“Geeks like algorithms. We like sets of rules that guide future behavior. But people, normal people, consistently act outside rule sets. People are messy and unpredictable, until you have something like the Dungeons & Dragons character sheet. Once you’ve broken down the elements of an invented personality into numbers generated from dice, paper and pencil, you can do the same for your real self.”

via BoingBoing:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/03/09/flowchart-how-dd-is.html

To add to your thoughts, I think that World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs are an easy way out for gamers… What I hate about RPGs today is their lack of creativity and freedom — you still have basic quests (kill N instances of Creature Y), and ultimately have to abide by rules that are meant to appease all 10 million players. Granted, there’s some benefits to this.

I remember our discussion on whether D&D is still popular. There’s a NYC D&D meetup group with 522 members… I think there definitely is something to be said for D&D being less isolating than WoW.

*Wojciech casts the Spell-of-Bring-Thyself-Back-to-Workism, rolls a 20, and prepares for a productive afternoon.*