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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 7824007" data-attributes="member: 3285">In light of the possibility of this thread being closed, I thought I'd add why I wrote the article. It pivots on three points:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The game industry is changing in both how the game is played (the level of possible immersion) and the players who are playing it (new players who come from very different experiences with their own traumas).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">We've swung from RPGs being a highly tactical, strategic game to voice actors acting out their characters in video streams, which makes the topic of bleed all the more relevant. It is entirely possible to play RPGs without experiencing much bleed, but acknowledgement that it exists is an important part of understanding how other players (who may not play like existing players) interact with the game.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Putting 1 and 2 together, these new players experience RPGs differently than established players. Tools like the x-card are attempts to renegotiate the assumed social contracts that were established when you just played D&D with friends. The fact that they're your friends means the social contracts have already been set down. X-cards are most certainly for new players in new settings with people they don't know  -- conventions are a possible example, but not the only one. You can now just run a meet-up and find a bunch of players you've never met before. We're both more social and more uncertain in our interpersonal interactions than ever before. </li> </ol>If you do not believe in bleed -- that your real life experiences can affect your in-game play and vice-versa -- x-cards won't make much sense. If you do not acknowledge that an influx of new players with new experiences -- some of them traumatic and different from our own -- are joining tabletop gaming, you probably don't see a need for x-cards. And if you lived through the Satanic Panic as I did, the very discussion of bleed feels like a concession to so many detractors who were coming after us because "evil is as evil does."We've swung from RPGs being a fun, harmless experience to one that can be deeply engaging -- even traumatic -- for some. As I think this very long thread has demonstrated, it can be both.</blockquote>

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