The term was a lot more common in the '80s and '90s. Back then, certainly in the '80s, "RPG" meant tabletop RPGs. Hence, "CRPG" (computer RPG) was needed as a separate term.
Also, in the '80s, computer RPGs were much more directly inspired by tabletop RPGs. Now video game RPGs are their own genre(s), mostly disconnected from the pen and paper games that inspired the first few generations of video games.
I grew up with Fallout 1/2 and Diablo 2. I guess late 90s. Computer RPGs were so common in my circles, that we actually needed a distinct word for tabletop RPGs (we called them "Pen&Paper"). RPG was always the word for computer RPGs. Only through recent new connections to the "Pen&Paper" world I heard people say "cRPG", around 2015-16.
So I guess it's more about where you are starting from than the time. Even nowadays people use the term "cRPG" and even nowadays people use the term "RPG" to mean different things.
That makes sense. Heck, maybe the RPG vs. CRPG distinction was more '80s terminology. RPGs were a pretty well-established genre in computer and console games by the late '90s.
CRPG for "computer" was the dominant term in the 80's. Later on, the distinction of "Western" style from "Japanese" led to WRPG sometimes being used, although it's just as common to continue referring to the Western traditional games as CRPG.
In my time, real men and women played FortranRPG. Drop a set of punch cards on the floor and forget about Orcs and Kobolds, there wold be far greater and immediate danger.
Meanwhile the nerds played LISPRPG and casuals played BASICRPG.
tabletop and P&P can be distinct as well. Tabletop means, you have a board and character-representing tokens on a table. P&P means the character data is represented on paper tables/sheets/diagrams. You can play one without the other.
That's not how I have ever heard the term used and Wikipedia agrees with me.
>A tabletop role-playing game (or pen-and-paper role-playing game) is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech... The terms pen-and-paper and tabletop are generally only used to distinguish this format of RPG from other formats, since neither pen and paper nor a table are strictly necessary
Why should anybody be wrong? It all makes sense considering from where someone comes. I'd rather discuss why people from your context call them "tabletop RPGs".
As discussed in another subthread of that post: Even the word "RPG" is context related. The group I'd call "Pen&Paper players" consider their "RPGs" as "The RPGs". People like me who mostly played them on computers and consoles consider cRPGs as "The RPGs" and call non-c RPGs as "Pen&Paper", while considering Warhammer and Monopoly as "Tabletop" (actually we call them something like "board games", since English is not my mothertongue, but "tabletop" is the closest translation; there's even a Youtube Show called TableTop that reviews these games exclusively).
Now I think you call them "tabletop RPGs" because people from your surrounding don't play non-tabletop RPGs that are only played with paper and not with a board on the table (a little like when actors train for a scene, just talking, figuring out what the characters would do, sometimes not even using dice). Also maybe in your areas people don't play many tabletop games that are not RPGs. Or you do and call them differently. E.g., do you know "Settlers of Catan"? How do you call that kind of game? Do you distinguish them from "tabletop RPGs"?
Um no... I call then tabletop RPGs because that's just what they are called. It's just terminology, like the World Series is called the "World Series" and the winners are called "World Champions" despite not actually involving any team outside The US or Canada.
Anyways, you're trying to literally translate a non-English terminology and directly compare it to English terminology. It doesn't work that way.
I played Settlers of Catan and that's a "board game."
Erikb's definitions "feel" like they should be right, but yours (and Wikipedia's) are really closer to how I've seen them used by people. Constructing a difference between them sounds like something that could easily happen within a group of friends, if the distinction becomes useful to them.
I thought it stood for "Conversation RPG" - games where you could literally talk your way out of some conflicts. This is even more relevant since so many "Computer RPG" games (even some classics) have also come out on consoles, and vice versa.
I thought the same. I think that whole ex-USSR space may think the same.
PS: even more specifically "classic" meaning D&D derived RPG with certain style - big world, lots of side quests, advanced customization and rules etc.
The current definition of CRPG is character RPG. These games are ones that focus more on character development and dialogue as opposed to combat. Planetscape: Torment is the example I am most familiar with, as you can play the entire game through dialogue and only fight when required. Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights are close to CRPGs, but progression is still done through combat.
They stand in opposition to JRPGs, ARPGs, and MMORPG.
Never heard this one before. Also, there's no "current definition" - people of different ages, countries and backgrounds all use different definitions.
There's no international and commonly accepted authority defining the one true standard.
Am I alone in this? If not, this seems a topic worth discussing.