thread: 2015-03-23 : The Vengeful Demon of the Ring as a Con Game
On 2015-03-23, Vincent wrote:
Weeks: So then your answer to 3 is, some would be players and some would be unwitting players, isn't it?
I don't agree that players must by definition be playful, but I'll come clean! I'm much, much more interested in the question of what we mean when we use the casual, natural English term "unwitting player," and what the term can teach me about game design, than I am in any definitions by which it's an oxymoron.
This makes CW go "Sure"
But the unwitting players aren't playing. :-)
This makes CW go "Does "unwittingly playful" seem oxymoronic to you?"
This makes VB go "It doesn't, no."
When we call a breeze playful, we're talking about the outcomes of its actions, not its own internal experience of them. A playful breeze isn't wittingly so.
This makes VB go "Furthermore..."
When I play Poker, I can play it playfully, but I can also play it soberly, or with grim determination, or in a patient and workmanlike manner.
