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<blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 4738563" data-attributes="member: 3400">It depends on the game you're playing. If you're playing Toon with cartoon physics, that's one thing. Most games are something else, though.Think of it this way: Pretty much all tabletop RPGs, contrasted with computer RPGs, are different from actual reality by exception. In other words, we expect the games to obey normal physical laws except for places where the game changes them for the purposes of the game. In fact, we functionally have to have those expectations. There's no physics engine constructed by the rules from the ground up. If there were, they'd be impossible for a human referee to implement. That's very different from computer games which do build physics engines, in effect, to determine how the sprites/avatars/what-have-you&nbsp; move and interact with their environment. That all has to be built.Because of this, when tabletop gaming, we have to use our own knowledge of reality around us to determine what seems a reasonable thing to do, to estimate what may have a chance of success (necessary for playing with a sense of rationality), and to form a mental image of what's going on in a scene (again, another contrast with computer RPGs, which present a visual image).This is why people want some form of realism or verisimilitude. Some sense of it with respect to possible actions in the game is necessary. Some need for it is more subjective, particularly in the way realism helps with forming a mental and consistent picture of how the world works around the characters. Some players simply demand more of that than others, but all pretty much demand some. They expect things to fall down rather than up, they expect things with more mass to weigh more, and so on.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="billd91, post: 4738563, member: 3400"] It depends on the game you're playing. If you're playing Toon with cartoon physics, that's one thing. Most games are something else, though. Think of it this way: Pretty much all tabletop RPGs, contrasted with computer RPGs, are different from actual reality [i]by exception[/i]. In other words, we expect the games to obey normal physical laws except for places where the game changes them for the purposes of the game. In fact, we functionally have to have those expectations. There's no physics engine constructed by the rules from the ground up. If there were, they'd be impossible for a human referee to implement. That's very different from computer games which do build physics engines, in effect, to determine how the sprites/avatars/what-have-you move and interact with their environment. That all has to be built. Because of this, when tabletop gaming, we have to use our own knowledge of reality around us to determine what seems a reasonable thing to do, to estimate what may have a chance of success (necessary for playing with a sense of rationality), and to form a mental image of what's going on in a scene (again, another contrast with computer RPGs, which present a visual image). This is why people want some form of realism or verisimilitude. Some sense of it with respect to possible actions in the game is necessary. Some need for it is more subjective, particularly in the way realism helps with forming a mental and consistent picture of how the world works around the characters. Some players simply demand more of that than others, but all pretty much demand some. They expect things to fall down rather than up, they expect things with more mass to weigh more, and so on. [/QUOTE]

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