Kannik
Legend
Getting more into the Stormwind Fallacy/that never can a competent character and a good roleplay character coexist, Folding Ideas noted something on their recent video (here) that I think gives perspective on perhaps why this fallacy (and its false dichotomy) often comes up:
That they are in tension is what has people inadvertently collapse them into a dichotomy and, hence, into the fallacy.
What I like in this observation is that it (properly I'd assert) takes these two extremes of Roleplaying and Competency, with their zero-sum implications, off the same gradient and instead puts them onto two separate and adjacent scales. Scales that can and often do have some influence on the other, but it's not a 1:1 relationship, nor is it a guaranteed one. Ones where both sliders can float around their sweet spots at the same time.
Dan Olsen said:It’s common for instrumental play to be framed in opposition to fun, that they are ends of a spectrum. This is understandable in no small part because instrumental play tends towards optimization, which can often result in deeply un-fun player behaviors. This gets extended out to the extreme where play framed around challenge or investment is treated as irrational or somehow less genuine than some hypothetically more “pure”, “innocent”, “unadulterated” version of play unconcerned with doing well.
It’s important to this conversation to establish, firmly, that this is a false dichotomy. We’re going to spend a lot of time talking about how fun gets optimized out of games, which is why I want to stress that they are not antithetical concepts. Rather than being in conflict with one another they are instead in tension; there is not an opposed relationship, but there is a complex one.”
That they are in tension is what has people inadvertently collapse them into a dichotomy and, hence, into the fallacy.
What I like in this observation is that it (properly I'd assert) takes these two extremes of Roleplaying and Competency, with their zero-sum implications, off the same gradient and instead puts them onto two separate and adjacent scales. Scales that can and often do have some influence on the other, but it's not a 1:1 relationship, nor is it a guaranteed one. Ones where both sliders can float around their sweet spots at the same time.