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Is D&D evolutionary?
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<blockquote data-quote="Melan" data-source="post: 3723597" data-attributes="member: 1713"><p>Some "evolution", but a lot more "business cycle". A/D&D was always a game people wanted to get changed to their tastes, if at least to be part of a larger player base, but it flourished despite - and, in my opinion, often <em>because of</em> its supposed flaws. I remember how it used to be hip in the 90s to bash the concept of levels, classes, hit points and memorisation; a whole lot of "AD&D sucks" threads on USENET and mailing lists. Yet AD&D continued to be the top dog, and the only thing that eventually brought it down was a severely incompetent management. They had to fight very hard to kill their company, that's how badly AD&D was doing!</p><p></p><p>I don't believe in the evolution of RPGs too much. I believe in the evolution of RPG <em>mechanics</em>, but a system is much more than its mechanics. It is a whole set of implications, instructions, procedures and aesthetic choices, a little bit of which makes it analogous to technology, but a lot more where it has to do more with works of art. Does Shakespeare need to evolve to keep up with the competition? I'm seeing some variants, and we aren't reading his plays from hand-pressed pamphlets anymore, but not a whole lot of change. Does Monopoly or chess change all that much? They changed some a lot of years ago, and there are always variants, but the recipe is more or less the same. Does Monopoly need change to keep up with World of Warcraft?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Melan, post: 3723597, member: 1713"] Some "evolution", but a lot more "business cycle". A/D&D was always a game people wanted to get changed to their tastes, if at least to be part of a larger player base, but it flourished despite - and, in my opinion, often [i]because of[/i] its supposed flaws. I remember how it used to be hip in the 90s to bash the concept of levels, classes, hit points and memorisation; a whole lot of "AD&D sucks" threads on USENET and mailing lists. Yet AD&D continued to be the top dog, and the only thing that eventually brought it down was a severely incompetent management. They had to fight very hard to kill their company, that's how badly AD&D was doing! I don't believe in the evolution of RPGs too much. I believe in the evolution of RPG [i]mechanics[/i], but a system is much more than its mechanics. It is a whole set of implications, instructions, procedures and aesthetic choices, a little bit of which makes it analogous to technology, but a lot more where it has to do more with works of art. Does Shakespeare need to evolve to keep up with the competition? I'm seeing some variants, and we aren't reading his plays from hand-pressed pamphlets anymore, but not a whole lot of change. Does Monopoly or chess change all that much? They changed some a lot of years ago, and there are always variants, but the recipe is more or less the same. Does Monopoly need change to keep up with World of Warcraft? [/QUOTE]
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