Unless you mistype something and it gets immortalized at damnyouautocorrect.com.
Why is Online Gaming considered Second Class?
- Thread starter Hussar
- Start date
Unless you mistype something and it gets immortalized at damnyouautocorrect.com.
It is that, but it is more than that.
Even if I'm playing with folks I don't really know, I find that live interaction beats virtual interaction by a mile.
I'm a human being. Humans are tribal, social animals. We're built to take cues from the real presence of another human being - details of facial expression, vocal tone, body language. We're built to interact with people, not with machines presenting a fraction of the information we'd get in-person.
Real-people interactions are good for your sanity. Positive interactions with other people, even if they aren't your close friends, have health benefits that cannot be matched by a virtual encounter. Or, perhaps more accurately, lack of real-person interactions leads to health detriment.
francisca
I got dice older than you.
Yup. Its more of an excuse to get together, act silly, and hang out with friends, than "serious business about the game" for me and my friends.
I used to be like a lot of posters above. I hated the idea of online gaming. I play with friends, and the social aspect of D&D is at least as important to me as the game aspect. I play with a group of close friends. There are guys in my group that I've played with for ten years or more. We went to school together. We were in each other's weddings. I'm not interested in a game of D&D that lacks a social connection.
I moved to Augusta, Georgia from Raleigh in 2001, and for many years, I kept DM'ing a game in Raleigh. I'd drive up once every six weeks or so. It's a four or five hour drive depending on traffic. We'd crash at somebody's house and play all weekend, and I'd drag back to work hungover and sleepy on Monday.
Time passes. Everybody graduated from college and grad school and folks started having more job responsibilities. Folks started having kids. Folks started moving away. Finally, one of the players moved to Memphis, and it just wasn't feasible to play face to face anymore.
So, reluctantly, I took to online gaming. I've enjoyed it a lot. I still play with my friends. We use Ventrillo or Skype, so we have plenty of vocal inflection and tone of voice. There are just as many stupid in-jokes and off-topic digressions as before. We have the same amount of in-character roleplaying we did before. We don't eat pizza and Chinese, but we do all stop for drinks at the same time. It's a much more personal, social experience than I would have thought before I tried it.
I miss eye contact and body language. All things being equal, I'd play face to face instead of online. But, online gaming has been "real gaming" for me. The game I play is a "real RPG". It's a "real social experience." And I think it's wise of WotC to pursue the online market.
I moved to Augusta, Georgia from Raleigh in 2001, and for many years, I kept DM'ing a game in Raleigh. I'd drive up once every six weeks or so. It's a four or five hour drive depending on traffic. We'd crash at somebody's house and play all weekend, and I'd drag back to work hungover and sleepy on Monday.
Time passes. Everybody graduated from college and grad school and folks started having more job responsibilities. Folks started having kids. Folks started moving away. Finally, one of the players moved to Memphis, and it just wasn't feasible to play face to face anymore.
So, reluctantly, I took to online gaming. I've enjoyed it a lot. I still play with my friends. We use Ventrillo or Skype, so we have plenty of vocal inflection and tone of voice. There are just as many stupid in-jokes and off-topic digressions as before. We have the same amount of in-character roleplaying we did before. We don't eat pizza and Chinese, but we do all stop for drinks at the same time. It's a much more personal, social experience than I would have thought before I tried it.
I miss eye contact and body language. All things being equal, I'd play face to face instead of online. But, online gaming has been "real gaming" for me. The game I play is a "real RPG". It's a "real social experience." And I think it's wise of WotC to pursue the online market.
possum
First Post
I personally love playing online. It's pretty much the primary form of gaming that I do nowadays. I just finished playing with a VTT group over the winter that went through the Star Wars Dawn of Defiance game, and I count that as the best group I've ever been in.
It does lose some of the quirks that in-person playing does, as I know from playing Encounters with a pretty stable group, but it's still fun and it still does have its outside of playing memories.
It does lose some of the quirks that in-person playing does, as I know from playing Encounters with a pretty stable group, but it's still fun and it still does have its outside of playing memories.
kitsune9
Adventurer
I don't have any problems with VTT. I thought about it myself, but the problem I face right now is the learning curve since I don't have much time to devote to a game aside from my current Pathfinder game.
However, my concerns about flaking players or players who won't take the game seriously is something that I've noticed as a risk to play VTT. After all, if strangers sign on to your game, get bored, then the next thing they might do to have fun is have at your expense and at the expense of the other players. Of course, this is the risk in RL, but there is no fear of getting punched in the nose for being a jerk at the VTT.
If I didn't have a group to play with, I would definitely look into VTT.
However, my concerns about flaking players or players who won't take the game seriously is something that I've noticed as a risk to play VTT. After all, if strangers sign on to your game, get bored, then the next thing they might do to have fun is have at your expense and at the expense of the other players. Of course, this is the risk in RL, but there is no fear of getting punched in the nose for being a jerk at the VTT.
If I didn't have a group to play with, I would definitely look into VTT.
nedjer
Adventurer
This with fireworks lighting up the sky around it.
I do lots of tutorials online and it works well; but you plain can't grab the audience by the cahonas and spin them twice round the room like f2f.
UnknownAtThisTime
First Post
It's not.
Different strokes for different folks. Just because I do not like/prefer/play via a VTT does not mean I think it is "second class".
Likewise, I'd hope those that play exclusively on line for whatever reason don't consider table play "Second Class".
WizarDru
Adventurer
I've never actually played an online game. There are several reasons for this. While I don't begrudge anyone the chance to play in any capacity, I do consider it an inferior experience to face-to-face gaming.
As others have mentioned, our game is not just a reason to roll dice, it's a reason to socialize with my peers. We talk about our jobs, our families and our lives. We share food and drink. We argue, we talk, we joke. We have a mailing list and use that to communicate. We facebook, we LJ, we Twitter....but all of these are second place to sitting together around a table.
From an RPG standpoint, being together in person is just more satsifying. As a DM, I do many voices and accents; I use props; I make faces; I hand out materials. VTTs lose most of the benefit of these. Yes, much of this CAN be replicated using a select client...but none easily or seamlessly. Online gaming using VTTs and such always seem, to me, to require a LOT MORE prep...since I improvise a good deal, they fail to help me. They require everyone to sit at a computer and type....and quite honestly, if we're sitting at computers, we're likely playing TF2, Borderlands, Starcraft II or the like. Most VTTs also are not very user-friendly IME, another issue for us.
I don't mean to make it sound like I think online gaming by VTT or OpenRPG or other cannot be worhty or fun experiences....I believe the can be and are. But I know that I'd choose a game in person over an online interaction any day of the week. Chat clients lose so much, IMHO.
As others have mentioned, our game is not just a reason to roll dice, it's a reason to socialize with my peers. We talk about our jobs, our families and our lives. We share food and drink. We argue, we talk, we joke. We have a mailing list and use that to communicate. We facebook, we LJ, we Twitter....but all of these are second place to sitting together around a table.
From an RPG standpoint, being together in person is just more satsifying. As a DM, I do many voices and accents; I use props; I make faces; I hand out materials. VTTs lose most of the benefit of these. Yes, much of this CAN be replicated using a select client...but none easily or seamlessly. Online gaming using VTTs and such always seem, to me, to require a LOT MORE prep...since I improvise a good deal, they fail to help me. They require everyone to sit at a computer and type....and quite honestly, if we're sitting at computers, we're likely playing TF2, Borderlands, Starcraft II or the like. Most VTTs also are not very user-friendly IME, another issue for us.
I don't mean to make it sound like I think online gaming by VTT or OpenRPG or other cannot be worhty or fun experiences....I believe the can be and are. But I know that I'd choose a game in person over an online interaction any day of the week. Chat clients lose so much, IMHO.
The biggest advantage of online gaming is:
Not having to deal with unruly or bad players/DM when you can just turn off the game or put them on ignore.
Not having to deal with unruly or bad players/DM when you can just turn off the game or put them on ignore.
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