D&D 4E Maybe D&D 4e should be... World of Warcraft?

[Turanil]

I read in this thread that World of Warcraft is endangering tabletop RPG and may harbor the death of D&D. In fact, a game like WoW has a lot of advantages compared to tabletop D&D. However, I still don't like WoW for various reasons.

What I am suggesting here, for the WotC employee who could come by this thread, is that D&D 4e could remain D&D 3.5, but now ported to computer/online games. Something that would enable the same games as tabletop D&D, but through computer and online gaming. Players and DMs would buy the core CD, a setting, could add supplements (complete handbooks for more classes, spells, etc.), and would play ala WoW but with a DM creating his adventures (or buying them online) and playing with his players online.

I can't wait for this, and for the tools that will help someone to create his houserules and homebrew setting in this sort of online games.

 

[werk]

Something that would enable the same games as tabletop D&D, but through computer and online gaming. Players and DMs would buy the core CD, a setting, could add supplements (complete handbooks for more classes, spells, etc.), and would play ala WoW but with a DM creating his adventures (or buying them online) and playing with his players online.

Ever use the DM toolset in Neverwinter Nights? I did, quite a bit, and I loved it...BUT it takes A LOT longer to script everything and set it up for computer play as opposed to live interaction. I can see how they could make that a lot more user friendly, more GUI, pokey-oke, etc, but it still would be limited because of the medium.

In an RPG computer game, when you interact with anything you have to chose from a menu of choices.
In a tabletop RPG you are only limited by your imagination and your DM's ability.

 

[Ranger REG]

What you're asking is to reform the company (WotC) to include an electronic division that can handle software development of their pen-n-paper game. That they themselves produce their own electronic games, not Turbine Entertainment (currently developing D&D Online: Stormreach) nor Vivendi/Atari (currently licensed D&D software publisher).

 

[AuraSeer]

So... Neverwinter Nights, then. Or were you thinking of something more like D&D Online? Either way, it won't be a replacement for tabletop gaming-- there are a couple of large problems to overcome.

First, the technology can't support the creativity and spontaneity that P&P gaming can. In a P&P game, if I suddenly want my PCs to be attacked by a militaristic cadre of six-foot-tall chicken-weevils with purple scales and gem-encrusted hobby-horses, then it just happens. I describe the scene in a few words, look up the stats for Hobgoblins (or whatever), and poof, I have an encounter. To do the equivalent on a computer I'd have to create models for the monsters and their mounts, draw and apply all the textures, and create animations for every action I might want them to take in the game. That all takes a whole lot of time, and is not something that can be done on the fly while a game is going on.

Second, creating content for a graphical game is hard! The skills that make a good DM are not the same as the skills or artistic talent required to create a usable map, or monster, or cutscene. It's very very easy to sketch a room's walls on a vinyl mat and then describe the scene verbally, but learning to do it well for a WOW-style engine can take weeks or months of practice. (Some people may learn it much faster, but others may never manage to become competent with it at all.)

 

[EdL]

So... Neverwinter Nights, then. Second, creating content for a graphical game is hard! The skills that make a good DM are not the same as the skills or artistic talent required to create a usable map, or monster, or cutscene. It's very very easy to sketch a room's walls on a vinyl mat and then describe the scene verbally, but learning to do it well for a WOW-style engine can take weeks or months of practice. (Some people may learn it much faster, but others may never manage to become competent with it at all.)

Tell me about it! I've had NWN for years, and can't get it to do anything!

 

[Thanee]

...there are a couple of large problems to overcome.

More like gargantuan.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Nomad4life]

I’m still waiting for another SSI Gold Box game.

I mean, those games were perfect. The absolute end-all-be-all apex of PC gaming. I still have no idea why anyone would willingly chose to deface the very concept of electronic gaming by adding more than four directions, coherent dialogue, or anything other than CGA/EGA/VGA graphics. Every fiasco of computer games ever since has been nothing but large awkward steps backwards from that golden era of harmonic gaming purity.

Neverwinter Nights and WoW are decent in some ways, but they just can’t begin to compare with;

“I am Lord Mustardbutt. You will deliver this package to Uncle Booger. You will be well rewarded for your courage in this endeavor.”

-Fight
-Agree
-Leave

“You accept the quest, and record what happens next as journal entry #666.”

Entry #666
The Quest of Lord Mustardbutt

“Just as we accepted the quest of Lord Mustardbutt, a warband of orcs descended upon the party. Somehow, in the midst of the chaos, bloodshed, and butchery, I still had the time to record my observations and insights surrounding this moment in your game manual. Guess I always wanted to be more of a wartime journalist than an adventurer anyway.”

So, whatever direction WoTC decides to go in on the virtual gaming market, if it ain’t a true Gold Box game, it simply has no chance of replacing my PnP experience.

 

[trancejeremy]

WoW isn't successful because it's a roleplaying game on a computer, it's so successful because it's really not like a table top roleplaying game, other than mechanically. It's more like a contest which I probably can't say here.

Now admittedly, I haven't played WoW. But I have played Guild Wars. And in something like 200 hours that I've played GW, not once have I seen anyone roleplaying or even acting in character. It uses the mechanics of D&D, levels and looting critters and such, but it's much more, I dunno, competitive. To see who had the uber character, by simply playing the game more or longer than anyone else (or almost everyone else) or exploiting flaws in the system.

And then once they get their character sufficiently more powerful than new people, they spend their time putting those people down.

 

[Ranger REG]

So, whatever direction WoTC decides to go in on the virtual gaming market, if it ain’t a true Gold Box game, it simply has no chance of replacing my PnP experience.

Screw that. I prefer text-based like Zork.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Screw that. I prefer text-based like Zork.

Zork Zero always felt like a single player MUD to me. (That's a good thing.)