[color=#008000]Since my main development project will be involved with digital roleplaying games (dRPG), it is my desire to accomplish roleplaying to the upmost extent. Some of my prior testing and work (freelance) was with what might be termed, proto-RPG. Yet I'm consistently aware of many phases of RPG periods, and some of these earlier periods are not development, not in the sense that a design group is active in the development of products that use RPG functions for gaming, whether digital or hardcopy.[/color]
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The term, RPG, was brought into usage during the early 1970s. Why and how is an enigma to me--sorry! It was never related to me. I understand the quantized nature of roleplaying, however, since its inception with recreational gaming beginning in the late 1960s. When I speak or write of "recreational gaming," I mean any genre of new model of RPG, using pencil and paper, referee, and storytelling, from a pre-design conworld-developed or imaginary setting, and by extension, the digital gaming RPG, including MMO.
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I'm not outlining the level of genre, however, because some time periods and products are difficult, although not impossible, to label with exact values. Readers should be aware that some of the later periods of RPG will mix with the development of digital versions of games.
[/font]Periods of RPG[/color]
[color=#008000]1. Pre-RPG (From post-Wellsian HMW rule sources, and generally arrangement of public literature.) [/color]
[color=#008000]2. [/color][color=#008000]Proto-RPG Development (Prior to 1974's release of Dungeons & Dragons RPG.)[/color]
[color=#008000]3. Primal RPG Intensification (Post-release of Dungeons & Dragons RPG.)[/color]
[color=#008000]4. Mainline RPG Escalation (Forums, products, literature, art, support, and conventions.)[/color]
[color=#008000]5. Deconstructive RPG (Underscoring prior development and design techniques and personal values.)[/color]
[color=#008000]6. Hyper RPG (Mixture of elements and media for intrinsic gaming experience, including models of digital versions.)[/color]
[color=#008000]HMW = Historical Miniature Wargame.
RPG = Roleplaying Game
Conworld = Constructed World (the gaming interface or environment)[/color]
