The "I Didn't Comment in Another Thread" Thread

[Parmandur]

I thought videogame consoles were off the table for failing to be a complete and totally perfect analogy for TTRPGs?

All analogies involve a mixture of similarity and difference, but there needs to be sufficient similarity to provide a useful comparison.

 

[Deset Gled]

All analogies involve a mixture of similarity and difference, but there needs to be sufficient similarity to provide a useful comparison.

"Space-time is like some simple and familiar system which is both intuitively understandable and precisely analogous, and if I were Richard Feynman I'd be able to come up with it."

 

[CleverNickName]

Beer, you say?

I think BECMI would be Budweiser. (And it pains me to admit this.) Why would I map my favorite D&D edition to my least-favorite beer? Because like Budweiser, BECM was created to be inoffensive, with wide appeal, and it was the first mass-marketed product to be aimed at teenagers.

So I guess that makes AD&D 2E something like Rolling Rock or Shiner Bock. It's the same beer, with the same mass-marketing and the same target group...just with a little extra color.

3E would be more like a small-batch craft brew. Everyone was drinking microbrews in the early-to-mid 2000s, but nobody was drinking the same two microbrews...we all had our own special local version of choice, sometimes even their own breweries and home recipes. The microbrew trend kicked off the Beer Renaissance, and the beer market has been carried to new heights because of it...but nowadays, it's considered fiddly and overwrought.

The 4E comparison to Zima is pretty spot-on. It was a completely new direction, so much that many folks don't agree that it is beer at all. It was a bold move, and for all its good points and marketing budget, it was a bridge too far for folks who were hoping for a "microbrew Budweiser."

I guess that makes 5E more like an IPA. I mean, sure, it's just another grocery-store beer in a fancy can, sometimes even with the same Budweiser name stamped on the side. It's all over the place, every store carries it and all the celebrities are enjoying it, and breweries of all sizes are getting in on the trend (to varying degrees of success). You're considered "unhip" if you aren't drinking IPAs.

 

[Parmandur]

You see, these beer analogies actually work better than the video game technology one does. Sure, beer making has evolved in the past 50 years, but it hasn't changed at the fundamental level like video games have between the Atari 2600 and PS5.

 

[payn]

ODD: Dandelion wine. Made in a bathtub.
ADD: New Albion Brewing Company Ale. From Wikipedia: "Despite its failure to survive, which [the founder] recognized as inevitable due to limitations of space and equipment and inability to find new funding for expansion, the New Albion Brewing Company provided a microbrewery blueprint which ... inspired the craft beer, microbrewing and brewpub movements which began in the 1980s and continue to the present day." The name has been resurrected in the past decade, but we all know it's not the same thing. Heck, half of the people drinking it don't know what the original tasted like.
2E: Schlitz. Once the favorite, now a textbook study of how to fail.
3E: Negra Modelo. Because it's the most complex macro brew I could think of.
4E: Zima. I would also have accepted White Claw (but they don't make Zima anymore). Either way, you should not feel guilty about drinking it. Own it.
5E: Bud Light. It's not particularly heavy or complex. Everyone argues about it and recommends a better alternative, but half of the things people will push you towards are just a rebranded bottle from Anheuser-Busch. At the end of the day it's the most popular in America, it's consistent, and it gets the job done.

Not bad. I'm sticking with Coors light tho as I will actually drink that.

Seems a lot of agreement on 4E being Zima

 

[billd91]

I'm not sure I'd compare any decent game to Budweiser (any variety). That's just sad no matter how inoffensive/mild it's designed to be.

One of life's mysteries: I've volunteered at beer tents at a number of public events here in Wisconsin. Never fails - bunch of biker bros looking all tough in their Harley Davidson leathers come up. And rather than order a beer with some real flavor like one of the microbrews, it's all Bud Light. Guess they're trying to avoid drinking beer so they're sober for the ride home...

 

[payn]

I'm not sure I'd compare any decent game to Budweiser (any variety). That's just sad no matter how inoffensive/mild it's designed to be.

One of life's mysteries: I've volunteered at beer tents at a number of public events here in Wisconsin. Never fails - bunch of biker bros looking all tough in their Harley Davidson leathers come up. And rather than order a beer with some real flavor like one of the microbrews, it's all Bud Light. Guess they're trying to avoid drinking beer so they're sober for the ride home...

It's true tho, you can drink that swill all day and not catch a buzz.

 

[Ryujin]

I'm not sure I'd compare any decent game to Budweiser (any variety). That's just sad no matter how inoffensive/mild it's designed to be.

One of life's mysteries: I've volunteered at beer tents at a number of public events here in Wisconsin. Never fails - bunch of biker bros looking all tough in their Harley Davidson leathers come up. And rather than order a beer with some real flavor like one of the microbrews, it's all Bud Light. Guess they're trying to avoid drinking beer so they're sober for the ride home...

Some of us refer to those bikers as "pirates." Yaaarrrrr.

S'OK though; I'm part of the Power Rangers sub classification.

 

[Parmandur]

I'm not sure I'd compare any decent game to Budweiser (any variety). That's just sad no matter how inoffensive/mild it's designed to be.

One of life's mysteries: I've volunteered at beer tents at a number of public events here in Wisconsin. Never fails - bunch of biker bros looking all tough in their Harley Davidson leathers come up. And rather than order a beer with some real flavor like one of the microbrews, it's all Bud Light. Guess they're trying to avoid drinking beer so they're sober for the ride home...

Monopoly or Risk, maybe?

 

[billd91]

Monopoly or Risk, maybe?

Oh, heck no. Even those games are too good to be compared to Bud. Miller, maybe, but that's because Miller's taste at least approximates beer.