thread: 2005-05-10 : How Do You Design a Mechanic?
On 2005-05-12, anon. wrote:
I don't think this is mere convention. I certainly don't think it's "for convenience." I think it's strange, fucked-up, wrong, and so on. I think it's about hiding behind Incoherent play as a shield to protect one's fragile psyche. I think it's about pretending, in the sense of dishonesty. And I think it's about huddling together and rattling fetishes rather than actually socializing and sharing imaginations. And I think it's about age old conventions of identification with characters and nothing terribly kinky. Many roleplayers when talking about their characters shift between direct identification and third person reporting with no embarassment. I don't think gamers hide behind "incoherent play" so much as they've never heard of it. The model works, and if it doesn't fit with your view of gmaing (or mine even), why bash it?
I have visions of the roleplaying police be marching up to tables up and across the country, hitting gamers with rolled up copies of Sorcerer saying, "Stop this! It's inchoherent!"
