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

[Shortman McLeod]

Heh...Whatever happens when we get holodeck technology?

People will be spending so much time on elaborate porn scenarios that they will forget all about fantasy RPGs.

 

[Gentlegamer]

Exactly my point. You are argueing that NO game is a Role-Playing Game unless the certain instance of it being played is an RPG.

As such you cannot say that D&D is a role-playing game, just as you also can't say NWN is not a role playing game.

All your criterea are outside the box so to speak, and as such eliminate the game as a point of reference. In no instance has your decision for a game be a role-playing game based on the game itself, only what was going on in the game.

I readily concede this. I have always held that it is the interaction of the participants that creates a role-playing game. The written rules of the game are merely tools and guidelines for the participants to follow and to help the referee adjudicate. Gary Gygax once said of role-playing games, "the secret is that the players don't actually need any rules" (paraphrase).

The limiting factor of video games is the lack of a human game master to adjudicate things which makes the possible actions and interactions limited to only those that have been scripted by the programmer.

NWN, when a human game master is refereeing for a group of players, becomes a medium by which the participants can play a role-playing game because they are not limited by a programming script, but the game engine itself is not a role-playing game.

Page number please? I don't play the basic game. I have a PHB and DMG and MM that have no reference to this.

If you examine the photo posted, the box says "2 - 5 players" (circled in red by the poster)

 

[Gentlegamer]

I've got a copy of Blizzard Pass and the Red Box Basic Set introduction adventure here that kinda disagree with your assumption. Except, of course, if you're now going to tell me that what I did with those two 20 years back wasn't roleplaying either.

Could you attempt any actions that were not pre-printed in those modules?

I first encountered D&D through the Endless Quest series of books. I was not participating in a role-playing game while playing the game books, though.

 

[Rangoric]

If you examine the photo posted, the box says "2 - 5 players" (circled in red by the poster)

If you read my post, I pointed out that the adventure in the box requires it.

Admiting that it will only "Work" for 2-5 people also exclude any group larger then 5 as not playing D&D.

When in actuality that number is for the adventure.

PHB page 5 tells you everything you need to play.

 

[Asmor]

People will be spending so much time on elaborate porn scenarios that they will forget all about fantasy RPGs.

They're not mutually exclusive...

 

[Hjorimir]

Page number please? I don't play the basic game. I have a PHB and DMG and MM that have no reference to this.

Player's Handbook (3.5, Page 4, The D&D Game): "The D&D game is a fantasy game of your imagination. It's part acting, part storytelling, part social interaction, part war game, and part dice rolling. You and your friends create characters..."

My PHB (which is 1 of the 3 books I require to play the game page 5 PHB under the heading "What you Need to Play") makes no mention of these other people, just that a group of people play (I by myself am a group of 1).

No, you, by yourself, are a single person, which is not a group. English 101.

Really, your arguement also says that if you have 6 people you aren't playing D&D anymore.

No, my argument is you need at least two people to play.

 

[Mokona]

Someone in Wizards of the Coast R&D once said, "EverQuest is a chat server...with frequent flier miles."

 

[Geron Raveneye]

Could you attempt any actions that were not pre-printed in those modules?

Nope.

Neither could I in the first few years in most of the adventures I played in with a group and a DM. Wanna know why? Because it always takes some time for a handful of teens to learn that nifty little concept of "free choice" in any RPG. Until they got that, and the improvisation skills to go along with whatever the characters are trying, all you got is the lines of a dungeon on graph paper, with monsters in rooms guarding some treasure, traps on doors and floors, and a weird backstory that serves simply to lead to the dungeon, and you can't do any actions that are not prepared for by the DM.

So apparently, me and my friends weren't roleplaying at all for a few years...and we were doing it with a roleplaying game, even?

Sorry, that's a claim I simply can't take serious. "Has a DM who can handle any action attempted" is not an exclusive argument for an RPG in every case.