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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mustrum_Ridcully" data-source="post: 5104657" data-attributes="member: 710">But wouldn't t his be a  misleading use of "videogame". In videogames, I don't have to know or learn the rules. The game automatically follows them and I can't do it "wrong". For me, videogamey would entail something like being constrained only to do things the game explicitely allows. In any pen & paper roleplaying game with a DM (even "exotic" games without a dedicated DM and just the players that also roleplay NPCs), the DM can always come up with reactions on the fly. You can derail his plot, and he can also recover from it. That's impossible in videogames, or if possible, it probably means you're stuck in some way, having found a bug. If the developers didn't think of your solution, it won't work. If Shepard dies in Mass Effect 2, you have to reload. You can't roll up a new Cerebrus Operative or Spectre trying to follow in his footsteps. Or roll up an independent trader that specializes in element zero and totally ignores the Reaper threat. A game like World of Warcraft might be designed more like a sandbox, but there are still things you can't do. Some videogames have tried to overcome this limit. Neverwinter Night's DM tools are a step in that direction. Everything else is not really "videogamey" to me. It doesn't seem to distinguish an RPG from a videogame.</blockquote>