Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8167125" data-attributes="member: 82106">The real world is NOTHING like any game world (leaving aside the obvious point of not being real). The real world has a vast amount of texture to it which is lacking in any imagined space. Each element in the real world is linked in unbreakable causal relationships with a vast number of other elements, and there are a huge number of such elements. This leads to all sorts of collective behavior, emergent phenomenon, etc. which is all entirely lacking in an imagined space. From an everyday perspective, in the real world people have actual needs, things that they must have in order to continue to exist. They also have an entire array of unconscious and involuntary elements to their psyche, personality, and physiology which largely shape their overall behavior and impose a whole set of desires, which they usually find difficult to deny, at best (imagine talking about your PC going on a diet, describing his urge to eat some potato chips is almost ludicrous, but in the real world your diet has significant impacts on your overall well-being). The result is that imagined fantasy worlds are extremely 'cartoonish' in their character. The way elements interact and the character of the events and narrative lacks most of the character of real life, where simply fulfilling our ordinary material needs is an overwhelming consideration and we deal with mundane tasks and long term ongoing relationships as the primary focus of our lives. This is true even for a 'Thor Heyerdahl' type of guy, who had fantastic adventures. It is really nothing like the depictions of the lives of PCs in pretty much any game, even one focused on events in a world which is ostensibly meant to represent our own. So, no, my description has nothing of the character of describing real life. A sandbox is a set piece filled with adventure hooks. Real life is not. Again, this is also the basis of my fundamental objection to the characterization of any DMing process as 'deciding what would realistically happen' or even 'what is realistically plausible'.</blockquote>

Verification