A Great Way to Fill Bars

 Old school RPGs are 100% only good for their stories, never for their gameplay.

Back in my reflection on Borderlands, I clued in to the fact that character growth is by no means exclusive to games featuring RPG mechanics (not the role-play ones, but the character aggrandizement ones), which has left me wondering, since, what it is that makes those same mechanics still so attractive in a video game. Having a character sheet and a load of statistics is by no means a boon when the player could simply complete simulated tests of their own real skill, but then again, a character sheet isn't all that there is in your average RPG.

First we have item acquisition and collection, complete with inventory management. This is the crack of video games, the easiest way to addict a player. There's a constant aspiration to get better loot, and since the players don't know when it might drop, they have to keep playing on and on in hopes of eventually finding that next upgrade. Of course, once they do the new equipment will serve only to help them find the subsequent upgrades, but the inherent pointlessness of this cycle isn't typically much of a deterrent. Ironically, if a player ever actually acquired the very best loot possible, such that there was no superior set of equipment to seek out, they'd essentially have beaten it, and all of their amassed wealth and power would cease to be valuable at all when they then stop playing. At least it was a fun ride, right?

There's something to be said, too, about customizability. Most RPGs offer a wider range of player options than your average game, but at a drawback - you can't master all of them at once, you have to pick and choose your specialities. This makes your playing experience more unique to you, and also means you've got to play through the whole game again every time you want to try out a different play style (for better or worse: more replay value, but more effort required). I most appreciate the games that offer easy re-specialization, but this still seems fairly uncommon.

Now for the terrifying revelation. Given that the fun parts of the RPG mechanics are character growth, item (and special ability) collection, and easy customization of play style, while the boring, clunky parts are things like statistics and inventory management, what's an example of a game that has all of the fun, and none of the boredom?

...Modern Warfare 2. Yeah. The archetypal example of current competitive FPS action gaming has also perfected the RPG-style aggrandizement formula.