I still think of those as mastery, just more in the psychology and mutual understanding vein. We’ve all known players who are really good at “what will make this particular person laugh” for example.

I just shared this in a different thread, but it covers a lot of why I think it has a lot of nuance. What’s silly imho is using definitional stuff to exclude as opposed to using it to help communicate, analyze and come to personal understandings. www.raphkoster.com/2013/04/16/p...

*shrug* I don’t think it is, it’s a pretty nuanced issue.

Am about to start a 2.5hr drive so can’t provide more links just now, apologies

Many! :D My blog is full of them! maybe best overview of my current take is www.raphkoster.com/2013/04/16/p... but there are also others across the site inc in presentations section

We might run afoul of semantics right off the bat. :D I don’t think fun is what makes games noteworthy and I think we find fun in all sorts of things inc narrative and more.

What makes them noteworthy imho is their systemic nature, which is a structural quality different from other media

I think you completely misunderstood my work :D

FWIW the last big thing I tossed out in this debate was pretty nuanced but also like 90m long. I wish more story ppl had reacted to it.

youtu.be/U_93O3_g9Yc?...

Also there is (speaking personally from the systems side) a feeling of “but this other part, the systems stuff, is so so important, and it’s unique to games and books and movies don’t do it well.” There is still, by volume, so little out there on deep analysis of systems.

The disagreement is usually hugely reductionist once it’s on social media.

If it gets framed as “games are generally not as suited to telling stories in the ways that books and movies have traditionally told stories, but better at storytelling in a different modality” ppl just get bored. :D

I was gonna say, Cara has done this. For more than an hour, iirc! :D

Oh hi! Was glad to see comics again lately!

Ah yeah. I call the invention of TTRPGs the most important thing to happen in literature since the printing press. :)

You might like www.raphkoster.com/games/presen... though it is not about practical advice.

It should apply to all sorts of games! Tabletop, sports, party games, etc. Some parts are more relevant to one kind than another though. For example, “juice” is very different for tabletop vs digital, but still applies.