It's all so fickle.

As AM reminded us the other day, circa 2000 was the moment Fuzion and its ilk reigned supreme on rpg.net, the ultimate progress in game engineering. In question was only which of Fuzion, GURPS, HERO or Tri-Stat should be used as the "engine" on which to "run" D&D 3E.

In 2008, beyond their entenched fanbase, these games are no longer part of any discussion about anything whatsoevar, including the discussions about "progress," which simply leapfrog over them right back to the early 80s as their reference point.

What that means among other things is that, if there's one human trait that's not subject to progressive improvement at all, it's historical blindness.

Unfortunately, historical blindness is precisely what enables people to speak of progress in culture with total conviction.

There's no doubt in my mind that progress does exist in RPGs, clearly rules have gone on evolving and more standards for mechanical design have come to exist.

But progress must be divorced from innovation, to start with.  Real innovation, the idea of implementing ideas that are truly different from the basic design of D&D are really very few and far between; there have been a lot of adaptations, and a few gimmicks, but real innovation is very rare.

And as for progress, it has been haphazard. There have been ideas and streams of design that have risen and fallen over time, and some areas that have become better while others stagnated or became worse. New problems have emerged that have yet to find solutions. So what has not come to pass is some kind of "inevitable" progress where every game designed today is "better" (either mechanically or overall) than games that were designed 20 years ago.  And some of the efforts to make games "better" have actually made games worse.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Pierce InverarityUnfortunately, historical blindness is precisely what enables people to speak of progress in culture with total conviction.

It's also what allows them to recycle ideas that have been tried before, only to fail or be replaced, and no realize that they are likely going to fail or be replaced.

Quote from: walkerpLet's take a look at game tokens that give players a re-roll or a freebie ("bennies" in Savage Worlds or "Fate Points" in Fate or Spirit of the Century). I think these things didn't even exist originally.

Sounds a lot like Karma from Marvel Superheroes -- back in the early 80s.