D&D General Mike Mearls' blog post about RPG generations

[Micah Sweet]

Did I stutter?

But if I were a betting man, I would bet that you will still be calling yourself a Simulationist in the next five years at least.

So long as people are using the labels, there is a need for the labels. Agree to stop using them all, and make sure there's still some way discuss these things without them.

 

[Nikosandros]

You don't like WG4? Or is that a joke about not pronouncing the name T...

@Snarf Zagyg I have a feeling that I've missed something obvious here, as I often do...

 

[Scribe]

So long as people are using the labels, there is a need for the labels.

No, thats absolutely false, and I flat out reject that its needed in any way. That abomination of a thread sure doesnt seem to reflect how 'labels' aid in communication at all here.

 

[Mannahnin]

@Snarf Zagyg I have a feeling that I've missed something obvious here, as I often do...

I believe he's referencing a recurring bit he has about not saying the name of He Who Shall Not Be Named Whose Name Starts with a T.

 

[Nikosandros]

I believe he's referencing a recurring bit he has about not saying the name of He Who Shall Not Be Named Whose Name Starts with a T.

OK, that was what I suggested in my post, but the "shocked" reaction left me unsure...

 

[Nord Ronnoc]

Didn't Mike Mearls retaliate against Zak Smith's accusers? Honestly, if that's the case, then I wouldn't take the advice from someone who did that.

 

[Mannahnin]

OK, that was what I suggested in my post, but the "shocked" reaction left me unsure...

I suspect that shock was in fact fear and apprehension that you were about to pronounce the dread name!

 

[Distracted DM]

Well for one thing that’s not really what they’re meant to describe within the model. For another, the terms are just… inflammatory. Not intentionally so by any means, but. Everyone involved in discussing RPGs online seems to have strong opinions about the forge, GNS, and its creator, and it’s difficult to disentangle those opinions from analysis of the theory. Any time it’s brought up, the likelihood of an argument about the model’s validity is more likely to ensue than anything. Again, not really the model’s fault.

I'm apparently completely ignorant of The Forge that folk are referencing (I only know of the FoundryVTT The Forge )... Is it that the terms were originated by TF and TF is poison, or that the terms were afterwards poisoned by TF?
I'll have to google what TF is in the first place...

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Well, from my understanding, that's like saying that school majors obfuscate the intricate complexity of knowledge, how it doesn't actually cleanly separate into individual disciplines and thus everyone's major should really be "interdisciplinary studies".

That is, I still think there's a place for these things...in the form of "our group is pursuing this specific goal because we want to". Just as a college major is someone pursuing a specific goal in terms of knowledge, and is thus useful even though "physics" proper can't be separated cleanly from math, chemistry, or philosophy.

If you find the Forge useful more power to you. I do not, in part because their precise use of the keywords are sufficiently off the naive meanings that I have to go look up the essays each time it comes up and that is a lot of reading. From memory I am not even convinced that its conception of Simulation is consistent through all the essays. Any time it is debated here it leads to more smoke and heat than light and in my opinion a lot of it is due to the fact that many of the participants have subtly different ideas as to what it all means and the whole thing degenerates into a bun fight about semantics.

Loosely: Physics is the study of how things work, chemistry is the study of electron interaction in atoms and arrangements of atoms.
Maths is blood useful and thus appears everywhere but you can usefully spend a lifetime studying math and never have to consider the real world anywhere.

I am not convinced that anything useful can be done in the area of rpg player analysis using the tools of philosophy. Perhaps, sociology, anthropology or marketing. All of which probably costs big bucks and only the marketing one might have been done and those that have done it have not released their findings.

 

[Mannahnin]

I'm apparently completely ignorant of The Forge that folk are referencing (I only know of the FoundryVTT The Forge )... Is it that the terms were originated by TF and TF is poison, or that the terms were afterwards poisoned by TF?
I'll have to google what TF is in the first place...

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