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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8448117" data-attributes="member: 6696971">I want to be clear on what my as are in these discussions.A wise man once told me (he’ll know who he is), “don’t try to change the minds of the people you’re engaging with. Just engage with them. Through that engagement, dozens more minds will engage with your thoughts and there may be deeper interest and/or uptake on what you’re saying by the many, many silent onlookers out there.”I mean, I used quotes, but that is the Manbearcatian-unabridged version of what he said.And you know what?He was bloody well right!There are only a few handful of active participants whose minds I have either actually changed or made some kind of dent in their mental model on any of this stuff. But there are dozens and dozens of folks who aren’t terribly active in which my considerable efforts on here have made a positive difference to their play.So that is my general goal here anymore:Give something for the silent majority out there to reflect upon in their own play and maybe pique their curiosity about play and games they’ve yet to engage with.And my secondary aim is to do that with as little grief as possible from folks who consider me some kind of indie-game bogeyman (up to and included being called an ivory tower douche typically in the super secret wink wink nudge nudge say no more say no more passive aggressive way…).It’s a sincere aim that is about reaching individual players. I’m not interested in a culture war. I’m not on any form of social media. I couldn’t give a crap less about who the majority is, what the market share is. Reminding me of this over and over and over and over reminds me (as if I needed another reminder after the role vs roll storytelling takeover of late 80s-90s, the OSR vs Forge, and the 4e Edition War) that it is, in fact, a culture war to a great number of folks out there.It’s not to me. I’m one dude. Interested in having vigorous, thoughtful exchanges about gaming so maybe one or two or ten disconnected onlookers might say “huh…that’s interesting…let me hear more” or “let me check that out.”So anyone on here who thinks that you’re having this charged exchange with me where my aim is to change your mind? You’re not having the exchange you think you are.</blockquote>

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