The advantage of tabletop gaming is that it removes those pesky invisible walls that are always present in video games.
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I’ve made no secret that I love playing video games. they excite me. They give me an opportunity to think about the world. Sometimes they help me bond with my son. These things are a big part of who I am, but here’s a secret. I love playing video games, but most of the time I prefer playing D&D.
Of course, there’s a lot of crossover between video games and tabletop games, especially things like RPGs. There are even some video games based on tabletop games, such as the incredible (and potentially heartbreaking) Baldur’s Gate 3. I started playing video games in the late ’80s when I stumbled upon a shiny gold Zelda cartridge in my stepfather’s collection. Video games have been a big part of me ever since.
But let’s be honest: there’s very little that a video game can do that a good tabletop group can’t do. A game like D&D can offer all the drama and action of a video game without the sense that the world is limited by invisible walls and what the developer team thought was a reasonable solution when they designed the game for a broad audience, rather than a specific group of friends with their own sense of humor and tastes. A good DM can adjust (or abandon) plans depending on whatever bold solutions the players come up with in a way that video games can’t.
The closest I come to this particular sentiment is Baldur’s Gate 3. This not only encourages players to take multiple different routes to the final battle, but also actively rewards players who try to break through the game in creative ways. But even here, the game’s design feels limited and rigid. The feeling of getting through a battle in a creative way isn’t because your friend across the table rewards you for doing something unexpected, it’s because you found a loophole in the way the game was coded.
Compare that to some of the things I’ve experienced around the table. As a DM, I’ve watched in awe as players burn down cities they expected to spend several sessions doing side quests in a vicious fury. As players were losing interest, we adjusted the plot and sped up the final stages of the campaign. I incorporated the player’s historically bad dice rolls into the plot, and explained that the player was cursed by the God of Luck, so each failure was someone else’s fault. You can’t do that as a video game designer. Because we can’t make such fundamental changes to the game after it ships.
This isn’t a “look how good a DM I am” story, but a story about how a good gaming group improves the experience. After years of playing tabletop games, I’ve come to believe that there’s no puzzle, riddle, or combat encounter that a group of craziest friends I’ve ever met can’t overcome by making things up on the fly.
Video games are a part of who I am and have been for as long as I can remember. They are there when I want to experience the stories others want to tell. But what if you want to tell a story but don’t feel like writing an entire novel about it? At times like that, I gather my friends and play games. This is collaborative storytelling that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the gaming world. There’s no substitute for great gaming groups and the endless stories they can tell.
The gaming industry has come a long way since Pong blew our minds in the ’70s. We’ve got everything you need to know about the next big thing in gaming. Of course, Grand Theft Auto VI will be the big game of 2026, but there are plenty of other games coming between now and then. Here’s a starter guide for all gamers.
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