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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oofta" data-source="post: 9410734" data-attributes="member: 6801845">This is going nowhere and all I can say is that this is a really strange hill to die on.  You say you are concerned. Fine.  Sorry to hear that because I think there are far more important things to be concerned about, but that's not really the issue.  The issue is that you keep predicting some gloomy future but when people ask for clarification of how it's going to happen there's just no there there.  Meanwhile, any attempt at drawing logical conclusions that don't fit your scenario are dismissed out of hand without reason.Are they going to have a VTT.  Yes.  Are they going to promote it? Yes. Are they going to charge for it? Of course. It's a profitable business for other companies, they're making a competing application they hope will be profitable.  It doesn't mean anything other than that.  There is no reason to believe a VTT will ever be used exclusively by an overwhelming majority of people that play D&D.  We have decent VTTs now, the majority of people still play in person at least some of the time. But you keep pushing this idea that VTT will somehow lead to this future downward spiral.  You're making an extraordinary claim and extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof or explanation and you have nothing other than your fear.  There's no reason to believe there will be a constriction of imagination as long as we are playing D&D with a DM running things.  A VTT is no different from a DM that prints out every mini (having a 3D printer is making my storage area really crowded) and uses carefully constructed dwarven forge minis like Critical Role. You still have a DM filling in details, you still have players playing their character.  A VTT is just a different way to visualize combat, it does not limit what people can attempt because that will always be up to the players and the DM.  Combat has varying levels of importance to different groups, but it is not the sole focus of the game.At some point we could have a truly immersive virtual reality VTT where you put on a headset and you are your character, you see what your character sees and so on.  Maybe we have a person still running things with a voice modulator so whether it's the ghost of a 12 year old girl talking or a dragon, the voice will match the image.  Maybe we'll have an AI DM.  Maybe.  But even if we did, there will still people that will sit around a table rolling, and I think it will always be a significant percentage, dice because D&D is about more than just the game.  It's about connecting with others, whether it's friends, families, or complete strangers.  That human connection simply can't be replaced for a lot of people, myself included.  I like video games.  I probably spend too much time playing them.  I play D&D because of the creativity and human connection.  Take those away and I might as well go back and replay BG3.So what it comes down to is fairly simple.  I don't see an issue with a VTT.  No matter how pretty it is, it will never convince me to use it.  It doesn't, and can't (at least with current technology) replace the DM.  I doubt it will convince an overwhelming majority to use it, the face-to-face connection is important and even for people that play remotely there's plenty of competition.  Some people may play strictly by the rules because that's what the VTT best supports but some people play strictly by the rules now.  Nothing changes that and it's neither good nor bad because there's no one true way to play the game.You feel like enough people will somehow be sucked into using the VTT and that D&D will become just another video game experience that stifles creativity. You just aren't making a very convincing argument that your fear will ever actually happen.</blockquote>

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