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If I understand the distinction between these playstyles correctly, some decent names for them could be "objective based" and "narrative based". A player in an objective based game has a series of goals that he is trying to achieve; the game is about reaching these objectives and surpassing the obstacles that are between the players and those. While the wide world or the characters themselves have room for fleshing out, they are not the focus of the game, the challenges are. The closest comparison that I can make is with the Mario series: what happens is set in motion by the kidnapping of Peach, true, but you aren't really playing for that, you are playing because jumping on mushrooms and avoiding oversized bullets is fun. A player in a narrative based game is also having fun, but in a different way: what matters to those sort of games is the roleplaying, the characters' story arcs and the setting they are in. The players' choices aren't dictated by what they believe is the best way to solve their problems: they are dictated by what makes a better story, or makes the most sense for their characters. The truth is that most games are somewhere between these two extremes; not only that, but a lot of characters in narrative based games do have an objective in their lives and obstacles between themselves and those objectives; so a player's choices could be the same indipendently from where the focus lies. I am not sure if this is the correct interpretation or even if it makes sense but I don't know how to put it better than that. paradoxGentleman fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Mar 17, 2015 |
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Mar 17, 2015 16:12
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Maxwell Lord posted:They're different extremes in the same medium, and there are all sorts of things in between. Well yes, but there are movies that are closer to one style of play or the other, so it can be helpful in searching what one is interested in to define them . I'd also argue that certain games can be played in both styles, even though some tend more strongly one way or the other.
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Mar 17, 2015 17:05
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Maxwell Lord posted:True, it's just that thanks to Pundits and such there's this idea that they're two separate things with a clear line between them, when it's more a blurry thing. Like there are plenty of games that throw in occasional "author the narrative" elements but are mostly just "roll to succeed at a task", and that works. You'll notice that I said something similar towards the end of my post.  And we really shouldn't let that person's reputation ruin the discussion for everyone else.Glorified Scrivener posted:Oh cool, I 'm still hoping to get an answer to that question. It took three rereads but I think I finally understood what you're trying to say. No, the narrative isn't necessarily cobbled together after the fact, the way a LPer in these forums would; most RPGs, even the closest to pure "objective based" there are, already come with a narrative of what is happening in the roleplaying world. I honestly can't tell where you could have gotten this. No, the fact that a door can be locked or unlocked depending on the drama of the situation doesn't necessarily make for a boring game. In fact, the objective is exactly to avoid that; if you bother to make an encounter out of a locked door, this door needs to actually be an obstacle, not something that the thief can open with no problems whatsoever. In this example, you could describe how the party maneuvers its way through all the doors in the fortress/labyrinth/dungeon/whatever only to be stumped by one with a particularly complex lock, which happens just as they were running away from a dragon they awoken. If they met that lock without the urgency of the encroaching monster, it would just stop them dead on their tracks, which would be boring unless there was a different way in. paradoxGentleman fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Mar 17, 2015 |
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Mar 17, 2015 17:45
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Here's the impression I got: a couple of people noticed that certain games have certain playstyles that they tend to be played with. We have been trying to pin down what those playstyles are (while keeping in mind that hybridization is likely) as to better understand the building blocks of TG design; this way we can give suggestions to people who want to try new games more easily and we can better articulate what certain games are about. I know Pundit and co. gave the concept of distinctions between games a bad rap, especially when the word storygame is used, and maybe this thread would have needed a different title, but it would be stupid to pretend that it doesn't happen. Do it to spite him if nothing else.
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Mar 17, 2015 23:50
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