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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercule" data-source="post: 2811429" data-attributes="member: 5100">Quality is entirely subject to opinion.  If you're going to poo-poo improvisation as being of subjective benefit, then you may as well throw in the towel for this discussion.  No one is claiming that improvisation is universally a good thing.  Some GMs are not best left to their own devices.  A bad GM results in a bad game, just like bad programers result in a bad CRPG.  If you want to compare the cream of the CRPG crop (WoW, BG, et al.), then you need to be comparing them to the cream of the TRPG crop, and that includes GMs who are able to improvise well.As for railroading, I can't imagine that anyone could seriously argue that CRPGs inherently do this less than TRPGs, at the present.  Do you want to play an awakened animal?  Use D&D.  Build a keep?  Use D&D.  Dabble in politics?  D&D.  Swap out your 1st level fighter's armor proficiencies for the monk's flurry of blows (or a similar exchange)?  D&D.  What about creating your own demiplane?  Or converting the BBEG to your religion rather than killing him?  Open a new trade route and live as a merchant?  All D&D.The major advantage that good CRPGs have over good TRPGs is that they can reach a broader audience simultaneously.  Scratch that.  They can just reach a broader audience.  It's not possible for any GM to run a game for as many people as a CRPG can host.  That, and CRPGs require a significantly lower player investment in the mechanics of the game.On the down side, most CRPGs require you to join a guild (#1 reason I'll never MMORP) to accomplish anything.  If you create a new character, you're facing many of the same challenges you did with your last character.  And, you have to deal with PCs with names like "Jigglybear", "Ramjet", and "Reverend Jim Beam".  No thanks.  At this point in time, MMORPGs offer no value to me.</blockquote>

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