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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mythusmage" data-source="post: 1569313" data-attributes="member: 571">Doesn't mean they were right. Perceptions have changed over the years. Gary, Dave, and the rest of the crew didn't really understand what they had. It grew out of a game, so it was a game. As I recall, the first time anyone referred to it as roleplaying was around 1975, when a fellow by the name of Glenn Blacow mentioned it in the APA (Amateur Press Association) zine, Alarums and Excursions. A tag which quickly caught on since it described what you did so well.In the skeptical community what you did is know as an, "appeal to authority." Unfortunately, even authorities can make mistakes.Some activities have explicit rules. In some the rules are implicit. Crochet has implicit rules. When you break those rules, you lose. Your loss being evident by what you've produced. Those who follow the rules produce items that sell. Those that don't, don't.Listen carefully. And yes, I am ticked. The "game" is not the "hobby". the "hobby" is not the "game". The "game" is a subset of the "hobby", the "hobby" is composed of many "games". "Hobby" is a catch-all term for what the people involved in the "hobby" are involved in. The roleplaying hobby is composed of many roleplaying games. Each could (and usually do) become a hobby for the participants, but they are not, and never could be, the hobby. Are we clear now?[quote}Gotta start somewhere. You need some level of rules to keep things together, especially in anything involving large groups of people. Go (re)read "Lord of the Flies" by William Goldring.</blockquote>In that sense, I agree with you. But here you're speaking more of codes of conduct than anything else. Rules in the sense of a mechanism to regulate activity in an RPG is another matter entirely. When they do act to keep conduct civil it is as an intended consequence of their main function.That's their problem. Serious consideration, IMHO. if your going to institute radical change, get rid of the only problem I have with describing my "hobby" Son, I've seen a flame. I've seen a flame done by masters. This barely qualifies as cigarette lighter.[/quote] What flame? You wanted to know what I think, I told you. BTW, I've been to alt.flame on USENET. Amusing, but hardly what I would call flaming.(Besides which, Pirate Cat knows flaming, and he'd shut people down pronto if they ever engaged in it. Nope, me good boy now, me no flame.)It doesn't mean you have to let them limit what you can be.I don't. I hope it will. But only by trying will we learn.Such as calling it a game. Insisting on game balance. Playing it as a game when doing so places limitations on what people will do.Unfortunately, that growth and vitality you cite are but the vines slowly strangling the life out of the tree that is D&D®. I'm going by impressions, but the impressions I've gotten from reading around the hobby is that the hobby is in worse shape than you think. Falling sales keep getting cited. People leaving the hobby. Once 15,000 sales was considered a failure by a third world company, now people are happy with sales in the hundreds. We live in a time of lowered expectations, and that's not good.I say it's time we raised our sights and went for the glory. However much glory there is out there for this hobby of ours.As the man once said, "And the horse may learn to talk."[/QUOTE]

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