From: ayermish@athena.mit.edu (Aimee Yermish)
Subject: oops, one of these years I'l learn how to continue a thread...
Organization: Society for Interactive Literature West
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 21:28:06 GMT

...after reading all the other articles so I don't go off half-cocked.

Please, please, people.  I think we can all agree on a few things.

1.  Being someone else for a few hours, days, or years, is a hell of a
lot of fun.

2.  There are a large variety of ways in which to effect that escape,
and each of those ways has a large number of people who find it
absolutely terrific.

3.  People who develop games of any sort put huge amounts of time and
effort into them, and must truly love what they're doing or they would
put their talents elsewhere.

4.  Everyone is going to have a favorite way of doing things, and
perfectly good reasons why that is their favorite.  That's what makes
chocolate and vanilla.

5.  Everyone is going to present their favorites and their reasons as
if that were the only "right" way of doing things.  This is a natural
tendency both of people who love something, and also of people who are
not face-to-face with the people they're talking to.  None of us is as
polite as we should be, and our enthusiasm often leads us to overstate
our points and deny the legitimacy of other people's.

6.  Everyone who reads articles posted as described in #5 is going to
feel threatened and attacked, regardless of the intent of the poster,
and is going to feel the need to respond to his invisible and
incorrect attacker.  This is what builds flames, and I know you all
know it, but I really think it wants to be said aloud nicely.

7.  For every general principle there is a counterexample (this one
included).  So, in point 2 above, every game system has some people
who tried it and didn't like it, or who thought about trying it and
decided that they probably wouldn't like it.  There are people in
every game system who hated it, and most of them have the good sense
to leave.  But none of those people's dissatisfaction renders the
whole game system useless, any more than the dissatisfaction of the
general public with roleplaying in general renders roleplaying
useless.

8.  Similarly, no game system is nor could it possibly be perfect.  By
presenting our different ideas in a non-flame, non-judgemental,
mutually respectful fashion, we can learn from each other and all of
our games can be improved thereby.

9.  While to some degree, groups such as the SIL are in competition
with groups such as the IFGS for players, (a) neither of these
organizations (to the best of my knowledge) demands or encourages its
players not to play in the others' games, (b) the groups are not large
enough (nor are they likely to get so within the next few decades) as
to de facto demand exclusivity, and (c) many players find both major
sorts of gaming to be a blast.  (I have set up cooperative advertising
deals with IFGS-style groups in the past, and everyone seems to have
benefitted.)  Therefore, neither group needs to convince the masses
that they hold the key to the One True Gaming System, only that their
gaming system is fun for most of the people who play it.


Okay.  Now.  I don't normally read usenet, because I find flaming
annoying and abhorrent, and I don't like to waste my time with it.  If
this group can't agree on certain ground rules and assumptions, then
every single time a question comes up, it will very quickly turn into
the same flaming and nonproductive argument that we have been in for
the past several days.

It *is* possible to have a group run with several widely varying
points of view, without a moderator, in a polite and respectful
fashion, so that everyone can enjoy the process.  I have the pleasure
of being on one mailing list where, when someone steps out of line (a
rare occurrence despite the topic of the list being a highly emotional
one), he is politely and quietly reprimanded, and an apology is given,
and the budding flame war is over.  To make that work, people have to
agree that they're just going to disagree on a lot of things, and that
everyone has the right to speak his mind provided he does so in a
reasonable fashion.  All of our game systems work to a very great
extent on the Honor System, just because there are lots more players
than GMs, so we should all be used to exercising a little bit of
self-restraint.  Please, let's see if we can apply that admirable
skill here.

Sorry if I sound like your mom.  Listen to me anyway.  No one
appointed me G-d of the Usenet, but I might just have something to say
worth listening to.

--Aimee
--
------------------------------------------------------------------
Aimee Yermish		ayermish@athena.mit.edu
MIT couldn't care less about anything I say. 
(as long as I finish that last paper...)
Newsgroups: alt.games.frp.live-action