Your Life As A Gamer: Conventional Play After The Collapse, Part Three

from Imgflip Meme Generator

"Why would I give up on tabletop for videogames?"

Because millions of others already have, and for one reason over the rest: no scheduling issues. As your ability to form and maintain Conventional Play on tabletop dwindles, your resistance to videogame alternatives will fade because it will be either that or nothing at all.

Let's look at your options.

Playing Solo

You are spoiled for choice. Most videogame forms of Conventional Play are single-player games, be it controlling one man or a typical party, and as such there are so very many options out there ranging decades of time. I will list a representative sample of what you can easily find for PC on Steam and GOG.

• Baldur's Gate series
• Divinity: Original Sin and its sequel (the makers did BG3)
• SSI's Gold and Silver Box AD&D games as well as Phantasie and Star Command.
• Fallout 1 and 2.
• Wasteland series
• Wizardry series
• Bard's Tale 1-3
• Final Fantasy series (save for 11 and 14)
• Dragon's Dogma and its about-to-be-released sequel
• Dragon Quest and its sequels
• Darkest Dungeon and its sequel
• XCom and its sequels, variants (Jagged Alliance, Company of Heroes, Xenonauts), etc.
• BattleTech, Shadowrun Returns (and its sequels), etc.

I recommand GOG over Steam because it's easier to download the installs and archive them that way to ensure that it's Buy Once, Cry Once.

If you prefer just one man then you're in the Diablo clone space more often than not (Titan Quest, Grim Dawn, Sacred).

Playing With Others

Yes, this is where the MMOs come in. So many ex-tabletop people now main MMOs. World of Warcraft, despite it all, still dominates (barely) between its Retail and Classic versions- and many others as Private Servers. (Yes, there is WOW OSR.) Others include Final Fantasy 11, Final Fantasy 14, Guild Wars 1 and 2, Runescape (in both its variations), and others.

You can also slot in Helldivers (both 1 and 2), Mechwarrior Online, Monster Hunter World/Rise, multi-player options for brawlers like Castle Crashers and the D&D arcade games, and all things PVP here.

For co-op, you can start with the Original Sin games above as well as Baldur's Gate 3 and branch out from there if you're looking to closely replicate Conventional Play on the tabletop. You also have games like Darktide, Vermintide (and its sequel), Deathwing, Dark & Darker, etc.

Why?

You don't have to worry about scheduling a damned thing. You can come and go as you wish, even in MMOs, as even the worst MMOs are forced to allow for this or it dies.

The rules and mechanics are extensively documented, skill is celebrated, and the cost is now cheaper in videogames (especially if you buy on sale) than tabletop for superior quality and convenience. No wonder why it bodies tabletop and eats its lunch; you get stuck in Wasteland so you go find a video or blog post walkthrough that you can use to unfuck yourself.

And while others are pining for tabletop time, you're actually getting gaming DONE.

And yes, if you want to make your own, videogames have you covered.