A Lot of Shooters Have RPG Elements, Says BioWare's Ray Muzyka

Video games can be split into many genres, each catering to a distinct niche of gamers all around the world. For quite some time, one of the most popular ones were shooters and role playing games, each differentiating itself through specific elements.

But, as we heard last week from famous shooter designer Cliff Bleszinski, “the future of shooters is RPGs.” Now, it seems that BioWare's Ray Muzyka, the head of Electronic Arts' newly created RPG studio, shares his opinion, as he recently talked with Wired about game genres, and how he thought that they would merge in the near future.

“Genres are almost a vestige of the past,” Muzyka said. “In a way, a lot of the best shooters are RPGs as well, because they allow you to have progression, exploration, combat or conflict, and a story.” He went on to say that those attributes were present in almost “any kind of game,” bringing them that much closer to a single and unique experience.

He also revealed, while talking about the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins video game, that he considered the definition of an RPG to be quite “broad,” and that: “The possibility space is almost limitless. I see games like Grand Theft Auto headed in the same direction.” 

He exemplified his statements by revealing that Dragon Age: Origins would stray from “classic” RPG mechanics, and players would be able to go through the title by controlling their main character, while the other three people in the party would be on auto-pilot, the AI controlling their actions under the guidelines of the player.

Muzyka believes that all game designers are “trying to solve for the same things – allow players to be explorers, progress their characters, have conflict, story, narrative, social interaction… those are fun pillars of gameplay that everyone wants to solve.”

Do you share his train of thought? Are games slowly converging into a single genre that incorporates the best from all of them? Leave us a comment with your opinion.