Oh, reddit...

[JustKneller]

So, here's the thing...

This may come as a surprise, but I'm not the smartest guy in the world. When it comes to game design, I don't know everything there is to know. But, this doesn't stop me from exploring the nature of design on a deeper level, which can get pretty heady when looking at tabletop games. So, with a project I've been developing, I've been going down a bit of a philosophical rabbit hole to explore the value of designing something one way versus another. Often times, I go to reddit for game design talk largely for lack of another forum. However, and I'm sure many of us have had our experiences there, sometimes it can feel like slamming your head against a wall.

This kind of ties into m7600's recent post on rockism. I think this is a dynamic definitely applies to the tabletop hobby. It's nearly impossible to have a conversation that challenges perspectives because people quickly become partisan and defensive of their version of fun. Or, people agree with you and they aren't really going to challenge the idea.

I was foolishly hoping to level up my concept for a game by finding a meaningful way to differentiate between two approaches for the game. Instead, I just collected a bunch of meaningless downvotes.

 

[m7600]

I think this is a dynamic definitely applies to the tabletop hobby.

It does. And even more so with RPGs. I mean, I don't see Monopoly players getting all worked up about their game in any comparable way.

But that reddit discussion seems pretty tame, all things considered. I've seen worse, as I'm sure you have as well.

 

[JustKneller]

Oh, I've definitely seen worse. But for people who are supposedly interested in the philosophy of game design, they sure don't like to debate the finer points of game design.

 

[Chronicler]

A lot of reddit is like that.

/r/transhumanism is more a sci-fi enthusiast subreddit than it really is much of a place to discuss or learn about the philosophy of transhumanism. Most of the stuff they talk about in there is pretty far removed from any kind of achievable goals.

Lately the big topic is FDVR. "Full Dive Virtual Reality". Basically like sword art online, a fully immersive virtual reality experience where you can feel and taste everything as if it were real. It's a fine enough conversation prompt but I don't think there's some lab somewhere that's actually cooking this stuff up. And then sometimes they take it to the extreme of imagining we'll each get to create our own bespoke reality made exactly to our liking and just live in there forever, which, like, I don't even wanna think about the real life computational resources that go into creating and maintaining all this so that you can sit in your pod and do nothing. Who's paying for all this?

 

[m7600]

But getting back to the analogy with rockism, there's definitely a comparable level of elitism in the world of RPGs, be they tabletop or digital. Especially with D&D. It's like, "Oh, you play 5th edition? Well, I used to play 3rd edition". The implication being, "unlike you, I'm a true D&D player". But those types get trumped by even more extreme oldheads, i.e., "Oh, you play 3rd edition? Well I play second edition". "Oh you play 2nd edition? Well I was around back in the day and I played first edition. Beat that."

 

[m7600]

"Oh, you like Baldur's Gate? Well, I (unlike you) prefer Eye of the Beholder."
"Oh, you like Eye of the Beholder? Well, I (unlike you) only play the Gold Box games."

Etc., etc. Ad nauseam.

 

[Chronicler]

I think for a while they were calling those types "Hipsters"?

The old "I'll have you know I liked this band before they were cool" nugget.

Haven't heard anybody called a hipster in a while though. Maybe that's faded from use.

 

[m7600]

Name three Gygax modules.

 

[JustKneller]

Keep on the borderlands, tomb of horrors, and I think there was a series about drow. Those were by Gygax.

The somewhat ironic thing about it is that I was posting there to be sold on BX D&D (which is really at the core of the sub). It's my personal favorite edition with some adds from RC and AD&D. Not the "best" mind you, but my personal favorite. However, I wanted to legitimize the "extra" rules over FKR as actually adding objective value to the game. Instead, they painted me as some anti-D&D troll.

But, you're right. The elitism on the hobby is out of control. And, it's like each edition is built for a different purpose to comparing them is apples and oranges.