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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8959400" data-attributes="member: 82106">But, and definitely not saying this to be critical, our ideas of what SIM is and can be are very different. I humbly submit that what you are calling sim, the 'simulation of real life' (at least some significant 'authentic' aspects of it) is simply beyond any of us, you, me, the greatest GMs, writers, etc. in all of history could barely do it, if at all. In terms of RPGs, the sheer complexity of the task of dealing with understanding a world and all the interrelationships and details that it would actually be made up of, and which would give it its realistic character, is simply unfeasible. What we ACTUALLY can accomplish, IMHO, is something like 'genre sim', that is emulating some particular genre in its style, tropes, and other characteristic elements. There may also be other possible flavors of sim in this sense, but they all share the characteristic that certain particular sorts of elements are being injected into the game for purposes of &quot;making it like something else&quot; (possibly another instance of an RPG as I would argue that modern D&amp;D is often essentially a simulationist enterprise, simulating D&amp;Ds of past decades). Now, I think there are elements you are looking for that are specific. I am not so sure they are really 'sim', and in fact I almost think they might be described as a specific type of characterization. I say this because I don't think increasing the 'realistic nature' of this play is going to actually make it work better.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8959400, member: 82106"] But, and definitely not saying this to be critical, our ideas of what SIM is and can be are very different. I humbly submit that what you are calling sim, the 'simulation of real life' (at least some significant 'authentic' aspects of it) is simply beyond any of us, you, me, the greatest GMs, writers, etc. in all of history could barely do it, if at all. In terms of RPGs, the sheer complexity of the task of dealing with understanding a world and all the interrelationships and details that it would actually be made up of, and which would give it its realistic character, is simply unfeasible. What we ACTUALLY can accomplish, IMHO, is something like 'genre sim', that is emulating some particular genre in its style, tropes, and other characteristic elements. There may also be other possible flavors of sim in this sense, but they all share the characteristic that certain particular sorts of elements are being injected into the game for purposes of "making it like something else" (possibly another instance of an RPG as I would argue that modern D&D is often essentially a simulationist enterprise, simulating D&Ds of past decades). Now, I think there are elements you are looking for that are specific. I am not so sure they are really 'sim', and in fact I almost think they might be described as a specific type of characterization. I say this because I don't think increasing the 'realistic nature' of this play is going to actually make it work better. [/QUOTE]

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