I guess I shouldn't be surprised that 43% of you care the most about a game's world when it comes to RPGs
RPGs have the blursed task of catering to many a different type of player. You've got your huge story nerds who'll go around reading every book, journal entry, and notice stuck to those little wooden boards they can. Then there's your good old-fashioned battle-brained gamers who love all of the skills, levelling, and combat flexibility that the genre can offer. Or maybe your reasons for loving an RPG are a little less obvious, like the characters who populate a world or even the music that plays as you explore it.
But most of you, it seems, just want a sick-ass world that's a blast to explore.
Last week, I asked you what the most important thing in an RPG was to you. As someone who is also a complete sucker for a world I can accidentally spend an entire day walking, galloping, and flying around (while picking up every item I see like the loot goblin I am), it came as no surprise to me that you lot also tend to favour a map plush with things to do and see.
In fact, 43% of you chose that as your most important RPG element, absolutely sweeping every other option. The following four were pretty close together, though—a lot of you also really value good story and choices that actually impact the outcome of the game you're playing. I've personally never been too fussed about choice-making in my RPGs, though I'll certainly never turn down the option.
Next up, it seems like combat and characters are the next biggies. I'm sure a whole load of us have become incredibly attached to the cast of Baldur's Gate 3, for example, which is by far my favourite part of that particular RPG.
A surprise dud for me, however, was how few of you actually care about an abundance of side quests. Sure they're usually a lot of padding and fetch quests, but they're something to do, right? I was sure more of you would put them pretty high on the priority list, but I was most certainly proven wrong here.
And yeah, I had to add in music as a videogame soundtrack sicko, but unsurprisingly it is only the most important thing for a measly 12 of you. But still, I can now use this poll as definitive proof that there are dozens of us! Well, a dozen anyway. I like to think that my weekly yapping about videogame music might have had a little influence here, wink-wink.
If you voted on the poll, now's your chance to get into the comments and defend your stance. And if you missed out on the initial voting, why not share your thoughts down below anyway? Maybe there's a secret eighth vital RPG ingredient I somehow managed to miss.