I am have been in the past, a bad GM/Referee/DM for one reason or the other.  Usually it's because of under-preparedness, and/or lack of familiarity with the rules (or misunderstanding them).  Also not really feeling out the target gaming group that well.  It is a problem I still have from time to time, but I'd say in my defense that I'm probably about 75%/25% good/bad on a broad spectrum.  If you're talking one system, say...oh...I dunno maybe...AD&D? Yeah, I'm in my element and I excel there.

Quote from: Cranewings;343287...

So when I run, I make certain to depict the player characters as awesome. For example, I like having a consequence for rolling a one in combat. Usually, I'll say something like, "your bow string breaks. You need to take a move equivalent to fix it" or, "you slightly overstep when you take your strike, giving your enemy an attack of opportunity." My way of describing it is much more enjoyable to my friends than, "you break your sword" or "you fall off your horse and get stepped on."

It also has to do with how the world perceives the characters. In my games, a 1st level wizard is respected by the community because magic missile is otherwise known as "slay average person." First level fighters can fight and kill 3-4 orcs or level 1 warriors, so they get respect as well. Not to mention, the simple fact that player characters have above average stats means people will treat them with respect.
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Same here.  I also try to throw in a "repeat" encounter later, one that once would have made them tremble but now is a cake walk.  Of course now that they are slaying frost giants like they once slew orcs (orcs were once tough) they feel pretty badass.

Now that my players are 9-10th level (in D&D terms) even the King treats them with respect.

I absolutely agree with the title of this thread.

For me.

For you? Who knows. And because I'm not a game nazi, I do still play with my local crunchy-BRP fans. And I attempt to infect them with my namby-pamby circle-jerk touchy-feely narrativist style. It hasn't worked.

Quote from: Pelorus;343401It hasn't worked.

Good.

Quote from: thedungeondelver;343407Good.

Oh, get over yourself.

Quote from: Shazbot79;343321I wonder if anyone ever admits to being a bad DM online?

I am altogether atrocious, but my players keep showing up so I keep running games.

Quote from: GnomeWorks;343417Oh, get over yourself.

No, no, he's right, GW.

If that infection starts to spread, we could have story gamers showing up in all our games. Better to quarantine and contain the vector.

Pelorus, please step into the yellow plastic tent . . .

Quote from: Tommy Brownell;343422I am altogether atrocious, but my players keep showing up so I keep running games.

I'm a pretty lame, but since I keep trying to run stuff no one's interested in playing anyway, at least I'm not responsible for the, "Look what my horrible GM did to me!" rants on web forums.

So I have that going for me.

Quote from: The Shaman;343427I'm a pretty lame, but since I keep trying to run stuff no one's interested in playing anyway, at least I'm not responsible for the, "Look what my horrible GM did to me!" rants on web forums.

So I have that going for me.

I can write a pretty good rant about that, if you need one.

Quote from: GnomeWorks;343417Oh, get over yourself.

That the best you got?

Quote from: GnomeWorks;343489That the best you got?

In fairness, you didn't exactly bring much to the table yourself.

Quote from: J Arcane;343490In fairness, you didn't exactly bring much to the table yourself.

Point conceded.

Quote from: The Shaman;343426If that infection starts to spread, we could have story gamers showing up in all our games. Better to quarantine and contain the vector.
Pelorus, please step into the yellow plastic tent . . .

I joined a group of 3 hardcore BRP fans. They had tables for their tables. And loved the whole "cool, we're beta testing some new BRP rules" vibe.

And now...

There's me ("But it's all about the STORY") and another bloke who teaches non-conflict and creativity in a touchy-feely way ...and I think we're winning..

Quote from: Pelorus;343536There's me ("But it's all about the STORY") and another bloke who teaches non-conflict and creativity in a touchy-feely way ...and I think we're winning..

How is a good story created, though?  As I've said in another thread, even the nWoD corebook tells the ST to back-off a bit and react to the players rather than forcing a set plot.  

Personally I find the best "stories" to be the ones when we're concentrating on playing our characters and the game, rather than trying to play off of some sort of improv narrative.  It's like if an improv actor were to suddenly step out of their role to decide where the improv should go, rather than just playing their part to the hilt and having the fun and interesting things come about naturally.  If the players have interesting characters and their GM provides interesting situations for those characters to interact with, then an interesting narrative should come about through play fairly easily.

Story as a product of good play rather than story as a goal, IMO.

And it's not like I'm anti-everything-Forge or anti-whatever makes a narrative.  I own and love Burning Wheel.  But even BW stresses conflict, heavy consequences, application of the rules and roleplaying over GM and player wankfests.  The person in OP's quote is talking about pure player and GM masturbation.  If you want that sort of thing, you may as well just toss the rulebooks aside, grab some booze, light a fire, and have story-hour.  I'm not saying that in a mean way--storytelling can be fun, but pursuing story in-and-of-itself without regard for the emergent nature of roleplaying in-general and RPGs is kind of defeating the purpose of play.