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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 8861569" data-attributes="member: 6796661">I didn't snip them out of context. I just broke up into the two statements. Here is the full quote, not broken into two.There seems to be a bit of cognitive dissonance here. You start by saying that mechanics have very little impact on playstyle and that people will tend to run most games according to their playstyle, regardless of mechanics. But then you go on by arguing that if the mechanics make their preferred playstayle difficult to pull off, players will tend to dislike or be frustrated by them, leading them to ignore or houserule significant portions of the mechanics (or, in my experience, decide to play a different game).  If players are finding the mechanics frustrating or unenjoyable and that is causing them to change the mechanics, it would seem that mechanics are having more than a little impact.Perhaps I am being obtuse. Is your point simply that people are not going to change their playstyle because they will just ignore, change, or otherwise not engage with mechanics that don't match their preferrances?  I mean, I guess.  But that's like saying that recipes don't change people's personal tastes. I would have to agree to a point, but there are a lot of gamers who enjoy experimenting with different systems and the mechanics can have a significant impact on the game experience, including influencing the players' playstyle. If my preferred playstyle is highly tactical combat and player-skill dungeon exploration, but I decide to play Dialect or Alice is Missing, I'm going to have to significantly change my normal playstyle or just decide not to play that game. Further, in my experience, playing one game can influence how I play other games. In my personal experience, exposure to different game systems does have an effect on people's play styles. Some players may only like a specific type of game and play style, others like a great deal of diversity of gaming experiences, and most are probably in the middle of those extremes--though that's based on anecdotal evidence from my own experiences and observations. I've never seen any data from surveys on this.</blockquote>

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