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Context Switching Paralysis, or Why we Will Always Have the Thief Debate
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<blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 8749370" data-attributes="member: 86653"><p>Considering how poorly even older gamers are at remembering their shared past, you can really blame younger gamers for not having a clue about the past?</p><p></p><p>There is such a thing as learning from your own mistakes. Parents who smoked being adamant that their kids don't start smoking as one example. Parents who didn't take school seriously wanting their kids to take school seriously. Etc.</p><p></p><p>As an older gamer who's on the fence about the Mos Eisley Cantina Effect, I think it's less about yelling at clouds or awesomeness aversion, rather it's about a <em>shifting baseline</em> and the <em>escalation effect</em>. It ties back to the weird melange of old-school D&D being fantasy, science fiction, science fantasy, horror, kaiju, western, swords & sorcery inspired mess of influences. </p><p></p><p>It might also help to reference some other games and IPs in this. Fringe. X-Files. Men in Black. Over the Edge RPG. In Fringe, the main character starts not knowing a thing about what's going on but over time she learns what's going on. In X-Files, the main characters start wanting to believe/know and knowing it's all bunk but over time they learn what's going on. In Men in Black, one of the main characters starts not knowing while the other is a long-time pro but over time the newbie learns what's going on. </p><p></p><p>In all three, the main character starts either in the completely mundane world then learns about and engages with the weird world, or they start on the verge of entering the weird. The characters have a chance to settle in, adjust to the setting, as does the audience. Things slowly ramp up as the shows/movies progress. Then there's Over the Edge RPG. Instead of the weirdness being something the players/characters start out not knowing anything about and slowly learn about over time, they start as knee deep in ancient global conspiracies and the Island is the hot spot for every fringe movement, conspiracy theory, and pseudoscience quackery we can imagine. Things start at 11 and somehow need to go up from there...but there's nowhere to go. You can't get more crazy than all the crazy. The only place you have to go is less crazy and more mundane...which is anti-climactic. </p><p></p><p>Point being, the bigger you go, the higher your baseline becomes, and the less room you have to maneuver. If you start at 1, you can go up to 10. If you start at 10...you have nowhere to go but down, which is anti-climactic. Unless yours goes to 11, which is a funny reference, but not helpful.</p><p></p><p>When you start with a mostly human party, running into a robot in an otherwise explicitly fantasy game is a big deal. There's a "wow" reaction. It's also why Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a higher level module. You don't want to go that gonzo too early. You have to establish a baseline before you can escalate. When you start with a party that includes a robot, running into a bunch of robots is meh at best...because the presence of the robot in your group tells you the setting is science fantasy. So there's no reveal, no surprise. When everyone's playing some wild fantasy race, the baseline starts at 10 and you have nowhere to go. </p><p></p><p>You can see the escalation problem in the history of horror movies, action-adventure franchises, and superheroes. Every new entry has to be bigger, better, bolder, bloodier, more action-packed, more thrilling, more more more than the last...otherwise it's no longer exciting. Superman single-handedly saving the world or the universe on a weekly basis is where we are...but Superman started by stopping bank robbers. Thinking of Superman stopping bank robbers now isn't much of a story, it's more a silly prologue or throwback, but there's certainly no dramatic tension there.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="overgeeked, post: 8749370, member: 86653"] Considering how poorly even older gamers are at remembering their shared past, you can really blame younger gamers for not having a clue about the past? There is such a thing as learning from your own mistakes. Parents who smoked being adamant that their kids don't start smoking as one example. Parents who didn't take school seriously wanting their kids to take school seriously. Etc. As an older gamer who's on the fence about the Mos Eisley Cantina Effect, I think it's less about yelling at clouds or awesomeness aversion, rather it's about a [I]shifting baseline[/I] and the [I]escalation effect[/I]. It ties back to the weird melange of old-school D&D being fantasy, science fiction, science fantasy, horror, kaiju, western, swords & sorcery inspired mess of influences. It might also help to reference some other games and IPs in this. Fringe. X-Files. Men in Black. Over the Edge RPG. In Fringe, the main character starts not knowing a thing about what's going on but over time she learns what's going on. In X-Files, the main characters start wanting to believe/know and knowing it's all bunk but over time they learn what's going on. In Men in Black, one of the main characters starts not knowing while the other is a long-time pro but over time the newbie learns what's going on. In all three, the main character starts either in the completely mundane world then learns about and engages with the weird world, or they start on the verge of entering the weird. The characters have a chance to settle in, adjust to the setting, as does the audience. Things slowly ramp up as the shows/movies progress. Then there's Over the Edge RPG. Instead of the weirdness being something the players/characters start out not knowing anything about and slowly learn about over time, they start as knee deep in ancient global conspiracies and the Island is the hot spot for every fringe movement, conspiracy theory, and pseudoscience quackery we can imagine. Things start at 11 and somehow need to go up from there...but there's nowhere to go. You can't get more crazy than all the crazy. The only place you have to go is less crazy and more mundane...which is anti-climactic. Point being, the bigger you go, the higher your baseline becomes, and the less room you have to maneuver. If you start at 1, you can go up to 10. If you start at 10...you have nowhere to go but down, which is anti-climactic. Unless yours goes to 11, which is a funny reference, but not helpful. When you start with a mostly human party, running into a robot in an otherwise explicitly fantasy game is a big deal. There's a "wow" reaction. It's also why Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is a higher level module. You don't want to go that gonzo too early. You have to establish a baseline before you can escalate. When you start with a party that includes a robot, running into a bunch of robots is meh at best...because the presence of the robot in your group tells you the setting is science fantasy. So there's no reveal, no surprise. When everyone's playing some wild fantasy race, the baseline starts at 10 and you have nowhere to go. You can see the escalation problem in the history of horror movies, action-adventure franchises, and superheroes. Every new entry has to be bigger, better, bolder, bloodier, more action-packed, more thrilling, more more more than the last...otherwise it's no longer exciting. Superman single-handedly saving the world or the universe on a weekly basis is where we are...but Superman started by stopping bank robbers. Thinking of Superman stopping bank robbers now isn't much of a story, it's more a silly prologue or throwback, but there's certainly no dramatic tension there. [/QUOTE]
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