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"Gamism," The Forge, and the Elephant in the Room
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<blockquote data-quote="steenan" data-source="post: 5802766" data-attributes="member: 23240"><p>With all the criticism of Forge theories, I was skeptical about them for some time. I changed my mind, because they really helped my games. Even if the GNS classification is arbitrary and not grounded in serious research, it is exactly what I needed.</p><p></p><p>For several years me and my friends had a problem: we enjoyed some sessions much better than others and couldn't put a finger on the difference. Some games were excellent, some were just good; we played and GMed good enough to ensure we had "good" games, but we didn't know how to aim for "excellent".</p><p></p><p>The narrativism, as defined at Forge, was a revelation. The distinction between "story before" and "story now" was exactly what we searched for.</p><p></p><p>Forge also helped me rediscover gamism as a fun and functional play style - as opposed to munchkin activity that disrupts play. Being aware of different agendas that may come into conflict helped in finding common ground and deciding how we wanted to play at given time.</p><p></p><p>The Big Model, despite its incompleteness, was much more useful for my group than any other classification scheme (like the Law's one) exactly because it didn't try to classify player styles or character behavior, but the activities and agendas at the table. It showed us that we may find many different "common grounds" and there is no need for painful compromises - but we have to, for every separate game, define clearly how we wanted to play.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="steenan, post: 5802766, member: 23240"] With all the criticism of Forge theories, I was skeptical about them for some time. I changed my mind, because they really helped my games. Even if the GNS classification is arbitrary and not grounded in serious research, it is exactly what I needed. For several years me and my friends had a problem: we enjoyed some sessions much better than others and couldn't put a finger on the difference. Some games were excellent, some were just good; we played and GMed good enough to ensure we had "good" games, but we didn't know how to aim for "excellent". The narrativism, as defined at Forge, was a revelation. The distinction between "story before" and "story now" was exactly what we searched for. Forge also helped me rediscover gamism as a fun and functional play style - as opposed to munchkin activity that disrupts play. Being aware of different agendas that may come into conflict helped in finding common ground and deciding how we wanted to play at given time. The Big Model, despite its incompleteness, was much more useful for my group than any other classification scheme (like the Law's one) exactly because it didn't try to classify player styles or character behavior, but the activities and agendas at the table. It showed us that we may find many different "common grounds" and there is no need for painful compromises - but we have to, for every separate game, define clearly how we wanted to play. [/QUOTE]
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"Gamism," The Forge, and the Elephant in the Room
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