Why Play D&D?

[ancientvaults]

Ok, I play Pathfinder, oldschool and indie games, but if I had the choice of 4e (which I ran and the group didn't like) and WoW I would put six .357 rounds through the monitor and break out the dice.

Gaming in front of a monitor and around a table do not compare. I play Lotro and while the graphics are great and the challenges increase as you go, it is nothing compared to sitting down and playing a game with friends.

 

[Umbran]

Why play D&D when World of Warcraft exists? I mean, it's there -- it's RIGHT THERE. And all your friends are playing it.

Well, none of the friends I play D&D with play WoW. One of them plays City of Heroes occasionally.

All in all, because my RPG is only partly about the combat and resource management. There's things about real-human interaction that MMOs just don't do.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Why play D&D when World of Warcraft exists? I mean, it's there -- it's RIGHT THERE. And all your friends are playing it. Why not give up the weekly D&D sessions? They're cutting into your raiding time!

It's like snail mail vs. e-mail. Why do some people refuse to change with the times?

- Ron ^*^

WoW is but a pale imitation of the game I play at the table:

1. I don't have to shell out money every month to play D&D
2. In a MMORPG like WoW, I cannot share a nice meal and bottle of wine- or fajitas and beer- with my buddies.
3. D&D has no adventuring restrictions beyond the imaginations of the players
4. WoW doesn't support all of the playstyles & archetypes I enjoy. Neither does D&D, but its a hell of a lot closer...and there are other ttRPGs out there as well. Which are as superior to their online counterparts as D&D is to WoW
5. D&D is enjoyable even if everyone at the table has different levels of internet connectivity, including "none at all"
6. I'm 43 and I already spend too much time in front of a screen every day

and so forth.

 

[Katana_Geldar]

You use your brain a lot more in a tabletop game than you ever would in WoW.

 

[Haltherrion]

Why play D&D when World of Warcraft exists? I mean, it's there -- it's RIGHT THERE. And all your friends are playing it. Why not give up the weekly D&D sessions? They're cutting into your raiding time!

It's like snail mail vs. e-mail. Why do some people refuse to change with the times?

- Ron ^*^

As someone whose gaming group was entirely distracted by WOW for several years before we returned to gaming a few years ago, I can speak from personal experience.

• WOW is not roleplaying. Even on an RPG server its a real stretch but basically, inter-player chat is almost never in character and treats the characters as collections of stats and gear.
• WOW universe does not support roleplaying. Why? It has little persistence. Your actions matter little except, perhaps, for grinding a rep that might give you a nice doo-dad or spell. You killed the uber boss? He's back next instance or at best, next week.
• My game group never really ended up doing that much together or even staying in the same guilds. I was on late due to kids, others had their own interests and time schedules. We did chat more but we could have done that with instant messaging.
• The graphics are nice (albeit quite dated now) and the spell effects are fun but it does not offset the very repetitive game play.
• Did I mention persistence? How many times do I have to kill the same stupid boss?
• Quests are highly scripted, linear and trite.
• There isn't that much memorable that happens.
• Why can't they manage to implement random loot tables?
• Getting together with 4-5 friends is fun. Having to join a guild of 30-50 members to get the cool loot from raids is not. It is nearly impossible to assemble that many people without including people you'd rather not socialize with. Plus the guildmaster or raid leader is usually an egomaniac

Don't get me wrong; it can be quite fun. I wouldn't make it a replacement for D&D, just something else you can do with your free time. I played it quite intensely for some time (thus my 6 level 80s and some other assorted toons) but I've decided that for me, at least, its a pernicious waste of time and probably won't do any MMORG until they despense with the need for raids to keep you entertained.

Personally, I don't think MMORGs are really going to be interesting until they allow user generated content. Imagine a space MMORG where the outer rim systems are user created? Hard to pull off, us but not impossible if you build a rating system that allows for identification of trusted raters.

 

[Chainsaw]

D&D's more open-ended, flexible, imaginative and offers deeper, more meaningful human interaction. Plus everything else people above have said.

 

[Hussar]

I played Everquest a number of years ago. Never really got into it and I think that's pretty much soured me on MMO's. My poor computer won't really run most of the new stuff anyway, and, living in Japan means that I get to game with non-English speakers most of the time.

Instead, I can play a weekly game of D&D with some great people.

Not a hard decision for me.

 

[Herremann the Wise]

I have a much greater capacity to have fun and exercise my intelligence and wits at a D&D table with other intelligent people; rather than key-mashing or whatever they call it "these days" and playing something that is hard to differentiate from a glorified poker machine waiting for my next power up.

I have too little time to play computer games at the moment.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[Werebat]

Nice answers. I asked because my RL group of friends has been hitting the WoW pretty heavily for the last few years. I got involved as well, although my interest has waned (I still enjoy raid nights, but find I much prefered levelling with friends -- I still level once a week with my father and his friend). It seems to me that after level 80 the game gets very repetitive.

WoW has had an effect on our gaming circle. I'm fair convinced at least one or two players who dropped out of D&D for their own reasons, but still play WoW, would be making the effort to make D&D nights if it weren't for WoW. We used to play Magic cards every few weeks, but that died with the dawn of City of Heroes. Now I can pop online and chat with friends almost any night on WoW, which is nice, but to me it just isn't the same thing. Not that I hate WoW, but -- eh.

Edit: BUT, WoW has some astounding audiovisuals, and is a fair bit of fun. I've been slowly but surely ripping all of the background audio out of the game for use at the D&D table, which is nice!

- Ron ^*^

 

[Stormonu]

For me, MMORPG's just don't scratch the same itch as a TTRPG. For me, MMORPGs are where I can be a player and go through someone else's storyline. TTRPG's are where I get to be the storyteller.

<Edit:> If I can ever figure out how to properly use the Neverwinter Nights GM tools, that may change.