Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Andor" data-source="post: 4484832" data-attributes="member: 1879">I had a thought last night and I thought I'd run it past you guys for general discussion. When D&D was first dreamed up by G. Gygax (honored be his name) computers were not something that touched the daily lives of most people, even D&D players. Programming was done on cards and the PC was still beyond the dreams of SF writers.D&D and AD&D, produced in this era, had loose rules systems. Much was left out, but from discussion of goals and examples of play we knew the intent of the rules. We had read Tolkien and Howard and we knew what was supposed to be happening in the game as those dice rolled. During second edition computers became commonplace and the link between gamers and computers became well established as both appealed to the same sorts of people. As second edition progressed the rules became more and more explicit replacing the blank check of imagination with codified instructions, starting with kits and culminating with the powers and options books.By third edition computers were everywhere and the internet was here. Many of us gathered at ENworld to soak up every bit of 3e news. 3e gave us a unified rules system. The same system governed everything, and the rules were written to be interpreted by that system. While clear writing and good flavor text ensured that intent of the system was always clear, rules arguments revolved around nitpicky dicussion of exact phraseology and word parseing. We had all been programming for a decade and had learned to think like computers. Rather than intent, rules discussions read like command interpreters.In 4e it seems like the shift to computer like thinking is total. The PHB reads like an exercise in object oriented programming complete with bolded keywords. The system is sufficiently divorced from any fictional reality we might be emulating that intent is frequently impossible to guess at and the writing offers no help. Rules discussion are entirely centered on phrase parseing and intent isn't even brought up.Have computers brought about a shift in the way we think about games?</blockquote>

Verification