So, let me first say this, I've been playing excellent, classic games for a loong time, and especially RPGs for at least 10 years. I remember Baldur's Gate being on $50 on the shelf when it was first released. I was a long time console owner, and still am now, but I cannot get over how much better CRPGs are better than the traditonal JRPGs are on the console.

For a long time, there was a concensus that RPGs, primarily on PCs was getting worse, but I see the opposite. I see games starting to go back to the roots of RPGs: New Vegas, Skyrim, Pillars of Eternity, and Wasteland 2, and this is a sign that things are looking better for the RPG genre

I'm fairly positive that RPGs are improving and drawing upon a lot of mechanics missing in modern-day RPGs that were persistant in classics RPGs. Does any one else see the same trend? Or am I just hopelessly optimstic?

I agree with everything you said except for Skyrim. I consider that an action game, imo. But anywho I've always preferred CRPG's over JRPG's; and thanks to kickstarter some solid crpg's are out or being made like the new Torment. Games like Divinty: Original Sin and Pillars of Eternity are instant classics. I also like first person crpg's like Morrowind and Fallout: New Vegas. As for JRPG's while some are classic's they've always been cliche like the Final Fantasy games, imo. These are just my opinions of course.

I think you're right. After the Ultima games, there was a serious dearth of role playing games where you could do anything you wanted. Even though Grand Theft Auto V is pretty much an action game, for me it fits on the list too. I know it's a RPG but you guys know what I mean. With Witcher 3, TES Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim with Fallout 3, things are looking good.

I never felt the rpg genre on pc was in decline, but I don't play so many titles. Ups and downs for certain series, sure, but I've always had good games to play, from the Gothic 1, Anachronox and Deus Ex days to Skyrim and whatever comes next.

Bethesda, in general, is one of the last hopes for gaming as a whole, but especially the RPG genre. In particular, BGS has the creativity and they take the time they need to develop excellent games which is why they're pretty much my favorite studio. Too many studios are creating action games with some open world features and calling them RPGs (yeah, I'd pretty much consider most JRPGs in this class), which is why RPGs kind of felt stale at one point, but they're definitely getting better.

2014 was a pretty good year for RPGs, as it gave us Wasteland 2, Dark Souls II and its DLCs, Dead State, Divinity: Original Sin, and Shadowrun: Dragonfall (along with a free upgrade in the form of the Director's Cut later on).

2015 looks like it will continue that trend. Opened up with a bang with Bloodborne and Pillars of Eternity in the same week, and continued on with The Witcher 3 a little over a month later, with expansion packs coming for all of them promised down the line. Both Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin are getting meaty upgrades for free and will be moving to consoles soon, Torment: Tides of Numenora and Shadowrun: Hong Kong are in the pipeline for later this year, and there's a big expansion for Guild Wars 2 coming up. New school and old school players all have something to look forward to. And those of us who play both, well...we're having a little trouble finding more productive things to do with our free time.

Y'know, you can apply that comment to everything, western RPGs included, and it will just as valid.

The way I see it, ever since the emergence of the first-person shooter genre, rpgs, including other genres, have had more or less a shift of ideas. This along with the influence of the times in which we live also reflect the way we want things among other things. But rpg games like the recent W3, for example, can help the genre become more like it was in the past: more deep without insulting our intelligence. I think that in order to see a true change in the industry, it must start with ourselves. It is us really that dictates the taste of today's gaming industry. Developers won't make games if you don't buy them. If you keep buying mediocre games, then mediocre games is all what you shall receive. It is easy, actually, to influence the developers. Just look at the survival craze that we are having today. Ever since Dayz for example became popular; selling unheard of amount of copies for a mod, there were many devs trying to implement survival elements into their games. And even though Dayz wasn't the first game to have survival features, of course, the way people flocked to play that game really perked the ears of many developers. Survival/zombie games are coming out of the woodwork by the dozen nowadays.

Games are betting better from a technology/visual/fluid gameplay standpoint, for sure. What I dislike is the lack of effort put into available customization. Too many features are forced on the player, I would praise the day an modern RPG comes with a Game Settings menu where you spend 2 hours (like I often do in character creation) to customize the first game experience in the tiniest detail you fdancy. To make TES an example, set if you want mortal npcs like Morrowind or protected like Skyrim, gore or not, killcams or not, 1st person horse or forced 3rd, hardcoe eat/drink/sleep mode on or off, customizable menu and inventory - think resize windows like Morrowind..., player character battle grunts on/off, choose what you want on the screen and what not -think World of Warcraft customizable bars, think poisons and buffs timers on screen like Oblivion, etc...I would like more games that are clearly designed to allow me a very deep level of customization.

I think the success for rpg is to combine itself into more of an action adventure game. Skyrim proved this.

It is only a small market of hardcoe rpg fans who want to be faced with the choosing of attribute and having to balance them for maximum effectiveness. For the majority of fans, this is a turn away as they'd rather just play the game.

An action adventure game can equally be open world and it can equally allow you to visually personalise and modify your character. The difference we see is in the sales to that of rpg. Skyrim was the exception as it appealed to both.