Here's a link only geeky readers over the age of 25 can truly appreciate. The New York Times recently ran an article about Dungeons & Dragons going online, and how the 'gaming' market has been almost completely subsumed by online/computer gaming. Apparently this online version of the D&D experience stays pretty true to the original. They're even trying to replicate the group experience by building in a mic feature that will allow online players to chat with each other. Overall, it sounds pretty interesting, an online treat for the 30-40-something geeks out there.
But is it going to meet the discriminating tastes of the comic book guy demographic? Don't count on it. It seems like most of the old-school gamers out there aren't too impressed with the idea. The article gives us this quote from one middle-aged gamemaster. (I highly recommend you try reading it out loud in the voice of the comic book guy a couple of times for full effect.)
I play because I have a very creative mind and a very noncreative job. So the game helps me balance it out. There is no creativity at the computer, because you're limited by what the programmers thought you might do. Here in person, I can react dynamically to the players and craft an adventure specifically for them.
The most surprising revelation of the entire article was finding out that Vin Diesel is a hardcore Dungeons & Dragons freak. You can find corroborating evidence of that fact in this Wikipedia entry on Diesel. Here's the relevant part of the wiki bio:
Diesel is a long time fan and player of Dungeons & Dragons and other role playing games, a fact that he proudly states in various interviews. He occasionally makes reference to D&D in his films ... It has been said that his portrayal of Richard Riddick in the Pitch Black series of movies and games is based somewhat on this favorite character, a Drow "witch-hunter" who was a loner, and that Diesel has the character's image tattooed on his leg. He has also written the foreword to the commemorative book 30 Years of Adventure: A Celebration of D&D, a collection of stories and essays which chronicles the history of D&D. It is also rumored (though never confirmed) that Diesel plays the popular game World of Warcraft under the alias "Dish".
Priceless. Vin Diesel is a massive D&D dork, and is actually very proud of it. I guess it goes a long way in explaining how he gets sucked into these horrific action movies. Hilarious - you can't make this stuff up. And for those of you who doubt the geeky depths roleplaying depravity, take a look at these two videos.
Article comments
1 - sal m
another famous MMORPG player is pitcher Curt Schilling of the Boston Red Sox...as a matter of fact he wrote at least one game review - i believe it was for either an everquest or ultima expansion pack - for pc gamer magazine a few years back...
2 - Baronius
I saw Vin talking about his D&D playing on Conan O'Brien once. Talking is the wrong word: he was bragging.
3 - Dave Nalle
Based on what I saw on Stephen Colbert last night he sure sounds like he's either awfully good at repeating something written by a staffer who's a D&D geek or he was one himself.
As for online D&D taking over, it's a depressing thought. What D&D players really don't need is an opportinity to socialize in real life even less than they already do.
Dave
4 - Matthew T. Sussman
I'm pretty sure playing D&D is only properly done in college, when you deter from the quest for 15 minutes to make fun of each other.
5 - Adam
According to Colbert's wikipedia entry here: he is (or was) indeed an avid role-player.
As for Curt Schilling, he personally ressurected some major series of counter-based wargames from Avalon Hill's remains by
founding/funding Multi Man Publishing.
-Adam
6 - Dave Nalle
Isn't Schilling a Squad Leader geek?
Dave
7 - [Geeks Are Sexy] Tech. News
Hmm, reminds me of the song "Video kills the radio stars" :)
Kiltak
[Geeks Are Sexy] Tech. News
8 - Bob
Perhaps it's equally sad that I know this but on the D&D movie DVD, in the bonus features you will find a brief interview with Vin Diesel.
9 - steve_jobs_hnic
about Colbert from the Colbert Report, I too was thinking that a staffer may have written the DnD piece, that is until the closing seconds of the show. If you look closely, Stephen walks away from the shelf where he just placed his gaming dice (retiring his dice in favor of the new online gaming medium). And as the camera slowly zooms in on the shelf, Stephen picks up one final die and makes a roll. The dice he rolls is a D20 (the only D20), the other dice he left them alone. It was also the only black die, all the others where white. After I saw him roll the D20, I thought, "yeap, he's a gamer." I'm not sure what he rolled :)
10 - Adam
Dave: Yep. That's the focus of MMP, and why I've heard of them.
11 - Steve Gill
I saw Mike Myers in an interview with a Canadian Kids Show or Network way back near the beginning of his SNL career. He admitted to the young teen female interviewer that he use to play D&D as a teen, to which the (preppie) girl made a face and implied he must have been a geek.
Mike may have taken slight offense to that comment because, although he was too nice to really tear her to shreds verbally, he did take a dig at her by saying if she had ever played D&D, her character's name should be (something like) "'Beauticia', because you're sooooooooo beautiful" (said with his teeth stuck out like a nerd).
I killed myself laughing, but I think the sarcasm went above her head. :)
12 - Victor Plenty
Old-school pencil-and-paper roleplaying games are far from dead. After a hiatus of over fifteen years away from the genre, I recently found my way into a group of gamers exploring the Version 3.5 rules of Dungeons and Dragons. We're having a roaring great time in all our game sessions.
There seem to be many others besides us playing these rules too, judging by the number of independently produced software tools available to help create characters and do other game-related tasks.
I hesitated to share my experience here until I realized the sheer volume of my comments on space exploration, sci/tech, and computer gaming topics must have already solidly established my nerd creds.