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Kate Welch on Leaving WotC
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<blockquote data-quote="Snarf Zagyg" data-source="post: 8083652" data-attributes="member: 7023840"><p>That's not true, at all. Quite frankly, your comment is unnecessarily divisive.</p><p></p><p>I once knew a user interface engineer who had this amazing poster from the 50s breaking down the steps for sharpening a pencil. I thought it was the coolest, funniest thing ever. One day, I was talking to him about it, and I realized that I completely misunderstood the purpose of his poster. It wasn't a joke. It was to remind him, on a daily basis, that even the most simple thing can require painstaking, step-by-step instruction. That when you're in the UI business, you always have to re-examine your assumptions as to what people know, and what they have to be told. Instruction is not easy, even for the easiest things. There is a push and pull between simplification of the thing to be taught, and teaching. </p><p></p><p>The statement that "something is better if it is easier to learn" is necessarily different than "we need to do a better job teaching people something we love." To put it in terms of someone who doesn't agree with you, you are saying, "I think we need to make D&D as dumb as possible, instead of working to bring more players to the game we love. Heck, most people don't have the dice, but do have d6s. So let's only use d6 in D&D." Now, I don't think you are saying to make D&D "dumb," I think you want D&D to be accessible. But so do I! I just want D&D to be good and accessible, not just accessible.</p><p></p><p>In effect, people here are having a discussion about the types of rules they prefer. Which is a normal and acceptable thing to do! There are costs and benefits to different rules. For example, D&D would be much easier to learn if there were no spells to choose from, right? That's a serious learning curve! For that matter, we could easily return to the Basic (and proto-OD&D) system of just using d6 for all weapon types. That's much easier to learn!</p><p></p><p>I say this because it should be unacceptable for someone to use pejorative terms (gatekeeping) in order to assert a preference for their own rules. To put it in terms of video games; Witcher is harder to learn than Flappy Bird. And that's fine. That doesn't mean we need to make Witcher into Flappy Bird.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Snarf Zagyg, post: 8083652, member: 7023840"] That's not true, at all. Quite frankly, your comment is unnecessarily divisive. I once knew a user interface engineer who had this amazing poster from the 50s breaking down the steps for sharpening a pencil. I thought it was the coolest, funniest thing ever. One day, I was talking to him about it, and I realized that I completely misunderstood the purpose of his poster. It wasn't a joke. It was to remind him, on a daily basis, that even the most simple thing can require painstaking, step-by-step instruction. That when you're in the UI business, you always have to re-examine your assumptions as to what people know, and what they have to be told. Instruction is not easy, even for the easiest things. There is a push and pull between simplification of the thing to be taught, and teaching. The statement that "something is better if it is easier to learn" is necessarily different than "we need to do a better job teaching people something we love." To put it in terms of someone who doesn't agree with you, you are saying, "I think we need to make D&D as dumb as possible, instead of working to bring more players to the game we love. Heck, most people don't have the dice, but do have d6s. So let's only use d6 in D&D." Now, I don't think you are saying to make D&D "dumb," I think you want D&D to be accessible. But so do I! I just want D&D to be good and accessible, not just accessible. In effect, people here are having a discussion about the types of rules they prefer. Which is a normal and acceptable thing to do! There are costs and benefits to different rules. For example, D&D would be much easier to learn if there were no spells to choose from, right? That's a serious learning curve! For that matter, we could easily return to the Basic (and proto-OD&D) system of just using d6 for all weapon types. That's much easier to learn! I say this because it should be unacceptable for someone to use pejorative terms (gatekeeping) in order to assert a preference for their own rules. To put it in terms of video games; Witcher is harder to learn than Flappy Bird. And that's fine. That doesn't mean we need to make Witcher into Flappy Bird. [/QUOTE]
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