Hibbs, Philip:
> Better by what definition?
M. A. R. Barker's.
Personally, I always took the 'four levels' construction (I assume it's John Hughes, from the characteristic jargon spoor) as a piece of descriptive work, not as an exercise in value-judgemental prescriptiveness. If one cares to examine the typical gaming process, all four are going on at once, combined largely unconsciously and unplannedly by the participants. Without a slice of 'level 3' you're not 'role-playing' in a strict sense perhaps, but equally a 'pure level 3 game' is impossible in practice and ridiculous in concept. As far as I'm concerned, the most material definition of 'better' would be 'has more fun', unless secondary considerations apply, such as serialisation rights (mandating prominent consideration of level 2), discovering the God Learner Secret (ditto for level 4), or whatever.
Slainte,
Alex.
Powered by hypermail