


I personally think it aligns more closely with an MMORPG which is a definition for another day.

Now I have questioned before whether or not Diablo IV should even be considered an ARPG by the definition of this genre or not. When this genre broke apart from the pack of Isometric games, it picked up its own traditions and design ideas that carry forward from that point. I view “ Looter Shooter” as a divergent genre that started with Borderlands and continued on into Destiny, Anthem, Division, and Outriders. This is by no means a complete list but represents a broad swath of the type of games included in the ARPG genre. I guess it might be easier if I just rattle off some of the games in this genre to help define it. When I say ARPG however I more specifically mean the lineage of Diablo and the subgroup of largely isometric viewpoint hack-and-slash loot chase games that involve some degree of randomly generated content and a bunch of repetition in chase of building the perfect character.

Over the years Action RPG has been pinned to a lot of games from Dark Souls to Devil May Cry… to even the Fallout Series… and to be honest, they are not wrong to do so. It is admittedly a bad genre title, but it is one that was pinned onto Diablo as being one of the first real-time Action Role Playing Games, and the name just sort of stuck. ARPG as a Genreįirst, let’s start off with defining “ARPG” as it is referred to by the “in group” that plays them as a hobby unto itself. Over the years you will have noticed that I play a lot of ARPGs and play an awful lot of seasons, so I thought I would take a bit this morning and talk through some of the terminology. This is me showing my ignorance as being a long-term member of this sub-genre community. This morning I thought I would take a moment because I honestly had no clue that the concept of a season in ARPG terms… or even that ARPG was a specific genre… was foreign to some gamers. Hey Friends! Right now there is a bit of strife happening in the fledgling Diablo IV community over the concept of what is going to happen with the upcoming start of Season 1, and the Battle Pass associated with it.
