Why do we play?

by Arpad Korossy

Why do we play RPGs? This question was asked in "The Importance of the Individual" by Matt Blackie, and he mentioned a lot of good reasons. Story, character development, music, gameplay, linearity, non-linearity, etc.. But he left one thing out which is very crucial. We also play because of each other.

Ask yourself whether you would be as big of a fan as you are now if you hadn't found out about RPGamer or the GIA or all those other RPG fans out there. Probably not. We enjoy RPGs, even bad ones, because we share that love with thousands, maybe millions of fans across the globe. It is fun to get online, talk with other fans, editorialize, write reviews, draw fan art, write fan fiction, start your own website, and just basically to interact with other fans. I personally would not enjoy RPGs near as much if I didn't know that there were many others like me who felt the same way.

So although, all those elements in the games themeselves are important, one of the factors that is perhaps even more important than the games themselves is the bond that we fans share. Although it took the great storyline and gameplay to get us inerested in the first place, now we keep each other playing RPGs even if they aren't all that great (Robotrek, anyone?). So even if RPGs start going downhill, we've still got each other.