Swing. Hit. Swing. Hit….Really?

You know, I have no beef with World Of Warcraft, Guild Wars, or any of these MMOs, but I swear if I have to deal with one more player bringing MMO-style play to my game table, I’ll kick them out faster than they can say “D20″.

The roleplaying facet of games is declining at a rapid rate. All players want to do anymore is kill and loot. What happened to character interaction, creative combat, and pairing a Diplomacy roll with a legitimate response? You know I love to hear about how your fighter deals 20-some damage a round…but last game my character bull-rushed the baddie of the encounter into a furnace and shut the door. (Oh yeah, and did I mention it took me only two rounds?)

Please, I beg you, if you’re new to roleplaying, observe your veteran players. You’ll notice that their actions oftentimes don’t revolve around experience points and gold. In fact, a lot of veteran players would love to see their character killed if it meant going down in the most cinematic, epic blaze of glory possible.

Roleplaying. R-O-L-E-P-L-A-Y-I-N-G. You are someone else. You’re not a person punching keys, moving a joystick, or what have you. You take on the mantle of the character you create, and you interact in the strange world known as imagination. Anything is possible, literally anything. The only things that are possible in video games are the things that the programmers WANT to be possible.

There is so much more to roleplaying than just swinging your sword. Please folks, take a step outside the box your video game came in and open your eyes to the boundless world of roleplaying.

Consider the soap box destroyed. Thank you.