RSS~DDO
For those who didn't hear, Dungeons & Dragons Online, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on AD&D 3.5, is set to be released in November of this year. It's set in Eberron, the new D&D world that's been marketed as the Next Big Thing by Wizards of the Coast. And sure, it figures that WOTC had to jump on the MMORPG bandwagon. After all: what good is a name like D&D if you don't market it?
Despite what this interview says, this looks a lot like a rehashing of the same territory covered by Everquest, Worlds of Warcraft, and the like, so I'm not sure what all the hype is about. But being that the game is being developed by Turbine, the same company responsible for Asheron's Call and Asheron's Call 2, it sounds like DDO will at least be well done. And the screen shots look cool, too.
I know exactly what you mean, and I agree... the table-top role-playing game is definitely going the way of electric football... yeah, it's still around, but the computerized version has taken over. As if Magic: The Gathering wasn't bad enough for This Great Hobby of Ours, games like DDO will only take us further down the road towards the land of greater immersion and lowest barrier to entry, gaining audience, but missing out on something that was a huge component of the old pen-and-paper RPG's: socialization. I know, I know, geeks aren't known for being the most social crew, but let's face it: these games are the most/best socialization time that many of us had as younger players. That said, there's nothing wrong with gaming the new-fangled way, but it's just not what it used to be.