thread: 2006-10-02 : Conflict resolution sans stakes
On 2006-10-04, Joel P. Shempert wrote:
Regarding Curly's "Marginalia,"
I'd say Fifth Element is just "Die Hard" again: beats bad guys, gets girl.
So's Pulp Fiction, though with a twist: makes peace with bad guys, gets girl.
Sin City, he doesn't get the girl, 'cause he dies. So it's Beats bad guy, saves girl, dies.
Which is I guess all within Vincent's big point, which is that they're ALL fun, and seeing whcih one the system leads us to is fun. Perhaps it's useful to chart all these out to see (for instance) that what people are invested in can vary more than just lose/win or live/die. ("He dies? OK, but only so long as he saves her." Or perhaps I only charted them out just because.
I like this game of "Which Bruce Willis are you?" It takes the samey-ness of Willis portrayals to a whole new level. And maybe just barely hints at why we love him so much evewn though he's kinda the same guy in every movie. I want to publish a book for Young Adults now called "Chose Your Own Willis."
In my case, Vincent, I think it's a big "duh," but probably only since recently. It's a significant duh, in that it ties into (as in is the same point, really) the for me recent realization that conflict resolution isn't amechanic or whatever, you can be doing with any system, anywhere, anytime, so long as all your rolls are all banked toward resolving the conflict. That Con Res must be a specific funky mechanic is a misunderstanding I'm afraid I fostered on my brother who I play with, in my early theory-reading and theory-understanding days, to the effect that he's hostile or at least unattracted to con res in a way that I think is at least half misconception.
Another sub-poiint to this is that people were DOING THIS SHIT long before we had the Forge hippie games to give support and procedures for it. I've been watching Settembrini's interview clips with Ron Edwards, and his talk about Champions play and using Disads for positioning and address of theme is just awesome. I wish I could send that video back to my fifteen year old self.
Peace,
-Joel
PS I read the Ludanta post, and found this amusing: Carrie: "So did you watch Buffy? I promise this is relevant.
The episode ???The Body??? almost killed that series for me, because Joss Whedon is an ass when it comes to character death. . .[snip]. . .And ???damage??? doesn???t have to mean something that???s bad for the *character*; it just has to be bad for the *concept*: what fun is Cyclops if he can control his power?"
I just couldn't stop chuckling to myself and thinking, "I wonder if she knows Joss just got through giving Cyclops control of his power?"
