[Non-Americans] Are the stereotypes true?

[der_kluge]

I was going to put this all into one thread, but decided the discussion would get too clumsy. So I split it out into two.

In my "Is 3rd edition too quantitative" thread, I reference these two posts:

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1970475&postcount=9
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1971784&postcount=18

One from Gez (France), and another from Firelance (Singapore)

Now, both of these posts are very clever, very "non-rules" oriented approaches to the game which were very creative, and could encourage role-playing and flavor in any campaign.

I have heard, and I'm not trying to say that two posts out of all the posts here are indicative of non-American gamers as a whole, but I have heard that Europeans, specifically, are much more inclined to role-playing and creating flavor atmosphere in their games than American gamers.

In America, so the stereotype claims, American gamers are much more rules oriented, and I've heard tales of how the best American GMs have totally flopped when running games in Europe, because the European gamers were totally disenchanted with the approach.

Has anyone seen any evidence to support this? I'm curious if anyone has ever heard anything like this, or whether I'm alone here.

 

[Seeten]

I imagine as a Canadian, that I am really an American with a different flag, so I'll answer with a caveat: No. I've been in quality flavorful games, and pitiful bad bad flavorless lousy games. I'd say RP in Canada is no different than the US, with good apples and bad ones.

 

[Gez]

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1970475&postcount=9
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showpost.php?p=1971784&postcount=18

One from Gez (France), and another from Firelance (Singapore)

Now, both of these posts are very clever, very "non-rules" oriented approaches to the game which were very creative, and could encourage role-playing and flavor in any campaign.

Dang, now I am blushing.

I have heard that Europeans, specifically, are much more inclined to role-playing and creating flavor atmosphere in their games than American gamers.

I doubt "evidence" could be gathered as roleplaying style are themselves completely subjective and qualitative. However, I've noticed that French game companies (and especially Multisim of Agone and Nephilim fame) tend to publish games with very interesting background and a rich atmosphere, and very clumsy, sometimes so badly written it's painful, rules. Something like d20 or GURPS, on the other hand, is like a well-designed motor. It runs smoothly, without bumps, and rules have a great consistency.

Make of that what you want.

 

[Desdichado]

There are plenty of American companies who do games that way too, though (or at least there have been.) Look at Chaosium or AEG (non d20 stuff) for two good examples, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I've met plenty of Americans who don't play with a rules-oriented approach -- heck, me and my current group are like that.

 

[Zappo]

Personally, my games are very RP-oriented, and they make full use of all 3.5E rules at the same time. I honestly don't see why the two things should be contradictory.

I never quite heard of this stereotype regarding American gamers being more or less rules-oriented than Europeans... from what I see, there are crunch-loving players and fluff-loving players, regardless of nationality.

I am pretty sure that lots of you guys eat horrible junk food at the table, tho'.

 

[MonsterMash]

Or could it even be split to cultural styles

After all the US is still largely a WASP culture which would tie into the North European culture of the UK, Scandinavia and Germany, as opposed to the Latin cultures of France, Spain and Italy.

Personally I do think a lot is to do with specific gaming groups rather than nationality or cutlure.

 

[Anubus]

Anti-americanism is a growing international phenomenon, and I do share many if its sentements, but I'm not going to talk about the causes of that. However I do beleive that statements like american GM's flop when playing European games is a load of crap. While personally I take offense to the statement that Canadian game playing must be like American game playing and that Canada is america with a different flag, being a Canadian myself, I do believe that American story telling is by no means dead. Looking at common media sources such as literature and movies, European story telling usually has more deep meaning, but it is also typically less entertaining to the typical hack and slash oriented DnD player. American story telling is typically more action oriented, not as much as Asian media, but still more so that that of most other nations. The high adventure philosophy, I believe, is the best one for any type of gaming, and while american media does flood the Canadian market, I am by no means ignorant of the media of other nations. So to me the statement that American GM's are more rules oriented, as part of the american media, albeit a small part, all I have to say is that I would have hard time believe that European's make for more entertaining gaming than anyone else. Some Americans are good and others suck, but the same is true globally. This whole discussion is mearly one of national pride, and actually has very little to do with gaming at all, in my humble opinion.

 

[Piratecat]

I suppose this goes without saying, but please keep this thread focused on international differences between roleplaying styles and NOT other national stereotypes/differences. It's a cool topic, and not one we want to close.

For my part, I know gamers from a number of different countries and I've played with thousands of different people in the US (yay, RPGA!) I haven't seen any consistent patterns. I've seen great, creative gamers from England and Australia and elsewhere -- and I've seen lousy ones. I suppose that's typical.

There are some national differences in other areas, though. For instance, Australian gaming cons are run far more free-form than American ones are.

 

[berdoingg]

In the UK over the last 15 or so years I have played with a whole spectrum of gaming groups ranging from the completely free form, through rules lite/roleplaying rewarded systems, to recent 3.5 games that were virtually boards games they were so rules and combat heavy. The group and the DM always set the style, and I imagine this is true the world over.

 

[Goblyns Hoard]

As a brit I have to say that this is probably hogwash

I've seen some games run here where the battlemat is out and the entire game is about positioning the fireball, making the AoOs, planning the movement, with battles lasting 6 or 12 seconds taking an hour to detail.

By contrast I've seen (and run) games where combat is free form, the rules are a vague framework we use to help us resolve certain matters, and in general we conform to your perceived stereotype.

I have to say I have no relevant experience of gaming with Americans so I can't compare but from what I've seen of you Yanks in other situations y'all will have your fair share of all the different types of roleplayers. So I'd say you get role players and roll players where ever you go. I've certainly seen my fair share of Munchkins, Minmaxers and rules lawyers over here, alongside the best roleplayers I've played with.

So I'll say it again - I reckon that stereotype is hogwash.