Sunday, July 6, 2008

Gametable: Suplemental



Here is the basic mode of Gametable. An aerial view of a gridded world, with drawn in surroundings, and movable 'pog' units. There's a chat window for player rolls and talk, and when combined with Ventrilo is the closest thing to a live D&D session I've seen online.

But it's not real D&D. At least not the way I know it. It WANTS to be D&D, but it is only a robot with dreams. Like instant messengers want to be conversations, and Pinocchio wants to be a real boy; Gametable is a wannabe. But as it neither lies nor shows my mother as a talking icon of an ant- I can accept it for what it is.

What it boils down to is that Gametable's greatest strength, and greatest drawback is its DM. A creative mind that can make full use of the wide utility GT offers, with an engaging story line and fun, sometimes skin of the teeth, battles- is what makes the 'game' worth playing.

The other side of the coin is that this IS a computer game. How long do you usually wait before you know your attack hit the enemy? How long does it take a computer to record and adjust your enemy's hit points and status effects? For a true computer game, this is all instantaneous. But we're dealing with a hybrid here, a computer game run by a human. Instead of the time-is-not-an-object pace of live D&D, there's a gas-brake-gas-brake feel as control of the game is traded between human and machine. For every instantaneous dice macro roll the computer makes at your request, there is several seconds of delay while the DM calculates, or tags are changed.

Maybe it's an aquired taste. For it's multiplayeriness and customizability it's better than alot of games out there. Players are also allowed to draw embellishments on the playing field, which is a worthy trick, and the easily designed dice macros are neat.

In conclusion, Gametable is like D&D on robo-crutches. Not quite as cool as it sounds though.

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