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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 352104" data-attributes="member: 812">Well, that's one reading. You could also look at T/C as wish fulfillment based on power. Vicariously, the reader is able to exert dominance over the world, displaying strength and power and social esteem. And that is adolescent -- the selfish desire to extract value from rather than engage fully with the world.And so an RPG experience can be about either power fantasies or the interactions of people and environments -- or more likely some messy combination of the two (plus assorted other elements I've forgotten).I would class romance novels as equally childish -- again, they're essentially power fantasies the reader uses to vicariously acquire prestige, esteem and power -- rather than actually examine the relationship between the self and the world (that's an incredibly stuffy way to put it, but the best I can do right now).Fulfilling a desire will always be less mature than examining a desire. Maybe I'm using "mature" in a very specific way -- but to me it indicates an interest in the world beyond simply taking from it what you need.</blockquote>