NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="nothing to see here" data-source="post: 2555077" data-attributes="member: 16432">Depends on how good looking the DM is...I posed the question thinking more along this line...poker has always been a fund game to play (like D&D) if not a particularly fun game to watch (like D&D)...somebody somewhere came up with the genious notion that, in poker, if you could know what every player knows...the the bluffing and gamesmanship becomes far more compellinng...and they were right.Now...what is the opperational barrier of D&D.  I don't believe it is primarily rules based any more so than I belive Texas Hold 'Em is successful because it is 'better' poker than Omaha Stud.  Neither do I believe that it has to do with lack of market presence.  D&D is unique among RPG's in that it has good market presence (I reckon a brand recognition survey ont he subject would show a stratospheric gap between D&D and the rest of the pack).The barrier that keeps outsiders from becoming intriguied with watching and/or playing D&D is it's reliance on imagination.  To an outsider it's 5 or 6 people sitting around writing little notes, (possibly) talking in strange voices, and throwing dice.  Without the context of imagination it is not hard to see why a non practitioner consider it socially aberrant behaviour...just as a non poker player sitting blind to everybody's hole cards would find that came horrifically boring.Some people just don't have the natural imaginative capacity to immerse themselves in an RPG (though it can be learned).  Some fear the 'letting go' that such leaps of fancy entail.  What they need is an imagination aid.Mass marketed minitures have been a step in the right direction.  However, as far as I can tell, mintitures can only go so far as their fundamental 'toy' appeal -- while an imagination aid also carries, for some potential gamers...a relatively high social cost (it doesn't feel very adult)we've been sitting on the technology for such an imagination aid for quite some time.  They're called computers.  Even relatively basic computer games in today's market place carry the kind of graphic and simulation technology that readily makes up a creativity gap.  For reasons I cannot completely explian, computer games have also become acceptable as an 'adult' social passtime for large segments of the population.The problem is that up to know computer games, while fun do NOT replicate the social interplay and creative diversity of a roleplaying game.  Computer RPG utilities, conversely, strive to replicate the basic pen and paper experience without doing a lot to bridge the imagination-gap.I believe there is a middle ground -- both in technology and market.  A game/utility that allows people to construct the kind of characters they want, in the kind of world they want, with decent (not necessarily ultra-expensive cutting edge) graphical representation of each.  The game would be designed to be run completely by an independant group either in one location or online.  The appeal for users would be "make your own computer game/ make your own movie" and you could actually see the results on your action in more than numbers on a page.For goodness sake we're almost there now.  Neverwinter nights (while I never took to it) did a pretty good job of blending certain game experiences...and the explosion of mass-multiplayer games (also not my cup of tea) demonstrate the basic technology as well.  Imagine a utility that, instead of plugging you in to the World of Warcraft allowed a group of friends to create and run their 'own' World of Warcraft...albeit with not nearly the glitz, glammer and bells and whitles.  not only would it be fun.  It would be a hell of a bridge market into other roleplaying games.  It could be your camera behind the cards.</blockquote>

Verification