Friday, February 4, 2011

Online but "in person"

Sorry for the silence lately, but I was in a car accident, and totaled our old car. After a couple of weeks of looking around, and lots of online review reading, we got a new vehicle, so things are back to normal. (and I am fine, only bruised my knee)

Anyway, last weekend, my wife and I had an enjoyable video chat with some friends of ours via Skype. During the end of the conversation, we added my friend's brother to the conversation using the new multiple person video chat(which is a paid aspect of the service). We BSed a bit, and then someone (maybe me) mentioned that it would be fun to play Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) using this sort of technology. I did endure some ribbing with regards to having time to RP online, but not to play in the D&D online game that they already participate in. (my friend, his wife, his brother, and his brother-in-law all play)

As you might expect, there are already many ways for people to play games, and in particular role playing games online. Besides the obvious MPORG type situation (back to D&D online), which certainly skew more to "roll playing" than "role playing, there are dice rolling tools, specialized chat boards, and the like. Beyond that, there are entire mapping programs that allow for the DM to set up a map, and have players negotiate it. (and similar ones aimed at board games)

Still though, there is something to be said for seeing and hearing someone while you play, after all, the social aspect is what makes RP games so much fun, and conversely so hard to get going sometimes. What do you think? Would you, or have you, played a game online?

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