thread: 2009-07-13 : How About Some Q and A
On 2009-07-15, Vincent wrote:
Ben: An oldie but goodie.
When I'm the judge of humanity and its works, the artists who go into the lake of fire will be the ones who've pandered cynically to human weakness. Whether some roleplaying game designers have pandered cynically to human weakness, we could probably argue. Is pandering to adolescent boys' protofascist power fantasies a thing in roleplaying games? I don't know, probably so. If so, were those designers cynical, or just expressing adolescent boys' protofascist power fantasies of their own? I don't know, probably the latter. I guess we'll have to wait until I'm (or you're) the judge of humanity and its works to find out.
As an artist, I take it as my responsibility to do art with integrity to itself. If sometimes my games change people's lives, great! If for the better, greater still! If for the worse, eh, they'll probably get over it. I haven't pandered cynically to their weaknesses, so I'm comfortable taking it as it comes.
That's me. Other artists will have to look out for their own responsibilities, as they best come to understand them. I could probably write a manifesto, under duress, but I certainly wouldn't try to legislate.
