overgeeked
Open-World Sandbox
You mean the post where you define Simulationism, Gamism, and Story Now? Okay, so either you define Story Now and Narrativism the same, or I'm not seeing your paragraph on Narrativism. Also, the definition of Narrativism has evolved within this thread as different posters have joined the conversation and asked for clarification. So if you could provide an actual up to date definition of Narrativism that would actually be helpful. Preferably one that other supporters of Edwards and GNS theory actually agree with.Post four in the thread (possibly five I account for Iserith's, which I cannot see).
Weird. I'm literally holding the book in my hands. And it definitely shows the receipts. The Elusive Shift. I'm not even half-way through the book. What I've read literally reads like a summary of all RPG forum conversation, including all talk of theory...only they're all quotes from zines and luminaries of the scene back in the '60s and '70s. I guess I could quote from it at length, but then I'd be just copying & pasting the majority of the text, which seems like a bad idea.Except you don't have the receipts.
I'm asking you to define it because you're an advocate for it. I want to give you the opportunity to put the best version forward you possibly can rather than talk about my misunderstanding of what you mean. It's worth noting that over the course of this now 32 page thread other proponents of GNS have come along and disagreed with each other (and you) as to what these terms mean and how to properly use them. So you know, it's not like there's one universal definition to point to...unless you try to decipher Edwards' faltering attempts.The fact that you're asking me to define narrativism suggests you cannot. If you cannot define it, how can you claim that it's always existed and their are receipts.
Pot, kettle.Your argument automatically discards anything that doesn't fit into the conception you currently have.
Quite the opposite. I'd like to hash this all out so we can maybe finally move on to more fruitful conversations about actually new topics. Because, as I said, these exact conversations have been circling the hobby since before it was a unique and separate thing.It's not curious about new ideas, it's saying there are none, and you shouldn't look.
Not at all. It's hostility to the man's offensive words, the pedestal his advocates put him on, and the willful ignorance of history that's required to put him on that pedestal.The ask to define narrativism absent Edwards (which I did more than once in this thread) is indicative of hostility to the idea.
Sorry, no. Sources absolutely matter. Are you taking auto repair advice from a 6-year-old or a car mechanic who's got 20 years on the job?If the idea has merit, it's source shouldn't matter.
Because it's: 1) framed in a terrible way up to and including calling those who disagree brain damaged; 2) the theory itself is incoherent and ignores large swathes of preferences, and; 3) the same conversations have been going on for decades if not centuries.But even when it's source is elided, you still reject the idea.
Weird. Because it literally does make that argument. It's filled with sources and quotes from people and zine and other publications from the '60s and '70s talking about these exact topics.Yes, go read a fairly expensive book to get to the idea you're proposing. Except, the Elusive Shift doesn't make the argument you're making -- that's it's all come before and that RPGs extend back to the 1700's. It's very clear that it's talking about the creation of a new genre of games with the advent of D&D. Your source is contravening your larger argument!
And really? A gamer recoiling from the cost of a book? Most seem to take the expense as a badge of honor.
I can't even get any two of the people defending GNS and Edwards and the Forge to agree on the definitions of these things. How am I supposed to have a better grasp of it than you lot?No, it hasn't. You cannot explain the theory that came out of the Forge. You cannot steelman an argument for narrativism. You cannot even steelman the arguments for simulationism or gamism. So far, every time I've seen you characterize these ideas they are incorrect. How can you begin to claim that it's all been done before if you can't even articulate what it is?
I never claimed Edwards exact phrasing was precisely repeated decades ago. I said that these conversations (about preferences, game and gamer types, which of simulation/realism, game as game, character, or story should be primary) have been circling the hobby since before it began because they have. Along with immersion, how best to RP a character, what it means to be in character, the authority of the referee, the creative input of the players, etc. It's all decades old conversation. Even the phrase "One True Way" has been with the hobby since 1976.
Thank you. Exactly. Even fans of the Forge, Edwards, and GNS completely disagree about what the theories and jargon even mean. Thank you for clearly making one of my points for me.I'll freely admit that there were pieces of narrativism floating around prior to the Forge. But they weren't brought together and formalized until the Forge. There's nothing talking about this way of playing prior or games that aim to support it. You can bend some older games to do so, but they aren't designed with this concept in mind, they just got there. For all @pemerton's championing of Prince Valiant as a proto-Story Now game, when I read it I see it leaning more towards Trad play and simulationism, and only if you bring a narrativist lens to the interpretation do you get a game that leans that way. It's a post hoc realization -- I do not think that a contemporaneous player would have reached that conclusion, or only a small number might and they'd not have any framework to hang their play upon conceptually.