Tobold was until recently, the wizard of mmorpg commentary, but it appears our friend is branching out
While doing some research the other night on D&D, I found out the shocking news that Tobold is no longer blogging about mmorpgs exclusively.
Who is Tobold you might say? If you read my blog, or any blog about mmorpgs for that matter, then you don’t have to ask that question, but if you don’t, just go ahead and google the word combo: mmorpg+blog. What is the first entry you see? Tobold’s blog!
Except he is no longer blogging about electronic gaming as much, he’s almost exclusively devoted his blog to other topics, chief among them his experiences with D&D as a GM.
I find that a rather natural extenti0n given the RPG in the mmorpg acronym stands for role playing game, and everyone knows that D&D was the first paper and pen role playing game, well if not the first, the most revolutionary.
Even more surprising are the reasons expounded by Tobold for the change: He may not be completely bored with mmorpgs, I am sure he will still play them occasionally, but in his own words, “a AAA+ MMORPG of 2011/2012 plays pretty much exactly as one 5 years ago, and that most of the changes in the last 5 years have been cosmetic. And thus I am increasingly losing interest.”
I have to say that I know where he is coming from, though the timing seems to be coincidental, you see, I have been gravitating back toward paper and pen D&D myself of late, partly because I am trying to get back into creative writing, and I have some propensity towards the fantasy genre, but also because I love DDO and I want to learn more about the Stormreach setting specifically and D&D campaign settings in general.
Cryptic may take quite some time to reveal their new D&D mmo based on Neverwinter Nights, but there is no doubt that I would play both D&D based mmorpgs.
Just this past weekend, I was discussing with a friend the inherent advantages and joys of a face to face campaign over the more limiting grouping and PUG runs common in wow and other mmos. Though some family obligations prevented me from attending my last group session in Pasadena, I plan to be there early next month and I look forward to supplementing my DDO online time with some over the board, pen and paper gaming.
Lately I have been playing a lot of wow myself, but apart from leveling my undead mage to level 30, queuing for random Dungeon PUG runs and exploring new zones, wow feels like a solo RPG to me and I am not sure i will put the effort to max level, unless I start having more fun in the game.
So Tobold, good for you for following your passion. From what I have read, you are putting a lot of time and effort into crafting your campaign settings and adapting 4E mechanics into your own campaigns. I give you kudos for doing what you love and having fun while doing so. Isn’t that what gaming is all about anyhow???
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