I still think of any game involving pixels as "that new stuff."
Considering that "Twennis for Two", created in 1958, is seen as the first computer game by many, and home gaming hit the mainstream in the 80ies, I'd say it's not so new anymore. ;) Today, you often have already second generations playing together with their parents.
differences between MMORPGs and tabletop RPGs
MMOs are a very specific form of role play games, even among computer games. For example, I started my role play computer gaming with a traditional single player RPG created in the game world of "Das Schwarze Auge", a German tabletop game. After that it was lots of Japanese RPGs where you still have the same mechanics you can find in tabletop games (character stats, dice rolls, decision making etc.) but all runs in the background so the player can focus on the story and character parts. Especially more recent RPGs like the Dragon Age series or Skyrim give the player a lot of agency, in some cases a very open world where the player can do anything, go anywhere, interact in a lot of different ways with the game environment and where their choices have great impact on the outcome of the game. But those are all single player games.
MMOs on the other hand are played online and since there are hundreds of thousands - in some successful games several millions - of people playing together, the game has to focus more on the technical structures than on the plot-related ones. For example, your character can't really be a hero with a unique storyline, because the world is full of heroes just like them. But there is still place for roleplay - only it's between the players, not between a player and an NPC. In World of Warcraft, for instance, I have been part of a serverwide group that tackles more difficult foes together (called "raiding"), and we specifically were looking for roleplayers. Many of us are or were tabletop players as well. We are situated on a RP server, and all of us like to flesh out characters, spend time to develop them and have them interact with others. We had various scenarios the respective "game masters" took great care in preparing, treks into dangerous areas with low level characters, celebrations and parties, secret societies, traders, city guards, religious orders and so on. Some campaigns were coordinated cross-faction, so you could have actual battles with the enemy faction players - battles that differed from usual PvP (player versus player) by giving the others time to role play (for example the preperation to an assault, the setting up of supply lines etc.). We consider ourselves role players. The benefit of doing this within a computer game is a beautiful and detailed environment (cities, castles, villages, nature) free to use, the drawback is that it's done with typing text in the chat box, not via voice chat.
... and I'll stop now. *blush*
tl;dr: To me, any game that enables the participants to assume the role of a character and play it out in some way, is an RPG. Be it a tabletop game, a LARP, a computer game, a communication training in a company, or dressing up with my 5 year old niece to re-enact some fairy tale. I guess, I focus more on the similarities than on the differences of the various flavours. =)
no subject
Considering that "Twennis for Two", created in 1958, is seen as the first computer game by many, and home gaming hit the mainstream in the 80ies, I'd say it's not so new anymore. ;) Today, you often have already second generations playing together with their parents.
differences between MMORPGs and tabletop RPGs
MMOs are a very specific form of role play games, even among computer games. For example, I started my role play computer gaming with a traditional single player RPG created in the game world of "Das Schwarze Auge", a German tabletop game. After that it was lots of Japanese RPGs where you still have the same mechanics you can find in tabletop games (character stats, dice rolls, decision making etc.) but all runs in the background so the player can focus on the story and character parts. Especially more recent RPGs like the Dragon Age series or Skyrim give the player a lot of agency, in some cases a very open world where the player can do anything, go anywhere, interact in a lot of different ways with the game environment and where their choices have great impact on the outcome of the game. But those are all single player games.
MMOs on the other hand are played online and since there are hundreds of thousands - in some successful games several millions - of people playing together, the game has to focus more on the technical structures than on the plot-related ones. For example, your character can't really be a hero with a unique storyline, because the world is full of heroes just like them. But there is still place for roleplay - only it's between the players, not between a player and an NPC.
In World of Warcraft, for instance, I have been part of a serverwide group that tackles more difficult foes together (called "raiding"), and we specifically were looking for roleplayers. Many of us are or were tabletop players as well. We are situated on a RP server, and all of us like to flesh out characters, spend time to develop them and have them interact with others. We had various scenarios the respective "game masters" took great care in preparing, treks into dangerous areas with low level characters, celebrations and parties, secret societies, traders, city guards, religious orders and so on. Some campaigns were coordinated cross-faction, so you could have actual battles with the enemy faction players - battles that differed from usual PvP (player versus player) by giving the others time to role play (for example the preperation to an assault, the setting up of supply lines etc.). We consider ourselves role players.
The benefit of doing this within a computer game is a beautiful and detailed environment (cities, castles, villages, nature) free to use, the drawback is that it's done with typing text in the chat box, not via voice chat.
... and I'll stop now. *blush*
tl;dr: To me, any game that enables the participants to assume the role of a character and play it out in some way, is an RPG. Be it a tabletop game, a LARP, a computer game, a communication training in a company, or dressing up with my 5 year old niece to re-enact some fairy tale. I guess, I focus more on the similarities than on the differences of the various flavours. =)