Post originally by Zoran Bekric at 2004-06-16 19:43:08
Converted from Phorums BB System



Eero Tuovinen wrote:
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<i>However, IMO the decision here has cultural consequences. By limiting roleplaying to mean specifically games where players take a role we implicitly say that storytelling games are "other" in some fundamental way. Take RPGnet, as example: if roleplaying means only games where you play a role, storytelling games have a little smaller claim to bandwidth here, in par with board games and such. The simple act of defining the word has then made changes in the fundamentals of the conversation here.</i>
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Instead of postulating cultural consequences, why not actually look at actual consequences?

Currently at RPG.net there are reviews of roleplaying games, board games, card games, miniature games, books, films and comics. I may have even missed a few things there. Apparently correctly identifying all those other things as something other than roleplaying games has not limited their inclusion here. As such, I have to say that I think your contention that correctly identifying what type of game <i>Universalis</i> is will somehow exclude it from the site and discussion. If nothing else, I will point out that this review of the game did appear at RPG.net without difficulty.

When discussing roleplaying games, sometimes you want to exclude things that aren't roleplaying games because they aren't relevant. It's hard to do that if the term "roleplaying game" has been distorted by being forced to include things that clearly don't meet the criteria contained in the term.


Eero Tuovinen wrote:
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<i>It's certainly completely irrelevant to rational communication whether we call storytelling games roleplaying or not; any single individual can either talk about "roleplaying games excepting storytelling games" or "roleplaying and storytelling games", whichever is the way the word is used in the future. Either way, the difference can be made and everyone can use the language.</i>
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Ummm... no, I don't think so. If you're going to use the term "roleplaying game" to refer to all sorts of different activities, then I won't know what you mean when you say "roleplaying game". You <i>might</i> mean a game in which people play a role, or you <i>might</i> be referring to a game in which people tell a story, or you <i>might</i> be referring to something else entirely...

Rational communication is not served by that sort of semantic slipperiness.

Regards,

Zoran