General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
How would our current popular culture be different if D&D had not been invented? Would our current popular culture be affected at all?
What would your favorite hobby be if there were no RPGs?
Bullgrit
I think someone else would have invented RPGs then.
If there were no RPGs, I might be playing more computer games.
I'd probably play Blizzards Online Space Combat Simulation. Massive Multiplayer, an entire galaxy to explore, expanding storylines, multiple factions. Controlling your own carrier group as a mercenary group is awesome, and I am really looking forward to the Mecha Ground Combat expansion promised for next year. [/dreaming]
Thoughts of the Arch Chancellor - My weblog on EN World - containing game related material, like: house rules, design theories, reviews, play reports, adventure ideas
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I think crpg would have arisen anyway but they would be derived from DOOM and the like. I am aware that D&D and rpgs were in the background of id software but i think fps type games would have happened without rpgs. MMOs would have been slow to develop without D&D though.
Isn't that Eve? Or is Eve mainly just stabbing people in the back with spaceships?
From what I gathered, it seems too much about trade stuff, but I might be totally wrong.
A Space Combat Sim MMO should feature all the TIE Fighter style missions. It's okay if someone wants the trade stuff, too, but it should absolutely not be required.
Thoughts of the Arch Chancellor - My weblog on EN World - containing game related material, like: house rules, design theories, reviews, play reports, adventure ideas
Secret Member of <Think we would just hide our secret with a spoiler tag, eh?>
Well, it's not quite fire or the wheel, but I agree that it probably would have been invented sooner or later, in one fashion or another. But if there were no RPGS at all, I'd just be more into my other two interests, poker and hockey, and I'd play more board and video games.
The biggest legacy D&D has given to mainstream culture IMHO:
1. Non-competitive gaming. The idea that you can sit around in a group and play a game and not have a winner. Ever. This is totally novel. I can't think of a single game before D&D where this is true. This was one of the biggest stumbling blocks I remember facing back in the day trying to explain my hobby to people. "What do you mean there is no winner? What's the point of playing if there is no winner?"
That paradigm, which has bled over into computer games (how many co-opertative video games are there that aren't CRPG's?), and cropped up in all sorts of other places is HUGE.
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How would our current popular culture be different if D&D had not been invented? Would our current popular culture be affected at all?
What would your favorite hobby be if there were no RPGs?
Bullgrit
If there were no rpgs at all, I think our culture would noticeably different. Other hobby industries would probably pick up the slack of what gamers would normally do--maybe board games would be really hot (imagine if all of us played Settlers of Catan regularly instead of X the RPG), wargames, computer games, comic books, anime, manga, and so on.
Games like GTA 4 would probably be even more popular because dollars that gamers have spent on playing crpg would go toward more sandbox style games, though they don't necessarily have to be violent--just more open-ended.
However, if it wasn't for Gary and Dave, I think someone else would have invented rpgs and it would interesting to speculate a what-if scenario if the first popular rpg was a sci-fi game instead of a fantasy game or a supers game or something like that.
Probably the biggest obstacle I faced to taking an Urban Arcana game seriously was imagining a world without D&D. Or, conversely, a world with D&D, thus causing the PCs to realize they are in world that strangely resembles D&D.
Many of the RPG computer cames would still be around, but might use different terminology. For instance, instead of HP, it would just be Life, Wounds, or something equally generic. People would think of little gnomish creatures when you talk about elves. There would probably be more people into board games and table-top army games.
Personally, I would be a video game player who playes old-school systems (by now, the PS2 or something along those lines) and I would have drawn and written a lot more. I think I'd be a LOT LESS social too since none of my interests required human interaction.
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1) While someone probably would have invented RPGs by now, we probably wouldn't have CRPGs yet. "Role-play" would probably be more famous for being a psychological technique or a bedroom game.
2) I would be a rock star, because I'd actually have spent real time practicing my guitar rather than merely noodling.
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