But for whatever weird reason, there is an enormous amount of resistance to trying to look at GMing in a technical manner. I don't know if it is the "it's more art than engineering" ethos or the "system doesn't matter because rule 0 and GM power" ethos or what, but I find it frustrating as hell.
Hey Manbearcat. We've had our share of great, productive conversations, and our share of disagreements. So, with all of that history, I wanted to ask you an honest, civil question:
Why is this so frustrating?
I mean, why argue with people about this kind of thing? Why not just talk to the people who agree with you about it? If others hate the terms, hate your way of running the game, etc... why bother engaging them? What makes it so frustrating?
Like, I totally get why people get frustrated when certain people have certain views. Take politics. People get frustrated when people hold stupid positions on political issues. They argue out of frustration, even though they won't convince other people to change their mind about their stupid views. The frustration exists, in part, because its this other type of person that helps put bad policy into place. And bad policy affects you.
However, games and game theory isn't in the same boat. You can just skip games that don't follow game theory you like (like, say, valuing combat balance). These people that hold other views will not affect your home game. Hell, they almost certainly won't affect the games you like from being made (if you like Dungeon World, these people not liking your views won't stop it from being made).
So, why is it so frustrating, if it doesn't affect you? Why is it when someone vehemently disagrees with you or your terminology, you find it "frustrating as hell"? That's the part I don't get anymore. I used to engage in these debates. I don't anymore. They were useful for finding out what I valued personally, but that's about it.
So some people don't like hearing about Ron Edwards' gaming philosophy. It's cool, dude. Talk to people who do. That's where you'll get productive conversation. People can be pretty cool about letting you have your conversation, if you ask them politely. Nobody engaged in any threadcrapping in my 4e play report thread, and that went on for over a year and had about 35 pages. It was cool.
Some people will work with you on your take on gaming, your use of terminology, etc. Others won't. Just work with the people that are on the same page. You've got pemerton, and to a lesser extent a few other posters (AA, NC, etc). Don't sweat the people on a different page. Don't get frustrated. Don't burn out.
It's cool, man.