What does Videogamey mean to you?

[Garthanos]

But i thought the one button mash "I hit it with my sword" was very videogamey.. And having too much fluff I dont feel free to change or cant because its embeded in the magic system like Amnesiac wizards.
Next to no choices of character archetypes and arbitrary limits (My priest of Odin couldnt use a Spear nor could my Gandalf look alike use a sword....
And it was for the holy grail of balance.

Imagine free imagination games existed in plethora since day one.

Videogamy is an awesome troll weapon hits anything and everything.

 

[Jhaelen]

It is an attempt to make sure that what's at stake in the conversation isn't lost.​

There's something 'at stake' in this conversation?

What would that be?

When I first read the word 'videogamey' on these boards, I thought it was supposed to be equivalent in meaning to 'reminicent of video games'. It didn't take me long to realize, though, it also seemed to carry a negative connotation.

For me the word is a bit problematic because there are all kinds of video games and I cannot really think of anything every single video game has in common (other than requiring a computer/game console to run). So it isn't really descriptive of anything particular.

More recently, when the word is used, there doesn't seem to be any connection to its origin any more (video games). Apparently it's simply used to describe something the poster doesn't like, i.e. a pejorative.

 

[Raven Crowking]

A little more seriously - the attempt to avoid the term videogame is not to limit the abilities to communicate, but to improve them.

As I said upthread, if this is true, show me the posters who both (1) believe the intent of the term is accurate, and (2) think that a more suitable term is needed.

Instead, we have people who dislike the intent, claiming that the term has no meaning.

------------

"This 'videogamey' term has too much vagueness and useless shades of meaning. You don't grasp the beauty of simply writing several paragraphs of text to explain what you mean each time you use it....or just using a term with different meaning or connotations."

The other poster responded with a smiley emoticon, which would be taken sympathetically he hoped, not trusting himself to speak.

The first poster posted again.

"Don't you see that the whole aim of this thread is to improve the range of communication? In the end no one will be offended by your opinion of the game, because there will be no words in which to express it."


RC

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

As I said upthread, if this is true, show me the posters who both (1) believe the intent of the term is accurate, and (2) think that a more suitable term is needed.

That sounds a little black-and-whitey for me.

In some cases - I dare say too many - the intent is bad. It is an attempt to insult and enrage people. In that case, the meaning is also clear. It's deragotory, and it doesn't really matter what specifically the poster meant.

There are other cases where the intent is accurate - they want to communicate their dislike. They succeed (typically) at communicating that they dislike something. But they do fail in communicating what they dislike. A more suitable term would be required, or a post elaborating their comparison and linking the elements in videogames they found in the game and disliked.

 

[Raven Crowking]

That sounds a little black-and-whitey for me.

And a bit too empty-setty as well?

 

[Garthanos]

As I said upthread, if this is true, show me the posters who both (1) believe the intent of the term is accurate, and (2) think that a more suitable term is needed.

Instead, we have people who dislike the intent, claiming that the term has no meaning.


RC

Which intent ... name one first... careful now... you dont want to create the meaning with your auxiliary statements.

The meaning is too broad ... not non-existant.

It isnt about no meaning its too many meanings I play 4e and WoW and the similarities are incredible if your DM is poor both can be mindless but the video game has pretty pictures ... I played some video games back in the day which were also similar to D&D (less so because they couldnt be more like it.. not because the D&D was uber different than now..) again if the DM was poor D&D played a lot like a videogame with cardbooard characters and warriors doing there one button mash.

RPG Videogames have borrowed from and developed along side D&D to a degree there isnt any version I cannot hate because it is too videogamey
if hating is my intent.

 

[Raven Crowking]

@ Garthanos:

Upthread, I pointed out that "D&D" is at least as vague a term as "videogamey". Is D&D a useless term?

Upthread, didn't you suggest that the hit-swingy-ness of 1e was videogamey? Did anyone contradict you, claim that your meaning was too broad, or claim that the term had no meaning? Would you care to speculate why no one felt insulted that you called 1e videogamey, although apparently calling 4e videogaming is insulting?

Upthread, I also agreed (and I do not think that I was alone in so stating) that earlier editions also have videogamey elements. These elements may have originated in the pnp games, but by their adoption in video games, they have become reminiscent of video games. There's something cyclic about this trend, isn't there?

Or take something like "It is an attempt to insult and enrage people. In that case, the meaning is also clear. It's deragotory, and it doesn't really matter what specifically the poster meant." and parse it out:

* The clear meaning is that the poster doesn't like the elements described as videogamey.

* The reason for the poster to have post clear meaning is to "insult and enrage people".

* Therefore, "it doesn't really matter what specifically the poster meant".

Conversely, imagine,

* The clear meaning is that the poster doesn't like the elements described as videogamey.

* The reason for the poster to have post clear meaning is because he feels insulted by the inclusion of the element.

* Therefore, it matters what specifically the poster meant, as the poster might, upon reflection, decide that the element is not as insulting as he supposed.

Or, contrast again to

* The clear meaning is that the poster doesn't like the elements described as videogamey.

* The reason for the poster to have post clear meaning is because he feels isolated in his opinion and hopes to learn that others share it.

Again, it is the perception that the poster has a negative opinion that is the crux of the matter. And, again, the proposed solution is that he not express that negative opinion. Effectively, "You can share any opinion you like, so long as we agree with them."


RC

 

[Garthanos]

@ Garthanos:

Upthread, I pointed out that "D&D" is at least as vague a term as "videogamey". Is D&D a useless term?

Upthread, didn't you suggest that the hit-swingy-ness of 1e was videogamey? Did anyone contradict you, claim that your meaning was too broad, or claim that the term had no meaning? Would you care to speculate why no one felt insulted that you called 1e videogamey, although apparently calling 4e videogaming is insulting?

I actually gave it relatively specified meaning - I didnt just let it stand - and pretend people would just mystically know what I meant... hell this is all figurative... I dont think most people inclined to use it are just going to just let it drop they want to do something with that verbal tool... fish for like minded folk to commiserate with or bait for people to use as adversaries in debate
which may or maynot be pointless.

Well if you want to enrage ... dont post clear meaning... you can better figure out what the target likes or dislikes if you can get them guessing.

The vague unclearness also works for somebody wanting to find like minds who isnt really picky about them being "really" like minds... just wanting to wave the same flag.

 

[ST]

'Videogamey' simply puts a convenient face on it, as they lump in the idea that video games spoonfeed content to children who can't handle reading rules and making the effort to spend nights in the library looking up coin weights from the fifteenth century because God knows D&D's coin weights are just completely out of whack.

Agree totally. Well, that, and you can say "4e is videogamey" in places where saying "If you enjoy 4e you're INSERT INSULTING TERM HERE" would get you banned.

The issue never fails to amuse me because I remember Neverwinter Nights campaigns and persistent worlds where players painstakingly balanced encumbrance and made sure they had enough trail rations and water to last for a trip. The painful cliche of spending an hour equipping in town before the adventure started was treasured, even played up, to prevent the experience from being "videogamey". In a videogame.

It's also amusing because it shows a lack of knowledge about modern video games. I've been in campaigns that had nearly as detailed a backstory as the Mass Effect series, and I've played in games where the characterization was as dynamic and interesting, but I've never played a tabletop game that combined the two so effectively and with such depth.

 

[Beginning of the End]

The fact is most bulk rules RPGs, ones where the players are expected to collect massive amounts of rules and try and remember all of them simply to play, are videogamey to me. More precisely, an RPG is videogamey when I as a player have all the rules I am attempting to discover behind the screen instead out in front and in my face. I don't want to be thinking about rules, I want to be attempting to uncover them and their consequences throughout play. I prefer note taking and mapping to mass rules memorization as a player. Games that put the hidden rules in my face remove the magic from the game for me and all too often turn into games of rules lawyering in my experience.

This definition seems really weird to me. In virtually every video game, the actual rules are far more obfuscated than they are in any tabletop game.

I find the term "videogamey" to be largely meaningless because video games are a pretty varied lot. I do think it may have some limited meaning when applied to GMs (rather than systems).

When applied to a style of GMing, "videogamey" means that the GM has predesigned the "correct" path through the adventure and will not allow deviations from his predesigned scenario (or, in rare instances, scenarios). (It would be just as accurate to describe this as a "Choose Your Own Adventure novel".)

If it is applied to systems, I think my default is to think of it as an amalgam of: (a) dissociated mechanics that you manipulate because you want to manipulate the mechanics, and not because you're trying to accurately model a world; (b) a fetishization of balance usually correlated with an obsession with mechanical "builds"; and/or (c) a design aesthetic similar to either World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy.