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<blockquote data-quote="Aenghus" data-source="post: 6821093" data-attributes="member: 2656"><p>I'm not sure if this post will make sense, I'm writing here to examine the topic. I'm using my own definition of railroading as constraining player choice, where some players approve of that particular railroad and see it as ok and others don't and see it as "bad railroading".</p><p></p><p>A player who wants a naturalistic sandbox game trapped in a high drama/fail-forward game. S/he's unhappy with all the bad railroading (as s/he sees it), as s/he's been shunted at accelerated speed from dramatic scene to dramatic scene and isn't getting the decision points s/he expects that he thinks would allow the "bad railroad" to be derailed, or get a feel for the world away from all the emotionally-wrought conflicts. S/he expects to see events not related to drama that s/he can interact with. The other players who want the game as it is would likely see such events as irrelevant time wasting.</p><p></p><p>A player who wants high drama/fail-forward trapped in a sandbox game will likely feel railroaded into lots of irrelevant scenes s/he feels have no relevance to their PC's personal agenda. Content they would find relevant may be out there somewhere, but even if they hijack the party and unilaterally decide it's direction of travel the vagaries of fate in a highly-detailed sandbox may mean they just happen not to stumble on the right encounter or rumour, or arrive in the right place just after it's been obliterated by the main baddie in the setting (whom the player doesn't care about). The path of conquest of the main baddie could have been pre-authored and mapped out from the very start of the game - the player could experience it as yet another obstacle to their personal goals or as a deliberate effort by the referee to make their goal impossible.</p><p></p><p>An adaptable player could probably enjoy both the dramatic railroad of the former game(railroad in that you can't get away from the drama) or exploring the unknown vistas of the sandbox game. The former game is better for exploring dramatic personal goals, the sandbox game has no guarantee that personal goals will ever be relevant. The latter game is better for exploration-focused players, or players who don't want an accelerated pace and/or constant personal drama. Sandbox games tend to be slower paced some of the time, and the players have some ability to choose a faster or slower pace depending on their decisions.</p><p></p><p></p><p>There's railroading by constraining player choice, removing decision points, and there's railroading by adding new unexpected decision points which delay them from arriving at their destination. Depending on one's investment in the destination, the latter can make the game seem vibrant and alive or slow and frustrating. </p><p></p><p>Pacing is one of the main controls a referee has in a conventional game, what time steps are being used at any point in the game. While it's true a player can ask for a particular timestep at most points, a lot of referees instinctively have nothing happen in the game in response to the timestep change until the players get bored, to reinforce their personal control of pacing. This is a sort of railroading and simultaneously encourages the players to be reactive rather than proactive.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aenghus, post: 6821093, member: 2656"] I'm not sure if this post will make sense, I'm writing here to examine the topic. I'm using my own definition of railroading as constraining player choice, where some players approve of that particular railroad and see it as ok and others don't and see it as "bad railroading". A player who wants a naturalistic sandbox game trapped in a high drama/fail-forward game. S/he's unhappy with all the bad railroading (as s/he sees it), as s/he's been shunted at accelerated speed from dramatic scene to dramatic scene and isn't getting the decision points s/he expects that he thinks would allow the "bad railroad" to be derailed, or get a feel for the world away from all the emotionally-wrought conflicts. S/he expects to see events not related to drama that s/he can interact with. The other players who want the game as it is would likely see such events as irrelevant time wasting. A player who wants high drama/fail-forward trapped in a sandbox game will likely feel railroaded into lots of irrelevant scenes s/he feels have no relevance to their PC's personal agenda. Content they would find relevant may be out there somewhere, but even if they hijack the party and unilaterally decide it's direction of travel the vagaries of fate in a highly-detailed sandbox may mean they just happen not to stumble on the right encounter or rumour, or arrive in the right place just after it's been obliterated by the main baddie in the setting (whom the player doesn't care about). The path of conquest of the main baddie could have been pre-authored and mapped out from the very start of the game - the player could experience it as yet another obstacle to their personal goals or as a deliberate effort by the referee to make their goal impossible. An adaptable player could probably enjoy both the dramatic railroad of the former game(railroad in that you can't get away from the drama) or exploring the unknown vistas of the sandbox game. The former game is better for exploring dramatic personal goals, the sandbox game has no guarantee that personal goals will ever be relevant. The latter game is better for exploration-focused players, or players who don't want an accelerated pace and/or constant personal drama. Sandbox games tend to be slower paced some of the time, and the players have some ability to choose a faster or slower pace depending on their decisions. There's railroading by constraining player choice, removing decision points, and there's railroading by adding new unexpected decision points which delay them from arriving at their destination. Depending on one's investment in the destination, the latter can make the game seem vibrant and alive or slow and frustrating. Pacing is one of the main controls a referee has in a conventional game, what time steps are being used at any point in the game. While it's true a player can ask for a particular timestep at most points, a lot of referees instinctively have nothing happen in the game in response to the timestep change until the players get bored, to reinforce their personal control of pacing. This is a sort of railroading and simultaneously encourages the players to be reactive rather than proactive. [/QUOTE]
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