Re: (TFT) the future of paper and pencil games

[<dwtulloh61@cox.net>]

John Gfoeller writes:

>>From: "David Michael Grouchy II"
>>
>>   b)  Computers games may be a poor substitute for 
>>       actually sitting around a kitchen table and
>>       listening to each other, but the big MMORPGs 
>>       are making buckets of money.
>
> Out of curiosity, a couple of them tried paper and 
> pencil FRPGs (usually D&D).  They found them to be 
> quaint in game design (pre-computer technology) and 
> fun for the social interaction.  But, they uniformly
> preferred the computer games for the immediacy of 
> the action and the visuals.

I don't doubt this is true.  Computer RPGs (CRPGS) do 
have it all over Paper RPGs (PRPGs) when it comes to
visuals.  And if thats why people are playing RPGs, 
then PRPGs are sunk.  But PRPGs have their place as 
well - you can attempt things which were not programmed 
in ahead of time, argue with the GM on why you should 
be allowed to do something, etc.  Players in PRPGs can define their own goals as well, something which you
cannot do easily in a CRPG.  Also, PRPGs campaign 
worlds are much more responsive to player-GM inter-
action whereas you're pretty much stuck with whatever 
the CRPG allows.

>>   c)  Do we even know who our market is, and if we
>>       listen to that market will they really ask for 
>>       TFT.

> I don't think there is much of a "market" in terms of
> business. The gaming market for FRPGs has clearly been
> taken over by computer games.

Probably true.  As a long term goal however, I would 
like to see a CRPG where a GM (or wizard, depending upon
how far back you go) can either design a world or plug 
in some sort of commercial module and then allow others 
to play that.  Then if you could also plug in some sort 
of ruleset, you could havea completely customizable CRPG.

But this is probably not the right place for that
discussion  :)

Dan
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