Brain Damage Thread

[joewolz]

Where is the original Ron Edwards "Brain Damage" comment?  I have a friend who doesn't believe me that someone actually said this.  He knows almost nothing about the Forge, and I just want to prove that it was said.

Does anyone have the link?

[joewolz]

Never mind, I found it.  I though it was at the Forge, but it was on Vincent Baker's blog.

Here's some links courtesy of Spike, The Forge's search engine, our very own search engine, and fifteen minutes of searching:

The Post itself on Anyway

The Post in Full context, on Anyway (Ron's comment is #14)

The thread he started about it, complete with sexual abuse analogy!

His obstinacy and refusal to retract or apologize
 

[Kyle Aaron]

You could have just looked at my big list of links, mate

[joewolz]

I didn't think of that...I really should pay attention to your big list of links.

However, I'm glad I looked these up and reread them.

Damaged my ass, I'm almost done with a Master's in History, if I can't tell a story, he doesn't know how to understand one!

His threads on the Forge are the worst.  I'm not usuall vocal about my thoughts in that regard, since I try to be moderate, but the level of ass kissing in those threads is...disgusting.

[Gunslinger]

That's the first time I ever read that and it doesn't carry near as much venom as I thought it would from the responses it gets.

[joewolz]

No, it's not venemous, that's not what makes me mad.  I'm not mad enough to do anything, but it makes me mad at how incredibly INCORRECT he is...

[Kyle Aaron]

Well if not that, then the follow-up which says that bad gaming is like child abuse is pretty venomous, if you ask me.

It ties in with their idea that if you had fun/stories playing "incoherent" games, well then really you didn't have fun/stories, it's just that you were so brain-damaged/abused that you didn't know what fun/stories really were.

Dunno about you, but I find that pretty offensive. It's an amazingly elaborate way of saying, "if you disagree with me, it's only because you're crazy or stupid."

[lev_lafayette]

That's the first time I ever read that and it doesn't carry near as much venom as I thought it would from the responses it gets.

His basic claim, as I understand it, that particular styles of play (and, less so, particular games) reduce the ability to create a functional story. That's fair enough, although I think he's incorrect about the games in question.

The further suggestion that a person suffers mental or neurological damage because of this, and that is is the equivalent of childhood trauma is utter nonsense. Prof Edwards should know better than to make comments about developmental psychology which he clearly knows very little about.

Nevertheless, if this is included in JimBob's big list of links, it would stand to reason that the RPG Pundit's comments that goths are mentally troubled who deserve to be punished and that goth women deserve to be fucked then mocked should also be included. After all, Edwards is simply stubbornly wrong, the Pundit however is stubbornly wrong and malicious.

[Tyberious Funk]

Actually, the part I find more interesting is this:

The design decisions I've made with my current project are so not-RPG, but at the same time so dismissive of what's ordinarily called "consensual storytelling," that I cannot even begin to discuss it on-line. I can see the influences of Universalis, The Mountain Witch, and My Life with Master, but I cannot articulate the way that I have abandoned the player-character, yet preserved the moral responsibility of decision-making during play. That's all I'll say here, and I won't answer questions about it.

The arrogance of the man is mind boggling.  I'm not entirely sure which revolutionary project of his he is referring to - can someone help clarify?

[David Johansen]

Though you know, he may be on to something, I've certainly had a few sessions where I could feel my brain cells dying in droves.  Suicides mostly if I'm not mistaken.  However, I swear it was caused by the people I was playing with and not the rules.

[joewolz]

The arrogance of the man is mind boggling.  I'm not entirely sure which revolutionary project of his he is referring to - can someone help clarify?

Agreed on the arrogance, which is why I don't like reading him generally.  I also think that his arrogance is getting worse year by year.

I believe the game he's referring to is Spionen, which Sett might know the most about.[FONT="][/FONT]
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[Kyle Aaron]

The arrogance of the man is mind boggling.  I'm not entirely sure which revolutionary project of his he is referring to - can someone help clarify?

He said he can't even begin to discuss it online. He said he can't articulate it.

Which makes me wonder how he's actually writing it, if he can't articulate his ideas, but...

Nevertheless, if this is included in JimBob's big list of links, it would stand to reason that the RPG Pundit's comments that goths are mentally troubled who deserve to be punished and that goth women deserve to be fucked then mocked should also be included. After all, Edwards is simply stubbornly wrong, the Pundit however is stubbornly wrong and malicious.

You are right that his comments are loopy and funny in their loopiness. I'll add a link!

About maliciousness, I dunno. They both seem about equal to me. Remember, I've called old Pundit "Mirror Ron."

Edit: on looking at my list of links, and looking at the linked thread, while it's an excellent example of loopiness, it's not really rpg-related loopiness. Now if he were saying that about White Wolf fans instead of Goth kids, that'd be a different thing. If you find me a link where he says that White Wolf fans deserve to be punished, and the female WW fans should be fucked and then mocked, it'll be straight into the big list! It's funny, interesting and useful stuff about rpgs. Like if Lev had done a big freewheeling thread about his Ten Thousand Islands campaign, that'd be straight in there!

Random rambling showing vile beliefs and madness isn't really enough. Otherwise I'd have to link every thread Dominus Nox posted to, and it'd get a bit cluttered. Must be rpg-related!

[Tyberious Funk]

Though you know, he may be on to something, I've certainly had a few sessions where I could feel my brain cells dying in droves.  Suicides mostly if I'm not mistaken. However, I swear it was caused by the people I was playing with and not the rules.

I've had that feeling too.  Usually while perusing The Forge.

[Tyberious Funk]

Agreed on the arrogance, which is why I don't like reading him generally.  I also think that his arrogance is getting worse year by year.

I suspect it is just a matter of time before someone bops him one... at a convention perhaps.  Not that I condone violence, but I'd love to see him tell the crowd at a convention that they're all brain dead.

[Kyle Aaron]

Wouldn't everyone listening to his spiel just reach out their arms, start drooling and walking around stiffly like zombies saying, "brains! braaaaains!"?