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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Will" data-source="post: 3944122" data-attributes="member: 5566">I appreciate that very much, Hopeless.My perspective:There are things to learn from every style of gaming, from boardgames to poker. For instance, I use various 'hands-on' methods to make tracking stuff easier for players. Like 'my buff lasts for 4 rounds' "Ok, take out a die and put it with '4' up, move it down each round." 'Oh... that's a good idea.'Or when I had a high level wizard and ended up making index cards for each spell, colored paperclips on one side meant a spell prepared at a given level, move it to another side to indicate 'this is cast,' with color = level. (Different colors might appear on a single index card to indicate various metamagic, like maximized or quickened magic missiles).From a setting/flavor standpoint, nobody has much to fear from WoWisms 'leaking' in for one simple reason: WoW and most MMOs are pretty much reheated mash-ups of D&D to begin with.From a mechanics point of view, a lot of the ways WoW runs is SPECIFICALLY designed to address the issues of 'a lot of people are playing together on a computer which can track lots of numbers.' So, for example, spells have 'cool down' timers and people have spell points. Recovery is very fast on most games... why? Because as a persistant world, there is no ability to wave your hand and say 'and then a day passes.'Mind you, Dungeons and Dragons Online DOES make efforts to create an experience more like tabletop D&D; recovery is nonexistant except at special 'rest shrines' or outside of dungeons.As for what WoTC is trying to attempt... I doubt the dev team is aiming specifically at the online computer gamer market. I suspect they are merely looking at creating a game that is 'better' for modern gamers, and also to appeal to the new gamer market. Appealing to gamers is not the same thing as 'taking away from MMOs.'Any effort the dev team makes to analyze MMOs is, IMO, simply the sort of creative, out-of-the-box thinking that makes for good ideas. So long as it's followed up with clear appraisal and skillful design, this is a good thing.I happily play MMOs. I happily play tabletop games. They fulfill different desires and have very different accessibility issues; tabletop has to be scheduled weekly or so, is vulnerable to RL interruptions, is very social, and is imaginative. MMOs (at least that I play) can be played at any time, have an immediate 'oo neat' aspect, and can fit into whatever free time I care to spend on them.That's my piece.Anyone who reduces a viewpoint down to a simple kneejerk 'these guys are teh stoopid' is doing everyone a disservice; it's possible to have different tastes without being stupid, or 'bad.' It's possible that people might react to elements of a game differently than you; it doesn't make them (or you) wrong.</blockquote>

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