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<blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 6412502" data-attributes="member: 3192">The major mistake of the article is that role playing has nothing whatsoever to do with storytelling. Neither does game playing. Games are codes. Game play is the act of code deciphering by players. Usually in competition, but sometimes cooperatively ...to beat the game so to speak.The game elements article writer speaks of, guns, swords, and so on in the game are for players to use in games. They are designed to be gamed and gamed with.Chess is a game. Having read a couple of &quot;games&quot; Mr. Wick has created I don't think the same thing can be said of what he's doing. He wants group collaborative storytelling. That can't happen in games. Balance in games is largely about putting players on equal footing so they can compete with one another. D&amp;D and other RPGs aren't balanced this way. Some players are 1st level, some are 10th level. Some are vastly wealthy and knowledgeable. Others are just starting out. Rather balance is used to modulate game difficulty for each individual player.And different difficulties and imbalances between players is okay, because the game is designed as a cooperative game. Each player isn't balanced with the other players at the table too, right?All of that is to say the game benefits those who play cooperatively. This is never a rule on how to play. Never does the game say &quot;You MUST cooperate to play this game&quot;. The design by default puts players in a position where cooperation is the best strategy in general over the course of the game. Just like any cooperative board game or card game competition and individual play are also a part of expected play.There is a great deal of uniformity of thought in &quot;RPG theory&quot; today and silence in opposition to it. Most of it has to do with widespread ignorance mainly, but no small part is the zealous group who believe narrative theory isn't just a nice contraposition to game theory, but that game theory doesn't exist. For them it's simply 1970's narrative theory with a different name.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="howandwhy99, post: 6412502, member: 3192"] The major mistake of the article is that role playing has nothing whatsoever to do with storytelling. Neither does game playing. Games are codes. Game play is the act of code deciphering by players. Usually in competition, but sometimes cooperatively ...to beat the game so to speak. The game elements article writer speaks of, guns, swords, and so on in the game are for players to use in games. They are designed to be gamed and gamed with. Chess is a game. Having read a couple of "games" Mr. Wick has created I don't think the same thing can be said of what he's doing. He wants group collaborative storytelling. That can't happen in games. Balance in games is largely about putting players on equal footing so they can compete with one another. D&D and other RPGs aren't balanced this way. Some players are 1st level, some are 10th level. Some are vastly wealthy and knowledgeable. Others are just starting out. Rather balance is used to modulate game difficulty for each individual player. And different difficulties and imbalances between players is okay, because the game is designed as a cooperative game. Each player isn't balanced with the other players at the table too, right? All of that is to say the game benefits those who play cooperatively. This is never a rule on how to play. Never does the game say "You MUST cooperate to play this game". The design by default puts players in a position where cooperation is the best strategy [I]in general[/I] over the course of the game. Just like any cooperative board game or card game competition and individual play are also a part of expected play. There is a great deal of uniformity of thought in "RPG theory" today and silence in opposition to it. Most of it has to do with widespread ignorance mainly, but no small part is the zealous group who believe narrative theory isn't just a nice contraposition to game theory, but that game theory doesn't exist. For them it's simply 1970's narrative theory with a different name. [/QUOTE]

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