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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 7088536" data-attributes="member: 16586">I think this comes from a culture that expects a very specific relationship between the GM and other players, regardless of the game in question. There's this idea that there are Good Game Masters and Bad Game Masters - also that there are Good Players and Bad Players. Basically there's this idea that skills transfer between games and play groups. I do not meaningfully agree with this notion. I think there are innumerable ways to do this thing we do that provide different experiences that may or may not suit what motivates us to play games. These are different games. They can involve meaningfully different relationships between the players, Between the players and their relationship to the mechanisms. Between what is expected from a given participant and what they are permitted to do. Some skills transfer between games, but not all. That's part of the fun. Learning new skills, having different experiences, finding new ways to have fun we would not otherwise have if left to our own devices.I mean this is like expecting because a player has developed skill in Euchre, Spades, or Bridge that they can just step in and be good poker players. It's also assuming that they do not have to develop a sense of the particular poker table they are playing at even if the rules of the game are not different.When I say I do not care for particular techniques or expectations of play I am really saying something like I prefer poker to spades. That I prefer card games that are not about taking tricks. I am not saying spades is a bad game that no one should have fun playing it. I am saying I would rather not play spades.  It's not about being the wrong way to run a game. It's about being the wrong way to run a game for me to get what I want out of it. The idea that expressing strong preferences is something that should be shamed is problematic to me. I personally value diversity of play - playing different games with different people in different ways. I personally value people speaking up about the things that interest them. I personally value poker feeling like a different game than spades.</blockquote>

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