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Message: <blockquote data-quote="awesomeocalypse" data-source="post: 5160951" data-attributes="member: 85641"><p>I think you're misunderstanding me. My original point had nothing to do with the long term rewards of pen and paper gaming. In fact, I was making the opposite point, that "story-driven" and "social" rewards can be just as instantaneously gratifying as the "ooh flashy" rewards of gaming, and I used combat to make my point, because combat is generally seen as the most immediate aspect of gaming. I don't believe that story rewards are exclusive to the longterm, I absolutely do not believe that social rewards are long term, and moreover, I don't draw a distinction between the social and story aspects of an rpg and combat. Combat is social, story can take place in combat, and the rewards of a PNP rpg can be just as instantaneous as those of a video game, albeit of a different nature. Story rewards can be longterm, multi-session dialogue...but they can also just be the DMing adapting on the fly to actions taken by characters in a way that makes them feel awesome. Social rewards can be arduously earned and codified, or they can be as simple and immediate as a high-five for a well-executed stunt. The idea that the only kind of immediate gratification available to games is either graphical or mechanical simply doesn't jive with my experience at all. Some of my favorite PNP gaming moments came in dungeon crawl oneshots with minimal overarching story, but where my character pulled off an awesome manuever that saved the day, earning me the congratulations and gratitude of my fellow party members, and affecting the encounter and world around me in a way that felt cool (which doesn't have to be some big overarching story thing--if my badassness makes my enemies run away in fear, thats an immediate story-based reward that can feel pretty gratifying).</p></blockquote><p></p>

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