thread: 2008-04-14 : Interchangeable?
On 2008-04-14, Marshall wrote:
It's all about the aesthetics, if you ask me. The function IS to reliably produce the desired aesthetic qualities.
I've been thinking a lot about the "modeling" issue in game rules. I used to be a system-monkey and I loved that shit. Just figuring out "how do I model phenomenon X?" was fun for me. But lately I'm thinking that no system, ever, has REALLY "modeled" a reality in the sense that I was thinking. I think we all know that the "realism" thing falls on its face under enough pressure and scrutiny.
I'm not giving up on the concept of modeling in general, though; in fact, I think that all game systems do model something: the conventions of the fiction they are intended to produce. It's all about the aesthetics. Aesthetics at the beginning, aesthetics at the end, with other agendas sandwiched in there somewhere.
