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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7674189" data-attributes="member: 82106">The problem with VR worlds is just a compounded version of the problems with MMORPG worlds, etc. AUTHORSHIP. In D&D you simply make up the important bits, and at most the GM has to fill in a few things along the way as the game goes on. Its work, but its quite easy for one person to make up a campaign world and run it every week, we all do it.But a VR world can't be made that way. The whole point being that it is totally immersive. If it doesn't provide universal detail, then it won't work. As a DM I can map out 100 trees in the forest, just the ones that are near the encounter areas, and a map of the trails, and etc. Heck I can repurpose those maps, make stuff up on the fly, etc. If you make the VR forest you gotta come up with all 100 million trees, and that's just the start. Sure, you can try to do procedural environments and blah blah blah, but the human brain can tell. Its VERY good at catching that kind of thing, and we're FAR from having invented the type of authoring tools that would allow a 'godlike GM' to simply say "OK, I want an early medieval Frankish motte with a village, a road over here that goes to a city on the other side of forest, a creek over there, etc etc etc and have it all come out. Not without spending VAST time.This is why movies cost a quarter billion $ a pop if they're full of CGI, why MMORPG worlds are really so limited and paltry when it comes down to it, and why stuff like spinozajack's fantasy is pure fantasy. It is unlikely to be reality in our lifetimes is the truth. We're moving forward on all fronts but its a HUGE increment of software advance to get there still. And then think about the ramifications. Its going to be expensive, so it will be costly to play. Will such a VR really replace D&D if it costs $7/hr per player, every week? Plus whatever it costs to store your characters, and etc. Nor does VR actually solve all the problems of playing an RPG. It has in fact many of the problems that LARPs have. You can't exceed your own limitations. How do you play a monkish gong-fu artist when you're a stumbling clod? The system isn't just going to have to be "hey, I can move around in this world!" you have to be able to function in both the meta-game and the in-game reality within that application. I'm sure people will eventually work it out, but the early games in this genre will be CRUDE. I think D&D and its ilk are safe for a while. In fact I think telepresence is the real killer where RPGs are concerned. I mean we play online now, but its PRIMITIVE. What will come MUCH sooner than some fantasy VR world is a real VTT that works. One that kicks ass and makes it as good as being there. That will open some real floodgates.</blockquote>

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