Sometimes I worry that the real ideological divide on this and so many other similar issues is this:
- one side believes that people will utilize this tool in good faith in order to communicate the kinds of scenarios that would likely aggravate past trauma;
- the other side believes that people will utilize this tool in bad faith in order to manipulate and dominate a game so nobody gets to have any fun.
Whereas the reality is... yes. Maybe personal experience is coloring whether we see one or the other scenario is more or less likely. My own take is that the latter don't need a tool to accomplish what they set out to do (that is, ruin your game) whereas the former very often do. Maybe not this tool in specific, but other tools (session zero, Same Page Tool, etc.) that often work out to the same effect. I would say that this tool is a lot more nuanced than many of its critics seem to be willing to give it credit for, and at the same time not quite nuanced enough to be completely immune from said criticism.
There's another issue that came up as I was typing this that kind of bears a brief discussion, however:
Ultimately this is all academic as I have never encountered this kind of situation in 30+ years of gaming.
A very important point oft overlooked in this discussion I think.
This is exactly why I get frustrated to the point of breaking down and FAKE YELLING at people in CAPS LOCK (though to be honest, it's really difficult to maintain that level of emotional distress when you aren't allowed to curse). For a lot of people, particular those on the more
critical side of efforts such as these, this kind of debate really is strictly academic or philosophical. For
others of us, this is our lived experience, and we've had to deal with and try to learn what things work and don't work for a very long time. And it gets really, really, frustrating when those of us in the latter audience have our experiences dismissed by those in the former.
Consider that maybe, just maybe, if this conversation is purely academic for you, that you might actually have something to learn from people with actual practical experience in the subject.