thread: 2011-05-11 : The Un-frickin-welcome
On 2011-05-05, David Berg wrote:
I do like that phrasing way better than your previous ones that I've read.
Here's my understanding:
Unwelcome
"Unwelcome" here is not about the overall experience that follows a fictional outcome; it's about the preference, both immediate and ongoing, that the fictional outcome had gone otherwise. "Unwelcome" applies to outcomes that are in fact credible, and could be accepted into the fiction without violating standards such as plausibility.
As a definition, I'm content to call that good enough.
For me, in functional play, that sort of occurrence tends to cause nothing more than a very brief moment of "crap!" before I'm off to enjoying the next moment. It barely makes the list of things that I can remember from a game as "unwelcome". I think that's been the cause of our disconnect. I wish we had better terms for this. Oh well.
As for enjoying the next moment, if I clarify that by "cool!" I mean "I am happy, and I've lost my followers," and not "I am happy that I've lost my followers," I think we're all good.
Compelling
I dunno whether "compelling" needs precise defining in this context or not.
I think "cool!" is my reaction to compelling fiction, and I think "compelling" is dependent on the social context I referred to. Hopefully that fills in any remaining gaps that vexed you in my previous descriptions.
Overcoming best interests
I worry that if I embark on another quest to pin down what you mean, you're gonna shiv me thru my monitor... but on the off chance that I already get it, here's one attempt:
In my social group, without a game design changing our interactions, the unwelcome loss of my followers would not be compelling. Our best interests, sans game, would be to keep my followers around. Thus, a game design needs to overcome the "keep the followers" interest, and it does this by creating a context of play in which the loss of the followers, though still unwelcome, is now compelling.
