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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 1205551" data-attributes="member: 158">I came away with a different experience when I played PS:Torment - it was good, to be sure, but it really wasn't that good to me, though my annoyance was more from the interface and the game rules used than anything - I didn't finish because that whole "be a fighter / be a thief / be a mage - but not all three" thing, as well as some of the puzzles that you were led by the nose to follow, as in the "inner sanctum that you set up yourself" that you HAD to complete, bugged me enough to not finish it. That, and I had a regular campaign at the time.I'll go so far as to espouse that even average DM's are better than any computer game yet on the market. I've had DM's whose starting premises were even wilder than Planescape's - the party were all "golden children" (all 18's for stats) with various power groups hounding us to death (literally) - with a very good plotline behind the why of our existance. But most DM's don't allow it because they want all the players to have equal "star time" and making one a "sole immortal" would not be as fun for the rest (Games like Eden's Buffy the Vampire Slayer notwithstanding).Would a DM have allowed it? Of Course! It's what makes part of Tabletop roleplay fun! The DM can see all sorts of oppotunities in what lies ahead - the quest to find the proper gate, the NPC's that can be recycled for the new plotline, the plans the penniless PC makes in a world that has never known he existed, etc. etc.In Piratecat's Game, he had the Great Modron March set up, ready to roll. His players took one look at the Modron's Marching, said to themselves, "Screw it, we don't care why the Modrons are marching" and left Sigil. In fact, according to the Story Hour, the Modron March still serves as an in-joke with his players, that keeps cropping up from time to time. You don't get that kind of improv and fast-thinking from a CRPG - yet.Video Games definitely have their place as an entertaining medium, and as the concept evolves over time - with things like MMOPRG's maturing and adding remarkable potential to future offerings - the future of a blend of human roleplay and immersive virtual quality looks quite bright. But I also cannot accept that current and previous releases can offer the depth of entertainment that a human mind can provide spontaneously, nor can it yet offer the crucial human interaction that makes pen and paper RPG's the unique quantity that they are.And I apologize for taking this thread quite off-topic. The goal was discussion of the downplay of games like Final Fantasy and the current RPG generation, which I find no fault with. But I do see the relationship of CRPG and RPG as still currently one of "visual immersion with little improv" vs. "less immersive but mroe flexibility" - but the line blurs a little more every year.</blockquote>

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