Quote:
Originally Posted by mxyzplk
Well, this is what I'm afraid the line of reasoning is, and the thing is it doesn't make any sense. With the one exception of RPGA organized play, which is utilized only by the vast, vast minority of gamers, who plays "pick-up D&D"? And more importantly, who wants to?
It seems a weak contention that "these kids nowadays" are demanding some larger pick-up style of game creation. You still need a prepared DM, characters around the same level, etc. The only format in which that works as "pick-up" is the Living campaigns where you can get a critical mass of prepared DMs and loads of PCs together. As a former LG Triad, I can say that format does not require LESS, but MORE effort and planning, and adding "character roles" will have nothing to do with that.
Playing "chase the MMORPG" will be a losing strategy. They have more and more skilled developers and money to realize their visions. It's better to analyze where tabletop has advantages over MMOs and to maximize those.
|
I don't think it's just about MMORPGs. It's been a classic observation that D&D, and RPGs in general, lose out heavily to board and strategy games at public games clubs because those other games can easily tolerate pick-up play, whereas the groups playing RPGs all establish their memberships early on and then bolt down the doors. Newly joining people wanting to play RPGs typically get stuck waiting for an entirely new group to form. It affects products, too: many people I know have basically stopped buying any RPG books because they already have more games than they could persuade groups to play in a lifetime. MMORPGs do exascerbate the situation by offering an RPG-like experience which doesn't have that problem.
As far as I understand, D&D Insider will have pick-up online play.
It will be interesting to see if other aspects of the system go with this as well. For example, XP was classically split between party members in D&D, but it could be switched to be the same amount no matter how many are in the party, as it is in many MMO games now - or maybe even with a small _bonus_ for having more PCs in the group...