aramis erak
Legend
In Re AW and the Forge...
Having tried several "Forge Games" and read many more....
It's a reaction to the forge overall... but it also walks away from the Forge's overall evolution.
The Forge wasn't bad early on. The examination provided by the GSN model in the early days is, in point of fact, brilliant. Three different approaches, all of which
Narrativism: Story Now is also an excellent diatribe on how to get that particular type of play laser focused.
The problem with the Forge wasn't the attempt to create a theory...
Nor was it that it didn't get good results for a subset of games...
It was ignoring that the theory wasn't a good fit for many outsider the Forge's community. It was an ever-tightening spiral of self-selection of yes-men rejecting evidence that didn't support their current theory.
Any theorizing that rejects evidence to the contrary is bad theorizing. And, I can say from personal experience, Ron refused to accept points of view that didn't fit his big theory. To the point of telling me I didn't know what I liked, when a game designer had invited me to participate in a playtest which was hosted at the Forge. I knew very well what I did and didn't like about the game in playtest, but Ron felt obliged to accuse me of deceit and ignorance of my own mind. And of falsifying data from my players.
I've never been back to the Forge Forums since that day. I sent my later reports direct, via email, to the designer.
Having tried several "Forge Games" and read many more....
It's a reaction to the forge overall... but it also walks away from the Forge's overall evolution.
The Forge wasn't bad early on. The examination provided by the GSN model in the early days is, in point of fact, brilliant. Three different approaches, all of which
Narrativism: Story Now is also an excellent diatribe on how to get that particular type of play laser focused.
The problem with the Forge wasn't the attempt to create a theory...
Nor was it that it didn't get good results for a subset of games...
It was ignoring that the theory wasn't a good fit for many outsider the Forge's community. It was an ever-tightening spiral of self-selection of yes-men rejecting evidence that didn't support their current theory.
Any theorizing that rejects evidence to the contrary is bad theorizing. And, I can say from personal experience, Ron refused to accept points of view that didn't fit his big theory. To the point of telling me I didn't know what I liked, when a game designer had invited me to participate in a playtest which was hosted at the Forge. I knew very well what I did and didn't like about the game in playtest, but Ron felt obliged to accuse me of deceit and ignorance of my own mind. And of falsifying data from my players.
I've never been back to the Forge Forums since that day. I sent my later reports direct, via email, to the designer.