thread: 2011-01-10 : Social Context and Design
On 2011-01-10, Vincent wrote:
Is there scope? Of course!
How much? Well. You get to design your game to be as demanding as you like, but your audience gets to choose whether to try it and whether to stick with it. That's how you find out whether you've judged them well - if they do the unnatural thing you ask them to, then you have. If they don't, then you've misjudged them.
Should I underline that? Maybe I should. If your audience doesn't seize upon the game you've designed for them, you have a choice. You can reevaluate your own judgment, or else you can throw blame. Blame your audience for failing to live up to your ideals, blame cliques and status-attention in the scene, blame me for monopolizing their attention, whatever. My suspicion is that reevaluating your own judgment will give you the most fruitful way forward.
Anyway, some audiences are notorious for putting up with things that don't come naturally to them, but which they'll come to love. Burning Wheel's, for instance - you can see it in how they LOVE Burning Wheel, because they've EARNED it. Others are notorious for not, no matter how much they might. Western Massers, for instance - you can see it in how fickle we are, and in how Burning Wheel makes us cry. If your game commands an audience like the former, you have a lot more room to make your game demanding.
