(Discussion) Chatroom Living Enworld Games

This Poll will be open for 7 Days. It will not determine anything, it only acts as one of many different elements in debating the topic at had.

That topic being, do people support a Living Enworld Chatroom. For those of you that havn't assumed it already, the proposal would be to have a chatrom #LEW at chat.psionics.net. It would be accessed from MirC or the Java Client. Characters and DMs could run adventures in live action chatroom style gaming.

Allow me to list some General Pros and Cons to Chat games versus Play by Post:

Pro - Games go by much much faster in chat games. Nearly the speed of a real life game, though with slightly less content.

Con - Games going faster can make comepetition between characters drive fast leveling and fast playing, taking away from many things you get out of a play by post.

Pro - Chat gaming allows groups that can meet regularly for an hour at a time to game reasonably, whereas a play by poster that cannot make it to the message boards at least once a day can fall behind or force a game to fall behind.

Con - In a message board game, you can always pick up when you leave off. You don't necessarily subtract too much from a game if you can't always make it, and you can always read everything that has happened in the thread.

Pro - Chat games allow real-time secret messaging and such. You can seperate character knowledge fast and easily.

Con - It is significantly more difficult to track character information and use properly in a chat game.

Pro - Chat games allow you to roll the dice with a bot right in front of the gamers, just like a table top game. No questions. You can also resolve missed interpretations with ease.

Con - DMs may be forced to make decisions on the fly that they might have handled more thoroughly in a play by post game.

And I'm sure there are tons more, I'd like posters to add these together, weight them as they see fit, and decide what their opinion is...

In addition, there are many ways of implementing LEW as a chat room version of the game:

1) Normal Part of LEW, they gain the full benefits and properties involved in LEW gaming and can switch between PbP and Chat gaming freely, no questions.

2) Chat LEW as a seperate entity from normal LEW. All of the same benefits as normal LEW games, but you don't necessarily act within the same world. This would keep the two seperate types of gaming completely seperate, and allow players to choose their choice of gaming. This could divide the total number of gamers in a specific area...

3) Limited Normal LEW, you can create characters for adventuring purposes, but certain features (like custom feats/classes/etc.) are not available to chat characters. This allows switching, but tends to put more weight on play by post characters...

4) Limited Seperate LEW, you cannot create feats and other neato things, but you act in the same world as the rest of LEW. In addition, you are limited to a certain amount of (experience, time, adventures, hours, etc.) of chat gaming per month to keep characters roughly equal.

And others...

My vote went to CON. The reason? I think playing LEW on a forum like this is great. I can easily keep track of every adventure, post in the adventures I play in myself with ease and the game goes pretty smooth. Adventures played in a chat might be fun as it speeds up the game a lot, it can also be frustrating as not everyone can be online at the same time, and missing a big portion of the adventure (as it goes pretty fast) is a big shame.

Personnally, I prefer PbP. Chat means to regroup many person at one time for some time, which is out of my possibilty for now. If LEW start to be chat, it sure you'll lose me, as I never know when I will be able to go on a computer

Velmont said:

Personnally, I prefer PbP. Chat means to regroup many person at one time for some time, which is out of my possibilty for now. If LEW start to be chat, it sure you'll lose me, as I never know when I will be able to go on a computer

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I don't think anyone is suggesting that LEW stop being played in the forums. It should be possible to play both chat and PBP games.

I will vote CON, personally, because I access the boards from different places, and i could hardly stand around and chat at work, whereas I can stop at a Kiosk and post a message or three during a shift at the Club.

I think that the biggest CON is that some folks would skyrocket in experience/play because they live online. Let's face it, there are some PbP gamers who do nothing but surf the web 24/7. I have lost friends to Everquest, for instance, as my friend Ben does nothing in life except play online, including not having a job...

As a Judge, I will not be available to moderate in a Chatroom, as my schedule is very eratic at best (though I do have opportunity to post often from here or there).

thatdarncat said:

I don't think anyone is suggesting that LEW stop being played in the forums. It should be possible to play both chat and PBP games.

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Yeah, but if there is chat room for LEW, that means a LOT will happen there as it is a lot faster than, and so a post only character will evolve very slowly compare to someone who will chat, and so will hardly become something important in an active chat world...

Pro, but option 3 style. Personally, I think it's a good way to keep everyone from leveling at the same pace, so we have a better distribution. But I'd like to keep all the really world-changing stuff on-board (and post chat logs, or at least synopses, so other DMs and the judges can review, and see what's happened.)

When I initially was looking at the online playing options, I thought that chat would be the way to go. But the problem with it was finding a group that met at a time that I could be available. In PbP thats not an issue.

In addition, as a couple of people have mentioned, Chat characters would have a massive advantage in terms of speed advancement. It may be possible to set rules to regulate the pace of advancement, but it seems like an additional complication, the mechanics of which would probably be a source of a lot of disagreement.

Of course, if the two were run as completely separate worlds then the above concerns wouldn't be an issue. But it could reduce the pool of players in each world and reduce the creative energy powering LEW.

I voted PRO, since chatting definately has its good side, but we need to be careful about how many we allow, and how often players can participate. If we do allow them, I could watch games, but running or playing in one is just a little too much for me.

If folks are set on chat gaming as well, I vote 'Option 3'.

I tend to write wordy posts as a DM, so the speed of a chatroom isn't exactly to my liking as far as gaming goes. One of PbP;s advantages over face-to-face-gaming is that it allows those of us who like to write the luxury of doing so.
Often, FtF gaming ignores details in favor of getting to the next scene/monster/magic item shop etc...

Anyways,my vote is for Option 3 for Chat, though I myself won't be involved.