The Internet's influence on your gaming experiences

[Quasqueton]

How would your early (70s-80s) gaming experiences have been different if there had been an Internet like today?

How would your current (90's-00s [especially 00s]) gaming experiences be different if there was no Internet?

Quasqueton

 

[Psion]

Well, I was probably more impressionable then, so I might have taken more of the grousers that pervade net gaming forums at face value.

 

[diaglo]

my early experiences would've stopped the production of all the later editions.

the ranting i did back then would've been heard sooner. and all the other editions would've be killed.



without Al Gore in the 90's: i wouldn't have a 3.11ed for Workgroups game. as i met all of the current group thru online connections.

 

[JimAde]

Without the internet I would probably not be gaming any more, and certainly not D&D. I had nearly stopped gaming entirely when I happened on EN World and read about this newfangled "3rd edition" thing.

And if we had the internet back in the 80's, my games probably wouldn't have been quite so bad as they were.

 

[Flyspeck23]

How would your early (70s-80s) gaming experiences have been different if there had been an Internet like today?

Some of the greater rules issues might have been avoided, thanks to board discussions and errata.

How would your current (90's-00s [especially 00s]) gaming experiences be different if there was no Internet?

Less material (either free or purchased) to choose from. Fewer gimmicks. No or less access to material from small publishers.
d20 without the Internet? No way.

 

[Buttercup]

It's pretty simple. If not for the internet, I never would have actually gotten to play D&D.

 

[Henry]

If the internet had existed then as now, I would like have KNOWN the FRICKING RULES to AD&D, and would have likely used them. Now, whether this means I would have played as long as I have, I don't know. For one thing, I still didn't play from 1984 to 1988, because of lack of fellow gamers in my area. That probably wouldn't have changed, because none of my gaming buddies from late 80's - early 90's even frequent the internet NOW, so I wouldn't have met them then.

But I definitely would have known the rules better.

I could see that "Eric Noah's 2nd edition News" site would have gone a LOT more differently; maybe a lot of people would have LEFT the game instead of come to it.

 

[JoeGKushner]

1. Rules discussions. Originally, I was never big on this but we've got some fantastic minds here that can make you look at things in a whole new way.

2. Networking. I've meet at least two groups, one of which I still play with, on the net and on EN World.

3. Shared Information. I love hearing about other people's campaigns to a point and stealing ideas from them.

4. News. Hobby stores are no place for news.

5. PDF. Lots of great products in the market that are PDF only. Chainmail Bikkini games' book on Paladins for example, brought a lot to the table, as does Planar Factions and other Ronin Arts books.

6. Community. It's nice to have a wide pool of people who share your hobby and know what you're talking about.

 

[Insight]

As I regularly communicate with my group using the Internet and email, and my current job involves the Internet, yeah, I would have to say it would be a lot different! I recruited a lot of my current group using a combination of flyers and the Internet, although I have to say that the flyers were more successful in this case.

We download free adventures, send each other artwork to use for counters (I am the designated counter maker), and use a discussion board to communicate with one another. All of these involve email and/or the Internet in some way. Not only that, but many of the GMs in our round robin group use the Internet to research material, especially in modern style games.

In other words, my gaming experience would be completely different without the Internet, and I doubt I would still be gaming.

 

[Ravellion]

How would your current (90's-00s [especially 00s]) gaming experiences be different if there was no Internet?

I would still read Dragon (only read Dungeon currently), I wouldn't be as rules-savvy (because of the time I used to spend on the Rules forum), perhaps I wouldn't even game anymore, seeing as this place once pretty much saved my group.

Rav