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I tend to think a game that pretty much demands them is offloading a little too much mechanical weight on the dice (I make that distinction to contrast with games where one particular space is a special character where its only a matter of convenience)

I really do have to question how ongoing PvP approaches to things would work barring "PC Glow". And why I'd bother to keep playing with someone who habitually did this, even if I didn't know about it in-character.

Eh. That's part of a set of terms I think was flawed from the get-go (because of how simulationism was handled) so that's a terminological problem, but its still representing a fundamentally story-shape process. I agree its a largely game-convenient way of doing so, and arguably a refinement...

I also should note that the question of detail and complexity can muddy this discussion; Champions is extremely detailed and definitely on the heavy crunch side, and that's probably one of the reasons its less popular these days. But Mutants and Masterminds, while significantly less detailed...

That, of course, it absolutely is. But in the context of trying to represent the way things work in the extent superhero comics of the time of its initial design (and I don't think they've changed that radically over time). What it doesn't do is consider the expression of characters abilities...

No, its really not, and repeating it doesn't make it true. If its "simulating" something its the way superpowers and such classically work in comics, and that has remarkably little to do with physics in any sense, and using it in discussion distorts the discussion because it suggests something...

I suspect it was less a failure of imagination than conservativism about getting too far from the elements that had proven themselves to be successful in other MMOs, even though they didn't make much sense in a superhero context.

That's the gig at the end of the day; a popular IP is only going to get you so far; a game system that doesn't work for people isn't going to work just because its wedded to an IP people like. If well integrated it might push up a system that is functional but flawed.

Better to encourage the ones where it'll work to be better and train new ones not to have the bad habits than to tolerate bad behavior from extent ones.

That's almost inevitable given that, on the whole there are more players than GMs. The problem is that generally the GM has more reach, and is often going to be tolerated (because of a combination of learned tolerance for misbehavior in the role and the fact they're thinner on the ground) more...

I dunno. I think its a gamist mechanism, but its associated with fictional tropes (specifically the ones you see in action fiction where heroes go through random henchmen like cordwood) which is why its there at all, so I'd say its got a leg in each camp there. Its particular expression is...

CoH suffered from the fact the people producing it, amazing a job as they did in some ways, were still utterly stuck in the traditional MMO expectations. It was obvious when I was involved in the abortive attempt to make a CoH TTRPG, when you looked at the "we don't have treasure and magic...

Anyone who thinks Hero is a physics engine has a very bizarre idea of physics. A simple examination of the damage to lift ratio of Strength shows that. Now, if you want to say you want narrative expression rather than representative expression, that's fine, but let's drop the "physics engine"...

It isn't just DC. Years ago I was part of the application staff for an X-Men based MUSH, and we'd get people who would write up FCs (feature characters, i.e. ones that actually existed in the comics) with the top end range they'd ever existed in any way and with any power they'd ever shown...

Even Hero isn't trying for a physics emulation in any meaningful way; if it was the way Strength and damage steps operate wouldn't work that way. Its arguably leaning into a vaguely simulationist approach to things, but what it thinks that means is not the same as what something like GURPS...

There's an argument here, but I do think there are problems for a lot of people the more well developed a given setting is (and its even worse if the setting is off the beaten path). I've seen people talking about this regard game like RuneQuest and Glorantha or the various incarnations of...

The problem with the question here is this is one where even more than usual, the answer kind of depends on what the end users are going in looking for. I realize that's a little tautological, but the same people who are looking for what Masks is supplying are not particularly likely to find...

Reading the last few pages, I'm suspecting there's a thread or two I'm perhaps just as glad I've missed.

Sometime data is needed; sometimes logic and walking through the process should be enough.

Good thing I don't agree that's always the case. I'm perfectly capable of understanding the arguments in favor of Advantage/Disadvantage even though they're based in premises I don't share. I'm also perfectly capable of arguing there's a price even for people who prefer that. I think that...