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<blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5896548" data-attributes="member: 54877">By the audience widening, I am specifically talking about those people who might like the game later, but can't handle it now. This is not going to include many adults, as gaming isn't rocket science. (Adults will like it, or they won't.) You can write the game dumbed down to try to get every 11 year old that you might possibly get. You'll lose the people who don't like being patronized, which happens to include a fair number of 11 year olds. The patronized ones are probably lost for good. The 11 year old that is not quite ready to handle the more interesting text may still be available at 14 or 17 or 20. &nbsp;Of course, most people won't have any interest at 11 or later, no matter how you write it. That's why games only sell so much, and have been on the decline. A lot of those people in the 70s and 80s that bought because there wasn't much to do, wouldn't have bought then if they'd had the options we have now. &nbsp;It's not question of being elitist. Gaming is at heart too simple to be elitist. It's &quot;pretend&quot; all dressed up. Rather, it's a question of appealing to the kind of person who is going to want to roleplay in a tabletop game in the first place. There has to be some substance there to so appeal. With real substance, it helps to write about it as it is, not dumb it down. A good fantasy novel is rarely fine literature, but it is also rarely, say, a &quot;junior&quot; sports biography written to get an 11 year old to read something, anything. &nbsp;I forget which sci/fi author wrote it, but there is some statement along the lines of, &quot;stories are told of all kinds of aliens, but every science fiction story we've ever seen has been written and read by 100% humans.&quot; Humanity is complex. Ultimately, games are a form of art, lowbrow as it may be, that is about exploring humanity--sometimes from some obscure angles. This is the real substance of the hobby. That's no call to make game procedures full of sophistry or other pretension. Sure, make those as clear as you can. But don't cheat the substance for some kind of false appeal to child--one that ultimately won't work, anyway.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Crazy Jerome, post: 5896548, member: 54877"] By the audience widening, I am specifically talking about those people who might like the game later, but can't handle it now. This is not going to include many adults, as gaming isn't rocket science. (Adults will like it, or they won't.) You can write the game dumbed down to try to get every 11 year old [B]that you might possibly get[/B]. You'll lose the people who don't like being patronized, which happens to include a fair number of 11 year olds. The patronized ones are probably lost for good. The 11 year old that is not quite ready to handle the more interesting text may still be available at 14 or 17 or 20. Of course, most people won't have any interest at 11 or later, no matter how you write it. That's why games only sell so much, and have been on the decline. A lot of those people in the 70s and 80s that bought because there wasn't much to do, wouldn't have bought then if they'd had the options we have now. It's not question of being elitist. Gaming is at heart too simple to be elitist. It's "pretend" all dressed up. Rather, it's a question of appealing to the kind of person who is going to want to roleplay in a tabletop game in the first place. There has to be some substance there to so appeal. With real substance, it helps to write about it as it is, not dumb it down. A good fantasy novel is rarely fine literature, but it is also rarely, say, a "junior" sports biography written to get an 11 year old to read something, anything. I forget which sci/fi author wrote it, but there is some statement along the lines of, "stories are told of all kinds of aliens, but every science fiction story we've ever seen has been written and read by 100% humans." Humanity is complex. Ultimately, games are a form of art, lowbrow as it may be, that is about exploring humanity--sometimes from some obscure angles. This is the real substance of the hobby. That's no call to make game procedures full of sophistry or other pretension. Sure, make those as clear as you can. But don't cheat the substance for some kind of false appeal to child--one that ultimately won't work, anyway. [/QUOTE]

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