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A GMing telling the players about the gameworld is not like real life
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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 7557610" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>I've just read the lead post so I have no idea what the following 3 pages says, but the lead post made me think of something.</p><p></p><p>Ouija is basically a game whereby participants fake lack of volition and create a narrative about a spirit. A question is asked (not unlike "are there members of sect x at the teahouse?"), the planchette moves around the board (a form of mechanical resolution via the agency of one of the players who secretly takes the initiative) and answers the question. Another question is asked, mood is set, rinse-repeat, and at the end you get a story.</p><p></p><p>In TTRPGs, just like in Ouija, there is no paranormal volition. There is merely the volition of participants at the table (and perhaps some math). </p><p></p><p>The illusion of lack of (material) worldly volition is just that; illusion. The illusion of causal processes underpinning the outputs, which are discrete from a singular participant/the collective/or from mathematical output is just that; illusion.</p><p></p><p>The illusory process of content creation may engender a neat feeling within the participants of "paranormal-ey-ness" or "immersive-ey-ness"...but its just an illusion. Someone is expressing agency over content introduction. There is no disembodied will providing the necessary energy for play to persist.</p><p></p><p>Because a shared imagined space isn't a real thing (a computer game's setting isn't a shared imagined space...its a real space, with encoded boundaries, parameterized to some degree of resolution or another to persist and interact "physically" with inhabitants), and because for the purposes of TTRPGs humans can't parameterize a shared space at anything remotely nearing the resolution of the physical world (without encoding it...and even then we aren't even close currently...or at least nothing brought to market), we're going to have to have questions answered that are without prior parameterization or consideration. When we do that, something/someone (content introduction procedure/table participant) mediates and the agency of that thing/person is expressed. We feel one way or another about this (immersed, empowered, disempowered, regretful, bored, excited, disgruntled, anticipatory, etc). Rinse and repeat and the shared imaginary space develops.</p><p></p><p>One person at the table may "feel" that they had a paranormal experience or an immersive experience while another may feel silly or disgruntled...but fundamentally, the machinery of output is the same; someone (be it a participant at the table or the designer) is guiding the planchette through their personal volition (unlike actual life where many concrete, established causal forces and varying wills are integrated on multiple timescales).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 7557610, member: 6696971"] I've just read the lead post so I have no idea what the following 3 pages says, but the lead post made me think of something. Ouija is basically a game whereby participants fake lack of volition and create a narrative about a spirit. A question is asked (not unlike "are there members of sect x at the teahouse?"), the planchette moves around the board (a form of mechanical resolution via the agency of one of the players who secretly takes the initiative) and answers the question. Another question is asked, mood is set, rinse-repeat, and at the end you get a story. In TTRPGs, just like in Ouija, there is no paranormal volition. There is merely the volition of participants at the table (and perhaps some math). The illusion of lack of (material) worldly volition is just that; illusion. The illusion of causal processes underpinning the outputs, which are discrete from a singular participant/the collective/or from mathematical output is just that; illusion. The illusory process of content creation may engender a neat feeling within the participants of "paranormal-ey-ness" or "immersive-ey-ness"...but its just an illusion. Someone is expressing agency over content introduction. There is no disembodied will providing the necessary energy for play to persist. Because a shared imagined space isn't a real thing (a computer game's setting isn't a shared imagined space...its a real space, with encoded boundaries, parameterized to some degree of resolution or another to persist and interact "physically" with inhabitants), and because for the purposes of TTRPGs humans can't parameterize a shared space at anything remotely nearing the resolution of the physical world (without encoding it...and even then we aren't even close currently...or at least nothing brought to market), we're going to have to have questions answered that are without prior parameterization or consideration. When we do that, something/someone (content introduction procedure/table participant) mediates and the agency of that thing/person is expressed. We feel one way or another about this (immersed, empowered, disempowered, regretful, bored, excited, disgruntled, anticipatory, etc). Rinse and repeat and the shared imaginary space develops. One person at the table may "feel" that they had a paranormal experience or an immersive experience while another may feel silly or disgruntled...but fundamentally, the machinery of output is the same; someone (be it a participant at the table or the designer) is guiding the planchette through their personal volition (unlike actual life where many concrete, established causal forces and varying wills are integrated on multiple timescales). [/QUOTE]
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