What comes to mind when you hear roleplaying games?
Usually the image conjured up isthat of social awkward people ranging from preteens to adults verging on their elderly years all partaking in things like World of Warcraft, Dungeons & Dragons, and pretending to be beings of medieval fantasy. Either way, the stereotypes and jokes made about this increasingly popular activity are paradoxically way off base and surprisingly accurate.
What are roleplaying games? Why do
people partake in the seemingly escapist activity? Both of these questions are extremely valid.
Roleplaying games are an activity in which a person assumes the role of a character in a fictional setting.
Unlike other activities of today's society, roleplaying games are usually lacking in a sexual element and are largely based on immersing oneself in the role of their character.
If I were to say 'Wizards of the Coast' most of you would have no idea what I meant. You probably assume that it's something to do with roleplaying games where people are wizards. Well, you would be both right and wrong. Roleplaying games have to come from somewhere. Let's go with Dungeons & Dragons. Wizards of the Coast is the publishing company that puts out Dungeons & Dragons. There are editing staffs and devoted writers who think up creative backstories.
No matter how geeky the concept of rolling dice to pretend to cast a spell on your foe is, people do it all over the world. Dungeons & Dragons is in its fourth edition. Supply and demand for the supplies exists.
But this post is supposed to be about something popular in today's culture. Why would I talk about roleplaying games? World of Warcraft was released on November 23, 2004. By January 2, 2008 there were over 10 million players worldwide. Commercials with Mr. T and Ozzy Osbourne have come out publicizing World of Warcraft.
But how is W.O.W like Dungeons & Dragons? You role dice with D&D. WoW is on your computer.
WoW is a MMORPG. A MMORPG is a 'massively multiplayer roleplaying game.' Therefore, even if you think you are cool enough to play WoW, but Dungeons & Dragons is beneath you, think again. They're the same thing in different mediums.
Roleplaying games have adapted.
Through time, roleplaying games have gone from tabletop versions, commonly referred to as 'pen and paper' games that actually require paper sheets and dice rolling to
live action roleplay where people actually act out the physical actions of their character and all the way to cyber-roleplaying in the digital age.
Take White Wolf's (another roleplaying game publishing company) World of Darkness games. The mutli-dimensional games including mages, vampires, werewolves, faeries, wraiths, humans, and demons can be independent or collide. Still, these games were designed back in the early 90's for pen and paper style. Many books were published and systems were devised. Finally, in the late 90s, a live action version of these games were published. People spend time developing a character complete with backstory and statistics and then dress up and act out their character based on the rules systems.
White Wolf takes it one more step. This game has expanded from its humble roots to an internet sensation, relatively speaking. The website hosts hundreds of players who can create a character and play it in an unmoderated arena. Worlds collide because people don't know what others are playing unless they tell them. After all, you would not want to metagame. Oh, you don't know that term?
There's an entire roleplaying game lexicon for every system.
I hope you enjoyed this minor tutorial on the generalities of roleplaying games.
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