Computer RPG Games

It's only good if you're having fun doing it. I'm guilty of optimizing my own fun out of games time and time again, finding my own fun is sometimes a struggle for me if it contradicts the "best" option.

Sometimes when you become too powerful, the game becomes less fun. You cruise through challenges or skip entire mechanics.

I was playing an RPG recently and, due to defeating an optional boss rather early received a massive power spike. Several extra levels, but also a new skill that essentially gave my party haste for free all the time. Double actions.

Afterwards, every enemy encounter became kind of trivial. They're still doing their part- the big moves that you need to account for, the dramatic speeches, and so on- but my party is so strong that it doesn't matter. With haste I can just heal and then attack, or attack twice. A big story boss went down before I could even get my wizard to do their cool combo move.

So that kind of sucks. Sure, I won, but it wasn't fun. I didn't get to engage with the boss's mechanics, because they died too quickly. There wasn't much danger because I could freely heal and revive my team. I could just watch a playthrough or movie if I just want to see stuff win.

Victory alone isn't fun. There needs to be struggle.

Defeating the optional boss was a big struggle. That took several tries and an hour of time. Realizing the potential of permanent haste was also fun. I changed my build so one party member could set up a combo on their own. But actually playing turned out to be disappointing. It felt hollow.

I could turn off the permanent haste. That feels weird. I know if I do so, every time I lose a fight I'll be thinking "I would've won if I'd used it".

On the other hand, there are exploits that let you skip content that's not fun. If the game demands that you catch 999 butterflies in order to unlock a cool sword, I wouldn't feel bad about using a "if you stand here and hold down the button, it does it automatically" kind of exploit. That's skipping over something I don't want to do, as opposed to the fun parts of a game.

I bet there are people who feel like the boss fights are the slog, and are happy to perma-haste through it.

I don't really know how to square these circles.

Min/maxing is a form of exploiting RPG systems, and people do it on computers and at the table. Who among us can truly say we've never thrown away a roll in character creation because it made a flawed character? If I'm playing a rogue on a D&D system, I want my DEX to be at least 16, and my WIS and CHA to be at least 13 or 14. Even the system itself is exploitative. D&D doesn't tell you to roll stats and keep them, and use them to best determine your class. Say I wanted to be a rogue, but I just rolled a character with 17 STR, 12 DEX, 16 CON, 10 INT, 8 WIS, 11 CHA. Congratulations, you're a Fighter because that's what those stats best suit. Or you're kind of a shitty rogue who can lift things. By letting you roll six nameless stats and place the numbers where you want them, are we not exploiting the system already? And speaking of rogues (what I mainly play at the table), who's out there picking dwarves, humans, orcs... hell no, you're going wood elf/Sylvan elf. Or you're going Drow because Drizzt was cool and you're hoping your DM will go easy on the Drow hindrances (IIRC they get debuffs during the day or something, I dunno, I don't roll them). And I'm no exception either.

In a computer game though? In Deus Ex, who among us wasn't downgrading Pistols to Untrained to get those skill points back (knowing the game will give you a free upgrade to Trained once you start, and leave you with the larger pool of skill points)? Or better yet, who among us wasn't hitting the Khajiit vendor chests in Skyrim, positioned a couple inches below the ground, so you could activate them by kneeling in the right spot and looking down. Especially since Bethesda has known about this exploit for most of the game's 14 year lifespan, and have refused to patch it — and yet, when vendor chests were found in Starfield, they patched it within a couple days. They just rereleased Skyrim again on the Switch 2 (with all the DLC and most of the paid mods) and guess what they still didn't fix?

Of course, at the table, the only real way to win is to have fun. On a computer, playing less efficiently means you lose. AFAIK, no computer/console RPG has yet created a situation where, no matter what you do, you win because you're having fun. The only game I can think of that does that is Animal Crossing, and that isn't an RPG by any stretch. There are no stats. There is a sort of RNG, but it's for decoration. The only RPG system it really has is the relationship system, and yes, you can exploit it. You can take 10,000 Bells (the in-game currency, which you can't buy with real money) to a fortune teller and ask her to boost your gains with one villager, and then you can do some simple tasks to exploit the friendship score. Take any fossil, wrap it in gold wrapping paper, give it to them, you get the max relationship boost in a day, and you've just doubled that. Another system you can exploit is the Hot Item, which the store gives you double its value. When the Hot Item is a donation box, you can Use it 99 times to put 99,000 Bells in it (the max). Its value is derived from the sum of its parts, so the wood... and the Bells. So empty it sells for, let's say (I don't feel like looking it up), 500 Bells, but as a Hot Item it sells for 1,000. But with 99,000 Bells in it, its value skyrockets to 199,000. (99k x 2, plus 500 x 2). Some players set out a row of donation boxes and donate daily (you can donate multiple times per day) so that when it comes up as a Hot Item, they pick them all up, sell them all, and make a killing. Five years later, never patched out. And this is Nintendo, the supreme arbiter of fun in their universes.

If the developer of the RPG system gives you a tool, you can use it. If it looks like an exploit, and they tell you you can't use it anymore (at the table) or patch it out (on a computer or console), then after that point, you can't use it. If they know about it and don't stop you, they condone its use. They make the rules, their authority over their world is as close to absolute as you can get. Any limitations you place on yourself beyond that are entirely your choice.