Daily Life, A New Obsession, and The New Look
Daily Life
We were all home Saturday morning and Paul and I were playing. He said he wanted a baby sister.
“Oh,” I said, “is that right.” Real smart, that. I was caught off guard.
“Yeah, I want a baby sister.”
“Do you want a baby sister or a baby brother,” I asked. I wasn’t sure where, if anywhere, he was going with this.
“A baby sister,” he said. “Could we go to the store tomorrow and get one?”
I did not laugh out loud—somehow.
“No. They don’t have babies at stores. God sends mommies and daddies babies.”
That was enough to satisfy his curiosity.
A New Obsession
My faithful four ™ know that I am a gamer (even if their still not sure what that means). Now I wanna be more. I have just discovered that there is a new discipline among independent game designers called RPG Theory. The essays these folks have produced are as good as anything I read in college. Right now there are a few competing theories. Interestingly enough, this is a descriptive theory. That is, RPG Theory is developing a language and framework for describing how people play. I am quickly getting up to speed and loving it.
Here is some sample titles, see if these don’t sound like something right out of a book of scholarly essays:
- Ritual Discourse in RPGs
- Narrativism: Story Now
- Gamism: Step On Up
- Simulationism: The Right to Dream
- GNS and Other Matters of Role-playing Theory
- Story and Narrative Paradigms in Role-Playing Games
- Applied Theory
The New Look
As part of my job I have been learning to use cascading style sheets (css). I finally have control over my blog’s appearance! Beware!
I’m a gamer, too, at http://www.beleriand.mux.net
But this seems to be overthinking.
Okay…so the ONLY part of this post I understand was the first section. The rest…ummm…I’m lost and that’s probably a good thing!
erudit,
Overthinking? I’d disagree. It all depends your perspective of RPGs (I’m mostly talking about pen and paper here). If you could say, “Pah, Its just a game.” Then yes, it is overthinking.
However, to many of us, especially as we get older and think more critically about our hobbies, RPGing is an Art. If one considers it anb artform, then it is helpful to have a mutually defined, critical way of talking about it. Does one have to understand music theory to appreciate Duke Ellington? No. But if you do understand music theory, you are liekly to appreaciate his music to an even greater degree.
BTW, thanks for the comment. It’s nice to find out there are more readers than just the faithful four ™. :0)
Whohoooo, my kids have a goal now! Whoot whoot!
I’m so glad to have a trademark, by the way
Wait…what? What goal…to be game designers? …to help me expand my readership to the “tenacouis ten” level?
What’s the goal.
Deser than usual,
Raphael
Looking forward to your CSS experimentations.
And LOL at Paul!