[Help/Advice] How do I get my friends to get in to roll20.net ?

Hi. I have a bunch of friends that are positive towards roleplaying games, we have played some in the past, but due to time consuming roleplaying days most of them have other commitments to attend, which leads to we not playing. I have tried to get them in to roll20.net for a while, but no one really sees the benefits of it. Some argue that the whole feels is taken away, they really want to play in person. Some say it will be to board-game-like, with maps and squares etc. We will have a test run this sunday, if enough people have the "time" (I've only asked for about 2-3 hours of their sunday). I've taken a demo-mission, just a simple dungeon-crawl kinda thing, and made it simple. Even made pre-made characters to easy the time it takes to run. What I am worried about is that they will not like it and just put it off forever, not seeing the potential as I do with roll20. I haven't made maps, just one for the dungeon, other than that everything else is just a backdrop and perhaps some music that fits, running in the background on low-volume, just to keep it as free as possible. Do any of you have any more advice that could be handy to have before we start to play? If you've had similar experiences etc. Would be most helpful. Cheers

It sounds like you've already done a lot of prep work, but I would say the most important thing you can do is to have as much prepared ahead of time as you possibly can. You don't want them sitting around waiting while you look for a piece of art to drop onto the map, look up some rule or monster stat, or whatever. Keep the action moving so they don't get bored. Try to show off as many of Roll20's features as possible, so they get a sense of what it can do. In the end though, it's up to them if they want to play or not. It's true that face-to-face gaming is preferable, but if that isn't possible for your group then I would think they would realize that Roll20 is the next best option. It's certainly better than no game at all. If they still are not interested after your demo game, then they probably were not that interested in gaming to begin with. You've done everything you can to get them onboard, but you cannot force anyone to play of course.

I'd point your friends towards some positive reviews of Roll20 (I'll link to the one that brought me in) and start dropping ideas about the awesome campaign you're about to run. If you can pitch the game successfully, the media it's run in won't matter as much. The PA Report on Roll20

There are also a lot of recorded game sessions using Roll20 on YouTube, you might look for a good one and send the link to your friends.

Some people play roleplaying games purely for the social interaction which can be diminished in an online game. To me, an online game does have social interaction, but it's not the same as an in-person game. In an online game, you're focused on The Game and those that don't find The Game all that important relative to getting together with one's buddies may not have much interest in an ongoing campaign online. The good news is that there are plenty of people here on Roll20 that are always up for playing, even if your mates are not. And as always, one of my posts wouldn't be complete unless I advised you to take a look at how engaging the games you host really are. If they aren't putting butts in chairs currently despite various commitments, that can be a sign to step up your game. Plenty of people here on Roll20 can offer you advice on that score. It never hurts to take a look under the hood.

If some people in your group are in it for the social interaction, I recommend playing with voice, either through WebRTC (built into Roll20), Skype, Google+ Hangouts, or some other service.

I personally prefer (and use) Ventrilo, primarily for the push-to-talk feature. When everyone is on continual broadcast, there are simply too many distracting background noises to contend with. Vent hosting services are not very expensive, and well worth the cost.