The History of Computer RPGs • Hacker News Board

Re: The History of Computer RPGs

#91

Post by MrZeus » Thu, Apr 20, 2017, 10:46 AM UTC

felipepepe wrote: post #78

njharman wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 to $60 being totally reasonable (cheap even) price for 450 page book in color. I (and thousands of people) regularly pay $50-70 for pen and paper RPG books with less page count. And I've paid much, much more than that for niche art books.

Thanks, but it's a last resort. That wouldn't even require a crowdfunding campaign, I just upload the files and that's it. Since I've spent over 4 years now on this, why not dream higher? I think it's worthy to try to make something cooler, of higher quality and cheaper for everyone. The book doesn't even have a cover yet, so I might hire an amazing artist as stretch goal or something like that. :)

Could I mention the legendary artist Mark Ferrari for your consideration?

http://markferrari.com/art/digital-concepts/

(I know there are hundreds of others, I'm hoping people might reply and compile a favourites list for you ^_^)

Re: The History of Computer RPGs

#92

Post by erikb » Thu, Apr 20, 2017, 10:58 AM UTC

nommm-nommm wrote: post #88

erikb wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

tabletop and P&P can be distinct as well. Tabletop means, you have a board and character-representing tokens on a table. P&P means the character data is represented on paper tables/sheets/diagrams. You can play one without the other. E.g. Warhammer is tabletop even without RPG.

That's not how I have ever heard the term used and Wikipedia agrees with me. >A tabletop role-playing game (or pen-and-paper role-playing game) is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech... The terms pen-and-paper and tabletop are generally only used to distinguish this format of RPG from other formats, since neither pen and paper nor a table are s…

Why should anybody be wrong? It all makes sense considering from where someone comes. I'd rather discuss why people from your context call them "tabletop RPGs".

As discussed in another subthread of that post: Even the word "RPG" is context related. The group I'd call "Pen&Paper players" consider their "RPGs" as "The RPGs". People like me who mostly played them on computers and consoles consider cRPGs as "The RPGs" and call non-c RPGs as "Pen&Paper", while considering Warhammer and Monopoly as "Tabletop" (actually we call them something like "board games", since English is not my mothertongue, but "tabletop" is the closest translation; there's even a Youtube Show called TableTop that reviews these games exclusively).

Now I think you call them "tabletop RPGs" because people from your surrounding don't play non-tabletop RPGs that are only played with paper and not with a board on the table (a little like when actors train for a scene, just talking, figuring out what the characters would do, sometimes not even using dice). Also maybe in your areas people don't play many tabletop games that are not RPGs. Or you do and call them differently. E.g., do you know "Settlers of Catan"? How do you call that kind of game? Do you distinguish them from "tabletop RPGs"?

Re: The History of Computer RPGs

#93

Post by nommm-nommm » Thu, Apr 20, 2017, 11:55 AM UTC

erikb wrote: post #92

nommm-nommm wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how I have ever heard the term used and Wikipedia agrees with me. >A tabletop role-playing game (or pen-and-paper role-playing game) is a form of role-playing game (RPG) in which the participants describe their characters' actions through speech... The terms pen-and-paper and tabletop are generally only used to distinguish this format of RPG from other formats, since neither pen and paper nor a table are s…

Why should anybody be wrong? It all makes sense considering from where someone comes. I'd rather discuss why people from your context call them "tabletop RPGs". As discussed in another subthread of that post: Even the word "RPG" is context related. The group I'd call "Pen&Paper players" consider their "RPGs" as "The RPGs". People like me who mostly played them on computers and consoles consider cRPGs as "The RPGs" an…

Um no... I call then tabletop RPGs because that's just what they are called. It's just terminology, like the World Series is called the "World Series" and the winners are called "World Champions" despite not actually involving any team outside The US or Canada.

Anyways, you're trying to literally translate a non-English terminology and directly compare it to English terminology. It doesn't work that way.

I played Settlers of Catan and that's a "board game."

Re: The History of Computer RPGs

#94

Post by erikb » Thu, Apr 20, 2017, 12:44 PM UTC

nommm-nommm wrote: post #93

erikb wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should anybody be wrong? It all makes sense considering from where someone comes. I'd rather discuss why people from your context call them "tabletop RPGs". As discussed in another subthread of that post: Even the word "RPG" is context related. The group I'd call "Pen&Paper players" consider their "RPGs" as "The RPGs". People like me who mostly played them on computers and consoles consider cRPGs as "The RPGs" an…

Um no... I call then tabletop RPGs because that's just what they are called. It's just terminology, like the World Series is called the "World Series" and the winners are called "World Champions" despite not actually involving any team outside The US or Canada. Anyways, you're trying to literally translate a non-English terminology and directly compare it to English terminology. It doesn't work that way. I played Set…

You mean terminology like language nerds might call something a "homonym" or a "synonym"?

(Yes, pun intended)

Re: The History of Computer RPGs

#95

Post by felipepepe » Thu, Apr 20, 2017, 3:08 PM UTC

MrZeus wrote: post #91

felipepepe wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, but it's a last resort. That wouldn't even require a crowdfunding campaign, I just upload the files and that's it. Since I've spent over 4 years now on this, why not dream higher? I think it's worthy to try to make something cooler, of higher quality and cheaper for everyone. The book doesn't even have a cover yet, so I might hire an amazing artist as stretch goal or something like that. :)

Could I mention the legendary artist Mark Ferrari for your consideration? http://markferrari.com/art/digital-concepts/ (I know there are hundreds of others, I'm hoping people might reply and compile a favourites list for you ^_^)

I actually already talked with Toni Bratincevic to get an idea of how such job would work. He's my #1 choice. :)