Tabletopocalypse Now - GMS' thoughts about the decline in the hobby

[Dannyalcatraz]

"Chess sprung from nowhere in the beginning of the 7th century AD in Sassanian Persia. "

Are you suggesting that this statement is incorrect?

I'm saying it's incomplete, and that the rest of the page- IOW, that statement's contex- clarifies it and refines it so that we see the statement you quote is referring to chess' roots, not chess as it is played today.

Honestly.

You could find a statement of similar construction regarding the origins of man and evolution, but in no way would the author intend the reader to infer that the humans running around today, reading his book, are australopithicenes.

 

[Lanefan]

Send the McPlayers into the McDungeon to kill the McOrcs and McGoblins, while slaying the McDragon and stealing all its McLoot.

While searching for the McMcGuffin?

McLanefan

 

[Summer-Knight925]

are they dying? yes

does that mean they cant be saved? no

it can be done, what is needed is a wider....range of ideas perhaps?

I could ask for a genre and you could tell me everything within, say steam-punk....of those that know what it is, they love it, who wouldnt?

same with D&D, warhammer, ect. ect.
its all about the social idea of it all
when someone who plays halo all day is called names, staying up all night with friends eating junk food and, as a minor foot note, slaying a dragon, it brings fear, and fear is bad

I am in no way saying any table top gamer is a coward, infact you are braver than most people who are "to afraid to play"...i know people like that
im fine with who I am, so what if I spent homecoming night in undermountain? frankly, I dont care, I perfer to have choices, if skipping out on being stuck in a dark room with lots of people I see everyday and listen to music that makes me want to take a cheese grater to my face is "uncool" then fine...anyone who thinks that is lame

D&D and games like that ARE SO COOL! like...they created "cool" as cool back when, not sure about that so dont quote me (someone is going to, I know) and the fact there are 11 pages of people talking about this, thats reason enough to know that it is not...just the market is hidden and everyone has their fingers in it...how many games are fantasy tabletop games? and scifi or other genres, but true Tolkien fantasy? lots

more than you could name, games have been around and will be around, as technology advances, people will begin to see that the future is gloomy, light by computer screens...and then the escape will be tabletop games, mark my words (not really) the age of the table top is not dying! not yet! it will take all of humanity being wiped out by demons, aliens, an astroid, nuclear war, the creation a super disease, zombies, or unearthing dragons (reign of fire FTW) and even then, im pretty sure all of the said sentient beings play games, its just the awsome thing to do

 

[Chaos Disciple]

I'm saying it's incomplete, and that the rest of the page- IOW, that statement's contex- clarifies it and refines it so that we see the statement you quote is referring to chess' roots, not chess as it is played today.

Honestly.

You could find a statement of similar construction regarding the origins of man and evolution, but in no way would the author intend the reader to infer that the humans running around today, reading his book, are australopithicenes.

Actually the page says absolutly nothing about "roots".

In fact the titile of the page clearly states these games are "the oldest Chess" as in, the very begining of the game "Chess".

I agree that the modern chess is slightly different, but even the oldest versions of the game (llike those from the 7th centry) are still often referred to by the name chess.

 

[Ghostwind]

But I assumed you really had something when you dropped that bomb about them inflating their numbers.

How about the fact that I am retailer and the fact that on several industry forums for retailers we've had multiple discussions on this very subject and common consensus is "Screw that! I'm not giving anyone accurate sales data about my store."

Beyond that, you'll just have to take my word.

 

[Dire Bare]

Could we drop the cyclic arguments about Chess please? Or at least fork it?

Sheesh.

 

[pawsplay]

Could we drop the cyclic arguments about Chess please? Or at least fork it?

Sheesh.

You're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Yeah, I'm done with him- he's impervious.

 

[Beginning of the End]

Putting words in your mouth?? go read post #188 in this thread.

Okay. I see me saying that Chess is (a) 1000 years old; (b) printed in books; and (c) gets changed every year. I said absolutely nothing about 1000+ year old books about Chess.

Then post a link to the over one thousand books (one for each year) you claimed exist.

That's yet another claim I never made. But conveniently the link I posted in post #212 already cites 15,000+ Chess books, so I didn't even need to do any fresh googling for this one. Are you just not bothering to follow these links we're posting?

Makes sense, I suppose. We already know you don't bother reading the links you're posting.

And just so you know im not the only one who believes chess is more than 1000 years old.

Chatrang

Case in point. In your dual claims that (a) the game of Chess as it is played today originated 2000+ years ago and (b) that Chess is a game without any variants, you have linked to a site that (a) confirms that the modern rules of Chess are only 600 years old (and weren't finalized until roughly 100 years ago) and (b) features a couple dozen variants.

I mean, that entire section of the site you've linked to is dedicated to tracing the complicated history of how the rules of Chess have changed. Linking to it in an effort to claim that the rules of Chess have never changed is bizarre. It's like a Flat Earther linking to NASA's website and saying, "There? You see? The Earth is totally flat."

Yeah, I'm done with him- he's impervious.

Ditto.

 

[prosfilaes]

Because I read the first page and a half and no one brought it up, and I didn't want to search through posts on chess to see if it was ever brought up? But if you want to link to a couple of highly relevant posts from the middle pages, feel free.

Right now, Amazon.com Bestsellers: The most popular items in Fantasy Gaming has the Gamma World RPG at #1* and the Pathfinder RPG Core book at #2. Followed by 5 D&D Essentials books, the Pathfinder APG and Warhammer 40K Deathwatch. So, no, we aren't justified in dismissing out of hand the concept that Pathfinder is selling as well as D&D.

* All numbers adjusted for the fact that three poorly categorized generic fantasy books are on top.