thread: 2005-12-03 : Closing GNS and RPG Theory is Good
On 2005-12-04, Ron Edwards wrote:
Joshua,
Your distinction between GNS and the Big Model, and their correspondence to the two forums, isn't accurate, although I can see why you'd think that.
The tendency to talk about Big Model stuff in RPG Theory was a negative trend that I routinely combatted by moving threads to the GNS forum, for years. In the last year, I more-or-less gave up. Since the last year also corresponds to Big Model discussions (given the date of publication of the Narrativism essay, where it pretty much got that name), that's why you see what seemed to you to be a purposeful distinction.
Actually, the point of RPG Theory was to discuss any imaginable substantive ideas about role-playing, not to continue or work with the Big Model or any other specific framework. You could use it or not as you saw fit.
It was closed because it didn't work. Based on years of observation, I decided that the vast majority of posts there were better off anchored in accounts of actual play.
The current hope is for *better* theory discussions at the Forge, which go *farther* - the absolute opposite of the widely perceived notion that theory is being muzzled at the site. The discussions will be better and go farther because of the actual-play backbone of the initial posts, for a variety of reasons. Again, I hope.
If it doesn't work out, well, hey, there's always whatever blogs and fora and similar have evolved in the meantime.
