I get that. The sites really do have different attitudes toward negative comments about the styles of game that many people there prefer.
I'd like to point out, however, that they also have different attitudes toward positive comments about styles of game that few people at the site prefer.
If Pundit went over to the Forge and talked about how much he loves D20 (or whatever), I suspect he'd get nothing but a warm welcome and some enthusiastic agreement.
I don't think even the forgies would believe
that lie. You'd have to go on sort of bowing and scraping at the pedestal of narrativism, and then somehow come up with a way to frame it as "I know D&D sucks but these guys I hang out with keep insisting we play..."
..and then maybe, MAYBE you could talk about D&D (or anything else). Sprinkled with maybe some musings about how you changed out the experience system or something.
...But more likely you run into some jackanape who has never played D&D except once telling you how it all "really works."
And in any case- it doesn't matter.
Levi didn't leave because of the way Pundit runs this board. He left because he was offended by something Pundit
said. You (as usual) are advocating a whole new way for this place to be run. I think I know why.
Here's the deal. At the end of the day: if you can't say whatever stupid crap you want to say here, then you by default are
acknowledging that what you want to say will not hold up to argument, examination or the light of reality. Thats the bottom line. No
other place has this policy, so what you see is people create these little "safe places" and they have their starry-eyed little fantasies about how things work. And people who
want to believe just smooch-smooch and group-hug right along, and nobody ever examines anything. And pretty soon you have actual cult leaders and an ideological battle that you, Tony, and people like you--
have made worth fighting, because any lesser response allows you and people like you to abuse and denigrate our hobby, our friends, and our lifestyles. We're abusing right back, I admit. I suggest if this is unpalatable to you, then you cease and desist and give us nothing to complain about. Eventually we go back to gaming. It's all we really care about.
So the RPGsite might be brutal and awful sometimes, I admit-- but it's honest and you either sink or swim based on your own ability. In any case, sometimes people's dumb fucking fantasies about 'how it oughta' be' or whatever really do deserve to get shot to pieces. Witness Tony's "Aren't Indie RPGs actually the majority?" thread from last year.
If anything,
that is why they hate us. They hate us because we own the only arena where you can make an argument without fear of being suddenly "disappeared".
Thusly, We own the debate. We took over the discourse. And we did it right under their pointy little noses, too. And that's why Tony wants desperately for us to become less controversial. Then we'd just fade right into the background as just another gaming site.
We are who we are because of the controversy. This is
the most exciting place to discuss gaming.. on the entire internet.
Well, we're not going down that road, I hope. The brilliance of theRpgsite is: they can't tear their piggy little eyes away. Of all of the people commiserating with Levi over on his LJ and talking about how much they hate us? Most of them don't even have accounts here! I guarantee you that the worst of them are reading this now. We have a one-way hotline of communication with those fuckers, and we're using it.
That rules.
So in closing, I like Levi, and I regret him leaving, but that's certainly his right.
If you don't like the intrinsic philosophy to how this place works, there's plenty of fluffy smooch-smooch hangouts you can go to. We're more of a spiky smash-smash place.