clearstream
(He, Him)
My word, now this is fighting talk! My tastes are immersionist. Your comment made me feel a little like you picture we immersionists gladly swilling from the trough of inferior game design. Certainly we cannot be said to have tastes worth elevating. Right?(b) be steeped in setting tourism of some variety (particularly if they are attached to a particular setting, its tropes, its NPCs - eg FR)...
...Rudderless design fundamentally aids this play paradigm.
Bah! I think my tastes are perfectly valid, elevated, and demanding. Few indeed are the game materials that support it. Griffin Mountain for RQ would be one shining example. Masks of Nyarlathotep for CoC also.
Another possibility is that the big-tent games make room for players to enter with their preferred agenda? Or near enough that the compromises in order to join a thriving community feels worthwhile. Maybe that was what I was trying to say to @Campbell earlier: people are able to moderate their demands so as to enjoy one another's company in play, even if they come with different agendas. The spotlight can move about the tent.The Forge calls these player archetypes "Participationists" and the play "Participationism." Its one of the Forges best offerings in my opinion. And my sense is that the gaming world at large is a vast majority of these players. Consequently, it appears that "aversion to Force (and resultant subversion of the competitive integrity of the throughline of the gamestate)" is not a factor in a game "being very widely embraced and enjoyed!"
That's certainly what I find with my regular gaming groups. Player A is all about RP, player B is more interested in G, but they enjoy playing together. I sometimes see player B tremendously enjoying player A's RP. A homogeneity-thesis* guides us to look for fellows like ourselves. A heterogeneity-thesis* guides us to see value and delight in our differences.
EDIT So if you can set aside the snobbery, then perhaps you end up agreeing with the way I put it?
*NB: I don't mean to refer to any pre-existing theses with these labels, they're just for the sake of this discussion... to get across an idea.