Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Sim and Immersion
So I was just skimming this Story-Games post.
It seems to me that Sim and Immersion have the same problem. They're both too damn big.
Let us take some hypothetical examples.
A: I like Sim play!
B: Cool, me too! Lets's play X.
A: But....X isn't Sim. There's not even mechanics for drowning and falling!
B: But...yeh it is. In the books, no-one ever drowns or falls. Why the hell should there be mechanics for it? But there are mechanics for doing double-somersaults! Those are totally in all of the books!
A: Uh...ok. But no-one could -actually- do double-somersaults in that world. There's too much gravity. That's actually my big problem with the books - not internally consistent. This game, on the other hand....
A: I like Immersionist play!
B: Cool, me too! Let's play X.
A: But...X isn't immersionist. It has too many die rolls. How can I immerse when I have to pick up the dice all the time?
B: But...yeh it is. Every time I play I get so totally immersed in the story, man. It's awesome.
A: Uh...ok.
I'm not a huge fan of making new terms and categories...but really. Damn. I don't think there's going to be much productive discussion until subcommunities of these over-broad categories manage to clearly delineate what they do and why they like it, thus making it possible to compare and contrast amongst those delineations.
It's like, fuck. If we only had the word "fruit," it would be awfully hard to order a damn watermelon, now wouldn't it.
It seems to me that Sim and Immersion have the same problem. They're both too damn big.
Let us take some hypothetical examples.
A: I like Sim play!
B: Cool, me too! Lets's play X.
A: But....X isn't Sim. There's not even mechanics for drowning and falling!
B: But...yeh it is. In the books, no-one ever drowns or falls. Why the hell should there be mechanics for it? But there are mechanics for doing double-somersaults! Those are totally in all of the books!
A: Uh...ok. But no-one could -actually- do double-somersaults in that world. There's too much gravity. That's actually my big problem with the books - not internally consistent. This game, on the other hand....
A: I like Immersionist play!
B: Cool, me too! Let's play X.
A: But...X isn't immersionist. It has too many die rolls. How can I immerse when I have to pick up the dice all the time?
B: But...yeh it is. Every time I play I get so totally immersed in the story, man. It's awesome.
A: Uh...ok.
I'm not a huge fan of making new terms and categories...but really. Damn. I don't think there's going to be much productive discussion until subcommunities of these over-broad categories manage to clearly delineate what they do and why they like it, thus making it possible to compare and contrast amongst those delineations.
It's like, fuck. If we only had the word "fruit," it would be awfully hard to order a damn watermelon, now wouldn't it.
Wanna buy a game? 