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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Najo" data-source="post: 3990299" data-attributes="member: 9959">WOW doesn't do D&D better than D&D. It does all of the boring stuff D&D can skip (non-eventful travel, heroes not feeling like heroes or that they can't change the world, grinding reputation, crafting to raise skills etc) all of those features in MMOs are tedious speed bumps to keep people paying a monthly fee or they are limitations of the video game. The only WOW does OK is dungeon crawls and quests, and even then they both are designed to give a grinding experience and not a strong story exprience. D&D's advantage is moving scene to scene. Focusing on the PCs as the heroes. Changing the world. Making the gripe with the Bad Guys personal. Roleplaying is open ended story driven adventure and no two sessions are the same. MMOs can't say they can do that.The trick is two fold. 1) Remove barriers to entry for new players. 2) Make the RPG experience easy, engrossing and more fun than anything else. If you do that then the game is on fire again and striking out into mainstream recogniztion. The problem is those barriers to entry.D&D is hard to find new players if you don't have friends who want to play. It is even harder to start DMing. There is alot of prep work and upkeep involved in running D&D. There are alot of overwhelming rules. Let's face it, D&D intimidates non & casual gamers. WOW is easy, sit down, click, click, click. Playing for a bit, then I can stop and go about my day.Another advantage MMOs have (and likely the REAL motivation for the powergamer mentioned above) is you have a built in peer group that recognizes your accomplishments. It feels like a form of fame, and makes you feel important while you remain on top. It is a motivator for playing and a built in reward system, especially with PVP and raiding guilds that get famous. So, D&D has to find a way to offer some of those solutions to the ego driven extrovert gamer. Some become DMs and get a rush there, some become party leaders (not the class role mind you ;P ) Some though have to have that realtime rush against other human opponents and stomp their face in. D&D hasn't solved that issue yet.As for making the RPG experience easier. In my 20 some odd years gaming, owning a game store and working on gaming products, story driven good players tend to convert non-story driven hack and slay style players into story driven ones. I have never seen the opposite occur. That tells me, the heart of D&D is not a wargame or tactical combat (though those elements are important) it is a story driven game of adventure with characters who have motives, back story and goals to accomplish, some of which are shared and a few that might could conflict. When this happens, the game is like no other and gives the players and GM a very rewarding experience. D&D needs to make that built in, with out bogging down players leaping into a one shot game for the evening if they want.If players are hooked immediately by story and their characters, and they run through a thrill ride of an adventure and at the end they are left wanting more, then D&D has hit the sweet spot game play wise. Solve both these issues, and BAM...D&D is on top.One major issue, is group inbreeding. It is very hard for new and young players to get into established groups or find a DM. This is the #1 thing hurting RPGs and their longivity as a viable market place. Followed by visual appeal/ marketing and PDF piracy. But those are other matters to deal with.</blockquote>

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