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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
I thought DND was something that 'happened' to you? Like an anti-choice.
What about "Barnes & Noble University" Can I get a degree?
The "humorous review of real-life" is two years old, and can be found here. It's pretty funny though.
pros: Great Graphics, Vast Open-Ended Gameplay
cons: Random Start, Permadeath
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I have recently thought about getting into D&D. Does anyone have suggestions on how to get into this game? Is there anything I should do other than "buy the basic set and start playing"?
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
The book stores are glutted with D&D books. My read is they are just trying to move 'em. At least the couple here near me seem to have this problem.
I've taken courses from the Barnes & Noble University and they usually "recommend" a book that goes along with their course, sort of like a textbook.
This may not totally affect the course itself but sometimes, the course material refers to the book.
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Did I miss something? When did they get their own University?
Or is this kind of like "TD Waterhouse Center" or "Verizon Stadium", where a big company sponsors something and thus gets naming rights?
With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
Can I get a degree?
Nope, not from B&N, Amazon filed a patent yesterday for "a piece of paper denoting completion of a series of related educational courses with the intention of impressing those without said piece of paper to make more money than them. In another application, a collection of these pieces of paper are used to add every letter of the alphabet to the end of one's name, again in an attempt to compensate for inadequacies or impress those without the letters. When combined with user feedback and recommendations, a multi-million dollar 'non-profit' industry is created."
Though I am very interested in taking the intermediate course: Finding A Game Group (That Doesn't Suck). Until then, all my books will just gather dust..
You mean like all those Israelite slaves playing "Dungeon Draggin" back in the pyramid building days?
"I'm not impatient. I just hate waiting." - My Dad
"Why did you shoot your friend with an arrow?"
"I didn't. He opened the chest and set off the arrow trap inside."
"Sir, did you shoot him with that arrow?"
"No, it was a trap on the chest. He failed his reflex save and was hit by it."
"Sir, he's bleeding."
"He shouldn't have failed his reflex save."
You know what? I think that DnD and the rest of RPGs will go on for a long time and eventually be an old pastime like playing chess, go or even Monopoly and Scrabble. When people read about the history of these RPG games, there will be a small note about its early history like this:
"When Dungeons and Dragons was originally released over 100 years ago, it caused quite a social stirring among parents concerned over their childrens activities. It was used as a scapegoat for otherwise normal social problems. Now its a game that is enjoyed by the whole family and is generally accepted as a great way to build many mental feats."
Sure the 8 hour introductory course is free... But how much will the 80 hour Overcoming D&D addiction course cost? Sounds a lot like legal drugs too me! Of course who am I to say anything. This is one drug I use frequently.
While I realize this site is about news for nerds,
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How does a title like RPGs In The 'Real World'
Not make you immediately think of things asploding?
http://science.howstuffworks.com/rpg.htm/printabl
To keep this semi-ontopic, howstuffworks does discuss
RPG Basics
Tactics: How Are RPGs Used?
RPGs: The Future
The section on "Firing an RPG-7" might not be so applicable... but I bet it'll beat rolling a 20 sided dice any day.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Magic: the Gathering 4ever!
Can't have people making up their own worlds, it would eat into the profit margin.
The title is RPGs in the Real World. I thought the real world WAS an RPG where you are your character and you only get to play it once.
With so many people turning from books to video games - particularly fantasy games based on Dnd and Tolkien, it makes perfect sense that a book store would turn to the most popular fantasy rpg as a natural market. With Dnd, you need at least 3 books to play (player's handbook, dungeon master's guide, monster manual) and once you get into those, there are about 20 other books (all costing between 20 and 40 bucks) that you can buy if you dig it. All that and you're capturing part of a market that's already into the genre and new players that are interested in investigating the roots of WoW - not to mention the poor kids and kids who're grounded from their video games.
I'd look for them to ramp this up. Heck...I'd be surprised if they didn't create gaming areas and offer some discounts to gamers who play there. How convenient would it be to duck out of the game and buy a monster manual 2 if you needed something new?
Hard core dnd players will never leave for video games (at least permanantly). All they need to do is keep some stick ups around for the gamer funk.
I always thought gaming (RPGing, role playing) wouldn't really be much fun. Especially considering, I'm really not into fantasy at all. I think most of it is cheesy as hell and pretty lame. But I thought "what the hell!" when a friend wanted to initiate me and my also non-rpging girlfriend into the wide world of gaming. I figured it'd be a good way to learn the ropes before I found some other folks to play a less dorky tabletop rpg like the Babylon 5 or Star Wars RPG, or hell even Star Trek or anything else more sci-fi than wizards, elves and orcs.
:)
But, it turns out, gaming is fun, and so far I've found it fun even when the actual subject matter of the fictional universe isn't my thing. I've played some Vampire - The Masquerade and PlaneScape/DND 3.5. Both have been a blast, much to my honest surprise. So, even for you types out there that may think you're "above" the cheesiness of fantasy or even both fantasy and science fiction, give it a chance.
So... yeah. I reccomend trying it. I just hope you don't get spoiled by playing with some anal retentive person who is obsessed about being 100% in character and having every word float past your lips be part of the role play. I know not everyone is in my camp, but I'm of the mind that an activity like gaming should be about fun- the fun of telling a story with a few friends over a few beers, some laughs and some clever tricks- not work or stick-in-butt sort of stuff. To each her own, but for a n00b, try to find someone more light harded.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
I realize that the OP is not really trying to draw any similarities between RPGs and MMORPGs but this is something I've been thinking about for a while now that I've had my 1st experience with a MMORPG; that being WoW.
MMORPGs are not really RPGs in much the same way that driving a car simulator is not the same as actually driving a car. A lot of the elements are present in the simulator but a large number are still missing.
This is not to say that MMORPGs aren't fun or don't have a place, but the more I've played WoW the more I find myself not really playing a RPG but more of an RPG simulator. Sure at times it feels like I'm playing an RPG but then I go and play something like Gothic, a good NWN module, etc and I'm reminded of all the elements I'm missing in that MMO.
For the record, yeah I cut my teeth back in the day on PnP AD&D, Carwars, Star Frontiers, along with a number of others. I won't even deny that a PnP RPG is the "true" RPG vs a CRPG but for me the convenience factor of being able to play around my schedule is key.
In closing I just wanted to put this out there since it was on my mind and this thread seemed as good a place as any. WoW bashing and it's flaws has it's place but that is not what I'm going for here, rather just wanted to make the observation that there is a hierarchy of RPG elements among the types.
Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
Our D&D gaming group, which meets every two weeks, is comprised of people with the following day jobs:
I'm glad to see D&D becoming more mainstream. It was a haven from a rather boring world as a child, and as an adult is a haven from a rather boring world ;-) There were two women in the group - but one had to leave to finalize her job search (she's a professor of law).
The Luddites were ahead of their time.
I play the MUD Achaea and have been doing so for about a year and a half now. During that time I've risen from a mere young adventurer to a Ministerial position in my city and a reasonably high rank in my Order.
It is so easy to see people who have never played an RPG:
I don't know about other people "playing the game" but I certainly try to stay in character, at least in public. When I am "in character", the world is very real to me. The characters are very real, the people are very real and I actually look on my "alter ego" as being me.
RPGs do have a different frame of mind than first person, shoot'em up type games. I can see that a course introducing people about RPGs would be very useful whether they're D&D in "real life" or MUDs in "cyber space".
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.