Steam Driven

DuddieCat back again,

and I'll give you a story. So many gamers talk about their skill as role players because in their game of choice, they take on the role of, for instance, an assassin, a dwarf, a hunter or a zombie. The gamer then uses the personna to manipulate the objects in his environment and, usually, to "do battle" with enemies that attempt to retard the gamers progress. In this case, the notion of "role play" has been co-opted from an earlier time when the gamer was required to actually become a characture.

These games confuse "game play" with the kind of role playing that can only be achieved using a story-telling system like the one White Wolf's brought us in the 90's. There is a big difference between driving a characture through an obsticle course with a storyline and creating, nurturing and assuming a characture whose story only unfolds as you begin to tell it to others in your unscripted sandbox.

BuffTabby asked me, the other day, if Second Life had a point, or if you just walked around aimlessly. I had to laugh because Dulcie and I have been having a blast just exploring all the crazy stuff that people have invented. In the unscripted sandbox you go where you want, when you want. You dress as you want and become who you want. There is no need to "level up" or aquire gold or learn a spell, unless you want to.

See you at the Hollywood Bowl, or on Broadway, Mates!