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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 9738000" data-attributes="member: 6790260">Disingenuous players will always be a problem.I guess I just see a pretty substantial problem there because, as a result of this, you'll literally never see players decide to change teams the other way.The only people who will change are the ones who are disingenuous jerks. There will never be a reward for switching to a different path, nor will there be anything but punishment if they stick to the path they initially wrote.I aspire to what I consider a higher standard, where it is possible for people to change toward good, not just away from it, because they are given a reason to see it as worthwhile. People don't do things they don't think are worthwhile. That doesn't mean the reward needs to be pecuniary or materialistic, but it does need to be rewarding, in SOME way, or else there's literally no point.People can change. I'd like to see people change toward good, especially if they never expected to do that.Oh, yes, this is one hundred million percent an extremely serious problem in TTRPGs. I've railed against this many, many times on this site. It's genuinely pleasing to hear someone else making the same points! The phrase I've usually used for this is "Mercy is a sucker's game."The frustrating thing is, most of the GMs who do this...like they're really really mistaken and often kinda willfully blind, but they at least are aiming at a reasonable motivation: actions have consequences, your choices matter, being a good person is not a cakewalk, etc. The problem is that they exaggerate this to such a ludicrous extent that it transforms into something else entirely: consequences are always harmful (so you'd better make sure there are no survivors who could bring those consequences to bear on you), your choices will always matter harmfully (so get what you can NOW because you'll pay for it either way), being a good person is actively stupid (so the only people who act/appear good are fools or liars--decide whether you want to be foolish, dishonest, or evil).And yet so, so many of these GMs, ironically, don't apply their own logic to themselves. They don't see how their actions have consequences. They don't see how their choices matter. They don't realize that being a good GM is not a cakewalk. And then they complain when their players simply mirror back to them what they've been taught.</blockquote>

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