Ryan Dancey speaks - the Most Successful Year for Fantasy RPGaming ever. However...

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Unlike MMORPGs, TRPGs are not just about killing stuff and levelling up.

The good MMORPGs aren't, either.

If you played WoW, you'd know it's an intensely story-driven experience. The first encounters a human character has in the Northshire Abbey area put him into a storyline that can eventually lead to facing down a surprising villain who's been behind many of the post-war difficulties facing the kingdom. There are fights against mobs of thugs, dungeon crawls, brawls in the city streets, and finally, facing down a dragon. And all of it is about discovering what's happened to the Kingdom of Stormwind and why.

No MMORPG will ever be able to match that.

With a TRPG, I can run a satisfying game session from nothing more than a one sentence plot description. That can never be done with a CRPG.

Words like "ever" and "never" should probably be left out of this discussion, since they imply something will be true until the end of time, which is an assertion that hopefully no one is making with a straight face.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Is it no longer enough for the GM to say to the players, "The meadow is filled with sprays of colorful wildflowers..."?

The problem, indeed, is the use of the imagination. Sometimes people have more fun being passive observers of sprays of colorful wildflowers. They don't want to have to waste time and energy imagining something that has no real use or purpose beyond window dressing. The more imaginative players will pick it up and run with it, but not all, by far.

Because imagining a beautiful flower isn't fun for many people. But observing a beautiful flower may be fun for many more people. Looking at art has a lot more practicioners than making it.

 

[Gez]

So, the momorpugs (gotta find a way to prononce MMORPGs) will slaughter and burry tabletop RPGs -- but before, they'll have to wait in line, because the collectible card games haven't finished their own attempt at this yet.

 

[Dragonblade]

The good MMORPGs aren't, either.

If you played WoW, you'd know it's an intensely story-driven experience. The first encounters a human character has in the Northshire Abbey area put him into a storyline that can eventually lead to facing down a surprising villain who's been behind many of the post-war difficulties facing the kingdom. There are fights against mobs of thugs, dungeon crawls, brawls in the city streets, and finally, facing down a dragon. And all of it is about discovering what's happened to the Kingdom of Stormwind and why.

But the problem is that is the EXACT same quest that every player does, regardless of your class (assuming you are Alliance). The NPCs simply insert the name of your character into pregenerated text. This is one of the reasons my one friend quit. He wanted to play a game where the quest was made specifically for him and his group. Where he had control of where the story went and why. And where he could give direct feedback that immediately had an effect on the game. TRPGs can do that. MMORPGs are ultimately a prepackaged and canned experience and cannot.

Words like "ever" and "never" should probably be left out of this discussion, since they imply something will be true until the end of time, which is an assertion that hopefully no one is making with a straight face.

Until they invent the holodeck, I'm not worried.

 

[Michael Morris]

CRPGS, even the MMORPGs remain reactive. They aren't proactive - that is you cannot make your own stories and worlds with them. Until that occurs traditional RPGs like D&D are in no danger.

 

[Steel_Wind]

CRPGS, even the MMORPGs remain reactive. They aren't proactive - that is you cannot make your own stories and worlds with them. Until that occurs traditional RPGs like D&D are in no danger.

I think you need a copy of NWN and to find a gaming group on Neverwinterconnections.com.

Simply put - you are dead wrong.

 

[WayneLigon]

At this point I consider it water under the bridge - a battle not fought, and thus lost. Now we have to figure out what to do with the elephant in the living room, and adjust strategies accordingly.

Has anyone looked at (or even, at this point, know) the rate of churn in WoW? (The time it takes a person to buy WoW, enter it, do a lot of stuff in it, get bored, and leave). And I forget the average rate of churn for D&D. Or does that data exist?

 

[WayneLigon]

Ironically, while reading this thread, dad told me that he'd reinstalled WoW, and that my sister had created some characters for us 'rated on how pretty or ugly they were'.

I think that that is a pretty significant statement. Probably one of the more significant ones I've heard yet. 'My dad'. 'My sister'. How many of you can say your dad and your sister play D&D? Not all that many. Somehow playing an elf in a computer game bypassed all the stigma attached to D&D in the public mind.

1) More choice. ... but only when I follow the DM's basic adventure plot. That's important.

You're doing the same thing, there, though. It's the illusion of choice where none actually exists. Most GMs don't have the advantage of being paid to create adventures, nor have an entire staff writing them. Now, how many low level quests have been written, debugged, installed and tested since the game started? Not all that many. All the work now goes towards the level 60-70 people because they don't want to lose those people when they get to the end of the game.

 

[Michael Morris]

I think you need a copy of NWN and to find a gaming group on Neverwinterconnections.com.

Simply put - you are dead wrong.

NWN is interesting and definitely a step in the right direction, but the Auroa toolset is a pain in the neck to use and the gameplay elements themselves do not lend themselves to easy modification - so if I want my own spells and my own world that isn't anything like FR NWN isn't going to cut the mustard. Further, NWN isn't turn based - and therefore it is an action-adventure title like Zelda, not a true RPG.

 

[Michael Morris]

All the work now goes towards the level 60-70 people because they don't want to lose those people when they get to the end of the game.

That brings up another reason I hate MMORPGs and will never play one. I spend most all my real life be a worthless peon in the world -- I'll be damned if I'm going to log into a fantasy game and be a peon.