Weekly Review Dec. 3rd to Dec. 9th

This week has seen a handful of largely unrelated theory developments.

Reason to Compete

Guy Shalev discusses the goals behind competition. Specifically, he discounts a pure goal of winning, since many competitive games are still worthwhile without victory. He concludes that the process of competition itself must provide something of value.

Default System

Matt Snyder references the difference between the system existing largely with the people playing or within the game text. The former he describes as more typical with the same social and creative dynamics applying to multiple games. He suggests that the later enables the underlying dynamics of the game to be portable, enabling a more consistent experience.

Examples of Play

Moyra Turkington describes the benefits and problems of examples of play. Specifically she describes how examples of play can impart (intentionally or not) social and cultural elements of the game. In addition, she leaves the caveat that the importance of examples of play depends very much on the individual proclivities of the reader.

RPGs as Media

Over at Gamecraft is a discussion on the RPG as a medium, and its strengths and weaknesses as such. Most of these, good or bad, build on two basic principles: the creative flexibility of structured imagination and the mixing of creator and audience. In addition, some in the thread describe RPGs as much a process or method as a medium.