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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 4860572" data-attributes="member: 54707">I write for a living SO. Or that's part of how I make my living. For every editor and publisher and client who thinks I'm ingenious, there's another who rejects what I write. Hell, I've even been both rejected and published by the same editor and publisher (who got one piece I submitted under one of my pseudonyms and told me I was a rotten writer, and should go study some more, and accepted by the same guy under another pseudonym who then told me I was brilliant - ain't that queer how that works?) That’s just part of the game. But enough folks (even those who sometimes say they don't like what I'm hockin) pay me enough money for what I do that I do alright. And for every one of you guys who say I can't write, or my writing is poor, or whatnot, others visit me, even here, and say, "that was extremely well said,” or “have some experience, I couldn't have said that better," or so forth and so on. Some folks say they understand exactly what I'm saying; a few say, "I don't get it." But I’ve heard that about other writers too. Heck, I've even heard folks say, "I don't get Shakespeare," or “I don’t get Tolstoy.” And so I reckon they don't. It happens. That's life, sorry, not much I can do about that folks. Say it as often as you like, I'm afraid I have no Jedi mind powers of explanation greater than anyone else's powers of understanding. You get what you get. And I don't much care if you don't, or ya do (get it that is). It doesn't bother me any. I'm not losing any money on the deal, unlike with some of my investments. But I'm not gonna change what I'm doing or the way I say it just because you say I oughtta. I got a lot of other people telling me the exact opposite. So you can take it or leave it, I'll be fine either way. I mean you’re welcome to keep saying it, but as far as I’m concerned it's just one of them things that happens on the internet. Part of the environment. Anywho that's the best I got for ya on that one. I reckon everything is to some degree or another, though that's only one way of looking at the problem I think. But let me put it this way, if you innovate or change things around, even a little, then you're changing things around. But the only way for a thing to be unchanged, or pure (in the sense of “untampered with”) is to not change it around. So if you don't change things around, then it's like not being pregnant, and if you do, it's like being pregnant, a little or a lot, it still has the same effect. Because the change has already been made. Or put another way, if you change things even a little from their original form, then you've changed things. There's no almost changed or changed to no real effect (‘cept in quantum physics, and maybe international currency exchanges – and I’m not always sure I trust the exchange rates), there's either changed or not changed. And that's what I'm talking about. What I was saying in the post. And since I suspect that when it comes to role play gaming, given the nature of role play gaming, it is by design a gaming system intended to spur on modification, the idea of edition purity (and therefore edition hyper-arguments over which edition is the most pure, or the most innovative, or changed/changeable from X – X being point from which change was first noticed) seems non-sequitur to me. That was my point.  (I can however see arguing and debating the basic idea of “in what direction do we want to see this change, and/or how quickly – that’s a separate argument. Or set of arguments.)Now exactly how, or to what degree a person goes about changing a thing (the exact process), that's another matter too I reckon. It's still a kind of bastardization process (which I got no argument with per se, most useful things are bastardized because that often leads to flexibility and new capabilities) no matter how it is undertaken. But my suspicion remains that RPGs are by their very nature and structure meant to be bastardized. It prevents stagnation, especially when it comes to overall and on-going game development. I hear ya. Nothing beats working for being practically useful.I'm not sure I entirely get your exact point, but I sure like the imagery. Anything with scales, feathers, and that tastes like chicken can’t be all bad. And it made me laugh. So I enjoyed it.Yeah, when there weren't any real editions or attached ideas about editions in D&D or RPGs it didn't much matter to most of us. I guess you gotta have enough models and manufacturers of a thing that preferences develop deep enough to concern people enough to argue about it. One thing that struck me about this while ruminating on it a bit was the fact that I'm also an inventor. If I see a product that I like but think can be improved, I'll take it apart, study it, and then make the necessary modifications to improve it and/or do it my way. So, maybe modifying things, and modifying things myself is part of my mindset. Now I'm not saying that this is peculiar to me, or to inventors of one kind or another. Just saying that maybe those who are prone to modifying the things they find in the world are prone to doing that very thing. And maybe Role Play Gamers, the majority of them anyways, are in one way or another generally built that way too. (That role-play gamers prefer fluid rule-sets rather than stagnant rule-sets. For instance chess is a stagnant rule set with a huge variety of built in moves and actions. But role play games have by comparison very fluid rule-sets, at least most rpgs used to be that way, then I think they underwent a process of rules-calcification, and are now moving back to being, if not fluid, then at least gel-like in flexibility.) That they (the process of invention and re-invention, and role play game modification) are related ways of viewing or operating in the world. A similar or maybe even related psychological outlook or Weltanschauung. I can't say for sure, but it's just a suspicion. And I'm not much for basing real findings on internet polls, but let's just say I was pretty confident the numbers would play out pretty much like they did. Well, yeah Hobo, but I'm not sure you'll like em any better. They are after all still me. So good luck with that one. And because of work I' haven't updated em much lately. Sorry, just the way it's been lately. Gaming: <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/blogs/jack7/" target="_blank">Tome and Tomb</a> Personal Newsletter: <a href="http://dantesninth.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Dante's Ninth Level of Hell</a> Personal Blog: <a href="http://themissal.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Missal</a>Well, I’m gonna go visit the observatory before it gets to be too late to do a little moon watching. Good clear night. Moon still up.Later gators.</blockquote>

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