Western computer RPGs are slightly better that Japanese ones, in my opinion, with exceptions of course. Games like World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights annoy me with their battle systems as they are very dull, even more so than Japanese RPG battle systems. The whole, you click on a enemy and then your characters stands their for a few minutes slashing on their own whilst you push a button on a tool bar every so often is slow, boring, and predictable.

I like games along the lines of The Eldar Scrolls, Fable, hell even Diablo’s combat is more entertaining then World of Warcraft’s. Admittedly, combat systems like The Eldar Scrolls encourage button mashing but they also allow you to perform acts like dogging blows, blocking and parring attacks and using terrain for cover which combat systems like World of Warcraft and Neverwinter Nights don’t. I have always resented being hit by an arrow in World of Warcraft even though I jumped behind a wall, arrows shot from a normal bow should not go through walls, but World of Warcraft has to allow this other wise bow users would be disadvantaged indoors which they should anyway as melee fighter would be disadvantages on the open battlefield at a distance.

So what I think I’m saying is that random dice rolling for determining what a characters does should be left for table top RPGing where it works extremely well due to table top games not being limited to a game engine.