Computer gaming online role-playing is quite a fun spin on the old favorite of role-playing games that have been sold in comic shops for years. In a way, this is consistent with the expanding world of were our leisure activities are going as computers become more and more ingrained in our society and culture.
Role-playing games started in the 1970’s with Dungeons and Dragons and quickly grew to include virtually any type of game or scenario one could imagine including games that revolved around action-adventure, science fiction, espionage, horror, sports and a ton of other genres.
The Computer Version Of Role-Playing Games
Role-playing games eliminated the traditional cause effect method that board games utilized and turned games into an improvisational exercise that proved intriguing. In time, people started to use computer gaming online to expand how role playing games can be conducted. In the computer gaming online variant of role-playing, players will write/type their ‘scenarios’ and submit them via email to the person running the game. The game master then weighs all the emails from the various players to decide how these scenarios play off against each other in order to further the game. Sounds fun, huh?
So How Do The Role Playing Game Producers Feel About This?
Now, while one would assume that the role-playing game companies would love the fact that there are computer gaming online means of playing the games and expanding their customer base, some role-playing game companies have some misgivings about this computer gaming online expansion.
In a way, the computer gaming online role-playing has hurt sales of game packages because people no longer have the need for a role-playing set as they are not playing in a room together and are connected electronically from all over the globe. It would be doubtful that the bottom will fall out on many of these game producing companies as the product that they offer is still very popular, but there have been some dollars lost due to the free competition that the computer gaming online role-playing provides.
Granted, many of these companies offer their own free online role-playing services as a means of promoting their product. They have also offered fee based subscription online role-playing games so the internet provides a solid revenue stream for the companies. There is a paradoxical relationship between the role-playing game companies and the internet, but ultimately, the internet has been good to these companies and will continue to benefit them provided the companies evolve accordingly.