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Message: <blockquote data-quote="loverdrive" data-source="post: 9746568" data-attributes="member: 7027139">I wonder if a big part of this "skilled play" debacle is just a natural consequence of deficiency and anemia of roleplaying theory.Chess theory, fighting game theory, card game theory, Team Fortress 2 6v6 theory, you name it, aren't concerned with endless taxonomy of games like RPGing theory is. It's all about how to actually play the damn games, which is practically non-existent in RPG circles. As a result, nobody understands what is actually going on, and makes silly, goofy and buckwild decisions, be it as a player, as a gamemaster, as a designer or a forum commenter.[HR][/HR]So. Here's mine. Like in all games, here's micro- and macro- level. Micro is an encounter, a puzzle*, a heated negotiation, all the moment-to-moment things in the game. Macro level, at least in dungeoncrawling, is what I described upthread: considering what risks you should or should not take, routing, securing alliances with factions, etc.Like in all games, players obsess over the micro, thinking that's where The Game lies – and like in all games, they are wrong. For obvious reasons, the micro-level is much more visible to everyone involved – it can be trivially observed in other games – how people place undue importance on combos in fighting games, or headshots in Counter-Strike, or literal micro in RTS games.Due to lack of development of any Actual Theory, game design and analysis is caught in the same trap. See: creeping complexity of both general rules and specific abilities; synergies between options; "way of the moose head" cargo-cultism of OSR people; etc; etc.Don't get me wrong: micro-level isn't worthless, but it isn't sufficient for an interesting game. Good gameplay is created when players have to interact with both. Short-, mid- and long-term gameplay loops are exactly that.Macro-level gameplay of dungeon-crawling got eroded over time, [em]culturally[/em], because it's mostly invisible to the players: all the fun, exciting parts of the game are remembered at micro-level, but the macro-level decisions that made the situation possible in the first place evaporate from memory and exploration turns, or wandering monsters, or torches burning out start seeming like pointless inclusions.They disappear and people feel like something is missing, but because they only think of the micro, they try to compensate in unproductive ways, be it by placing more and more emphasis on tactical combat or on "combat as war" smekalochka shennanigans.* – now I wonder, why the hell are puzzles in RPGs predominantly take form of riddles and not, like, adventure game-style item puzzles? That'd make more sense from every angle.</blockquote>

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