Of fun and games; was "WoW is not an RPG"

[HeyJoe]

But as the other poster said, isn't that because you're not the only player? I mean, the reason why RPGs work in paper is because the rest of the campaign world doesn't matter. How many DMs for example would say "Don't worry, sure you didn't save town/country/world, these other guys did".

Yep, that's exactly it, and there are so many things you can do in a tabletop RPG that you simply could never do in a MMORPG.

 

[Elfan]

Yep, that's exactly it, and there are so many things you can do in a tabletop RPG that you simply could never do in a MMORPG.

And their is gameplay that WoW can provide that no tabletop can. (Well I suppose you could get a *really* big table and put 40 people around it... but that probably would not work so well). Their differences are also their strengths.

 

[Wayside]

1) It is an RPG. RPGs don't mean a single player can change the world. If there was a tabletop RPG with 5,000 players, the DM wouldn't let you change the world, either. Play on an RP server and stay out of the OOC channels if you want to see how much of an RPG it is. And I have to wonder how much you played if you don't think there are meaningful choices you can make that affect your gameplay and how your character progresses. The Scryer/Aldor split is a simple one, but it also extends to things like goblin/pirates in Azeroth and more.

Agreed. WoW can be played like an RPG, just like D&D can be played like a wargame. Most people may play each game a certain way, but this in no way disguises the fact that WoW and D&D can be played nearly identically by anyone so inclined.

 

[ThirdWizard]

You cannot do anything like this in a CRPG or WoW type roll-playing game.

Godwined!

 

[Rangoric]

There is no "in character" interaction with anyone or anything because you are always, by necessity, seperate from your character....you are never acting or speaking as them thus you are not ever actually taking on a role.

So what you are saying is that, the RP guild I was in for EQ didn't exist?

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BTW the definition you gave for not being an RPG, disavows the ability for D&D to be a role-playing game.

 

[Shortman McLeod]

WoW players are not role-players, they are ROLL-players!

HA HA HA HA HA!




[just kidding]

 

[Hjorimir]

So what you are saying is that, the RP guild I was in for EQ didn't exist?

Just because I pretend I'm Warren Buffet and my brother pretends he's Donald Trump when we play Monopoly doesn't make it a role-playing game.

I see games such as EQ and WoW as adventure games, but they're great adventure games all the same.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Just because I pretend I'm Warren Buffet and my brother pretends he's Donald Trump when we play Monopoly doesn't make it a role-playing game.

Cute answer, but really not at all accurate. Before dismissing the quality of someone's roleplay, you probably ought to take a gander at some of the roleplaying guilds and see their accounts of what they do.

 

[Slife]

Dnd and GURPS are not role playing games because you are not actually doing anything but moving a little plastic (or sometimes metal) miniature tactically across a battlemat that does not, save in a very limited, scripted and controlled way, interact with the game world. Ultimately you have no real freedom. The setting and everything in it cannot vary from what the DM wants it to be. There is no "in character" interaction with anyone or anything because you are always, by necessity, separate from your character....you are never acting or wearing their equipment thus you are not ever actually taking on a role. Role playing requires that you are dressing up like and/or acting as like character and doing things from that perspective. You cannot do anything like this in a tabletop roll-playing game. LARPs are the only true "roleplaying"

 

[Rangoric]

Just because I pretend I'm Warren Buffet and my brother pretends he's Donald Trump when we play Monopoly doesn't make it a role-playing game.

Honestly, why not? If you are faithfully acting out in game those roles, and playing it out as if you are them, why is it not a role playing game that you are playing?

Doesn't make Monopoly an RPG, but it does make your playing of it one.

Your disconnect is that you are trying to say that EQ is not intended nor designed to be Role-Playable. The structure of the game, the guilds, the RP Only Servers are all solid arguements against this fact.