An Introduction to Text-Based RPGs
Friday, January 7th, 2011So you’ve heard about text-based games, and you’d like to know more. Continue reading to discover the history, attraction and how text based games have evolved over time.
Students started playing text based web games many years ago on college networks over very poor dial-up connections.
A poor internet connection has very little impact on game play, and they can handle huge numbers of concurrent users, often referred to as MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). This is largely due to the fact that most text-based browser games have little or no graphics.
Another advantage to text based RPGs is that they have much lower system requirements than graphical games, enabling them to be played on pretty much any computer connected to the Internet. Many serious gamers also play them on handheld gadgets and modern cellphones.
All text based MMORPGs worth their salt will have the power to build a virtual character, increase their health, wealth, status, equipment, weaponary, trade items etc, and complete tasks in the game. Over recent years, the landscape has changed and with so much competition, expectations are much higher and building a successful text-based mmorpg game involves time, effort and constant feature updates. The best text rpg games are addictive and retain loyal players for months, and sometimes, years.
Facebook, the social media giant, observed the attraction in text based browser games and has recently launched Farmville, Mafia Wars and Frontierville, created by Zynga.
Although much more graphical than the original text based web games, the game play is almost identical to most other text based mmorpg games.
If you want to give text-based RPGs a try, take a look at Torn, Farmville or SimRocker.