I Don't Care as Long as It's Good: Player Preferences for Real-Time and Turn-Based Combat Systems in Computer RPGs

Combat systems are a fundamental part of computer role-playing games (RPGs). Popular media articles and online discussions suggest that players have very strong opinions on combat styles, in particular, whether they like RPGs with real-time or turn-based combat systems. However, there is little scientific research into this question. With our research we aim to systematically explore combat style preferences and determine the underlying reasons for preferring certain types over others. To this end, we analyzed a set of online discussions (546 posts) with regard to three broad combat system categories: Real-Time (RT), Turn-Based (TB), and Real-Time with Pause (RTwP). Our results suggest that while most players indeed do have a preference for one combat style, most players are still largely or completely open to other styles of combat. We furthermore identify common positive and negative traits of different combat styles and discuss implications for combat design.