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RPG Theory and D&D...and that WotC Survey
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<blockquote data-quote="Malmuria" data-source="post: 8627990" data-attributes="member: 7030755"><p>Theory is not just abstract categorization and lots of proper nouns. Theorizing happens anytime you sit back and think about what you are doing and why. For us, that means thinking about our games, how they went, what we liked and didn't like about them, etc, and going from there. For hobbyists, a lot of those things won't show up as captial-T Theory, but rather just look like advice on how to play, reviews of different games, complaints, arguments, etc. But all of that counts as knowledge about <em>how</em> and <em>why</em> we do whatever it is we do. </p><p></p><p><strong>Personally</strong>, I like something like the <a href="https://retiredadventurer.blogspot.com/2021/04/six-cultures-of-play.html" target="_blank">six cultures of play</a> (to link to it for the 1000th time), because it reads to me as very open-ended and historically situated. It's a rough heuristic rather than a programatic categorization, and it traces the way each "culture" of play evolved from and reacted to the previous cultures, both building upon them and rejecting certain aspects. It's relatively clear about at least some of its own limitations, namely that it focuses on English language and European-North American contexts. Also, there could and probably will be a 7th and 8th and 9th culture of play that evolve from these.</p><p></p><p>I think it could go further in ways that would require more research. Specifically, rpg "theory," like the hobby itself, is white, male, and western-dominated. What does a theory of games look like for female, queer, POC, and non-Western players? How are the aims, interests, and styles of play affect by these real-world dynamics? (fwiw, personally, I'm not sure that "social contract" adequately covers these dynamics (either in gaming or political theory...))</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Malmuria, post: 8627990, member: 7030755"] Theory is not just abstract categorization and lots of proper nouns. Theorizing happens anytime you sit back and think about what you are doing and why. For us, that means thinking about our games, how they went, what we liked and didn't like about them, etc, and going from there. For hobbyists, a lot of those things won't show up as captial-T Theory, but rather just look like advice on how to play, reviews of different games, complaints, arguments, etc. But all of that counts as knowledge about [I]how[/I] and [I]why[/I] we do whatever it is we do. [B]Personally[/B], I like something like the [URL='https://retiredadventurer.blogspot.com/2021/04/six-cultures-of-play.html']six cultures of play[/URL] (to link to it for the 1000th time), because it reads to me as very open-ended and historically situated. It's a rough heuristic rather than a programatic categorization, and it traces the way each "culture" of play evolved from and reacted to the previous cultures, both building upon them and rejecting certain aspects. It's relatively clear about at least some of its own limitations, namely that it focuses on English language and European-North American contexts. Also, there could and probably will be a 7th and 8th and 9th culture of play that evolve from these. I think it could go further in ways that would require more research. Specifically, rpg "theory," like the hobby itself, is white, male, and western-dominated. What does a theory of games look like for female, queer, POC, and non-Western players? How are the aims, interests, and styles of play affect by these real-world dynamics? (fwiw, personally, I'm not sure that "social contract" adequately covers these dynamics (either in gaming or political theory...)) [/QUOTE]
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