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<blockquote data-quote="Mark Cleveland" data-source="post: 9008961" data-attributes="member: 6799494">EDIT: I was tempted to chain this together with the previous reply. This is related to the above, but Also a slightly different matter...I see why. Asking good questions, but it's just not a natural way for most people to think about games or their design. But thinking about things this way might help.Game rules are a social contract.Even in a physical game with no real win state or in depth rules like Tag, notice there are multiple sets of concerns within each person. There's all the usual ones that exists outside the game like &quot;I gotta pee&quot; and limited interest level in playing and winning, and then there's those of a player (when I'm &quot;It&quot;, I <s>can</s> must tag someone else as &quot;It&quot; by touching them with my hand).Also observe that if I'm tagged &quot;It&quot; and I walk away, rather than chase others, it's clear I'm no longer a player. Go tag someone else, or the game ends, basically - which kids intuit pretty naturally without any words or rules about that. It's the basics of gaming, but not talked about enough. The unspoken rules of any game start off sort of exclusionary: you aren't playing the game unless you're following the rules of the game. Or more to the point: Games are typically a participatory experience. Squid Games and Hunger Games aside...In a tabletop role playing game, there's all of that, plus the additional role of portraying a character in a fictional story. Rules exist in these games to guide and manage the conflicting desires of the narrative, the character, the player, and even the person outside the game at various times! It just depends* (which rule(s) you're talking about). Hope this helps</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mark Cleveland, post: 9008961, member: 6799494"] [I]EDIT: I was tempted to chain this together with the previous reply. This is related to the above, but Also a slightly different matter...[/I] I see why. Asking good questions, but it's just not a natural way for most people to think about games or their design. But thinking about things this way might help. Game rules are a social contract. Even in a physical game with no real win state or in depth rules like Tag, notice there are multiple sets of concerns within each [B]person[/B]. There's all the usual ones that exists outside the game like "I gotta pee" and limited interest level in playing and winning, and then there's those of a [B]player[/B] (when I'm "It", I [S]can[/S] must tag someone else as "It" by touching them with my hand). Also observe that if I'm tagged "It" and I walk away, rather than chase others, it's clear I'm no longer a player. [I]Go tag someone else, or the game ends[/I], basically - which kids intuit pretty naturally without any words or rules about that. It's the basics of gaming, but not talked about enough. The unspoken rules of any game start off sort of exclusionary:[I] you aren't playing the game unless you're following the rules of the game. Or more to the point: Games are typically a participatory experience. Squid Games and Hunger Games aside...[/I] In a tabletop role playing game, there's all of that, plus the additional role of portraying a [B]character[/B] in a fictional story. Rules exist in these games to guide and manage the conflicting desires of the narrative, the character, the player, and even the person outside the game at various times! It just depends* (which rule(s) you're talking about). Hope this helps [/QUOTE]

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