thread: 2009-12-08 : Your 3 Insights
On 2009-12-08, Troy_Costisick wrote:
On Cutthroat-
Subject Matter: Cutthroat is not about bikers. It says nothing about Bikers as people nor anything about the Biker lifestyle. It?s about groups- any kind of groups of individuals who are competitive with one another. You could just as easily sub in adolescents, basketball players, or engineers in a four cubical quad. It doesn?t matter. I think that group politics are not nearly as nice as they seem on the surface and are actually a lot more like Bikers walloping the shit out each other.
Role-playing as a Practice: Cutthroat says that dysfunctional behavior does not necessarily mean a dysfunctional game. In fact, the bigger of a dick you are the better your chances are at this game. Cutthroat provides a safe environment for players to become the very worst of themselves in terms of group dynamics. It gives gamers the chance to indulge in the ass-hatery we all constantly fight against. And once it?s all over, we can sit and laugh at ourselves and go back to being good friends, polite people, and hospitable hosts.
Human Nature: What Cutthroat says about groups is that given the opportunity for one-up-man?s-ship, everyone will take whatever advantage they can get and use it. Alliances are all temporary. Friendship is based on trust and trust is a very rare commodity. Personal advancement, in the end, is all that matters to competitive individuals in a group. Cutthroat acknowledges that no one is really as nice as they seem. Everyone still caries the scars of the cock-punching, name-calling days of middle school and is very capable of dredging up those memories and putting them to good use. We just don?t because of our inhibitions.
