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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The-Magic-Sword" data-source="post: 8995598" data-attributes="member: 6801252">Avoiding getting too caught up in the semantics and categorization, but I wanted to touch on this, the thing about degenerate forms of play is that they sort of suggest an intrinsic value judgement that comes from somewhere (it's actually a really unfortunate term, given the concept of degenerate art, though I know that it disclaims some of the connotations as a technical term and instead alludes to the idea of degenerating from a specific goal) about what play is for, which is the goal from which it can be understood to degenerate. I think the missing thing you allude to is the role that storytelling plays from a comforting perspective, there is a desire in storytelling to see certain stories play out time and time again, to see heroes win, bad guys banish, and certain morals win out, or see someone we identify with get their happy ending, even if they have to work for it somewhat. Knowing what I do about the player's life (and this is something they've agreed with) it's not shocking to me that the comfort food motivator is present, I've also known other people who have the opposite association: they want horror and misery and desperation because they feel like life is damn boring, and they want to take on the role of someone who is bound for collapse, or even to work out something as a kind of creative self-therapy, confronting a difficult father figure through the lens of a druid and her disappointed wizard father.It's not hard to imagine, when you consider the appeal of linear JRPGs or other forms of linear storytelling, you still get to be much more creative in the execution and even construction of scenes, you still have to work for it in the form of tactical decisions and fireballs, you even make choices about where to go along the way that have consequences that play out on the journey to your ultimate known destination, and while sometimes there's tension, the other player characters can provide a source of uncertainty as your arc intersects with theirs.</blockquote>

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