On Thu, 15 Dec 2005, Karen J. Cravens wrote: > Well, sort of anyhow. I don't regularly follow any Forge discussions (I > don't speak, as ChadU puts it, their "crazy moon language") but I follow I don't follow the Forge itself (can't keep up with web boards), though I read several of the designers' blogs and have read a few of the games. The only one I've actually played is _Dogs in the Vineyard_ and I don't get why "everybody" thinks its mechanics are such hot stuff. There are some others I'm interested in playing. I have read some of Ron Edwards' theory essays, but they're tough stuff to wade through. The fact that he hijacks some of the Trifold model terms and uses them to mean something else (he uses Simulationism to mean Immersion, and Gamism to mean Simulationism, more or less) doesn't help. > That said, I have to agree with the post on 20x20 Room > (http://www.20by20room.com/2005/12/qien_es_mas_mac.html), which > observed that the more egregious "if you don't play my way, you're > doing it wrong" sorts of posturing is, well, mostly just macho > posturing. That article is missing, btw. So's another recent one. I've really started seeing a lot of this in some of the blogs I read. Many of the Forge indie authors think they've discovered not just _a_ new thing, but _the_ big new thing. Some of them go so far as to imply that the majority of gamers are dysfunctional. The big thing I'm starting to see is that some of the indie game designers are trying to fix broken _social interaction among the *players*_. And that's where they're starting to go off in a direction that doesn't interest me at all, trying to fix social problems with game rules. "Bankuei" (in his blog) is really big into this... he says 95% of roleplayers aren't having any fun, but keep going through the motions in the hope that it gets better. > I imagine a lot of it is what I tend to do when I'm brainstorming: Not from what I'm reading. They've been working on GNS theory for at least a couple years now. > And don't even get me started on "if you change anything, you > shouldn't be playing this game." Yeesh. The Greek tragedians > called, and they want their hubris back... The thing going wasn't just "this game" but "any game." That you should be playing _every_ game exactly as written, or that game isn't right for you. Which I think is BS, because no game is a perfect fit for any group of people. Even game _authors_ don't always play their games exactly as written. -- Carl D Cravens (raven@phoenyx.net) Gamers List Owner [ My Roleplaying Blog -- http://raven.phoenyx.net/mutterings/ ] If this were an actual tagline, it would be funny. ---------------------------------------------------------------- GAMERS Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/
