lowercase critical maundering

From: Loren Miller <loren_at_ioxy.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 01:30:02 -0600


imho bryan maloney misses the mark by claiming that martin crim cannot prove any four levels of roleplaying. of course he cannot prove any four levels of roleplaying any more than anything can be proved... it takes some basic principles which must be assumed on faith.

in math, the existence of a point in 3d space is a good start.

in criticism, for such is the field with which martin crim's theorizing on roleplaying quality shows the most affinity, the basic assumption is that an experience has qualities that are attributes of it. and if you can somehow measure these qualities (if you can't then criticism becomes a dead issue with rather jarring suddenness) then you have a way to compare experiences.

now i know that i always read roger ebert's reviews of movies if i have the chance before i see the movie, and most of the time i agree with him. sometimes not, but usually yes. he's a critic and he serves a very real need. why shouldn't we develop a critical movement within roleplaying? wouldn't it help us find better games and wouldn't it help the game designers make better games?

isn't that what we're all talking about anyway... a game?

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