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<blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 4566646" data-attributes="member: 10201"><p>I suspect the difference is that, for many, RPGs are essentially a highly-structured storytelling activity. The game-like aspects may be more important than the story-like aspects but, ultimately, the appeal is the story--the opportunity to inhabit an alternative person and live an alternative life. If it wasn't, they wouldn't be playing an RPG. Because that's the one thing that an RPG brings to the table (no pun intended) that no other sort of game does: the freedom to tell that story and live out that other life. </p><p></p><p>Computer games, no matter how good, so far can't provide the freedom to make storytelling a viable part of their experience. You can experience a story that someone else has crafted--they might've even crafted multiple stories and you can choose amongst them. But you can't tell your own. And stories (barring a few more fantastical ones) have a causal narrative that involves consequences--"do overs" violate that causality. So, when you play a computer game, the appeal is that of either a very complex game with really nifty visuals, or of experiencing an existing story, not of creating your own story. </p><p></p><p>In short, they're really two different activities that have converged to a certain degree on the surface. But their fundamental appeals are very different. This has been masked not only by their surface similarities, but also by the crossover appeal--a lot of people that like one like the other, perhaps because of the surface similarities, perhaps for different reasons--differences that they might not even themselves be aware of, depending largely on whether or not they've ever bothered to think about why they like them. But, IMHO, they're no more alike than orcas and sharks. </p><p></p><p>Though the fact that there are other people involved who'd have to replay, rather than just computer-controlled NPCs (there's a computer-game-specific term for this, isn't there?), may also contribute--i hadn't thought of that part, specifically, before.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="woodelf, post: 4566646, member: 10201"] I suspect the difference is that, for many, RPGs are essentially a highly-structured storytelling activity. The game-like aspects may be more important than the story-like aspects but, ultimately, the appeal is the story--the opportunity to inhabit an alternative person and live an alternative life. If it wasn't, they wouldn't be playing an RPG. Because that's the one thing that an RPG brings to the table (no pun intended) that no other sort of game does: the freedom to tell that story and live out that other life. Computer games, no matter how good, so far can't provide the freedom to make storytelling a viable part of their experience. You can experience a story that someone else has crafted--they might've even crafted multiple stories and you can choose amongst them. But you can't tell your own. And stories (barring a few more fantastical ones) have a causal narrative that involves consequences--"do overs" violate that causality. So, when you play a computer game, the appeal is that of either a very complex game with really nifty visuals, or of experiencing an existing story, not of creating your own story. In short, they're really two different activities that have converged to a certain degree on the surface. But their fundamental appeals are very different. This has been masked not only by their surface similarities, but also by the crossover appeal--a lot of people that like one like the other, perhaps because of the surface similarities, perhaps for different reasons--differences that they might not even themselves be aware of, depending largely on whether or not they've ever bothered to think about why they like them. But, IMHO, they're no more alike than orcas and sharks. Though the fact that there are other people involved who'd have to replay, rather than just computer-controlled NPCs (there's a computer-game-specific term for this, isn't there?), may also contribute--i hadn't thought of that part, specifically, before. [/QUOTE]
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