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S/Z: On the Difficulties of RPG Theory & Criticism
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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 7928133" data-attributes="member: 177"><p>I'm going to give a weird answer: Yes and no.</p><p></p><p>For one thing a "game" is a "structured form of play" - beyond that... well, wikipedia has no fewer than 10 different definitions of what a game is. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>A typical RPG can probably be considered to contain several separate sub-games, all in a wrapper that is a game in the same sense that kids running around in the backyard are playing a game of cops and robbers, in which there is a structure, but it is possibly more honored in the violation than in the adherence.</p><p></p><p>This is a large part why talking about mathematical game theory is not broadly relevant - mathematical game theory is about odds, information, and rational decision making. The Prisoner's Dillemma is a classic example of mathematical game theory at work. You can perhaps apply that to various scenarios within a sub-game, but not to the RPG as a whole.</p><p></p><p>The same goes for other frameworks for design of games - each of them may apply to a <em>part</em> of an overall RPG, but not the entire aggregate.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>You could do that, for, say, the tactical combat minigame, and compare it to any other wargame around, sure.</p><p></p><p>But when some of the commonly desired and expected outputs are "spotlight", and "narrative flow and beats" you may run into issues by leaning to Catan rather than LotR.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 7928133, member: 177"] I'm going to give a weird answer: Yes and no. For one thing a "game" is a "structured form of play" - beyond that... well, wikipedia has no fewer than 10 different definitions of what a game is. A typical RPG can probably be considered to contain several separate sub-games, all in a wrapper that is a game in the same sense that kids running around in the backyard are playing a game of cops and robbers, in which there is a structure, but it is possibly more honored in the violation than in the adherence. This is a large part why talking about mathematical game theory is not broadly relevant - mathematical game theory is about odds, information, and rational decision making. The Prisoner's Dillemma is a classic example of mathematical game theory at work. You can perhaps apply that to various scenarios within a sub-game, but not to the RPG as a whole. The same goes for other frameworks for design of games - each of them may apply to a [I]part[/I] of an overall RPG, but not the entire aggregate. You could do that, for, say, the tactical combat minigame, and compare it to any other wargame around, sure. But when some of the commonly desired and expected outputs are "spotlight", and "narrative flow and beats" you may run into issues by leaning to Catan rather than LotR. [/QUOTE]
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