thread: 2006-01-11 : Two kinds of me
On 2006-01-11, Vincent wrote:
Ah. I can be more clear, then.
Saying that any kind of tinkering is design is not untrue, but is a bit disingenuous. Jane Gamer deciding to tweak some tiny piece of d20 is doing game design, sure, but that doesn't mean she's Vincent's intended audience. Or, if it does, then what the heck am I to make of "If you're not an RPG designer and you're reading my theory stuff, you're doing it at your own risk"? Doing Vincent the courtesy of assuming that he means what he types, I have to assume that there is a divide between players and designers, and I am on the player side of the divide.
I'm not being disingenuous! Jane gamer is absolutely my target audience.
You're only on the player side of the divide insofar as you don't make the leap. The leap is, "I can see how this theory idea could be made to apply to actual play."
See where I say "It is, in fact, the leap of RPG design"? You could read that in two directions, I think. The one I mean is: to make that leap is to do, in however grand or modest a way, RPG design.
Lots, lots, lots of people aren't interested in making that leap. That's FINE. I can do the work for them; I love it. I can't imagine why they'd hang out here, where making the leap is what's required - and I figured it was time to remind them of that.
