thread: 2011-02-17 : Ben Lehman: Playtesting: Stop
On 2011-02-23, Joel wrote:
Ron, I certainly wasn't trying to say this was your fault or anything. I'm sorry I implied anything of the kind.
I think we agree, in fact. I wasn't saying that the Forge Shock thread was the source of my absorbed shame message...it was the "rash of talk" that came after, which you also seem to be referring to in the most disparaging of terms. So I think we're on the same page on that, yeah?
It occurs to me that this kind of message decay is endemic to the whole internet, not just Forge-spawned concepts. Like John worrying that "editing" will become the new "playtesting"...yeah, it's always going to be something, right? Which sucks, because people coming into the scene (like me in 05-08) are going to have to navigate a mess of posturing, distortion and rhetoric. Like the Ashcan Front—I got so fucking confused about what the Ashcan front was about and for: why you should ashcan your game, whether your game counts as an ashcan, etc. etc.
Not sure what to do about that...proclaim the truth loudly? I won't discount the power of the right truth heard by the right person at the right time; take me and this thread for example. But it seems like the larger effect is to create a ripple of reaction that leads to a brand new wave of posturing.
How about creating organized repositories of knowledge and practical instruction, outside the context of blog and forum posts with battle lines drawn? A guide to playtesting, to editing, to physical publishing, etc. that laid out clearly A) what a given process is for, and B) the basics of how to go about it, would be solid gold. I'm not saying it would have to all be in one place—though the Indie RPG Publisher's Database would be a beautiful thing to behold. But any given person with a passion for a thing could make a website for THAT THING, and it would be a valuable resource for those who need it.
Of course, this is no guarantee. After all, the Ashcan Front has a website that explains their whole philosophy and look how that turned out! Maybe the lesson is, if all your information on a topic is gleaned from forums and blogs, be wary. If there were more repositories like what I'm talking about, perhaps the distortion effect would lessen.
Peace,
-Joel
