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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 5633928" data-attributes="member: 3400">Rather than looking for hypocrisy under every rock, you could consider the alternative idea that multiple definitions of role play are being used, and even refined as the question changes. I can't speak for Mearls and his quote as provided in this thread, but we can't really infer exactly what he means and what the scope of role play is in the quote. Is it truly on the same level as exploration and combat, separate activities that probably exist on the same level without primacy? Should we take that to mean the interpersonal interactions that occur outside of combat and exploration? Or does it mean the overall activity of playing a character which could be through combat and exploration, while exploration and combat, in the quote, refer to just the rules-driven, tactical aspects of those activities?Frankly, trying to pin any of those down without further context is a pain. It's even worse when you try to follow up with further refining questions to find that the person you're interviewing is refining their own definitions as the initial questions make them think more about their responses.Ultimately, I don't see a major contradiction between saying the game isn't primary about combat, putting it in a set of things the game is about, including role playing, and then coming down on the idea that the game is primarily about role playing, in other words, playing the role of a specific character. You can do that while exploring, fighting, or doing nothing but sitting around yapping on while role playing your character. I suppose we could try to write up a glossary explaining the difference between different sorts of role playing (like Advanced Squad Leader defines two different kinds of adjacent), but I don't think it's really worth it.</blockquote>

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