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I enjoy on-line games, and have played more than my share of them. From Everquests to World of Warcraft and Warhammer on-line and they are fun, but no matter how much I have enjoyed them I have never once felt any desire to turn down a chance to play a tabletop game in order to play on-line.

The most basic reason for t his is that I enjoy hanging out with my friends more than with the people on-line, even when those people on-line are my friends. I can see their faces, drink their mountain dew and carry on the strange eccentric conversations that just don't work the same over headphones, but that alone doesn't make tabletop games better, it only makes them my preference.

This leads to the major flaws of on-line games. These may be someday changed but until they are fixed online games will always be second best.

First is flexibility. No matter how good an on-line game might be it isn't even close to allowing me to try the odd things that I love to throw out in video games. I want to jump on the table and kick the beer into his face just doesn't translate well to World of Warcraft. (To be fair it really didn't work all that well in the game either but that's another story). Humans can deal with my desires and tastes changing,with the attempts to do things that no sane person would have thought of because they are flexible while all the computer can do is let you chose which predetermined path you want to walk down, and even then those paths are often the same no matter how much you try to get off them.

Second is adjustably. Similar to flexibility in many ways but in this case I am referring to the ability to adjust the rules to fit my style. If you're playing a tabletop game and you decide that you don't like attacks of opportunity they way they work you can change the rule or ignore it in an on-line game you are bound by the fact that there are ten thousand other people who will abuse the change in the rule.

Third, magnitude. No matter how much the games want it to feel otherwise your character in a MMOLG will not change the world. Become the level 70 demigod, Jedi, warlord, master of time and space and you still won't be able to stop the level one tyrant who is attacking the village. This is completely reasonable and completely frustrating. I want to have an effect in the world but on-line you can't allow that and even when they attempt to allow it, the truth is that it's so regulated that it doesn't really do anything.

Forth, individuality. Perhaps it is out there

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