I’ve been craving getting into a new project lately since my break. Mostly, I’ve wanted to come up with something that I would ideally enjoy doing even if no one were to watch it — ideally, I would be okay just doing it for the sake of it.

I thought about reviving BetterDota, but after a couple streams I found I wasn’t enjoying Dota at the level I’d need to in order to focus on grinding out MMR. Instead, I turned to what I like playing when I don’t really have any other obligations: RPGs.

In short, I’d like to look at the RPG genre from a historical perspective, as I don’t see many projects actually devoted to looking at genres and how they evolve over time. Ideally, I would make a list of “classic” RPGs that I hadn’t played, and then do a couple things:

Before I played the game, I would research the history of the game through interviews and my own searching, and either write or film a bit of a preview. I’d explain why it was to be included in the project, why I find it interesting, and what the creators looked to accomplish with it.

I would then announce a start day to when I would start playing the game live on my Twitch channel. The idea would be to give an accurate portrayal of the game as it was first available to be played — this would mean trying my best to play the original version, instead of enhanced remakes or ports.

I would then cut the broadcast up into snippets and post them on my YouTube channel. The idea would be to give people who missed a stream or wanted to binge-watch things a place to do so. This would be evocative of what Giant Bomb did with their Endurance Runs, including Persona 4.

After I finished the game, I would likely announce the next game I would be covering, and then write or film something about how I subjectively found the game. The aim would be to less complain about a game’s age but more explore the context of the time it was released in, and how it influenced further games.

As a whole, I want to be able to better appreciate the RPG genre, explore what it means to me, and examine some classics that I haven’t played yet.

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Before I just dive into this, though, there’s a couple questions I’m kind of kicking around in my head. If you have feedback, feel free to reach out on Twitter or in the comment section under the post.

1. What games do I choose, and when do I choose which games to play? I’d love to have some kind of poll system or schedule, and I don’t necessarily want to work in a chonological order or series order (I don’t want to play Final Fantasy 1 to whatever in order).
2. Since RPGs can be fairly long in some cases, is it an issue if I use some kind of cheat (if available) to speed things along? This isn’t so much a “invincibility/unlimited ammo” kind of thing, but more a “double XP given from encounters” if it’s a grind-heavy game like Dragon Quest. My obvious options are to showcase the game as close to “the real thing” as I can, but who wants to watch a stream of encounter grinding just so I don’t wipe on bosses?
3. At what point does a game have too few RPG elements to qualify for this? What about more oddball games?
4. What happens if I can’t find adequate information in order to inform the audience? Is it enough to just rely on a “here’s this game, it’s important for these reasons that I have decided, let’s play it.”
5. What happens with games that have extra content for NewGame+? In situations like Chrono Trigger or Persona 4, would it be cool to play sections of the game (but not advancing the plot) off-stream in order to have a streamlined experience?

So yeah; this is what I have so far. Ideally I’d want to start with a couple definite classics, like Dragon Warrior, and then move on from there. Feel free to leave any feedback you have.