Moderator: Do you think that there will ever be a substitute for face-to-face, pen and paper role-playing?

Dan Ogles: Not until we successfully get artificial intelligence that can compete with the human brain. And that won't be anytime soon.

Pete MacDonald: I hope not. Like my daddy always said: "If it ain't broke don't substitute it with ... something else ... not broken." But I do I hope online gaming will replace sitcoms and reality shows.

Dave Eckelberry: All depends on your definition of substitute. For me, nothing will take the place of sitting down with friends face-to-face, killing a dragon, and eating a pizza. On the other hand, there are more people playing online fantasy games right now than playing pen and paper RPGs.

Ed Stark: Substitute? No. Complement? Yes. I think that technology will continue to advance so that player and DM interaction through a computer will become easier and more dynamic until people who can't play in the same room can share almost the same experience over the Internet. We aren't there yet -- we still need to rely on the computer's intelligence and preprogrammed responses to run our games quickly -- but I think we're taking steps in that direction. I'd like to see a game experience where the computer does all the "hard" or "slow" stuff for the DM and the DM and the players are left having all the fun.