Videogames are boring once you embrace RPG?

[GMMichael]

Obviously, you don't have Skyrim. Or Dragon Age: Inquisition. Or the Witcher 3.

Thanks, you Pong-players, for making me feel young.

I find that TRPGs are only as good as their GMs, and the players contribute to the attention-worthiness of the game as well. So while it's very easy for me to be mesmerized by the unlimited choices in an RPG and the limits of my imagination, there are some very concrete influences that allow video games to compete with TRPGs.

So while I make a conscious effort to devote some free time to TRPGs, some video games hold just as much entertainment value for me.

 

[fuindordm]

Speaking in generalizations:

TRPGs do social interaction, plot, and free-form solutions to problems better.
CRPGs do exploration, atmosphere, and complex rules systems better.

I'll always pick a TRPG or even a board game night over playing my Xbox. But when the former aren't an option, I will turn on Fallout 4, where I can very happily spend a couple of hours poking into every nook and cranny of an abandoned building and soaking in the atmosphere of the nuclear wasteland.

But not all CRPGs do it for me, and it's hard to define why some grab me and some don't. I need to become interested in the main character's story, for one thing. If I become interested, it's like reading a novel--and the lack of branching paths and free-form decision making doesn't bother me so much.

 

[Dualazi]

Absolutely not. Aside from the fact that they're fundamentally different experiences with very different assumptions, my passions for video games remains as strong as ever, and if I had a gun to my head I'd pick them over TTRPGs in a heartbeat. The sheer breadth of the medium is amazing, and while no individual game may match a great D&D campaign, in my opinion no tabletop option can overcome the staggering diversity, creativity, and production values that contribute to the video game experience.

 

[Psikerlord#]

This is just a theory based on a chat I have with a friend las week. And I want to know if someone else feel something similar.

I started playing Pathfinder RPGs at 20, now I'm 26 and playing both PF and D&D 5th ed. Before that, I used to play millions of hours per day to videogames. Last month I realized that very slowly I stopped enjoying video games.
Today if I see a trailer or something I could feel enthusiastic about the game, but after a few hours I don't want to play it anymore it feel like a waste of time. Nor do I want to find new games.

Last week I talked to a friend he told me that it is the same for him. When we think about it, we realized that we started to "not enjoying so much" videogames when we started to play RPGs. We are just two guys, and maybe there could be other factors like, for me, start traveling, learning to play music and stuffs that make me happy and not only entertain me for a few hour (RPGs are one of those things that makes me happy of course), and maybe, just maybe, videogames only kept me distracted.

Have anyone of you experience something similiar? Do you think that RPGs could be the reason, or one of the reasons, we (or you) stopped liking video games?

I still like video games, but a sandbox style RPGs give more player choice than any computer game can. The flexibility of a living GM is the one big advantage RPGs have over computer games (which, in many ways, do Adventure Path style games better than RPGs) - and it's also why I personally think RPGs should concentrate on sandbox style, as opposed to AP's. Play to your strengths.

 

[Lwaxy]

Heard it from a lot of younger players,but for us old farts, videos games haven't been around back then so it is a bit different. I just mostly don't have time for video games, as I prefer running or playing tabletops.

 

[Gamgee]

I love playing games when a good one is released but that is getting truly rare in this day of microtransaction ridden madness. So yes I do play a lot and I regularly play Overwatch most nights of the week and I've beaten Witcher 3 twice and lots of good rpg games. I host a game of Star Wars Saga and play in an online game of Numenera. However that was back in the day. The last six years more games are coming out than ever that are usually not as good as the games that came out before or have so much micro, macro, expansions, skins, loot crate, and slow grind gambling progression systems it is getting hard to find a good game. Then add in crashing. glitches out the ass, increasing base price in Canada, and generally being inferior and risk averse. As a matter of fact Warhammer 40k is cheaper and sensible to get into now for me than video games. WARHAMMER 40k!!! I rest my case.

Like once or twice a year scarcity. Which leaves me with a lot of free time which is why I joined Numenera.

If I had to pick between tabletop rpg's and video games? I would take tabletop rpg's almost every time except perhaps the Witcher 3. That game is simply artistry on all levels. They're even coming out with a Witcher tabletop rpg (YRESH!).

 

[Red Dragon Gaming]

I play both. RPGs take more effort, preparation time, organising getting a group together, but the experience is more rewarding as a result. But a videogame is quick and easy - at the end of a long day it's easy just to turn on the computer and unwind playing an hour of Skyrim before going to bed. But if I could only have one or the other I'd reject them both and keep LARP! Although for LARP the levels of effort, preparation, going out of your way to participate are even higher - the more you put in, the more you get out.

 

[MarkB]

Nope. I was playing computer games long before I got into tabletop gaming - in fact, it was Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights that got me trying tabletop D&D - and computer games are still one of my major hobbies. I buy several titles each year, varying from strategy games to first-person shooters to space sims and more, and am currently having a great time playing through Divinity Original Sin, a fine party-based CRPG with good game mechanics and a great sense of humour.

 

[aramis erak]

Have anyone of you experience something similiar? Do you think that RPGs could be the reason, or one of the reasons, we (or you) stopped liking video games?

Only to a point...

the videogames take a LOT of time to complete, at least the better ones.
RPG's take a large time commitment.

I find myself playing videogames less, but not zero... mind you, my first exposure to videogames was the table-version of Pong circa 1976...
I continued to play videogames, especially adventure-based ones, my entire life. My favorites? The Zelda series, the Final Fantasy Series. (But Adventure on the 2600 always remains a wonderful "See how much you can do in 2KB?").

I wouldn't mind grabbing Rachet and Clank for a re-run (but that would necessitate a PS2)...

I'm enjoying too much Kerbal Space Program.

They don't scratch the same itch.

Videogames help on the boardgame itch... but not the RPG one.

 

[Henry]

Have anyone of you experience something similiar? Do you think that RPGs could be the reason, or one of the reasons, we (or you) stopped liking video games?

For me it was different, because I'm old enough that I was introduced to RPGs around the same time as video games (I knew Asteroids and Space Invaders about the same time I knew D&D). Back then, video games were not the immersive experiences that they have been for the past 20 years or so. I've always cherry-picked ny next video game craving, and I've NEVER turned down an RPG session with people I knew when I could have been playing a video game, no matter how "hot" the video title was.

For me, there's no contest between an RPG with a decent game master, vs. a video game no matter how immersive, 3D, what have you. It's more of a situation of "the right tool for the job". I play things like Fallout and Witcher when there's no hope of getting the friends together at a certain time, or if I am looking for a few hours to kill on a Monday evening without the wife. RPGs aren't possible at all times, and if I'm stressed or feeling brain dead I won't waste that by trying to coordinate an RPG session when I'm likely not to be able to be at my best and give everyone a lousy effort at playing my character or GMing.