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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Oryan77" data-source="post: 6188474" data-attributes="member: 18701">I forgot about the term "min-maxing". Isn't a min-maxer simply just an optimizer?I was thinking about these terms recently when I was thinking back about how I was trying to powergame a PC last year in a new game where the DM encouraged powergaming. I had never done it before, and I don't consider myself all that good at it, but it was fun & interesting trying to make my 3.5e rogue be as good as possible when compared to the tier 1 classes. That was the first time I ever visited any optimization forums.Then I started thinking about what I was doing and compared it to what I've seen optimizers in my game doing. I had referred to my actions last year as "powergaming" since I was trying to make my build "invincible". But I was still very into roleplaying the character and I really enjoyed building character rather than simply building a character. Mostly what I did was get build ideas from the optimization forums and use that information and my own research to build a strong rogue. We (including the DM) still referred to it as powergaming.But that is all the optimizers do in my own game. They go to the same forums, use the builds suggested in the threads, do their own research to mix in some of their own build ideas, and then they are good to go. Yet, I never call them powergamers, I call them min-maxers or optimizers.So was I actually powergaming in the game last year? Or was I just min-maxing (optimizing)? The DM knew his rules very well and was a really bright guy. He's the sort that would know all of the D&D terms and labels that people use. So he wasn't saying that we were simply optimizing. As far as we were all concerned, we were all powergaming and he was helping us do it.Comparing what we did in that game to what my players have done in my game, it seems no different (and I never really thought about that until now). That's why I started wondering if optimizing and powergaming are really just the same exact thing. I thought I was powergaming even though I was still roleplaying. But maybe I wasn't powergaming?</blockquote>

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