Unpopular opinions go here

[Guest 7042500]

Mod Note:

Even in jest, that’s pushing ENWorld’s rules of decorum. Don’t make similar comments in the future.

Message received and understood.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

TTRPGs suffer from a terrible tendency to stretch the meaning of RPG until it prettymuch loses meaning. As always, I blame D&D.

In fairness, acknowledging you have a problem is usually the first step to ignoring the problem!

In this instance, D&D is maybe not even really an RPG, but because it's considered the first RPG, definitions of RPG stretch, distort, and derange themselves to include it, even if it was designed as a 70s wargame at a small scale. Similarly, because, in D&D, non-combat (other than magic) was so under-developed DMs for so long, and players substituted improv, RPG gets stretched to include essentially improv theatre or 'storytelling.'

Perhaps the issue isn't the trouble with defining RPGs; perhaps the issue is trying to use definitions to exclude things that you don't like?

But just as a general rule, if you somehow manage to come up with a definition of RPGs that both excludes the first generally acknowledged "RPG" (and also the RPG that was the basis of the hobby) and also excludes a lot of modern RPGs, perhaps the problem isn't the definition of the term?

 

[AnotherGuy]

That you personally can't get "into" the books says literally nothing about anything other than your preferences for the writing style.

I remember when I was reading Dune a few years ago, I enjoyed the writing style up until Paul met the Fremen. In that encounter when I was expecting Frank to put his foot on the pedal and get to the meat of the story, he doubled down on his delaying style and it felt so enormously repetitive to me, that it annoyed me enough for me to give up on the book.

I have every intention to get back into it again but right now it's in a queue.

 

[Bedrockgames]

I remember when I was reading Dune a few years ago, I enjoyed the writing style up until Paul met the Fremen. In that encounter when I was expecting Frank to put his foot on the pedal and get to the meat of the story, he doubled down on his delaying style and it felt so enormously repetitive to me, that it annoyed me enough for me to give up on the book.

I have every intention to get back into it again but right now it's in a queue.

Very first time I tried to read dune, I couldn’t get past like page 50. Might have occurred the second time as well. But at one point, maybe I was in a different mood, I read it and went on to read the series. It ended up being one of my favorite science fiction novels. I think it is very well written but something about how it establishes the setting early in the book was tripping me up

 

[Cadence]

I wonder if part of it is the comparison set. If we step back, does almost every book look enjoyable and worthwhile compared to Joyce's supposed greatest book of the 20th century?

 

[Micah Sweet]

In fairness, acknowledging you have a problem is usually the first step to ignoring the problem!



Perhaps the issue isn't the trouble with defining RPGs; perhaps the issue is trying to use definitions to exclude things that you don't like?

But just as a general rule, if you somehow manage to come up with a definition of RPGs that both excludes the first generally acknowledged "RPG" (and also the RPG that was the basis of the hobby) and also excludes a lot of modern RPGs, perhaps the problem isn't the definition of the term?

The problem isn't the definition of the term, the problem is social. Once someone has decided what they're doing is an RPG, they won't hear a suggestion otherwise as anything other than an insult.

 

[Cadence]

The worst RPG of all to have to play is adulthood.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

The problem isn't the definition of the term, the problem is social. Once someone has decided what they're doing is an RPG, they won't hear a suggestion otherwise as anything other than an insult.

Um, again, this isn't about someone saying that they love their game. After all, there is nothing more enjoyable than a person who enthusiastically is telling you how awesome their game is!

This is about telling people, "That thing you are playing? It's not even an RPG." Because that's not conducive to conversation or discussion; that's just trying to badwrongfun people by telling them that what they're doing isn't even an RPG. Moreover, if you're excluding both D&D and a lot of modern games ... you're really saying more about yourself than you are about the games other people are playing.

 

[Emberashh]

The problem isn't the definition of the term, the problem is social. Once someone has decided what they're doing is an RPG, they won't hear a suggestion otherwise as anything other than an insult.

Something interesting is that in the improv theater world theres actually some mild debate on whether or not improv counts as a game or not. Meanwhile, in TTRPGs, where there shouldn't be any question, an awful lot of people are in denial about them being games.

 

[DammitVictor]

There are a lot of great works of literature that have aged like fine milk, not through any fault of their own, but because they are no longer capable of standing out from the crowd of their own poorest imitators. Tolkien, Howard, and most of Appendix N are among them.