Online Gaming: Challenges

Well it is the end of the month for me, and I figured I would talk about some personal experience. If you have never done online gaming, then you wouldn't understand what a different sort of world it is. I am not referring to MMOs like World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XI, I am referring to regular old roleplay games like D&D or VtM run in online chatrooms and messengers instead of sitting around a table throwing dice. The difference is not apparent at first glance, because both use the same rulebooks, and both use dice, but it has to do with the challenges that each face.

The first one is Structural. How do you run it?

A: You can try to run an online game the way a tabletop game is run, with the Narrator sitting in his chair and everyone else in the same place at the same time listening to the same thing and not playing beyond that. This is the closest to an actual tabletop setup as you will get.

B: You can take an established chatroom approach, this means that the playground is open 24-7, the Narrators that players require are not constantly present to mediate or answer questions. This also means that Players are not always on at the same time, they do not always see each other, therefore organization on both sides can become fragmented.

C: There is the forum and/or email approach, where players participate by posting their actions on a board, or in some cases by email. This generally moves a little slower than the chatroom approach and requires more in depth story writing from both players and Narrator. However it also ensures that everyone is able to follow easier and organize a little better.

D: There is also the mixed approach, which I generally find to be a chatroom with forum backup and scheduled scenes. This is a favored approach because it allows Narrators and Players to overcome many of the more specific challenges that the other individual approaches give rise to.

The next challenge is Adapting the Rules:

Challenge One: Dice. No matter where you play, you have to have a diceroller that everyone can see so that there is no cheating, accusations of cheating, or the classic children's game of 'I hit you!' 'No you didn't!' This however takes away the option of a private roll that Narrators make occasionally for various plot or setting reasons.

Challenge Two: Certain rules in tabletop games are designed around the fact that Players and Narrator are actually sitting in the same room and able to interact directly and provide each other with various essential parts that make a game fun. In such cases, the rules have to be adapted in creative ways to fit the actual method of communication so that things keep running smoothly.

Challenge Three: Combat. Combat can be sticky, and somewhat long when done sitting around a table, but if you add in the time it takes to type everything out and calculate and roll and keeping the Narrator and the Players up to date on how things are going without getting everyone VERY confused, the fact is that Combat takes longer than it should when following the tabletop rules over the internet. You've either got to put up with it, or adapt and change these rules slightly to allow for more streamlined play.

Then there are the dreaded internet Social Issues.

Challenge One: In online gaming you're not sitting around a table. You can't see or hear your fellow gamers, there's no tone, there's no inflection, no facial expressions, just text on a screen. Unless you're REALLY GOOD at reading between the lines, this will cause problems. Because you can't tell if they're laughing, crying, angry, annoyed, or anything until they say something about it, and by then it's often a little late. To meet this challenge it just takes a good mediator to keep things running smoothly, and a general willingness (from everyone) to communicate and forgive when something goes wrong.

Challenge Two: When on the internet, it is a well known fact that people become much bigger assholes than they do in person. They can't hit you, you can't hit them, so they will say really hurtful things at the drop of a hat because they can get away with it. It's tempting to turn it into a flame war, but it is not actually worth it, because all that does is distract everyone from the game and make you miserable when it's all said and done. I know it's also tempting to try to change the way they are, no, really I do. I have personally spent years trying to tolerate them, trying to make nice, trying to smooth everything over, trying to help them understand it's not right to act that way, and in the end it has just not worked. You can't change people that are comfortable with the way they are. Quite simply the solution is to just not play with these people. Leave. Find people who are not internet bullies to play with. The only thing that ever made my gaming time online enjoyable was removing myself from that kind of situation and playing with other people.

Edit: You know I've read this through a couple of times myself, and I always felt it was missing something. That something is 'How to set up your Game' but there's a problem with that. Every situation is different, and every group is different. If you all have any comments or suggestions, please post them and I will make a sequel to this post.