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Message: <blockquote data-quote="barsoomcore" data-source="post: 2778160" data-attributes="member: 812">Well, sure they are. But that's a very different thing than saying that one play style is better than another.  The degree to which an experience is rewarding depends equally on the expectations of the individual involved as they do on the actual quality of the experience. For some people, the Brandenburg Concertos are the peak of musical accomplishment. For others, Public Enemy is. If you can describe a "qualitative" way of ranking those kinds of experiences that everyone will agree with, then you've accomplished something that nobody else in the history of civilization has accomplished."Good roleplaying" is a style of play. Is it objectively BETTER than, let us say, a "hack n slash" style of play? Obviously not. The very idea is nonsense.Do you LIKE it better? Sure. Is it a good way to play? Absolutely. Is it better? No. The problem with trying to establish one mode of play as being better than another in some objective manner is that what you're REALLY doing is trying to establish that one mode is WORSE than another. And what can you say to somebody who says, "Well, I've tried both, but I disagree with you. I think THIS way is better."?You can't say anything. You can't argue with that. You can't prove them wrong. You can't convince them. And therefore, you cannot argue that there exists any objective measure between two styles.But "encounters" and "dungeons" exist solely to assist in the experience of the game -- and the only meaningful criteria they can be held up to is the degree to which they facilitate the type of game you and your friends wish to play.More sophisticated dungeons facilitate more "realistic", more "role-playing" type of games. That doesn't make them a priori better than goofy grid-map dungeons that make no sense. You may be right; I'm not arguing that. I'm saying that "good roleplaying" isn't the only worthy objective of these games -- nor is it the BEST objective. Somebody might play D&D for entirely different reasons and for them, other styles of play would fulfill their needs better.Honestly, you're just setting yourself up for bitter disappointment if you want everyone to agree with you that style X is superior to style Y. So don't bother. Figure out what you like and get good at it and find folks who like the same sort of stuff you do, have crazy fun games and tell us all about them. That strikes me as a much better use of your time.</blockquote>

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