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RPGs In The 'Real World'
As more and more people realize the fun they're denying themselves by turning away from orc-bashing and dragon-baiting, mainstream businesses and media are paying more attention to RPGs. Sam the Giant writes "Barnes & Noble University is offering a free 8 hour on-line course titled 'Discover Dungeons & Dragons: Becoming a D&D Player'. The free course is described as follows: 'As a beginning player, this course will guide you in understanding how D&D works, explaining the various worlds and characters types that it is based on, creating a D&D role for yourself, and understanding how your player role interacts in the world and with other characters. You will learn the extent of your abilities and the possibilities that lie ahead for your player, including magical spells, mythic quests, and epic battles with incredible monsters.' It's free to enroll." In the same vein, NPR's great reporting turns to World of Warcraft. Dragoonmac writes "All Things Considered recently ran a feature about WoW communities, farmers, and a humorous review of real-life. A Slashdotter's must hear."
IMO, if I'm not rolling a 20-sided die, it's virtual. Actually, even if I am rolling a 20-sided die, it's virtual.
If I think "real world" in relation to an RPG, I think of physically playing the game, such as an assasination game or something like that. To me, RPGs around a table or the flickering light of a monitor are virtual. Before I ever touched a computer, D&D was a form of VR where your imagination was the interface, a module was the software, and the dungeonmaster (along with a number of dice) was the CPU.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
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The article wasn't "must read". It was pretty much common sense that most folks have figured out long ago. About the only interesting thing in the whole thing was the WoW gold vs. real world price graph, and that was only cool because I won't want to waste my time doing the research necessary to create the darn thing.
If a game has an economy, folks are going to abuse it. It is almost typical nowadays to covet items in games, instead of wanting to have the satisfaction of earning it. At low levels, it can make sense to slip that new toon a little gold and let them get some better equipment. I've taken my lvl 60 rogue through Deadmines at least a dozen times, getting some nice gear for a new toon I am creating. At high levels though, just go out and earn it. It's why you play the game: to level up, see places, and get better gear.
Many games today are just awful for that. Seeing a new EQ (first version) walking around with nearly maxed out stats because someone threw 50K plat at it was just silly. And, it forces the game creators to modify how they approach the game's future development, as well as forcing them to retro-fit the older portions of the game.
Encounters have to be made harder for lower level areas, because the characters are tougher than they should be. By the time Planes of Power (PoP) came out for EQ, it was extremely difficult to be a new-to-EQ player, unless you had friends that would shower you with gifts. It was even harder than EQ was when it first came out, when a full set of Bronze armor made you feel like you were getting somewhere. Because now, that full set of Bronze wasn't good enough to keep you alive.
But many players don't care about that. We live in the era of entitlization, where folks think they deserve to be able to have a character with godly gear on it from the outset. How dare developers put level limits on gear, and restrict access to places based on levels!
I guess that's why I went back and started playing CoH/CoV again. Sure, it's often repetitive, but no economy to really abuse, so it's quieter.