Weekly Review Feb. 12th to Feb. 18th

Much of this week's theory discussion was a continuation of last week. However, some new developments did appear, though perhaps overshadowed by the pervasive debate centering on story.


The Story Blindness Debate: In the Aftermath

Last week, Ron Edwards put forward in no uncertain terms his theory of story blindness. While the immediate reponses varied, it is clear that Edwards has raised many questions of responsibility. Keith Senkowski decries the anger found in the debate as meaningless, and calls for people to calm down, on both sides, himself stepping aside. Clinton R Nixon discusses responsibility to the community, mourning Edwards' division of the community due to his choice of words. Lastly, John Kim suggests that the debate should focus more on solutions, and offers a few of his own.

Color and System

On Story Games, Joshua Bishop Roy expands his ideas on how color and system are distinguished. Color are the details that are essential, characterizing distinctly. System on the other hand are the substantial details, the material which is used to build what color distinguishes.

Art, Game, and Emulation

Also this month, Brian Hollenbeck put forward a draft of his theory of RPG, called the AGE Theory. The crux of this theory is to describe RPG-like activities in terms of a three axes: Art, Game, and Emulation. Each of these axes is interpreted as a specific space of play, in addition to a fourth space, where social interaction occurs. The interaction between these spaces makes up the actual play, as game actions translate to and from emulation events, possibly via artistic or social interpretations and decisions.