter elements. How long are we supposed to pretend RDR and Fallout New Vegas are completely different genres. I hate where RPGs are going, but for once Bioware is stating the obvious and I'm glad someone is.

I hide behind cover, pop up and shoot things, watch cutscenes and make decisions, switch weapons, is it an RPG?
 
No, it's a cover-based shooter.
 
Not looking forward to more Bioware games getting RPG awards they're not deserving of.

RPG is just Role-Playing. Any game that doesn't involve the real life person in the game is literally a role playing game. No shit.

I guess you role-play a military guy... 
 
Then again that makes most games RPGs... 
 
Not sure if the leveling mechanic is strictly an RPG thing.

The hardcore CoD player will never pick a Bioware game and that's a fact. The percentage of people who are big into shooters are just not built for RPG. Most of them don't even know CoD 4 took it's MP progression from RPG's and when you try explaining it to them they think RPG is a Rocker Propelled Grenade. 
Now I am not saying all HC CoD players are like that but the majority of them won't give an RPG game the light of day. Their brain is just not wired for something more then "Point end of gun and shoot"  . Most have that mentality of "No MP then it's not worth my time" . 
 
It does seem Bioware not only wants them but are changing their games because in order to get said crowd. I am happy they want more people playing their games but I don't have to agree to that direction they are taking. 

Wait, what? I think they're confusing RPG with basic story/gameplay elements.

" I hide behind cover, pop up and shoot things, watch cutscenes and make decisions, switch weapons, is it an RPG?  No, it's a cover-based shooter.  Not looking forward to more Bioware games getting RPG awards they're not deserving of. "

" RPG is just Role-Playing. Any game that doesn't involve the real life person in the game is literally a role playing game. No shit. "

Except that doesn't mean they enjoy playing RPGs, it just means they are inclined (like most of us) to chase levels like a carrot on a stick.  "Putting points into things" should not be the defining characteristic of an RPG - role-playing should be.  We've allowed the meaning of a genre label to be usurped by some of the incidental mechanics these games just happened to have.  Yes the video game terms 'RPG' & 'CRPG' are derived from P&P RPGs, but they were called that because of the role-playing, not because of stats, levels & d20s.
 
Will we eventually get to a point where we ignore what FPS stands for and just equate that with "putting points into things" too?

" @themangalist said:

" RPG is just Role-Playing. Any game that doesn't involve the real life person in the game is literally a role playing game. No shit. "

Words like idiot savant and preschool must give you a fucking migraine, going through life interpreting compound phrases by the makeup of each word. Labor day, you have to labor all day, duh. "

Fuck off Bioware, you're heading down the wrong road. 

And Dragon Age was shit.

RPG mechanics in shooters, old news. BioWare wants the huge marktet share CoD has, no shit. 
 
But in the end there's people who enjoy atmosphere, narrative, esthetics, etc - and people that want to vicariously kill stuff. And a lot more of the latter.

  @Mordukai said:

" The hardcore CoD player will never pick a Bioware game and that's a fact. The percentage of people who are big into shooters are just not built for RPG. Most of them don't even know CoD 4 took it's MP progression from RPG's and when you try explaining it to them they think RPG is a Rocker Propelled Grenade. Now I am not saying all HC CoD players are like that but the majority of them won't give an RPG game the light of day. Their brain is just not wired for something more then "Point end of gun and shoot"  . Most have that mentality of "No MP then it's not worth my time" .  It does seem Bioware not only wants them but are changing their games because in order to get said crowd. I am happy they want more people playing their games but I don't have to agree to that direction they are taking.  "

" @ryanwho said:

" @themangalist said:

" RPG is just Role-Playing. Any game that doesn't involve the real life person in the game is literally a role playing game. No shit. "

Words like idiot savant and preschool must give you a fucking migraine, going through life interpreting compound phrases by the makeup of each word. Labor day, you have to labor all day, duh. "

Why are you so angry? "

" @ryanwho said:

" @themangalist said:

" RPG is just Role-Playing. Any game that doesn't involve the real life person in the game is literally a role playing game. No shit. "

Words like idiot savant and preschool must give you a fucking migraine, going through life interpreting compound phrases by the makeup of each word. Labor day, you have to labor all day, duh. "

Why are you so angry? "

"   @Mordukai said:

" The hardcore CoD player will never pick a Bioware game and that's a fact. The percentage of people who are big into shooters are just not built for RPG. Most of them don't even know CoD 4 took it's MP progression from RPG's and when you try explaining it to them they think RPG is a Rocker Propelled Grenade. Now I am not saying all HC CoD players are like that but the majority of them won't give an RPG game the light of day. Their brain is just not wired for something more then "Point end of gun and shoot"  . Most have that mentality of "No MP then it's not worth my time" .  It does seem Bioware not only wants them but are changing their games because in order to get said crowd. I am happy they want more people playing their games but I don't have to agree to that direction they are taking.  "

For a good three plus months CoD4 was all I played, and I continued to play it throughout the year. For another good two plus months MW2 was all I played, and I continued to play it throughout the year. I'm still playing Reach MP almost daily. I love to "point end of gun and shoot", and I care about ranks, headshots and K/Ds.   I also think Bioware is among the most prolific modern developers out there. Go fuck your elitist self. "

Gah. The classic RPG is being drained of its marrow and mutated into some mass market, focus-tested, EA-spawned Frankenstein's monster. This is truly horrifying to hear from Bioware.

People are taking this WAY out of proportion. 
  
1) Nowhere does it say that "We at Bioware are going to start making modern war shooters" (Though really, I think Bioware's take on a modern shooter could be cool) 
2) Don't take an offhand comment as the company gospel 
3) Bioware can make any kind of game they damn well please
 
Also, as for the definition of RPG, time for a history lesson: 
 
RPGs were originally based of PnP games like Dungeons & Dragons. Those were role playing games because you created a character and then played AS that character. They were about making choices and progression as a character. Games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest took inspiration from D&D, so they too were called "RPGs" even though there was little-to-no real role playing involved. This lead to two distinct but tangentially linked genres: The JRPGs, which followed the popularity and format of FF and DQ; and WRPGs, which were more rooted in the actual role-playing and decision making aspects of the original pnp games.  
 
In reality, most JRPGs aren't "real" RPGs because they usually lack any of that all-important "RPing" aspect. RPG is just  the traditionally accepted name of the genre based off it's roots. This doesn't make JRPGs in any way lesser or inferior, it just makes them a different genre, and makes it confusing when trying to argue whether a certain game is an RPG or not.