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<blockquote data-quote="eyebeams" data-source="post: 3765356" data-attributes="member: 9225">I've been working!Anyway:Postmodernism is really a *condition,* like leprosy or the information age. It doesn't really matter what you *think* of it. It just exists. Because we construct most modern texts with self-aware referentiality reflexively (as common custom) the product is postmodern. D&amp;D is postmodern because it references signs from the metatexts of fantasy fiction and wargaming.Now when you're talking about a game as an intentional postmodern project . . . *whew*. That's a big deal. Mage: The Ascension was *kind of* about this, but I think it was also about searching for a sense of Logos in a postmodern, hyperreal environment. Awakening turns this around and asks you how you can free yourself from an oppressive Logos.I think Baudrillard's hyperreality is an important concept here. RPGs encourage immersion in a world of signifiers detached from what they signify. B. thought this was a uniquely American invention and I think that certainly, American culture's focus on building a comprehensive structure of these kinds of things is an amazing trait. The European tradition is situated more on understanding historicity in relationships, even when it does weird things with them. I think it's telling that Germany's a hotbed of gaming because, well, they *had* to adopt hyperreality and cut away part of their own historical tradition.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="eyebeams, post: 3765356, member: 9225"] I've been working! Anyway: Postmodernism is really a *condition,* like leprosy or the information age. It doesn't really matter what you *think* of it. It just exists. Because we construct most modern texts with self-aware referentiality reflexively (as common custom) the product is postmodern. D&D is postmodern because it references signs from the metatexts of fantasy fiction and wargaming. Now when you're talking about a game as an intentional postmodern project . . . *whew*. That's a big deal. Mage: The Ascension was *kind of* about this, but I think it was also about searching for a sense of Logos in a postmodern, hyperreal environment. Awakening turns this around and asks you how you can free yourself from an oppressive Logos. I think Baudrillard's hyperreality is an important concept here. RPGs encourage immersion in a world of signifiers detached from what they signify. B. thought this was a uniquely American invention and I think that certainly, American culture's focus on building a comprehensive structure of these kinds of things is an amazing trait. The European tradition is situated more on understanding historicity in relationships, even when it does weird things with them. I think it's telling that Germany's a hotbed of gaming because, well, they *had* to adopt hyperreality and cut away part of their own historical tradition. [/QUOTE]

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