Forked Thread: How do you feel about online gaming?
- Thread starter Glyfair
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mach1.9pants
Hero
Yeah DnD would not be on my radar if it went online, to me it is a social thing as much as a gaming thing. I am a big online gamer, but that is with PC/PS3 games, I probably spend 5 or 6 times as much time online (FPS usually) than I do DnD because of logistics really; but DnD is not an online game for me.
catsclaw227
First Post
This is an excellent point, and even though I am considering dabbling in an online game, I want to do so only if I can have tools that make it easy. Some of the new 4e Maptools frameworks look good, and with the recent announcement of CharBuilder exporting better XML for third parties, There may be some hope for easily converting a DDI character to a Maptools 4e token.
BUUUUT.... by far a bigger priority would be tools to better help my F2F game. I would LOVE a 4e style DM Genie and if WOTC makes something like that, where I can use my laptop in game to handle all the tracking of minutia, then that would free me up to concentrate on the game itself.
Also, better prep tools, to be able to take monsters and stuff from Compendium, build encounters and store campaign data, manage key locations, maps, etc.
That would be best. (for me, of course).
IMHO, their decision about where to focus development efforts is a good one.
RyvenCedrylle
First Post
1) Do you play online, and if you don't how interested are you?
I play almost exclusively online nowadays as I draw an absolute crapton of wife aggro if I go somewhere for 3 or 4 hours without her. If I'm going to game, it's going to have to be online and fairly late into the evening. I occasionally get out to a live LFR game if she's at school or something.
I'm much more 'Johnny' than 'Timmy', so I don't mind the lessened out-of-game social interaction - I'm there to play a game, not shoot the bull. The MapTools forums have both regular groups and an LFR league, so even if I don't really know the other players that well, it's got sort of a 'tribe' feel to it.
2) How satisfied are you with the current tools (are they great, just good enough, or don't meet your minimum needs to play online)?
I'm only familiar with MapTools and OpenRPG. MapTools is considerably better as far as I'm concerned - especially with the myriad of marks and status effects you need for 4E.
3) Would you be more interested in tools from WotC, less interested, or indifferent.
WotC shouldn't bother wasting their time on a VTT unless they're going to hand out 3D models for everything instead of flat tokens, which was the last word on the project. What's out there already handles the job just fine.
I play almost exclusively online nowadays as I draw an absolute crapton of wife aggro if I go somewhere for 3 or 4 hours without her. If I'm going to game, it's going to have to be online and fairly late into the evening. I occasionally get out to a live LFR game if she's at school or something.
I'm much more 'Johnny' than 'Timmy', so I don't mind the lessened out-of-game social interaction - I'm there to play a game, not shoot the bull. The MapTools forums have both regular groups and an LFR league, so even if I don't really know the other players that well, it's got sort of a 'tribe' feel to it.
2) How satisfied are you with the current tools (are they great, just good enough, or don't meet your minimum needs to play online)?
I'm only familiar with MapTools and OpenRPG. MapTools is considerably better as far as I'm concerned - especially with the myriad of marks and status effects you need for 4E.
3) Would you be more interested in tools from WotC, less interested, or indifferent.
WotC shouldn't bother wasting their time on a VTT unless they're going to hand out 3D models for everything instead of flat tokens, which was the last word on the project. What's out there already handles the job just fine.
Festivus
First Post
You know, this is right on the money as far as I am concerned. Perhaps just give subscribers XML output for creatures and let the modders sort it out. If I had that one little thing I would be in hog heaven.
I also agree, one of the reasons I play online is spouse and children commitments, though less so nowadays I have a cadre of online friends whom I like to play with.
Arkhandus
First Post
1) Yes, almost exclusively these days, since I live on the other side of the country now from where my friends are.
2) Moderately. They're sufficient at least.
3) Not really. WotC doesn't support the edition of D&D I do anymore, and other folks have perfectly reasonable tools out there already that can be used for various game systems. OpenRPG is open-source and free, and has some decent plug-ins available, and is stable enough for my needs. And I have absolutely no faith in WotC's competence with digital gaming stuff.
Orius
Unrepentant DM Supremacist
I used to play a lot online with chat programs, but I don't any more, and I'm not sure that I really want to go back to it. It has little to do with tools, and more to to with the players.
Trying to coordinate an online game is much more difficult than face-to-face. You have to recruit players that'll actually stick around for more than one or two sessions, high player turnover was always a problem for me, and the people I regularly gamed with who also DMed their own campaigns had similar problems.
You've got players coming to the game with their own assumptions about the game that may radically differ from everyone else, and that can ruin party cohesion. With face-to-face games, you can try to get a party set up that has a reason for working together, but with an online game it's a bit tougher unless you have a sessions set up just for character building. IME this resulted in PCs that had little reason to work together, and because you've got a lot of character motiviations going every which way, not everyone's going to get involved as they might want and I think it's a factor in turnover. Then as a DM, I don't know why the player is doing the things they're doing, which hurts group cohesion. I remember one player who'd tend to go off on his own which annoyed me at first, but after he sent me some useful information on his character's background and motivations it made more sense and I was able to work it in.
This is bad enough using just core rules in a published setting. It gets progressively worse if you want to use house rules in a homebrew. I tried this with my last online campaign, and in practice it turned out to be a disaster. Some of it was a bit too much reliance on railroadong as a DM on my part. However, some of it was trying to keep the house rules communicated with the players, which is more difficult when you do it by email or webpages. Players for some reason seem less invested in an online game and tend to place less effort into it.
The time it takes to type things out and roll the dice with lag thrown in slows a game down. As a result the campaign doesn't progress very quickly. This also contributed to the high turnover I think.
Some of the problems could I guess be lessened by good online tools, since chat gaming was less than stellar. But even then, I think some of the biggest problems would still remain, and the biggest is that players just don't seem as invested in an online campaign.
Trying to coordinate an online game is much more difficult than face-to-face. You have to recruit players that'll actually stick around for more than one or two sessions, high player turnover was always a problem for me, and the people I regularly gamed with who also DMed their own campaigns had similar problems.
You've got players coming to the game with their own assumptions about the game that may radically differ from everyone else, and that can ruin party cohesion. With face-to-face games, you can try to get a party set up that has a reason for working together, but with an online game it's a bit tougher unless you have a sessions set up just for character building. IME this resulted in PCs that had little reason to work together, and because you've got a lot of character motiviations going every which way, not everyone's going to get involved as they might want and I think it's a factor in turnover. Then as a DM, I don't know why the player is doing the things they're doing, which hurts group cohesion. I remember one player who'd tend to go off on his own which annoyed me at first, but after he sent me some useful information on his character's background and motivations it made more sense and I was able to work it in.
This is bad enough using just core rules in a published setting. It gets progressively worse if you want to use house rules in a homebrew. I tried this with my last online campaign, and in practice it turned out to be a disaster. Some of it was a bit too much reliance on railroadong as a DM on my part. However, some of it was trying to keep the house rules communicated with the players, which is more difficult when you do it by email or webpages. Players for some reason seem less invested in an online game and tend to place less effort into it.
The time it takes to type things out and roll the dice with lag thrown in slows a game down. As a result the campaign doesn't progress very quickly. This also contributed to the high turnover I think.
Some of the problems could I guess be lessened by good online tools, since chat gaming was less than stellar. But even then, I think some of the biggest problems would still remain, and the biggest is that players just don't seem as invested in an online campaign.
Keefe the Thief
Hero
I do like online gaming, and think sooner or later it will be my only gaming with my current group. And very often i enjoy it more than ftf gaming. But i already have Maptools & Skype, and its hard for a commercial product to top Maptools long development cycle.
So, no surprise that most existing fans want campaign tools.
So, no surprise that most existing fans want campaign tools.
Aeolius
Adventurer
1) Do you play online, and if you don't how interested are you? I run a chat-based game via IRC every Sunday night
2) How satisfied are you with the current tools (are they great, just good enough, or don't meet your minimum needs to play online)? I have a few players that seem overwhelmed by their IRC clients. That being said, I need a virtual tabletop that is insanely simple, cross-platform compatible, that supports older editions of D&D, and has z-axis support.
3) Would you be more interested in tools from WotC, less interested, or indifferent. I doubt WOtC will support any edition save for 4e. Therefore, I am uninterested in their offerings.
2) How satisfied are you with the current tools (are they great, just good enough, or don't meet your minimum needs to play online)? I have a few players that seem overwhelmed by their IRC clients. That being said, I need a virtual tabletop that is insanely simple, cross-platform compatible, that supports older editions of D&D, and has z-axis support.
3) Would you be more interested in tools from WotC, less interested, or indifferent. I doubt WOtC will support any edition save for 4e. Therefore, I am uninterested in their offerings.
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