A linguistic revelation

[bloodandsmoke]

Note: For those of you playing WoW, This is not a hint. This is a startling revelation

Comments

[cell23]

I'd like to add in that to those not familiar with WoW, this is what EVERY discussion of the game is like. Almost every discussion of the game makes me zone out like I was in a gen-ed Chick Lit class. Sure, it looks like I'm paying attention and understand, and I may even have developed a knowledge of the terminology, but you may as well be lecturing me on the intricacies of string theory.

I mean, yes, to the person involved, I'm sure it's quite exciting, but you don't see discussion of this type revolving around checkers.

[chirping_monkey]

I will make the controversial claim that in some company stories about your pen and paper/larp characters can be of interest. But yeah, video games almost never.

[bloodandsmoke]

Yeah, that's why I was hesitant to say it applied to all RPGs. The reason I think it's interesting in P&P is because you can't make immediate assumptions. Like, there are more choices available, there's a personality to consider (rather than just a hidden collection of numbers) and the listener can't make assumptions about the game world the speaker is talking about. In a videogame, assumptions are easier to make; when you say, "I play a Mage" in D&D, there's a lot of room for variation. When someone tells me, "I play a Shaman" in WoW, there's almost no room for variation. If I'm familiar with what a Shaman does, than I already know everything I need to know about that character and how it is played. If I don't know anything about a Shaman, then I just don't care.

[virtualdragon]

I think it depends more on the player than the RPG itself, meaning there are some players that you can at least make the assumption that there is some room for flexibility with what their character is like...and then there are others that turn any P&P into nothing more than numbers. In those cases it's just like listening to the player talk about a video game character because to them there is a much more finite number of min/maxed options for a character that even exists...and if you're not min/maxing then you're stupid. For those type of people I'd much rather hear them talk about WoW than a D&D character because I can at least hope that by the next patch Blizzard will somehow screw over their delicately balanced number crunching and maybe make them cry.

[chirping_monkey]

That's just beautiful. I think I love you.

[notoneday]

i played a mage in D&D.

i liked the spell "fireball"

one time i used it to blow everything up. you totally should've been there.

[oneforellis]

Oh yeah! It was that time my cleric healed you. She was busty.