My girlfriend, Nichole, and I moved into our own apartment back in November and, in an attempt to keep in touch with our friends, have decided to start a monthly double date/game night with our friends Dominic and Natalia (also a couple). We start things off with dinner and once we're finished eating and shooting the breeze, continue our journey through Champions: Return to Arms. Dominic and Nichole have chosen Rangers, Natalia is more of an in-your-face-and-hit-things kinda gal so she has a Barbarian and I've opted for a Shadowknight, only because I haven't played with him much. I really wish I had gone with my jacked up Cleric, but...I guess I'll save him for our next go around. Anyway, it's not like I've gotten particularly bored playing this game with my dear close comrades, but...it did get me thinking about how much of a severe lack of customizable 4-way rpgs there are. There are a few other 4-player rpgs, like X-Men Legends, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, but they're based on comic books or ancient. And Dark Alliance is only 2-player, despite the second game having 5 different characters, so regardless of a lack of creating and naming your own avatar, you can only play with one other person. Phantasy Star Online on Gamecube isn't bad, has a futuristic style to it and it supports 4-player split screen, but the controls are kind of awkward and a bit of a turn off to people who don't want to look past such a hang up. Norrath and RTA seem to be the best/only 4-player rpgs that are fairy tale-ish in nature (i.e. involving elves and orcs and goblins, swords and magic and such), gives you some decent options to make a character just for YOU, and changes your appearance based on what you're wearing and holding (some rpgs don't do this, which is okay, but depending on the game can be extremely unfortunate). This isn't necessarily a cry out for more games of this style...necessarily...but I do wonder why multiplayer support isn't more prevalent in rpgs. I can understand not including it in turn-based affairs like most Final Fantasy games, as it's enough for one person to sit and wait for their turn to come up again, let alone divide the waiting up among two or more people. But for action-rpgs with real-time battles, why can't there be more customization and options? There's gotta be a studio out there that can take the hack-and-slash formula and make some really incredible twists on the standard style...maybe give characters more varied "actions" to perform? Like instead of just hitting switches and buttons, maybe lifting things, stacking things, building a structure, repairing something, etc.? RPGs could probably learn a lot from all the innovation the DS is making in games. Granted, Playstation controllers don't have a handy dandy little pen that you can use to write all over the screen with, but the activities you feel like you're actually doing with the stylus are really terrific sometimes. I don't know, I've always been a fairly solo gamer myself, so the idea of playing on my own, not only without physical playmates but also without NP-party members, suits me just fine...but occasionally, I like the idea of having three people take a journey with me without having to be connected to the internet. :-)