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RPG Theory- The Limits of My Language are the Limits of My World
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<blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8451765" data-attributes="member: 16814"><p>I think we can look at how differently criticism is engaged depending on what's being criticized. If it's 5e, there's a huge amount of the kind of pushback you're describing here -- defensive and dismissive and that doesn't engage the criticism. On the other hand, if it's other games, like say Blades, then criticism is deployed and any response to that criticism that shows disagreement is what's treated in a defensive and dismissive manner. Like how social mechanics in a game like Blades are consistently misrepresented in criticism but any attempt to show why it is incorrect is met with dismissal and claims of "that just how I look at it." This exposes that the criticism isn't because it's not at all interested in getting into how play works but rather labelling it for easy dismissal.</p><p></p><p>I'm fairly guilty of the things being argued here. I deploy terms like "Force" to describe play that often occurs in 5e. I use words like Participationism or passive play to describe certain approaches to play, often associated with 5e. I also define these, and explain what I mean and why I use those terms. I almost never get any response to the explanations or the critique behind those, but I definitely get raked for suggesting "passive" as a term. Even by people that then go one to describe their play exactly as I presented it in my explanation. But they deny it because of the term. I offer to use a different term, but the term is still the point of discussion. The actual critique never seems to get to the forefront. And, I've done it the other way -- avoided the term or used a value neutral term for the same thing, but the arguments are still almost always about the form of the argument, not the substance. There isn't a magic bullet of using acceptable to all terms because whatever term is settled on as a euphemism will just be attacked the same way. It's actually bunk to claim that arguments would go better if you used different words.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ovinomancer, post: 8451765, member: 16814"] I think we can look at how differently criticism is engaged depending on what's being criticized. If it's 5e, there's a huge amount of the kind of pushback you're describing here -- defensive and dismissive and that doesn't engage the criticism. On the other hand, if it's other games, like say Blades, then criticism is deployed and any response to that criticism that shows disagreement is what's treated in a defensive and dismissive manner. Like how social mechanics in a game like Blades are consistently misrepresented in criticism but any attempt to show why it is incorrect is met with dismissal and claims of "that just how I look at it." This exposes that the criticism isn't because it's not at all interested in getting into how play works but rather labelling it for easy dismissal. I'm fairly guilty of the things being argued here. I deploy terms like "Force" to describe play that often occurs in 5e. I use words like Participationism or passive play to describe certain approaches to play, often associated with 5e. I also define these, and explain what I mean and why I use those terms. I almost never get any response to the explanations or the critique behind those, but I definitely get raked for suggesting "passive" as a term. Even by people that then go one to describe their play exactly as I presented it in my explanation. But they deny it because of the term. I offer to use a different term, but the term is still the point of discussion. The actual critique never seems to get to the forefront. And, I've done it the other way -- avoided the term or used a value neutral term for the same thing, but the arguments are still almost always about the form of the argument, not the substance. There isn't a magic bullet of using acceptable to all terms because whatever term is settled on as a euphemism will just be attacked the same way. It's actually bunk to claim that arguments would go better if you used different words. [/QUOTE]
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