MMORPGs death of RPG

[Emiricol]

MMORPGs are (for now) a radically different experience than RPGs. I haven't really lost a player to MMORPGs. Well, one guy for six months but he came back.

 

[Brund the Decrepit]

Actually it was MMORPGs that brought my group back together. We all go tired of the 'impersonal' nature of them and wanted to have some real social interaction again.

They can be a blast but nothing will every beat tossing dice across the table from friends.

-Brund

 

[BOZ]

my D&D experience is just as much about socializing with the other players as it is about gaming. MMORPGs don't do that for me, at least not on the same level.

 

[Orius]

BOZ is right. People were predicting CCGs would kill RPGs, and here we are 10 years later, most of the CCGs from back then are dead, and I really haven't seen many emerge in the last few years. RPGs, hoever, have pretty much recovered from the slump they experienced in the 90s. I don't know if MMORPGs will replace RPGs anyway.

I've tried various free MMORPGs from time to time, and I have to say I've pretty much lost interest in them. They seem to be geared to the truely hardcore addicts that spend their whole lives practically glued to the screen. I can't really live like that, and I can't keep playing the game constantly more than a few hours at the time. I don't know hoe those people can play 12 or more hours straight. But since the addicts are the ones financially supporting the games, the games cater to them. So players have to deal with mind-numbingly boring experience treadmills that are designed to keep the hardcore players entertained. For someone who wants a more casual and fun game experience, they're not going to find it in a MMORPG it seems. And that's not even taking player vs. player situations that pop-up in those games, which is something else that ended up turning me off.

 

[Hand of Evil]

They do not replace the social interaction of RPGing and I think it is interesting that you have players that will have issues with the cost of books but yet will pop down 50$ for a game and 12-20$ a month to play online! :\

 

[Greylock]

Not qualified to comment on the affect of MMORPGs, but I can comment on smaller scale RPGs, specifically Neverwinter Nights. I can attest to at least a dozen folks I personally know who were drawn into PnP, or reintroduced to PnP via NWN. Count me among the latter. Played PnP many years until school and work and eventually life got in the way. NWN dragged me back in. Now I spend far more time (& $) on PnP than I ever thought possible. It's pushed NWN to the lowest of my playtime priorities.

Mileage definitely differs for Morrowind or BG types, but NWN is so close to the real beast a player can't help but get involved in the books and rules at some point. It's a short jump to PnP from there. I for one wanted to see and share physical space with my fellow gamers again.

 

[Ottergame]

I know a guy in my last long term RPG group that is so addicted to EQ, he bought a second computer system and set it up next to his other one. Bought another copy of EQ and had two EQ accounts so he could play EQ with 2 characters at the same time. When he was not at work or at this game, he was playing EQ.
I just started getting into WoW. It is the only MMORPG I like. I tryed a few of them and could not get into them. But I don't think MMORPGs will replace sitting around a table and being sociclble in real life.

Pft, that's nothing. I had a teacher in college who had 6 computers, and 6 active accounts. And he wanted to buy MY account when he found out I no longer played! o.o

 

[Foundry of Decay]

I'm lucky in the fact that I refuse to pay full price for a game only to have to pay more per month just to justify the purchase.

It would be like buying a car, then paying monthly to use the tires. However this is simply my opinion.

So far the social experience of getting together for a pnp game far outreaches what you can do in an online game. Even Neverwinter Nights and all of its mods can't make up the same experience, and it is basically a digital version of D&D.

 

[I'm A Banana]

MMO's are fun, but they cannot currently nor in the forseeable future ever accomodate the creativity and variety of a traditional pen-and-paper RPG. Plus, socializing with actual peple > socializing with computer people any day. They have their own niche, and pen-and-paper has its own niche.

What they both do is suck up VAST tracks of time. But it's usually pretty important to *schedule* D&D sessions, and then to make a commitment to them. MMO's don't usually have the same limits, or at least are much more flexible in them.

 

[Pbartender]

Actually, one of my current players is an ex-EQ junkie who originally joined our group because she became disillusioned with the whole MMORPG craze. She's been playing with us for several years now.