[MUD-Dev] A Founding Father Forgotten

[Sean Kelly]

Matt Mihaly wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Mar 2003, Michael Tresca wrote:
 
>> I was quite surprised myself, Scott, when I discovered just how
>> many game developers don't have pen-and-paper RPG experience. Or
>> worse, consider it beneath them.

> Why? Pen and Paper are a completely different medium. Certainly
> there are artifacts of design (classes, for instance) taken from
> P&P games, but I see almost no cross-over unless the designer
> chooses to go that route. I would tend to argue, in fact, that
> they are so different that it's harmful to try and apply P&P
> fundamentals to virtual worlds. Certainly all the designs I do
> have almost nothing to do with the standard hack n' slash
> Everquest-type mechanic found in D&D or whatnot. It's not beneath
> me; it's just irrelevant to me.

Pen and Paper may be a different medium, but then so is
play-by-email, and one could draw distinct differences between
graphical and text-based virtual worlds.  The point of the article
was to point out that in many respects Dave Arenson invented
role-playing games, and like it or not, most online virtual worlds
have more of a foundation in RPGs than they do in simluations.
Whether or not you use anything remotely related to D&D-like rules
is irrelevant IMO.

Sean


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