Ryan Dancey speaks - the Most Successful Year for Fantasy RPGaming ever. However...

Breakdaddy · Dec 22, 2005

Jim Hague said:
You're pretty obviously coming at this from the perspective of the consumer who isn't familiar with technology or actual trends. But I'll play for a bit.

I'm a 12 year I.T. professional, programmer, Network Admin, and Technology Purchasing Agent for a major medical and educational institution. As a professional and someone who actually has to research and maintain a certain level of expertise on technology both upcoming and current, I have at least *some* idea what I'm talking about. I'm glad you want to play for a bit. Play with this final statement from me:

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Jim Hague · Dec 22, 2005

Breakdaddy said:
I'm a 12 year I.T. professional, programmer, Network Admin, and Technology Purchasing Agent for a major medical and educational institution. As a professional and someone who actually has to research and maintain a certain level of expertise on technology both upcoming and current, I have at least *some* idea what I'm talking about. I'm glad you want to play for a bit. Play with this final statement from me:

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Not being psychic, all I had to go on was what you were posting. I've worked in IT about that long, and do my level best to not just keep up but keep ahead. Fortuitous circumstance's placed me in a position right now where I'm in contact with developers of console games, standalones and MMOs on pretty much a daily basis. My assertion wasn't meant as a slap in the face, just an observation. I apologize if it seemed snarky.

Breakdaddy · Dec 22, 2005

Jim Hague said:
Not being psychic, all I had to go on was what you were posting. I've worked in IT about that long, and do my level best to not just keep up but keep ahead. Fortuitous circumstance's placed me in a position right now where I'm in contact with developers of console games, standalones and MMOs on pretty much a daily basis. My assertion wasn't meant as a slap in the face, just an observation. I apologize if it seemed snarky.

No harm done.

Jim Hague · Dec 22, 2005

Breakdaddy said:
No harm done.

Excellent. Now, back to the discussion:

Maybe thinking of TTRPGs more as a toy or toolkit instead of a game might be helpful. The biggest impediment to marketing to Joe Average is getting the 21-35 market to understand what you're selling. Question is, would marketing the TTRPGs as a hobby/adult amusement/toolkit/toy work? Industry professionals, chime in!

Wolv0rine · Dec 22, 2005

I don't know people, this thread has gone off in an odd direction. Software trends and hardware potential and how many MMORPG players are into RPGs (I will not use that moronic 'TRPG' acronym any more than I will call my PH a PHB) and whatnot.

All I know is that I enjoy computer games. I've always enjoyed computer games. I liked Pong when Pong was it. I liked Asteroids and even that god-awful E.T. game on the atari that had nothing to do with E.T.
And I still remember sitting with a buddy, with our C=64s set up side-by-side playing Pool of Radiance and saying "It'd be so damned cool if we could hook the computers together with a null-modem and see each in the game."
I wanted to do it then, I'd love to do it now (if it was done right, and I didn't have to pay a friggin subscription fee to play it). But it'll never take the place of actually playing D&D because (as has been touched on before) D&D (technically table-top RPGs, but we're talking about D&D in specific here) has the potential to include pretty much anything at the drop of a hat. It is, if all else was stripped away and made equal, the ability for me to think of the most wildly bizzare and outlandish actions and be able to try them. As much as I like (and still play) Baldur's Gate 2 (and liked NWN before my play disk shattered in the CD drive), there's no option to... say... rip off my cloak and throw it over the ogre's head, swing onto his back by the edges of the cloak hanging from his melon and shank the heck out of his kidneys. But I can enjoy the look on the DM's face in D&D when I say that's what I'm going to try to do.

And really, even if you *could* try it in an MMORPG... I'd still miss the look on the other guys' faces that I get at the table. hehe

Whizbang Dustyboots · Dec 22, 2005

Wolv0rine said:
But it'll never take the place of actually playing D&D because (as has been touched on before) D&D (technically table-top RPGs, but we're talking about D&D in specific here) has the potential to include pretty much anything at the drop of a hat.

People keep saying this on all the threads about this -- I guess MMORPGs are the new 4E around here -- but it's not true.

Yes, you could do anything in D&D, but most people don't.

Most games take place in inns, villages, crypts, dungeons, ruins, forests, mountains and (once in a while) plains. Get fancy and you can throw in aquatic environments and deserts. That right there encompasses 90 percent, at least, of where people play.

Now, you could resolve a conflict in D&D by spontaneously mutating and growing giant pincers out of your forehead and decapitating your enemy after mating with him, and then eating his head, but you probably don't.

Instead, you probably a) kill them, b) bribe them, c) bargain with them, d) trick them or e) flee them.

In a NWN-style system, where you have a DM controlling NPCs, all of those are available today.

Not only is the notion that online games can "never" offer what D&D an untrue assertion, they're 90 percent of the way there right now. Give the platform two generations (especially if they get competition along the way), and this thread will seem a hilarious or embarassing memory, depending on which side of the fence you were on.

Heck, they'll even have all the wacky environments and other stuff as add-on options you can pay more for, once the standard bases are all covered.

tetsujin28 · Dec 23, 2005

eyebeams said:
I grew up in Toronto. I'm sick of the Barenaked Ladies.

Dude, I'm not even from Toronto, and I'm sick of them

diaglo · Dec 23, 2005

the big thing i've had problems with when gaming online is ... GODS.

people who spend their whole lives online. for the casual player it is tough. these dudes walk in kill you or steal your stuff.

and then you are out.

much the same problems with entry level play that D&D and other tabletop games are facing can exist in Online... Evercrack being the perfect example.

but... what WoW is doing may be the solution. and may allow the casual player or the n00b to enter the environment without feeling so putupon..

heck, message boards do this all the time... people complain about n00bs or n00bs/lurkers/casual posters complain about not being in the chosen of some forum.

Lordgrae · Dec 23, 2005

I don't know, I've never been able to get any of my friends to play any of the MMORPGs with me, and the few I have, I didn't really enjoy it. I think hanging at the gaming table with good friends feeling is something the CRPGs will have a hard time replacing.

Although, wether TRPGs remain profitable enough to be worth the time of a large company is something I know nothing about. So I'll have to wait and see.

Grae

Whizbang Dustyboots · Dec 23, 2005

Lordgrae said:
I don't know, I've never been able to get any of my friends to play any of the MMORPGs with me, and the few I have, I didn't really enjoy it. I think hanging at the gaming table with good friends feeling is something the CRPGs will have a hard time replacing.

I think that's a common issue -- either you find (or bring) a social network, or you end up not having a ton of fun, even in games that have a lot of solo content.