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Author Topic: How Open Minded Are Gamers?  (Read 4473 times)

cranebump

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« Reply #60 on: March 26, 2015, 08:20:12 PM »
Quote from: Kiero;822340
The bother is that those rolls up front tell you what you're going to play. They remove my volition from the process entirely, and in a D&D setup they constrain my choices as well.

I'm glad we didn't roll careers in WFRP2e as you're supposed to, because frankly most of the starting careers are shit. Especially for a "heroic" game as we were playing.


I can't really make a judgment on WFRP, but I'll take your word for it. And if your game is meant to be heroic, and the ability to be that is driven by having the choices or numbers you want, I would certainly think you'd have to go that way. Now, that said, I do respectfully disagree that the random rolls really tell me what I'm going to play in most D&D systems. Unless there's a stat min or some such, you really CAN play anything--again, depending on specific system, of course. Note that I'm not saying you should. I think where you see a constraint, I see an opportunity. However, had I something specific in mind, I might see things differently. I'll admit you can likely account my views on this as a product of the fantasy systems we play.

I should probably add that, for the Superhero games we run (and we've run a lot of them), the systems we use are, by default, point buy systems. But that's because Superheroes can operate from such wildly different templates and in their execution of what they do, vary in many ways. However, we've done some random stuff there, too. Since you CAN be pretty rad with just about anything Super, it works out. Might be different, given a different system.
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Bren

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« Reply #61 on: March 26, 2015, 08:25:27 PM »
Quote from: cranebump;822326
He didn't say RPGs required imaginative people. He said he assumed they were "more imaginative" than your average bear. He didn't assume all of them were (I don't think so, anyway).
If RPGs don't require that all (or nearly all) players are imaginative, then talking about imagination doesn't get him anywhere.


Quote
Ergo, those who play a lot of RPG's could be said to be more imaginative than your average person.
Traditionally the bulk of the imagination is required of the GM. So those who play RPGs may well be no more imaginative than the average person. They may just happen to channel what imagination they do have into playing RPGs instead of playing fantasy football, writing fan fiction, acting in community theater, or some other hobby.

I'm not saying players aren't more imaginative than average. I think most of us would like to think we and our friends are more imaginative than average. But I have no data and don't have a strong opinion about that one way or another.
« Last Edit: March 26, 2015, 08:28:43 PM by Bren »
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cranebump

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« Reply #62 on: March 27, 2015, 08:19:36 PM »
Quote from: Bren;822344
I'm not saying players aren't more imaginative than average. I think most of us would like to think we and our friends are more imaginative than average. But I have no data and don't have a strong opinion about that one way or another.


I getcha. No way to quantify. Sort of feels true, but it could be all the "imagination" is just our social maladjustment and general kookiness. :-)
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Bren

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« Reply #63 on: March 27, 2015, 08:32:05 PM »
Quote from: cranebump;822510
I getcha. No way to quantify. Sort of feels true, but it could be all the "imagination" is just our social maladjustment and general kookiness. :-)

Yes. :)

Or it is a story we tell ourselves to make us feel better about our choices and position in life. Had you asked me the same question when I was in my teens or even my twenties, I likely would have thought gamers were more imaginative. Now? I don't really care about the answer and I think the question is unimportant.

As a GM I work with the imaginations I have, both mine and those of the people at the table. Whether we are more imaginative or less imaginative than some unquantifiable average is uninteresting and irrelevant to play since the rest of the world that makes up the average aren't sitting at the table with us.
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Nexus

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« Reply #64 on: March 27, 2015, 11:27:07 PM »
"Don't be so open minded your brain falls out."
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Opaopajr

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« Reply #65 on: March 28, 2015, 06:27:52 AM »
I think the bigger issue is of a narrowed pool of players. Lots of people, especially over the years, tend to reduce their campaign tables to one or two. Thus rotating games is going to interfere with squeezing out the fun of what currently has momentum. It also gets to a higher desire for character micro-management (creation, mortality, etc.).

Now, schedules being what they are, I am not going to say one must up their game table groups. However, with more tables and different circles of people, it helps the adventurous scratch that itch. Similarly holding a stable of characters for a campaign frees up a variety of characters from any particular adventure arc or scenario.

I'd like to consider myself way more on the open & flexible spectrum of RPG play. I feel it helps my creativity and scratches more of those itches without having them bleed into the same campaign or arc. I understand people knowing what they like and staying in a (rather staid, to me) comfort zone.

But then I'm similarly adventurous when it comes to trying new things in just about everything else in my life — my interests are very broad. (However, I do have my blind spots. For example, having tried most physical activities, I found that I hate just about all of them. Sports of all stripes is just not for me and my time is limited on earth.)
« Last Edit: March 28, 2015, 06:36:58 AM by Opaopajr »
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Opaopajr

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« Reply #66 on: March 28, 2015, 06:30:41 AM »
Quote from: Greentongue;822271
The idea in my mind was that people that played games that require/exercised their imaginations would "have more imagination".

Obviously I was wrong.
It goes hand in hand with the "you can't do it if it isn't in the rules" mindset.

While I may be "the bad guy" it still surprises me when I encounter it.
=


You should game with me! I'll imagine your socks off! (Which reminds me I need to follow up on my next Open Call for my D&D 5e (mostly) RAW PbP here...)
Just make your fuckin' guy and roll the dice, you pricks. Focus on what's interesting, not what gives you the biggest randomly generated virtual penis.  -- J Arcane
 
You know, people keep comparing non-TSR D&D to deck-building in Magic: the Gathering. But maybe it's more like Katamari Damacy. You keep sticking shit on your characters until they are big enough to be a star.
-- talysman

RPGPundit

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« Reply #67 on: March 31, 2015, 05:30:05 AM »
My player group is quite open-minded and willing to trust me on the games I want to run.
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« Reply #68 on: April 01, 2015, 12:07:37 PM »
Variety is the spice of life. I play tons of games. I've run or played dozens of different RPGs. I am also an avid board gamer and video gamer. I cant imagine wanting to play just one kind of game much less one specific game. There are too many cool games out there. I will play an RPG system for a few months or even years and then move on to something else. I've taken away ideas of how to approach other games from those I've played which I feel is enriching.

I acknowledge I am pretty unusual in this. My geek tribalism isn't around a game, but around games as a category.

This means I get to do some gaming every day. What could be better?

Haffrung

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« Reply #69 on: April 01, 2015, 12:22:33 PM »
My players will try something new as long as they have to put in absolutely no effort or time away from the table.

So then the question becomes how keen am I to learn a new system, walk every player through character generation, and handle all mechanics and rules look-ups during play.
 

Nexus

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« Reply #70 on: April 01, 2015, 02:39:54 PM »
People that want to run games make proposals and pitches, those that are interested in them play. As a group are interests are pretty diverse but individual players know what they like and what sounds interesting enough to try. There's only a couple that I'd say are up up for anything and some have limited interest outside of certain genres and styles.
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Ravenswing

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« Reply #71 on: April 02, 2015, 12:26:41 AM »
This isn't a gaming thing.  It's a human thing.

Not one of you would dare tell me that I was closed-minded, for instance, for liking the colors purple, blue, silver and black and not being particularly jazzed about orange, yellow or brown.

Not one of you would dare tell me that there was something wrong with me liking steak and potatoes, and not being into Thai food.

Not one of you would dare get on my case for being a hockey and soccer fan, and being relatively indifferent about NASCAR and basketball.

Not one of you would dare yell in rage that I just wanted to listen to classical music, folk and classic rock, and that I had zero interest in C&W and less than zero interest in hip-hop.

(Well, some of you might: there are assholes everywhere in the world.)

I am a grown adult, and I'm allowed to have preferences.  I am allowed to enjoy tea and dislike coffee.  I'm allowed to enjoy SF and have little use for romance novels.  I'm allowed to worship at a Unitarian Universalist church and decline to go anywhere near a Pentecostal or Baptist church.  I'm allowed to sing in a university chorus focusing on classical music, and decline to sing in a barbershop quartet.

I am not going to seek anyone's approval for, or brook anyone's interference with, these choices.

And in like fashion, I play point-buy; I won't touch random gen.  I have a strong preference for GURPS.  I'll play fantasy, supers, pulp and low-yield SF; I won't touch horror or espionage.  I like plenty of RP; I'm indifferent towards hack-n-slash.
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Simlasa

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« Reply #72 on: April 02, 2015, 01:44:10 AM »
Quote
I am a grown adult, and I'm allowed to have preferences.
Quote
I am not going to seek anyone's approval for, or brook anyone's interference with, these choices.
Yup, and you're allowed to suffer the consequences of refusing to compromise on those preferences when you're with a group of adults with different preferences.
You can do lots of things by yourself but RPGs generally require a group... which means 'my way or the highway' probably ain't gonna work out too well.

For myself, I'd rather play a game I'm only marginally interested in (Pathfinder) than stick to my guns and proudly stay home alone, reading my copy of Noumenon (weird game no one wants to play)... because in the end it's more about the people at the table and having a good time with them than it is about getting my way on some bullshit game preference.

Quote from: Ravenswing;823379
Not one of you would dare tell me that I was closed-minded, for instance, for liking the colors purple, blue, silver and black and not being particularly jazzed about orange, yellow or brown.
No, but we'll make fun of you for your blue text fetish.
« Last Edit: April 02, 2015, 01:53:05 AM by Simlasa »

Nexus

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« Reply #73 on: April 02, 2015, 06:06:32 AM »
I don't see sense in doing something for allegedly for fun if you aren't enjoying it. For example, I don't like Dungeon Fantasy. I've tried it before, never liked it. Why would I want to spend hours doing something I don't like and don't want to do when I could be doing other things I would enjoy while the group does something they enjoy when they want to play D and D. I could show up, roll some dice and hang out, possibly being an unintentional buzz kill or spend my recreational time doing something more fun. I can hang out with those friends some other time.

What consequences am I suffering? Not playing a game I don't enjoy or maybe doing other things aside from gaming with other people than a particular segment of the gaming crowd around here? Gaming isn't my only social outlet or interaction. Its just something I like to do and the people I do it with are often my friends but not my only ones. And they don't play in every game either
« Last Edit: April 02, 2015, 06:19:53 AM by Nexus »
Remember when Illinois Nazis where a joke in the Blue Brothers movie?

Democracy, meh? (538)

 "The salient fact of American politics is that there are fifty to seventy million voters each of whom will volunteer to live, with his family, in a cardboard box under an overpass, and cook sparrows on an old curtain rod, if someone would only guarantee that the black, gay, Hispanic, liberal, whatever, in the next box over doesn’t even have a curtain rod, or a sparrow to put on it."

Simlasa

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« Reply #74 on: April 02, 2015, 06:40:09 AM »
Quote from: Nexus;823401
I don't see sense in doing something for allegedly for fun if you aren't enjoying it.
I suppose not if you're really not going to get any enjoyment out of it at all... because it's not precisely the game and style of play you like.
 
If I limited myself that way I'd hardly ever play. I'd still run games... but the chances of finding groups playing exactly the games I want, the way I want to play them... is pretty much nil.
I've had better luck online... but even then, it's usually a random assemblage... there are ALWAYS compromises that I either choose to make or walk away from.
 
It's not that I won't quit a group if I'm not having fun... but my sense of fun has a lot more to do with the other people at the table rather than what game we happen to be playing.
Getting to play my favorite system won't mean crap if the guys at the table are duds to be around... and if they're a fun group I get along with them then just about any game is going to be entertaining. At least that's been my experience.