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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 7325024" data-attributes="member: 59082">@<a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/member.php?u=6696971" target="_blank">Manbearcat</a>, are you happier if I replace "caricature" with "over-simplistic reductionism?" I mean, it is rather similar, but perhaps the latter better expresses at what I perceive in your post.Anyhow, you are positing a false entity that you entitle the "ENWorld Collective." Now maybe there is a status quote, and shared assumptions that are vaguely aligned with your nine points, but what I see you doing is taking a relatively extreme end of it and saying the entire collective operates within that narrow range. I simply don't think this is the case. Imagine this scenario: that you somehow got a large enough cross-section of ENWorld members to read your nine points and respond to them, adjusting them to how they actually play the game. I imagine that a large percentage would diverge, some quite substantially. I don't even think your nine points are the median; I think they are representative of the deep end of the swimming pool, so to speak. This is a useful device (strawman) to poke holes in, but it evades the actual truth of probably most peoples' experience.For example, I would guess that most GMs don't follow your 2nd point in the way you frame it (and the way pemerton is pushing, as he and I discussed). World-building isn't only about the GM having fun. Some GMs do it as a hobby unto itself, but even then most that I have encountered see that as a separate, if overlapping endeavor (That said, I imagine that there is a relatively small minority that do as you say).Everything follows from that false (OK, questionable) assumption, and is tainted by its implications. Another point of example--and I could probably give some for each of your points--is #8. Just because a GM can use fiat doesn't mean he or she does with any frequency. It is a kind of wild card that can be used in case of "catastrophic failure," or even simply when the GM feels like the overall game experience would be enhanced by a little nudge here or there. Each GM has a different take on what that means, and thus when to use it. You and [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] seem to take a kind of purist approach that any such usage--even if in potential--inherently taints the whole experience, like arsenic in a glass of water. To each their own, I guess, but know that for many (most?), the existence of GM fiat has no negative impact on the game experience, and is actually used as a way to enhance it.</blockquote>

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