Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="d4" data-source="post: 1564816" data-attributes="member: 12699">i had a thought while i was in the shower...here's why i think RPGs are not interesting to most folks.1) RPGs take a long time. generally, an RPG session is 4-6 hours long. most people don't like concentrating on one thing for that long. (for example, in the board game world, a game that takes 4-6 hours to play is usually considered a poor design.) most people prefer things "lighter" than that; that require less of a commitment and effort. also, because of this amount of time, RPGs aren't really something you can "pick up and play" -- they require scheduling, which most people don't want to consider when it comes to entertainment.2) RPGs are mainly a mental exercise and not physical. i'm an American, and this observation may not hold true in other countries, but it seems that here there is a general disdain for mental acuity as opposed to physical qualities. so something that requires only mental acumen is going to be seen as less interesting than some kind of physical endeavor.3) RPGs are not a visual medium. it's all in your head. it seems most people (again, i really mean most Americans, since i have little experience with other cultures) prefer seeing something to imagining something. that's why i think computer and video games are more popular than role-playing games -- the visuals are provided for you. this ties in with #2, that more mental effort is required to enjoy RPGs than other forms of entertainment. it also explains why most Americans watch a lot of TV but don't read a lot of books.4) RPGs are active, not passive. most people want to be entertained -- by others -- and not have to work for it. that's why movies and TV are so enormously popular; you can just sit there and not do anything and be entertained. RPGs require one to actually get involved in order to produce the entertainment, and most people don't want to have to make the effort.i really don't see much of any way of addressing these issues and still have an RPG, in any sense of the term.</blockquote>

Verification