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Dungeon Masters in Cyberspace
The New York Times has a piece this afternoon about the launch of Dungeons and Dragons Online. They talk with some of the folks who made the game, and reflect on roleplaying's move from table-top to online spaces. From the article: "While players in most online games communicate by typing, Turbine has tried to enhance the in-person feel of D&D Online by building voice-chat software into the game so players can speak with one another using a microphone plugged into their computer. And while most video games try to adopt a cinematic mode of storytelling, D&D Online plainly reminds users that they are playing a computer approximation of a pen-and-paper game. During combat, an icon of a spinning 20-sided die appears in a corner of the screen, just as modern slot machines still show spinning reels even though a microchip has already decided if you've won the jackpot."
> There's only one unique advantage of online play is when you don't have any friends.
Not true; there is also ease of access. Once you and all your friends are out in the real world with jobs and partners and all those things regular peopel do it's very hard to try and schedule a time to get together to gaming.
MMORPGs let you jump in whenever it's convienient and play online with friends (both from the real-world and that you only know online) whenever it's convienient.
I'd love to be able to play more table-top RPGs with my friend, because I find them a much more enjoyable experience than online RPGs, but it's just not going to happen anytime soon.