I'd love to, but given that anything I could point him toward would result in a google/wikipedia search makes this unlikely.
LOL, no doubt. Your boyfriend sounds like one of my high school students (ha ha).
Seriously though, I love Google and Wikipedia but not as The Source of All Knowledge. I tell my students that they can (and even should) use Wikipedia, but think of it more as a gateway to other sources, not as the final destination. But Wikipedia is actually a rather legit encyclopedia these days, but like a book encyclopedia from my era, it only skims the surface.
I didn't say "it" was. I was saying there is a distinct difference in cultural "now" and expectation than there was when we started.
No doubt, I hear you.
Oh, absolutely! you want to get started on the the whole "I'm OCD! I'm ADHD!" nonsense. Guess what? The entire world existed for centuries and centuries, millenia even, without you losing focus...and you didn't 30 years ago! SWACK! "PAY ATTENTION!" No medication needed. I doubt I could write much more without jeopardizing the whole "no talking about modern world/events" thing.
Yeah, I hear that - but its actually very relevant to the discussion at hand, because we're talking about the way technology and media impacts imagination, which is the primary apparatus in D&D.
At the school I work at we're at a bit of a loss with how to navigate this domain. Some of the old guard would be happy with making it a technology-free campus (its a very small private school), while "moderates" such as myself would like to utilize the technology to
augment learning and imagination, not replace it.
The key, in my opinion, is balance. What we see now is "too much of a good thing" and, like you say later on, its only going to get more extreme.
Tell the designers that think computer games are the "kewlest thing evar!" They don't want to believe us.
Yeah, I know. I really see computer games and tabletop RPGs as being opposite poles on a spectrum, so it irks me when designers want to "computerize" the tabletop experience. Again, I'm not opposed to
augmentation - like monster builder or MasterPlan, that sort of thing. But when it starts veering into everyone having a tablet in front of them with a virtual battlegrid...
My point exactly. 5e can not win! It can't satisfy the "us" of 30 years ago and the "them" of the late 90's+ . WotC must pick ONE and aim for that. THEN, maybe then, it can succeed.
And my view is that it should look to satisfy "us" first and foremost, and build from that. Its like trying to serve too many masters. Or trying to pretend you're something that you're not. It doesn't work. Be what you are - and for D&D, that means a game of imagination, of theater-of-mind.
I'm not opposed to "D&D: the MMORG" or "Warmaster: the D&D battle game." All that could be lots of fun. But I'd like to keep tabletop D&D "untainted," so to speak, at least at its core.
Ayup! Again, no argument here. but, I suppose, part of my point is, does the generation who grew up on video games HAVE the capacity to notice or appreciate that anymore? I certainly HOPE so. But I cannot say.
In my experience with my students, yes - definitely so. I'd even say that they're hungry for it, in a way that you or I might be hungry for a good fantasy novel after weeks of just watching movies. There's something about going inward, about generating imagination, that is so much more deeply satisfying.
But it is more difficult to get there. It is so much easier to turn on the tube, fire up the laptop, or grab the iPhone instead of facing the empty spaciousness of now...but the thing is, that is where true creativity comes from.
I think the great Louis CK said it really well here.
I certainly share this hope, but I am afraid that worldly concerns will win out.
I agree, at least for the foreseeable future and/or the majority. But I also think that more and more people will want to "wake up" from the virtual dream and re-embrace the real. The movie Logan's Run comes to mind.
It will be, Mercurius. It will be until "we" all die off. "We" will create new OSR games. "We" will instruct others in the "way it was." "We" will be on forums stating the "yay" or "naye" of D&D 17.5 After that...gods help D&D and the rpg industry. But rest assured, it shall outlive us both.
Yeah, I think so. My feeling is that the form of RPGs has so much potential that has been untapped, and that it could actually be a positive cultural and educational force. For instance, I incorporate world building into classes - even have had an elective course on it, which the students love.
My apologies to you [and everyone reading this] if I rambled at all. The vino is kicking in. It's practically Spain where I live...there's no such thing as an empty glass. lol. I hope I've been equally eloquent and not at all offensive to anyone. ;P
Its been fun! Nice saying, by the way. I saw you're in Andorra. Are you Andorran? You "sound" American. If so, why Andorra?
