Will the real Mike Mearls please stand up?

[Libramarian]

Now I got this image of Mike Mearls singing Rap... damn you OP!!!

If he posts a video of this all will be forgiven.

 

[Agamon]

"Mother May I" (screwing over players by not letting them use their stuff) and "Rulings, not Rules" (promoting an open playstyle) may be related to the point they maybe shouldn't be making babies, but they aren't figuratively similar, imo, let alone literally the same.

 

[Mallus]

He's talking about the relationship between two friends playing a game.

A game with long and storied history of raising ugly power issues at the table.

Mind you, I say this now as someones who games in a high-trust environment, among friends, who always grant the DM the authority to do whatever they like to and with the rules used. Because we trust them.

I find "when they don't have power over you, you don't need to worry about trusting them" to be a cynical comment when referring to friends.

There's nothing inherently cynical about discussing the power issues that crop up under traditionally structured role-playing games. For me, the take away here is Mearls has changed his mind and no longer believes in attacking the problem of power imbalance/trust at the level of the rules.

Which is absolutely correct.

I don't care enough to put in the extra effort to separate spin from genuine personal opinion. If I have to do that then I'm just going to tune out their blogs and articles and just wait for the final product.

You cared enough to start a threat quoting Mearls 7 years ago. I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're up for some parsing, too!

 

[Fifth Element]

Pffft I'm not dismissing anything.

This line is enjoyable.

"Pfft" I'm not dismissing anything translates to <Dismissive sound> I'm not dismissing anything

 

[Libramarian]

This line is enjoyable.

"Pfft" I'm not dismissing anything translates to <Dismissive sound> I'm not dismissing anything

Damn poetic justice.

 

[IanB]

He's talking about the relationship between two friends playing a game. I find "when they don't have power over you, you don't need to worry about trusting them" to be a cynical comment when referring to friends.

You need to go read one of the 8 billion threads about bad gaming experiences over on RPG.net (they crop up more frequently there). Start with one of the ones where female gamers talk about their DMs forcing rape scenarios onto their characters, and then think about your assumption about everyone being friends and there not being power issues at the table. Reading some of the stuff that goes on at other tables will turn your hair white (if it isn't already.)

EDIT: I would go so far as to say that tables that are dysfunctional on some level are the rule, not the exception, especially among new gamers who don't know the pitfalls out there.

 

[Umbran]

I find "when they don't have power over you, you don't need to worry about trusting them" to be a cynical comment when referring to friends.

Two (well, sort-of two, anyway) things:

1) Not everyone plays with "friends". Many folks play with people they've never met, in game stores, cons, and the like.

2) Your point is reasonable, if the friends in question are mature, intelligent adults.

2a)But, need we recall that the game's traditional pool of new players is not old enough to legally drink? Adolescents may be friends, but they are also in the midst of learning about boundaries, power balance, and generally how to be a person amongst other people?

2b) There are a great many folks in the world who, even when of-age legally speaking, are perhaps not the most mature around. See the Edition Wars, in which we tend to treat each other like dirt over a hobby entertainment game? These are people who don't need a consideration of balance of power?

No, I don't think it cynical at all to consider that the people playing the game are imperfect...

 

[Skyscraper]

To the OP: don't be a rules-lawyer about other people's posts.

Take the entirety of what he's said and done, if you wish to judge him, not two phrases out of a decade of posts.

 

[Libramarian]

If it makes you feel any better, I've known Mearls for over 15 years and he likes classic D&D just fine. That was really clear back when we were playtesting Iron Heroes.

OK I'll take your word on that.

Dang it, Mearls has now ruined evolving. This is why we cannot have nice things!

I think the reason we can't have nice things is because RPG theory is so flitty and faddish that designers don't stick with something long enough to develop the practical knowledge of how to make some big picture idea actually work.

I can believe that MM is honestly psyched about old school D&D, but I am not confident at this time that he knows the ins and outs of how it actually works.

And I definitely don't want another edition where they release it before they're done developing it, and then release 5.5 or Dungeons & Dragons Next Essentials 2 or 3 years later.

 

[shamsael]

Mike Mearls' Keep on the Borderlands-bashing RPGnet review was recently brought up in another thread. That was odd, but I was willing to give him a pass on it because it's 12 years old and it's supposed to be a comedy review.

But now I've learned that Mike Mearls invented the phrase "Mother May I" (as it pertains to RPG design) here.

I know this is 7 years old, but still -- it's completely serious and he seems to have arrived at this position after a good deal of thought on the subject.

This bit in particular I find frankly disturbingly cynical, in addition to being the complete opposite of what he's saying nowadays:
He's talking about D&D here...

What do you think? Is it weirding you out that the guy who despises Keep on the Borderlands and coined the term "Mother May I?" is now singing the praises of old school D&D and "rulings not rules"?

I would like to see him talk a bit about how dramatically his opinions about RPGs have apparently changed. Until then I think I'm going to have to take everything he says as DDN team lead with a pinch of salt from now on.

It's possible that after going to the extreme other end of the field in having such an instrumental role in the creation of 4th Edition, he realized the error of his ways.

I love 4e myself, but a while back it did occur to me that while it has a lot of great innovations it does move way too far in its own direction and makes me kind of wish modern design techniques could be applied to old school D&D.