On Fri, 16 Dec 2005, Carl D Cravens wrote: CDC>I don't follow the Forge itself (can't keep up with web boards), CDC>though I read several of the designers' blogs and have read a few of CDC>the games. The only one I've actually played is _Dogs in the CDC>Vineyard_ and I don't get why "everybody" thinks its mechanics are CDC>such hot stuff. There are some others I'm interested in playing. Dogs' dice mechanic is cool, except that you only roll dice once, but you have to keep mechanicking through the conflict. I like some of his other multi-roll variants better. I kind of like single-roll conflict resolution *if* you can then just play it out without continuously referring to mechanics. CDC>I have read some of Ron Edwards' theory essays, but they're tough CDC>stuff to wade through. The fact that he hijacks some of the Trifold CDC>model terms and uses them to mean something else (he uses CDC>Simulationism to mean Immersion, and Gamism to mean Simulationism, CDC>more or less) doesn't help. Crazy moon languageS, yeah. CDC>> That said, I have to agree with the post on 20x20 Room CDC>> (http://www.20by20room.com/2005/12/qien_es_mas_mac.html), which CDC>> observed that the more egregious "if you don't play my way, you're CDC>> doing it wrong" sorts of posturing is, well, mostly just macho CDC>> posturing. CDC> CDC>That article is missing, btw. So's another recent one. It's a conspiracy. CDC>I've really started seeing a lot of this in some of the blogs I read. CDC>Many of the Forge indie authors think they've discovered not just _a_ CDC>new thing, but _the_ big new thing. Some of them go so far as to CDC>imply that the majority of gamers are dysfunctional. More hubris, yeah. CDC>The big thing I'm starting to see is that some of the indie game CDC>designers are trying to fix broken _social interaction among the CDC>*players*_. And that's where they're starting to go off in a CDC>direction that doesn't interest me at all, trying to fix social CDC>problems with game rules. I don't mind, as I said elsethreadwhere, trying to *practice* better social interaction with game rules, but yeah. CDC>"Bankuei" (in his blog) is really big into this... he says 95% of CDC>roleplayers aren't having any fun, but keep going through the motions CDC>in the hope that it gets better. I don't actually know who this is. CDC>Not from what I'm reading. They've been working on GNS theory for at CDC>least a couple years now. Hey, some people brainstorm faster than others... -- Karen J. Cravens silver@phoenyx.net ---------------------------------------------------------------- GAMERS Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gamers/
