Online Gaming

And I don't mean WOW.

I love wow, I think wow is great. I think lots of online RPGs are great. I think most FB games are good, rpg or not really. They do the job of entertaining and allowing us an escape from the more dull parts of our lives. Say what you will about escapes from reality, but they fill a nitch.

I've done TON of RPGs online. From when I moved from OKC to when I moved back essentially ALL my gaming was online. Every scrap of it. There was nobody local to play with. Well, nobody I knew.

Like most things, there are advantages and disadvantages of online gaming.
Advantages:
1. time and location are largely irrelevant. You game from wherever you are whenever you feel like it.
2. The game has a lifetime record from start to finish. Easy to keep notes on.
3. consistency to the story and the depth of that story are usually greater than in live games.

Disadvantages:
1. Because the only reward is the game itself, the social benefits of the live game are lost.
2. Because of the turn-based nature of online games, combat can take a long time. There are ways to bypass this, but those methods remove player control somewhat.
3. The game usually progresses slowly.

I've noticed a few other things that work well for my online gaming.
1. Two players is better than 1 or 3 (or more).
3. More than 3 players is almost always a bad idea.
4. Players who want a greater deal of strategic control over their character usually get tired of the game.
5. PBEM (play by e-mail) works about as well as play-by-post to a forum or group. E-mail has a tendency to be more stable, but people seem to forget to reply or check forums if things get slow.
6. Supplementing PBP/PBEM with play by message seems to be good for the slow points or whenever everyone is online and capable playing.
7. Tracking character sheets is kinda tough, but there are numerous solutions.

I've been thinking of trying an online game using the tools of FB. Make a group for just the GM and 2 players. It has a built in 'group chat' automatically. Character sheets can be kept as notes...but I'm not sure how easy that is to modify.