Re: What was the first RPG?

[mcarmack@freenet.columbus.oh.us (Michael Carmack)]

Thomas Matteo (tmatteo@epix.net) wrote:
: The magazine labels "Akalabeth" (sorry, no firm publishing date) as a
: "dungeon adventure game" which was the foundation for Richard Garriott's
: Ultima series of adventure games. Richard Garriott also created
: "Akalabeth."
: The first mention of a "fanstasy role-playing game" in the magazine is
: "Wizardry: Proving Grounds of The Mad Overlord", created by Robert
: Woodhead and Andrew Greenberg in 1981.

Hmmm, I wonder where the distinction arose between genres between
Akalabeth and Wizardry?  Akalabeth is less of a dungeon-crawl than
Wizardry;  the latter has no overland portion at all.  Wizardry was
obviously more technically advanced than Akalabeth, but that doesn't make
it an RPG.  The only things I can think of that Wizardry had the Akalabeth
didn't is a sophisticated magic system and a party of characters (vs. one
character).  I don't think either of these make or break a games RPG-ness
(is that a word?)

I have to believe that the casual genres these games were classified as in
the magazine weren't meant to be used in a discussion of this nature.  ;-)
In my eyes, Akalabeth is the oldest RPG.  Adventure is an older game, but
I think it's an adventure game (thus the name, heh heh) not an RPG.  RPGs
are an off-shoot of the broader category of adventure games.
-- 
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