thread: 2005-11-14 : Long and Short
On 2005-11-16, Matt Snyder wrote:
I think we're missing some fundamental concerns about this topic by concentrating on the games and the designs and so on.
I think one of the primary explanations of why we're seeing far more "short term" games is about the practical nature of social organzation and available time.
My observation is that the vast majority of designers, particularly the "Forge designers" are professional adults with active lives. Some raise children. Most work full time, and many pursue rigorous academics.
This means they don't have TIME for long term games. Shorter games work better with their schedules, and with the vagaries of keeping a group of active adults together as a social group.
Now, obviously, there are groups who make longer games happen—Vincent's group is a good example. My own example stands in contrast, however. Even despite repeated demands for a long term game among my old group, inevitably we came around to new games and new ideas. Shorter games seemed to be the rule, not because of the games or designs or ideas, but because of the erosion of interest, and especially the circumstances of scheduling and time. That is, it wasn't the games themselves or the designs, it was the real-life people playing them, and their (in)ability to make long term play practical.
I see reports of similar patterns in other actual play posts and so on. I think it's fundamental to the discussion here.
Who are we designing these games for? Are we on target? Do we hit the target "accidentally" because we are designing for ourselves, and people like us catch on? Do others HAVE TIME to play our games? Are longer term games harder to make time for?
Oh, if others HAVE mentioned "social practicality" issue above and I missed it, my apologies.
This makes Tim go "Good Point"
This makes TC go "Yup..."
This is the very situation I face, and probably the reason my designs have the tendancies they do.
This makes JK go "Thanks"
I wrote a much more poorly worded version of this post and deleted it frustrated.
Matt up and said it. Thanks.
This makes NinJ go "Of course we design for ourselves."
Look, I design games that I want to play. So do you. In fact, I believe what you said was, "I wanted to design a game where my friends and I could just make up cool shit."
So, I've been playing Dragon Killer once a week with the Bakers. That's more gaming than I've had in six months. Usually it's once a month.
Shock: had a rule for a little while where you decided at the beginning of a story how many episodes your character's story was going to last, from one to three. I ditched that rule, but I'm still thinking about that scale of story. I'll put dollars to donuts that it's an excellent timeframe for a story.
