Originally posted by dfryer
I think he meant all games including, but not limited to, computer games. Though you wouldn\'t know it by the way he said it...
I suspect your statement is inconsistant. You claim to have an interpretation, and then also claim that interpretation is impossible from the statement alone (plus an implicit understanding of english sentence construction). So.. are you psychic? And if so, do you use your powers for good, or for awesome?
Don\'t give too much time to their complaints. They\'re just bitter from me pwning them in other discussions. This is their way of dealing with their insecurities.

Originally posted by dfryer
Roleplaying happens in .. well, \'role-playing\' games, like D&D, some MUDs, and some MMORPGs (or at least between a certain group of people in MUDs and MMORPGs). It also happens in theatre, where the roleplay is pre-ordained, excepting improv theater. Roleplaying can happen in strategy or war games like Diplomacy, or even Monopoly if you want to play the game that way.
The power of charisma is definately underrated in Monopoly. The same is true for Risk, Settlers, Illuminati, Chaos Magic, all those games we know from kids camp. Of course those elements aren\'t ~necessarily~ there, and you can play each of them in a completely mechanical way. That is, playing within a rule set which takes into account chance operations such as card drawing and rolling dice (care floppers and dice chuckers). With AD&D and it\'s spin offs, there is a lot more at play, and those mechanical chance operations are more hidden. I roll a dice, but I don\'t hit my enemy with a XX damage fireball. The dungeon master uses flowerly language to make it more visual and imaginative...
Me: \"Ok, I cast fireball and roll 3d6... 5, 5, 6... I get +2 to each because I\'m a 5th level elementalist with specialization in pyromancy\"
DM: Scorching flames extend from your hands towards the two archers in the tree. The entire campsite is filled with light as if it were daylight - the archers are incinerated and their bodies fall to the ground, black with char. Roll sense perception... you notice the smell of smoke in the air. You\'ve started a forest fire.\"
But is even that role playing? Or deciding which way to turn down a maze? I suspect that many people in this community would say, no. That\'s simply mechanical. I\'m not inclined to agree automatically, but this is part of what I want to get at.
Originally posted by dfryer
Is there such a thing as roleplaying in single-character games? I think so, to the extent that you can make choices which are (to the player) not necessarily \"optimal\" but are consistant with a fictional characters view of things. But in a single-player game, you\'ll take less flak for cheating, and the satisfaction is purely from knowing that when YOU slew the green dragon, YOU did it without breaking character, while the kid down the street robbed all the houses in town in order to buy the Sword of Ultimate Good +3.
Or maybe he stayed at the red ogre in and slept for 3 hours three times in a row then saved, relogged in, then opened the cupboards to find them full of daedric weaponry. Err, I mean....