Anti-Pretentious games

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

You don't think trying to discover the nature of Evil is setting one's sights too high for a roleplaying game?

You could make the same argument about rock music or popular fiction. And just like in those examples, sometimes it's a perfectly valid medium to discuss serious issues.

"Roleplaying game" just means a structured environment in which one roleplays. It's a content-neutral term.

 

[Doug McCrae]

The people won;'t find true evil, but they might experince a little bit of the evil that they do as the monsters.

Exactly! But Mark Rein-DOT-Hagen is claiming the former.

Also, I think goals should be set high so that they challenge people, every game cannot be about taking a pie from an orc.

Yeah but not so high that they become ridiculous. What if I wrote a rpg and claimed it was written in order to, once and for all, settle the question of God's existence?

 

[Darkness]

What if I wrote a rpg and claimed it was written in order to, once and for all, settle the question of God's existence?

Then we might have a hard time to discuss it in EN World without violating the rules.

 

[Crothian]

Yeah but not so high that they become ridiculous. What if I wrote a rpg and claimed it was written in order to, once and for all, settle the question of God's existence?

well, I imagine that many people would question how a RPG could do that with such certainty, but go ahead. I think people would be interesting in seeing that.

 

[barsoomcore]

Are there any actually pretentious statements that can be reliably attributed to those who have been accused of being pretentious? I guess there's Doug McCrae's, though I think that's stretching to call that pretentious. I see nothing pretentious about a role-playing game being written to provoke and inspire. The language of the quote isn't pretentious at all.

So, what about it? Who's got actual examples of pretentiousness, or is this just a bunch of flame-making?

After we have the examples, of course, there will be the need to demonstrate why it actually MATTERS whether or not a game is pretentious. But first things first.

 

[Crothian]

At the beginning of first edition Werewolf (I think), there is a letter from the creator about the what lead him to create the game or something like that. I'm not sure it qualifies as pretentiousness but it was silly and made me laugh real hard since it looked like he was serious.

 

[barsoomcore]

Oh, and Doug, "discover the nature of Evil" is substantially lower in scope than "to, once and for all, settle the question of God's existence." One can provide a fairly broad set of requirements under which one can claim to have discovered the nature of Evil.

"The nature of Evil is bad."

For example. But to settle, for once and for all, the question of God's existence, can only be done by, well, settling it for and for all. There can be no debate about the answer, for then, of course, it hasn't been settled for once and for all. You're deliberately making the Vampire quote look grandiose where it isn't.

And, in point of fact, grandiose claims in and of themselves aren't necessarily pretentious.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Nisarg, I'm getting really tired of your lame attacks on game designers--especially your most recent one (the "R. Bumquist Wannabenovelist", which is just another not-remotely-clever stab at R. Sean Borgstrom, the author of NOBILIS). I'm going to ask you, politely, as one forum member to another, with the weight of no authority behind it whatsoever, to knock it the hell off, now.

I think her stuff is pretty artsy, opaque and (to me) useless as well.

I also, however, agree that Nisarg should knock it off..

Call me the fence-sitter

 

[Darkness]

I think her stuff is pretty artsy and (to me) useless as well.

Maybe you'd like her newest work, Weapons of the Gods.

 

[Teflon Billy]

"The nature of Evil is bad."

And thus, gentle readers, the fulcrum upon which D&D's alignment system turns is revealed