thread: 2006-01-17 : Hurt and Abandonment
On 2006-01-18, Brand Robins wrote:
You know, having read people's examples (thanks for sharing!) I think I have often been thinking of a different thing when I say "hurt" and when I say "pain" that has lead me to be miscommunication in part of this discussion.
It used to be pretty common when Joshua BishopRoby, Mo, Josh's wife, and I used to play Tribe 8 together for at least two of the people in any given session to be reduced to tears. I don't think we every played a full session in which someone wasn't sobbing so hard that they couldn't get words out and we had to pause, not because they needed a break, but just because they couldn't speak. However, I don't think any of us really considered that "hurt" because we were all in it together, and that kind of emotional intensity is what we wanted out of the game.
So when we started this discussion I wasn't thinking of emotional intensity to the point of bawling being "hurt." When I was thinking of hurt, I was thinking of things that were like Levi's example with his father. I was especially thinking of times when things like that were done on purpose. And some subprocess of my brain was also adding in, "not just on purpose, but as something done by the GM or group to "school" the person and teach them a lesson."
Now, however, I remember something that used to happen at my house when my brothers and I would brawl. We'd pound the shit out of each other, and end up bleeding and bruised and in a general mess. My mother would often get a bit freaked and ask us if we were hurt. We would, of course, answer yes. She would then want to take us to the hospital or something, until my dad would calmly say from the background, "Are you injured?" To which we'd answer no, and then go play Nintendo together. The difference between hurt and injury was always an important one in our house, as one is something that passes and is part of life and the other is a big deal.
So I was all getting gunshy about calling NOGH "wimpy" because I'm all thinking "No One Gets Injured." But if we're just talking about hurt, not injury, and only with Nar play, then hell... it is wimpy. Wimpy, wimpy, wimpy!
