done.

Quote from: Buceph;243023When I see bad roleplayers put on dodgy accents, I cringe. When I see obese cos players squeeze into a dress four sizes too small for them, I cringe. And your problem with these swine games is that you don't think the authors, or the players have the intellectual prowess nor the emotional depth to treat the subject with the reverence it's due. It's the delusion that is offensive, that these people deign to ignore the immensity of an issue and consider themselves capable and worthy of dealing with concerns that tax the best of humanity and have destroyed the most unfortunate.

Am I reading you correctly?

I can mostly agree with this, but there's some nuance involved:

Gaming is done mostly behind closed doors, as it were. What people do in their bedrooms or parent's basements or whatever is pretty much their business.

However, once you (note: not the poster I'm replying to -- a more general 'you') make your business public by a) publishing a game or b) posting an Actual Play report, you invite response -- including critical response and ridicule.

A lot of people aren't up for that -- no reason they should be. The answer is simple: if you want to play Incredibly Repulsive Game and you don't want people to laugh at you, just do it with your pals and don't publish.

If you decide to publish, man up and be ready for people to, you know, judge your fun. If you're dealing with serious themes (rape, the Holocaust, slavery, etc.) expect people to generally set a higher bar than if you're dealing with elves and Dragons. I think most people expect serious material to be dealt with seriously and with respect -- certainly that's true with other forms of media.

I think the role of the game designer is a bit more ambiguous -- I think it's possible for a game to do a reasonable, respectful treatment of a tricky subject. Even in a best-case scenario, though, the designer is inviting people to walk into a (taste) minefield with extremely limited tools (e.g. likely the people playing will not have the background to handle the material correctly). Ultimately the designer isn't responsible for what people do with the game, but if you'd prefer not to be laughed at for making a pretentious or tasteless game, it's probably better to stick to elves.

Cheers,
-E.

Quote from: J Arcane;242953Wow.  Why am I totally unsurprised that Jared Sorenson of all people has made the vegetarian propoganda game.

:rolleyes:

You do know that not only do I eat animals, I eat BABY ANIMALS?

UNBORN BABY ANIMALS?

eating unborn baby animals doesn't make you not a vegetarian, it only makes you not a vegan.