The original IWD used essentially the same game engine and RPG framework that all the other games in the Infinity Engine series did. Those games are:
Planescape Torment Baldur's Gate (and the Tales of the Sword Cost expansion pack) Baldur's Gate II (and the Throne of Bhall expansion pack) Icewind Dale (and the Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster expansion packs) Icewind Dale II
Each game in the series made modifications to the game engine and GUI as the series progressed. Both the BG and IWD games are set in the same imaginary world of The Forgotten Realms, but they are set in two different parts of that world and in different centuries.
Both the original BGI and it's underlying Infinity Engine were developed by Bioware but IWD was made by Black Isle Studios using a slightly modified version if the Infinity Engine.
The main differencs between BG and IWD are:
1) In IWD there are no recruitable NPCs. Instead you create you own party from scratch or from character files. 2) There is only one town where you can shop or rent a room in IWD. 3) Almost all of the combat and adventuring in IWD is indoors and a lot of that is underground. 4) None of the characters or places in IWD are in BG or BGII and vicea versa. 5) The soundtrack is completely different, not even the same composer. Many say that the IWD soundtrack is the best PC game soundtrack ever made. Others just say that isone of the best.
I second all those brilliant answers about IWD as an RPG.
- According to the wiki, a role-playing game (RPG and sometimes roleplaying game) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting.
✓Check
- Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making or character development.
✓Check
- Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.
✓Check
- Both authors and major publishers of tabletop role-playing games consider them (and I think it's the same for computer RPGs) to be a form of interactive and collaborative storytelling.
✓Check
- Events, characters, and narrative structure give a sense of a narrative experience, and the game need not have a strongly-defined storyline.
✓Check
- Interactivity is the crucial difference between role-playing games and traditional fiction. Whereas a viewer of a television show is a passive observer, a player in a role-playing game makes choices that affect the story. Such role-playing games extend an older tradition of storytelling games where a small party of friends collaborate to create a story.
Of course! Sim City is an RPG! Solitaire is an RPG! Age of Empires is an RPG! Street Fighter is an RPG. Megaman is an RPG!
Everything is an RPG!
Actually, he has a point. RPG elements have been blending into other genres quite a lot for the past 8 years or so. One need look no further than Borderlands, Mass Effect, the newer Fallout games, and Destiny.
@iKrivetko Wow. What an inspired post. You've convinced me. [Sarcasm]
Guys! It's cool! Thread over! Diablo isn't an RPG because this guy said so! We can all go home! [Sarcasm Intensifies]
You are so good at being sarcastic.
Ah, silly me! I thought you could use the indicator, but obviously I was mistaken given how much brilliant cleverness you displayed with that first post.
@iKrivetko Wow. What an inspired post. You've convinced me. [Sarcasm]
Guys! It's cool! Thread over! Diablo isn't an RPG because this guy said so! We can all go home! [Sarcasm Intensifies]
He is partially right. Technically, it's not an RPG because there's no "Role-Playing" to be done in the Game. It's more of a dungeon-crawler, hack n slash with RPG mechanics.
The problem is with the semantics. "RPGs" nowadays are considered those games that have RPG mechanics (like levelling, stats etc) even if there's no Role-Playing involved.
The same with JRPGs. In the majority of them, you cannot even create your character. You're basically following a story with premade characters and there's leveling and stats involved.
The problem is also that there's no term to describe games that have RPG mechanics but no roleplaying in them. What do you call these? Stat-based games? Dungeon-crawlers with stats? It's just faster and more convenient to call them ARPGs and JRPGs and be done with it.
JRPGs can be accurately categorized as stat-based/graphic-novels/adventure games, perhaps. And Diablo-likes as stat-based/action/dungeon-crawlers. But the Witcher/Mass Effect games are actual action and Role-playing games.
Who says there is no "role playing" in Diablo? You can role play in Ghost Recon if you want, and you can choose to not role play in BG2 if you want (approaching it as a tactical puzzle). It is down to how you choose to play.
Roleplaying means that you choose and play a role and there are options to support that role.
There's no RP in Diablo because it doesn't matter what you do or choose. You're there to kill stuff, the story or dialogues don't change.
And there's no RP in Ghost Recon. If you pretend that you're roleplaying it doesn't mean that the game supports roleplaying or giving you choices to RP. You're simply doing missions.
A game needs to support roleplaying options to be considered a "role-playing game". Simply pretending to RP doesn't make it an RPG.
If I pretend to RP in Fifa, it doesn't make it a roleplaying game. It's the player that does the roleplaying in that case, not the game that supports it by design.
In short: -If a game supports roleplaying by design, then it's a roleplaying game. -If the game doesn't support roleplaying, but the player chooses to do so, it's simply roleplaying, not a roleplaying game.
You can roleplay, as a player, in any game but that doesn't make them Role-Playing Games by design.
@Fardragon if we follow that logic far enough, literally everything can be a roleplaying game. You can roleplay Mario, but the game itself offers no support for this.
More interesting question: are Zelda games RPGs? No 'rpg' mechanics whatsoever, no significant dialogue etc. There is definstely a storyline in the games from SNES onwards.
People see a fantasy setting and say "oh it's an RPG". Zelda games have neither RPG mechanics nor Roleplaying options that influence anything. Therefore Zelda games are categorized as Action/Adventure games.
You're adventuring and using action mechanics to do so, like killing enemies.
@Archaos I disagree, vehemently. If roleplay affects how you play the game, especially in a game with RPG mechanics, then you are roleplaying in an RPG.
I would agree that roleplaying a sports game doesn't make it an RPG. On the other hand, making choices based on roleplay that aren't optimal, such as only using certain weapons to fit your perceived flavor of a class or ("my Barbarian only uses axes"), or not using a particular item because you don't think your Paladin would approve of its powers, you are roleplaying, and the game supports that roleplay by being balanced enough that your choice is viable.
In the end, though, I consider anything with considerable RPG mechanics an RPG by default. These are, after all, games, and under no obligation to provide extensive, personal narratives and pages of dialogue options, in the same way that D&D is still an RPG when you play in the Encounters or Dungeon Delve formats.
@Fardragon if we follow that logic far enough, literally everything can be a roleplaying game. You can roleplay Mario, but the game itself offers no support for this.
More interesting question: are Zelda games RPGs? No 'rpg' mechanics whatsoever, no significant dialogue etc. There is definstely a storyline in the games from SNES onwards.
Roleplaying means that you choose and play a role and there are options to support that role.
There's no RP in Diablo because it doesn't matter what you do or choose. You're there to kill stuff, the story or dialogues don't change.
True for IWD and BG. And most PnP DnD games in fact. Choice is an illusion, the DM actually has all the encounters planned out ahead, and knows what the outcomes will be.
@Fardragon Depends on the DM and the campaign, just like in videogames.
I have a choice in PnP to make any character or concept I want. I also have a choice to Rp their personality any way I want. I also have a choice to kill the king, or steal from him or choose to go to a different city.
We used to do that on our previous campaigns. The DM asked us what we want to do or where we want to go. We always had a choice. He also told us "you can turn evil if you want and do whatever you want".
So no, he doesn't have all the encounters planned out. Some encounters were random because we took a different path. Like one time that we tried to take a shortcut and found two dire bears in our path.
Then if I choose to roleplay a silent assassin in Metal Gear Solid, using only CQC and silenced pistols to kill, MGS turns into an RPG?
Like I said, you can roleplay in anything. "I'm roleplaying aliens in Fifa so I made all my players green". For something to be considered a roleplaying game, you need to be making roleplaying choices that affect the story or responses in some way.
Simply saying "I will use axes on my barbarian only, in Diablo 3" doesn't mean that the game supports roleplaying choices. That doesn't effect outcomes or the story. That choice makes no difference and has no meaning.
It's like saying that you're roleplaying in Resident Evil because you kill zombies with a knife only. The roleplaying elements in Resident Evil 3 appear when you choose what to do when Nemesis gets you.
For serious though, I'd like to point out that I think the 'sciencey' gold standard is 'does the game encourage and support roleplay?' If so, I think it should be outright considered an RPG. IWD meets this standard, I don't know Diablo well enough to offer much input, but what I saw from 1 and 2 did not really encourage roleplay, but it did allow for it on a fairly primitive level. The story didnt seem up to the task, but you can make one up . Thus, Diablo in my uninformed opinion, seemed to be a very weak RPG, but solid stat-based hacknslash.
@Fardragon Depends on the DM and the campaign, just like in videogames.
I have a choice in PnP to make any character or concept I want. I also have a choice to Rp their personality any way I want. I also have a choice to kill the king, or steal from him or choose to go to a different city.
We used to do that on our previous campaigns. The DM asked us what we want to do or where we want to go. We always had a choice. He also told us "you can turn evil if you want and do whatever you want".
So no, he doesn't have all the encounters planned out. Some encounters were random because we took a different path. Like one time that we tried to take a shortcut and found two dire bears in our path.
Sure, the DM asks you where you want to go, but he knows you well enough to know what you are going to say, or has set it up so that whatever you say the outcome is the same.
If you try to kill the king, you will be killed. GAME OVER is an alternative ending in Dibalo as well. If you steal, then you will be caught, thrown into prison, and given the quest the DM intended you to do anyway. If you go to another city, either nothing of significance will happen until you got bored and went back to the original city, or the king of the new city will give the the same quest that the king of the previous city would have done.
Those dire bears? You would have met them whichever path you took.
Then if I choose to roleplay a silent assassin in Metal Gear Solid, using only CQC and silenced pistols to kill, MGS turns into an RPG?
Like I said, you can roleplay in anything. "I'm roleplaying aliens in Fifa so I made all my players green". For something to be considered a roleplaying game, you need to be making roleplaying choices that affect the story or responses in some way.
Simply saying "I will use axes on my barbarian only, in Diablo 3" doesn't mean that the game supports roleplaying choices. That doesn't effect outcomes or the story. That choice makes no difference and has no meaning.
It's like saying that you're roleplaying in Resident Evil because you kill zombies with a knife only. The roleplaying elements in Resident Evil 3 appear when you choose what to do when Nemesis gets you.
Metal Gear Solid doesn't have RPG elements, so based on what I said, no, playing that way doesn't make it an RPG. ALTHOUGH, it is interesting that you used this example, as most MGS games reward you and change the story by varying degrees if you play that way, so it fits your own definition of requiring the game to support your choices.
I find that something like only using axes definitely does affect the game, if not the story. It affects the relative power of your character, how eager you are to jump into sidequests and explore every nook and cranny in hopes of finding a new, better axe, and how quickly you can complete the story. Taking the time explore everything in search of new axes and maybe slowing down your rampage because your weapon isn't that great any more allows you to hear more of the dialogue and flavor of the game, which can certainly engender a greater appreciation for the story of the game.
Also, as somebody else mentioned, Diablo 3 has sidequests that only come about if you, the player, choose to engage in dialogue with the characters. You can roleplay, whether your hero cares about her allies' lives and goals, and make that decision, and it no more or less affects the story of the game than pursuing secondary content in BG&BG2, two games of which I'm sure you would never doubt the RPG qualities.
In any case, I'd say Diablo 3 is an RPG simply because it has a bevvy of RPG mechanics. That's what it is at its core, as a game. As I said in a previous post, D&D is no less an RPG when you play with the sans roleplay formats like Dungeon Delve.
A lot of sub-genres are being bandied about by some, like @DreadKhan, such as "hacknslash" and dungeon crawler. These are merely sub-genres of RPG, and therefore even if you define Diablo as such, it still falls under the umbrella of RPG.
On the other hand, a lot of people are contending that story makes the RPG, the choices, the dialogue options...but do they? I would submit that any game genre can have entries with stories that involve player agency. Hell, Def Jam: Fight for New York has you make several decisions that affect who become your allies, enemies, and even your girlfriend, and that's a hand-to-hand fighting/wrestling game. Therefore, the narrative exists independent of the RPG, and vice verse, while the mechanics that truly make a game an RPG can blend with other genres but a game cannot be an RPG without them.
The Internet thinks it is a Swahili word and I see no reason to doubt that at this time. Unfortunately, Zyzzyva, the official word-checking software used by NASPA (North American Scrabble Players Association, of which I am a member), does not recognize it as a word which may be used in an official Scrabble game. That's a shame, too, because at 7 letters you would pick up your 50-point bonus, not counting any double/triple letter or word squares you may have hit. The best subanagrams of that word appear to be "joky" or "koji", but as long as you can hook the "k", the "j", or the "y" on a triple letter the play would be a good one.
A little late in mentioning this, but it escaped my memory to do so when I quoted you, @Dazzu, they did make a Mega Man RPG in Mega Man Legends. Food for thought.
The Internet thinks it is a Swahili word and I see no reason to doubt that at this time. Unfortunately, Zyzzyva, the official word-checking software used by NASPA (North American Scrabble Players Association, of which I am a member), does not recognize it as a word which may be used in an official Scrabble game. That's a shame, too, because at 7 letters you would pick up your 50-point bonus, not counting any double/triple letter or word squares you may have hit. The best subanagrams of that word appear to be "joky" or "koji", but as long as you can hook the "k", the "j", or the "y" on a triple letter the play would be a good one.
*dons a monocle and toasts with a glass of scotch* Hm. Indubitably.
When I was a kid I used to invent narratives that involved multiple games. I'd hop in a space shooter to blast some enemies, switch to a dogfighting game to simulate entering an atmosphere, load up a land based fighting game to follow the story after my hero was "shot down," and then continue to whatever other game seemed to fit the story I was inventing on the fly. So, even though all of those games were in no way roleplaying friendly, I was still role playing. That said, I wouldn't label any of those games as RPGs because they simply served as tools for my own imagination.
So many games have incorporated RPG elements like stats and character progression that it has given rise to terms like Action RPG, Strategy RPG, etc. I'd say the term Action RPG fits Diablo fairly well. I don't think IWD or BG is very similar to Diablo though in anything other than fantasy setting. My "proof" would simply be to sit down and play each game for a few minutes. Diablo is entirely geared for leaping into the action from the beginning, and getting you right back into the action as quickly as possible if you do die. Infinity engine games encourage you to plan a character and more carefully take your first baby steps. If you die, there's a non-trivial amount of time spent getting back to the action (although the EE loading times have made this time much shorter). The fact you can have multiple save points shows that Infinity engine games are designed for "finding the right answer to every combat" while Diablo is designed for keeping the action going.
So, to answer the original question, yes I think IWD is an RPG. Diablo is not a traditional RPG in my mind but the definition of RPG has always been a bit nebulous. I do think its fair to call it an action RPG, though. Diablo offers the visceral feedback of pounding the mouse buttons and hot keys, seeing your stat allocation and skill tree choices pay off as gallons of cartoon blood spray across the landscape. IWD offers those joyful moments when all your careful character design, spell choice, and item use coincide to bring the mighty smackdown upon a seemingly unbeatable foe, all carefully orchestrated with pausing and maneuvering to make it happen. Completely different ways to reach the same result of making the player feel like they are masters of that particular universe, heroic warriors and mages for a few happy moments.
Comments
Wow. What an inspired post. You've convinced me. [Sarcasm]
Guys! It's cool! Thread over! Diablo isn't an RPG because this guy said so! We can all go home! [Sarcasm Intensifies]
Everything is an RPG!
Planescape Torment
Baldur's Gate (and the Tales of the Sword Cost expansion pack)
Baldur's Gate II (and the Throne of Bhall expansion pack)
Icewind Dale (and the Heart of Winter and Trials of the Luremaster expansion packs)
Icewind Dale II
Each game in the series made modifications to the game engine and GUI as the series progressed. Both the BG and IWD games are set in the same imaginary world of The Forgotten Realms, but they are set in two different parts of that world and in different centuries.
Both the original BGI and it's underlying Infinity Engine were developed by Bioware but IWD was made by Black Isle Studios using a slightly modified version if the Infinity Engine.
The main differencs between BG and IWD are:
1) In IWD there are no recruitable NPCs. Instead you create you own party from scratch or from character files.
2) There is only one town where you can shop or rent a room in IWD.
3) Almost all of the combat and adventuring in IWD is indoors and a lot of that is underground.
4) None of the characters or places in IWD are in BG or BGII and vicea versa.
5) The soundtrack is completely different, not even the same composer. Many say that the IWD soundtrack is the best PC game soundtrack ever made. Others just say that isone of the best.
- According to the wiki, a role-playing game (RPG and sometimes roleplaying game) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting.
✓Check
- Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making or character development.
✓Check
- Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines.
✓Check
- Both authors and major publishers of tabletop role-playing games consider them (and I think it's the same for computer RPGs) to be a form of interactive and collaborative storytelling.
✓Check
- Events, characters, and narrative structure give a sense of a narrative experience, and the game need not have a strongly-defined storyline.
✓Check
- Interactivity is the crucial difference between role-playing games and traditional fiction. Whereas a viewer of a television show is a passive observer, a player in a role-playing game makes choices that affect the story. Such role-playing games extend an older tradition of storytelling games where a small party of friends collaborate to create a story.
✓Check
Technically, it's not an RPG because there's no "Role-Playing" to be done in the Game.
It's more of a dungeon-crawler, hack n slash with RPG mechanics.
The problem is with the semantics. "RPGs" nowadays are considered those games that have RPG mechanics (like levelling, stats etc) even if there's no Role-Playing involved.
The same with JRPGs. In the majority of them, you cannot even create your character. You're basically following a story with premade characters and there's leveling and stats involved.
The problem is also that there's no term to describe games that have RPG mechanics but no roleplaying in them.
What do you call these? Stat-based games? Dungeon-crawlers with stats? It's just faster and more convenient to call them ARPGs and JRPGs and be done with it.
JRPGs can be accurately categorized as stat-based/graphic-novels/adventure games, perhaps.
And Diablo-likes as stat-based/action/dungeon-crawlers.
But the Witcher/Mass Effect games are actual action and Role-playing games.
Roleplaying means that you choose and play a role and there are options to support that role.
There's no RP in Diablo because it doesn't matter what you do or choose. You're there to kill stuff, the story or dialogues don't change.
And there's no RP in Ghost Recon. If you pretend that you're roleplaying it doesn't mean that the game supports roleplaying or giving you choices to RP. You're simply doing missions.
A game needs to support roleplaying options to be considered a "role-playing game". Simply pretending to RP doesn't make it an RPG.
If I pretend to RP in Fifa, it doesn't make it a roleplaying game.
It's the player that does the roleplaying in that case, not the game that supports it by design.
In short:
-If a game supports roleplaying by design, then it's a roleplaying game.
-If the game doesn't support roleplaying, but the player chooses to do so, it's simply roleplaying, not a roleplaying game.
You can roleplay, as a player, in any game but that doesn't make them Role-Playing Games by design.
More interesting question: are Zelda games RPGs? No 'rpg' mechanics whatsoever, no significant dialogue etc. There is definstely a storyline in the games from SNES onwards.
People see a fantasy setting and say "oh it's an RPG".
Zelda games have neither RPG mechanics nor Roleplaying options that influence anything.
Therefore Zelda games are categorized as Action/Adventure games.
You're adventuring and using action mechanics to do so, like killing enemies.
I disagree, vehemently. If roleplay affects how you play the game, especially in a game with RPG mechanics, then you are roleplaying in an RPG.
I would agree that roleplaying a sports game doesn't make it an RPG. On the other hand, making choices based on roleplay that aren't optimal, such as only using certain weapons to fit your perceived flavor of a class or ("my Barbarian only uses axes"), or not using a particular item because you don't think your Paladin would approve of its powers, you are roleplaying, and the game supports that roleplay by being balanced enough that your choice is viable.
In the end, though, I consider anything with considerable RPG mechanics an RPG by default. These are, after all, games, and under no obligation to provide extensive, personal narratives and pages of dialogue options, in the same way that D&D is still an RPG when you play in the Encounters or Dungeon Delve formats.
Well, maybe not scrabble.
Depends on the DM and the campaign, just like in videogames.
I have a choice in PnP to make any character or concept I want. I also have a choice to Rp their personality any way I want. I also have a choice to kill the king, or steal from him or choose to go to a different city.
We used to do that on our previous campaigns. The DM asked us what we want to do or where we want to go. We always had a choice. He also told us "you can turn evil if you want and do whatever you want".
So no, he doesn't have all the encounters planned out. Some encounters were random because we took a different path. Like one time that we tried to take a shortcut and found two dire bears in our path.
So that argument is invalid.
@Schneidend
Then if I choose to roleplay a silent assassin in Metal Gear Solid, using only CQC and silenced pistols to kill, MGS turns into an RPG?
Like I said, you can roleplay in anything. "I'm roleplaying aliens in Fifa so I made all my players green".
For something to be considered a roleplaying game, you need to be making roleplaying choices that affect the story or responses in some way.
Simply saying "I will use axes on my barbarian only, in Diablo 3" doesn't mean that the game supports roleplaying choices. That doesn't effect outcomes or the story. That choice makes no difference and has no meaning.
It's like saying that you're roleplaying in Resident Evil because you kill zombies with a knife only.
The roleplaying elements in Resident Evil 3 appear when you choose what to do when Nemesis gets you.
I swear kwyjibo is definately maybe a word.
Note, I brought a bearded axe. *strokes axe's beard*
If you try to kill the king, you will be killed. GAME OVER is an alternative ending in Dibalo as well. If you steal, then you will be caught, thrown into prison, and given the quest the DM intended you to do anyway. If you go to another city, either nothing of significance will happen until you got bored and went back to the original city, or the king of the new city will give the the same quest that the king of the previous city would have done.
Those dire bears? You would have met them whichever path you took.
I find that something like only using axes definitely does affect the game, if not the story. It affects the relative power of your character, how eager you are to jump into sidequests and explore every nook and cranny in hopes of finding a new, better axe, and how quickly you can complete the story. Taking the time explore everything in search of new axes and maybe slowing down your rampage because your weapon isn't that great any more allows you to hear more of the dialogue and flavor of the game, which can certainly engender a greater appreciation for the story of the game.
Also, as somebody else mentioned, Diablo 3 has sidequests that only come about if you, the player, choose to engage in dialogue with the characters. You can roleplay, whether your hero cares about her allies' lives and goals, and make that decision, and it no more or less affects the story of the game than pursuing secondary content in BG&BG2, two games of which I'm sure you would never doubt the RPG qualities.
In any case, I'd say Diablo 3 is an RPG simply because it has a bevvy of RPG mechanics. That's what it is at its core, as a game. As I said in a previous post, D&D is no less an RPG when you play with the sans roleplay formats like Dungeon Delve.
A lot of sub-genres are being bandied about by some, like @DreadKhan, such as "hacknslash" and dungeon crawler. These are merely sub-genres of RPG, and therefore even if you define Diablo as such, it still falls under the umbrella of RPG.
On the other hand, a lot of people are contending that story makes the RPG, the choices, the dialogue options...but do they? I would submit that any game genre can have entries with stories that involve player agency. Hell, Def Jam: Fight for New York has you make several decisions that affect who become your allies, enemies, and even your girlfriend, and that's a hand-to-hand fighting/wrestling game. Therefore, the narrative exists independent of the RPG, and vice verse, while the mechanics that truly make a game an RPG can blend with other genres but a game cannot be an RPG without them.
I'll see your Legends and raise you one 'X Command Mission'
So many games have incorporated RPG elements like stats and character progression that it has given rise to terms like Action RPG, Strategy RPG, etc. I'd say the term Action RPG fits Diablo fairly well. I don't think IWD or BG is very similar to Diablo though in anything other than fantasy setting. My "proof" would simply be to sit down and play each game for a few minutes. Diablo is entirely geared for leaping into the action from the beginning, and getting you right back into the action as quickly as possible if you do die. Infinity engine games encourage you to plan a character and more carefully take your first baby steps. If you die, there's a non-trivial amount of time spent getting back to the action (although the EE loading times have made this time much shorter). The fact you can have multiple save points shows that Infinity engine games are designed for "finding the right answer to every combat" while Diablo is designed for keeping the action going.
So, to answer the original question, yes I think IWD is an RPG. Diablo is not a traditional RPG in my mind but the definition of RPG has always been a bit nebulous. I do think its fair to call it an action RPG, though. Diablo offers the visceral feedback of pounding the mouse buttons and hot keys, seeing your stat allocation and skill tree choices pay off as gallons of cartoon blood spray across the landscape. IWD offers those joyful moments when all your careful character design, spell choice, and item use coincide to bring the mighty smackdown upon a seemingly unbeatable foe, all carefully orchestrated with pausing and maneuvering to make it happen. Completely different ways to reach the same result of making the player feel like they are masters of that particular universe, heroic warriors and mages for a few happy moments.