thread: 2005-05-02 : Person vs. Protagonist
On 2005-05-03, anon. wrote:
Hi, Matt!
Thanks for using the term right!
Totally with you wrt 1-4. 6 is a source of considerable embarrassment to me.
5) Isn't it strange that we must argue a bit and flounder around for an appropriate word akin to meaningful to express the bloody obvious? We're talking about a process in which we create stories. We struggle with the words, and we constantly explain our statements, like I'm going to do in this next sentence: I'm using story here as a constructed narrative that expresses a profound theme. God, why must we do that? We are too geeked. I hate that!
This doesn't strike me as odd at all.
Given that we are appropriating the terms of literary theory to describe something totally different (rather like using cooking terms to describe a play—"I found Macbeth medium rare, I think") we're going to need to poke around at the terms and try to define them, rather than just being "Why aren't we right all the time, no matter what? It's the geek's fault!"
It is a hard process, developing new theory. Frankly, RPG theory has it easy. If you think this definitional shit is hard, I invite you to read some Levi-Strauss.
There are at least two totally reasonable things that "story" can mean in the context of an RPG. Both of them are totally valid wrt the original meaning as a non-theoretical term. There are at least three mutually exclusive things that "meaningful" can mean, and I'm not allowed to name them on this journal.
God damn it, people, this is what Big Model Theory is about!
——-
I have some questions about what you mean by "ordinary people games"
By "ordinary people games" do you mean "games about ordinary people" or "games that ordinary people would like?" Do you consider the two categories to be the same.
Either way, do you mean wrt:
Setting
Color
Situation
Creative Agenda
And, if you mean more than one and see them as the same thing, help me understand how they are connected.
thanks—
—Ben
