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Old 03-10-2008, 02:43 PM   #12
BrettH
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 52
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Re: Looking for an RPI, where the 'I' stands for "Immersive"

It is perfectly fine to disagree with this notion, however, speaking for myself, I've been in multiplayer RPG games and staffed some, professional and otherwise, for about 17 years (I am not counting small group or tabletop experience.) The reason I said what I did about permadeath is because after that many years of experimenting with alternatives, you won't get people on the whole to RP risk seriously without even a remote threat of permadeath. This has nothing to do with pet theories or even my preferences; this opinion is the result of experience.

I cannot tell you how many times I was there on the groundfloor of an exciting new concept that was supposed to be an immersive, roleplay enhancing system that expected people to 'play right' in order for the stories to work out. They all fail, because most people simply won't do what you're suggesting without enforcement. I could name names that many of you would recognize, knowing they are no longer in the business, because 10 years ago their grand dream died in the face of what Gamers Really Do; and these are people I was dealing with back when they developed their ideas and were telling me how great it was going to be to finally do all this right. Been there, done that, wore the T-Shirt, it's a rag, I think I use it to sop up oil spills now.

I have. I've done it. It's also massively rare in any given group of players. Again, you cannot rely upon it in game design. It may be that you're one of those great folks that will play as if death matters even when it doesn't, but you are in a minority, my friend.

There is probably a reason you can't find a game that runs the way you're suggesting. This is likely because the games that have survived are the ones that have worked the best out of countless attempts, and the people starting up new games have a lot of experiences with their pet theories being shot down in favor of What Really Happens When People Play Games, and are ready to work with what they have, taking human (gamer) nature into account.

I may be wrong about all this, but I really have to go with my experience in terms of what works and what doesn't work with a group of gamers. I think that's a fair way to form an opinion, and is in no way flimsy.

You may want to examine why it is you aren't playing a RPG year after year and if your requirements are just not feasible. Or you may want to start up a game and see for yourself how this concept works out. People rarely listen to others, I've learned; they have to touch the fire themselves to see if it burns.
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