Post originally by JRM at 2004-06-23 09:09:09
Converted from Phorums BB System

Sorry to take this long to reply, I got enrapt in work and other things.

The point I wanted to make was that it's very easy for a debater to assume that other parties in a debate have the same understanding of their argument that they do. This can become especially prevalent in anonymous forums like message boards, because the debaters may not know anything about the views or experience of the other participants, apart from what they post. They often end up arguing at cross-purposes, which can cause the "you don't understand" roundabouts Zoran Bekric mentioned. Examples and explanations help "get the idea across", but like many people I tend to leave most of them out unless it's obvious the "other side" has a different understanding of my statement than I intended.

As a case in point, take the analogy of GM as Chair-of-the-Meeting or Host-of-the-Party. If I re-read Bekric's posts alright, he viewed GM-as-Chair as a desirable model for a game, one in which Players and GMs have equal standing but different privileges and limitations. I was thinking of a more general analogy of the roles of GMs and Players in a game. [Hold on - I seem to be discussing the roles roleplayers play, am I in danger of disappearing up my own fundament?] For example, the GM - like the host of a party - prepares the setting and often has a status apart from the other participants. The Host and the guests have a duty of hospitality to each other, but these are different for the Host than the Guest - the equivalent of the privileges and limits in the Chair-of-the-Meeting analogy - ideally these are in balance, but they can skew off in either direction, with a host demanding deference in return for hospitality (like the ancient Roman system of patronage), to the guests consuming all the vittals without offering their host any consideration. Another reason I like the Host-of-the-Party analogy is that the aim of most parties revolves around the experience / interaction of its participants during the event. (Whether this is discussing or performing art like a poetry reading, celebrating an event like a birthday, experiencing something together like watching a movie-party or simply getting plastered). Meetings, on the other hand, often revolve around objects outside the event, such as planning what to do over the next week. (Of course, Bekric's analogy is based on the social interaction between Chairperson and the rest of the committee during the meeting, so this is not a valid point).