Yes.. but oddly enough this is almost exactly what is happening to the gaming group in Alex' school, which was a warhammer/magic orientated group and is now, for purely admin reasons, merging with a newer video-gaming 'club' as a survival strategy.
I wonder if this reflects a change in the nature of gaming and game playing - when we were in college, old fashioned round the table gaming was great fun, and no one could ever imagine anything on a computer that could ever that fun, and flexible and imaginative and free-wheeling. Back in the 90s, if you typed "I kill Gandalf and steal the Ring" your PC would have said "YOU CANNOT PERFORM THAT ACTION AT THIS TIME" but now, hey, you could try it, and try it with really fancy graphics. Now, you can create entire new worlds in Neverwinter Nights or Oblivion, and I'm sure we'll see a day when there is a FOSS equivalent of WoW. There is indeed some competition out there, and some old gaming may well fall to it, but I imagine that once people get tired of mobs moving back and forth along pre-programmed lines, they'll want some real GMs. I'm wandering on a bit - I better go and make this a blog post. However I do have a question - how many of you on the list know teenage gamers who actually have the mental application to play a full RPG session, never mind a campaign, with, like plot arcs and character development? I have had some interaction with that age group, and I have a feeling that sit-round-the-table gaming will take a hammering from the console kids? You know - the way Magic killed DnD? (old fogey grin!) Mike -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Nisbet Sent: 06 March 2008 10:11 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [irish gaming] STOCs may be disappearing... There has been discussion of this elsewhere and it really does seem like there's no level upon which this is a good decision. STOCS is small and quiet these days, sure, it's been small and quiet before, but merging it with a larger society that doesn't really care about the primary aim is a bad idea. If STOCS is just left idle for a little while then someone will come along in a couple of years (as Adam Kelly, Shane Wishkah, Glen Moran et al did in the late 90s) and get involved. If it merges with the Games Soc, that's it. It will be incredibly difficult to ever have another STOCS and it will linger on as a minority interest, getting a sliver of the budget. In the first year, sure, the powers that be in DCU may remember that Games Soc was once two societies, but that memory will fade. I have spoken out here before about the need for change as regards Sillicon and STOCS, but it's the need for change, not the need to disappear. Societies have quiet periods, they aren't necessarily a bad thing, but quiet periods are a much better idea than extinction. B. On 06/03/2008, R4ph <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Can't say I'm surprised, they had really poor membership this year, but it's > a shame nonetheless. I know they had to cancel Sillicon this year, and it's > possible they won;t run it if they;re merged with the Game Soc, since the > stuff they did will probably only be a small part of what Gamesoc do > afterwards. > > On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 9:24 AM, Mark Cunningham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > I'm afraid I don't have a link for it but STOCs, DCU's oldest running > > society and only gaming and roleplaying society may be merging (or > > rather being submerged) by DCU's Game Soc (predominately computer > > games) due to lack of membership. I have no idea of the fate of their > > annual convention Sillicon. > > -- > > http://thedeadone.net > > http://irishgamingwiki.com > > > > > > > > > -- > Aonghus Collins > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links
