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Message: <blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 8954725" data-attributes="member: 86653">Exactly. There's no game to play if there are no meaningful choices for the players to make. But it's also about expectations and the unique qualities of those kinds of entertainment.To me it largely comes down to the difference between active vs passive entertainment. In games you actively participate in your own entertainment. You get to make choices, your choices matter, etc. If you don't, you're not playing a game (active), you're being told a story (passive). When you're watching a film, TV show, sporting event, or reading a story*, you passively participate in your own entertainment. You do not get to make choices, your choices don't matter, etc. If you did, you'd be playing a game (active), not watching or reading a story (passive)**.They're each interesting in their own right because, importantly, we have wildly different sets of expectations with each kind of entertainment. You know sitting down to read a novel that this is passive entertainment. Your only choice is whether to keep reading or not, no matter how much you yell or scream, the story will unfold exactly how the author wrote it. Nothing you do matters. And you expect that to be the case. Conversely, when you sit down to a game, you expect the opposite, you expect active entertainment. Your choices are infinite, or nearly so, and you expect them to matter. Which is why when players sit down to a railroad game, they're always disappointed. Because the referee is telling them a story and forcing the players to be passive when they expected active entertainment.RPGs are not TV shows, or movies, or novels, or short stories. They're not passive entertainment. When people try to force them to be those things, or emulate those things, they miss the wonderful and unique thing that RPGs are so they can poorly ape other, difference types of entertainment. The referee isn't a storyteller. Whatever story the game has is a result of the game's rules, the referee's prep, the players' choices, and the roll of the dice. It's entirely emergent.* Reading is more "active" for your brain in that it requires more thought to process. You have to imagine the situations and characters, etc. So it's not entirely passive. ** And of course there are interactive stories where the story is largely set but you get to make minor choices in a preset story, like a Choose Your Own Adventure story or similar, but those are still 99% passive.</blockquote>

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