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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5393285" data-attributes="member: 42582">My preferred explanation - if it comes up - is cultural conservatism. If the gameworld is an ancient one, with lots of legendary empires and their artefacts hanging around (both literally and in the popular imagination) then it is at least hand-wavingly plausible that the outlook of the society, and its dominant powers, is one of conservatism/reaction rather than progress (ie all the great things were done in the past, the contemporary era is a mere pale shadow of the greatness that once was, etc) - think Tokien's Middle Earth, or stereotpyed conceptions of pre-Enlightenment Europe and pre-20th century China.Given this assumption, the notion that things might be done differently simply won't arise. And if we then accept the Weberian idea that ideas are a necessary precursor of technical innovation, there won't be the intellectual impetus essential to any magical revolution.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5393285, member: 42582"] My preferred explanation - if it comes up - is cultural conservatism. If the gameworld is an ancient one, with lots of legendary empires and their artefacts hanging around (both literally and in the popular imagination) then it is at least hand-wavingly plausible that the outlook of the society, and its dominant powers, is one of conservatism/reaction rather than progress (ie all the great things were done in the past, the contemporary era is a mere pale shadow of the greatness that once was, etc) - think Tokien's Middle Earth, or stereotpyed conceptions of pre-Enlightenment Europe and pre-20th century China. Given this assumption, the notion that things might be done differently simply won't arise. And if we then accept the Weberian idea that ideas are a necessary precursor of technical innovation, there won't be the intellectual impetus essential to any magical revolution. [/QUOTE]

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