The developers at Wizards of the Coast have been the kings of their
industries - tabletop RPGa and card games - for years. Yet it's no
surprise that the time of many tabletop gamers has come under attack by
digital gaming, specifically massively multiplayer online games. So it
came as no surprise when WotC announced that they were developing a
series of digital programs, collectively dubbed D&D
Insider.  Ten Ton Hammer's Cody "Micajah" Bye has been href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/35179" target="_blank">closely
following the development of D&D Insider, and he
recently
interview Wizard's VP of Digital Gaming, Randy Buehler, to learn about
the status of D&D Insider. Keep on reading to learn more!

Ten Ton
Hammer: Do you
ever plan on introducing intricate animations to the virtual gaming
table? It seems like it’d really make for an incredibly
immersive experience if gamers could see their warriors and wizards
move even the smallest amount.



Randy: Our
goal is to replicate the tabletop gaming experience, not to create a
video game. There’s a ton of video games out there (both good
ones and bad ones) but none of them have ever captured the essence of
what makes D&D great: the improvisation and the imagination.
For example, once you start animating the miniatures then will folks
start to limit their actions to those that have been animated?
It’s a slippery slope that we have deliberately chosen to
avoid.

• target="_blank">You can read the entire exclusive
  D&D Insider interview by clicking here!