Reynard said:
It occurs to me: concerns about whether WoW and D&D compete, or whether WoW is killing D&D, and so on are swinging wide of the real issue: WoW is D&D. Or, rather, it fills the same niche with the same demographic that D&D did all those years ago. It's why the enjoyment of either isn't mutually exclusive of the other -- that has more to do with generation than anything else, I think. D&D can't fight WoW because they are members of the same evolutionary line.
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I play WoW. I have played DnD for the past decade and more. Almost every single one of my friends plays WoW or DnD, or more often, both. Moreover, WoW is a great gateway drug for DnD. My wife started out hating all things dnd, all things gaming. I got her hooked on WoW.. now she can't wait for DnD 4e to come out so she can dm her first campaign.
One is a computer game -- it gives expression to the swords and sorcery concept. DnD is a tabletop roleplaying game. The computer game handles complex math and many many monsters fluidly so that you can have long chains of complex fights back to back without needing to sit down and work out the math -- without ever giving rise to a rule question. It is a beginers course on gaming. Tabletop allows me to place my players in a world that truly responds to them off the battle field.
This is essentially my biggest beef with the WoW==DnD / DnD and WoW must collide / zOMG the rules are changing DnD is no more -- 99% of my games happen out of combat. My players spend significantly more time figuring out where to go, what to do, how to accomplish their goals -- than they do whacking this down for xpees (though there are usually at least a few fights a night.. I mean.. it is DnD gotta roll goblins for loot). To distill the greatness of a ROLEplaying game down to the mechanics of the ROLLplaying side of it, betrays the core of the game. It cedes all that makes TT better than a computer game to the dustbin of history -- without even acknowledging the act.
WoW isn't dnd. Dnd isn't wow, or everquest, or Magic the Gathering (which is now dnd's closest cousin mechanicaly when discussing character creation and combat simulation).
DnD is about exploring a world. It's about working as a team to overcome a diversity of goals. WoW is about leveling to 70, and getting into the end game instances to farm for loot so you can do the next instance and so on. The greatness of WoW is the mechanical complexity of getting the most out of your character, of out-performing the game and defeating combat challenges with ingenous tactics and useage of class powers.
They're both fun. I love them both. For me, they're both social activites (I play WoW with my friends and we use a teamspeak server to talk while we play). Wow gives me flawless crunch. DnD gives me a deeper experience.
In DnD, The system is second fiddle to the characters and their story. At least in all the games I've ever enjoyed.
*edited for grammar*
