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In order to form
a more perfect gaming enviroment, we the Gamestas, with assistance of
Divinie Providence, set forth these ideas to quell and assuage the bitter
ill will of gamer to game.
The question constantly posed to the gaming enthusiast is, "What is
the point of this hobby?" Not realizing the utterly ridiculous nature
of their question, nor wishing to internalize that question to analyze why
he, the questioner, religiously watches the Chicago Bears or Manchester
United play their respective versions of football, the questioner sits
anxiously (or annoyed) awaiting your response. You respond cautiously,
forgetting all the carefully cultivated social skills honed through hours
of playing HOL, and respond "Its fun". The questioner
unsatisfied with this obvious answer stalks away, assured that these
"games" are useless wastes of time in ways that couldn't be
attributed to the sport of Curling or excessive drinking.
Falling short of being able to find a moral imperative to roleplay, I will
say that gaming does have redeeming value. It is a mental exercise, it is
inherently social (ironic as the archetypal gamer is represented as
anything but), and allows one to experience another place, another time,
and another person. What could we learn about each other, if we all, with
fullest conviction, played the person we identify with the least? Would we
be able to better identify with the different cultures and ideologies of
those around us? Might we care more and be more compassionate? Beyond all
this, isn't it enough that it is FUN? How long can I get away with just
writing things in the form of a question?
It seems apparent that we, the gaming community, must explain ourselves to
people who don't understand why we have fun pretending to be wizards or
space pilots or vampires. It seems that we must hide from the light of
day, for fear of retribution. The Gamestas is done with such
ridiculousness. We purpose a rebuilding of the community, with a new
foundation. First, we must accept each other. Then, once united, we must
put our best foot forward and redefine our community on our terms. Along
the way we must pool as much knowledge as possible from within our
community to create the perfect game.
Why is the gaming community so prone to infighting? We quickly shrug off
Dungeons & Dragons as mindless combat, and Vampire the (Whatever) as
artsy, goth posturing, depending on which side of the fence we reside. We
derisively refer to people as "roll-players", while we ourselves
are roleplayers, beyond reproach and identifiable by our immaculate
costumes. Whenever an oppurtunity arises, we seek to divide and dwindle,
as opposed to coming together and understanding. Obviously, true
differences in what makes the game fun for each person will exist, but if
all are willing to understand each other, and with respect reach common
ground, than perhaps multiple styles can be facilitated. Instead, we ban
players and criticize Game Moderators, blast games and rip game designers.
The sins in our community should not focus on how you like to play, but
should instead be concerned with your level of respect for the people
around you and the enjoyment to be had by all. We as a collective must
communicate more effectively , so to that end we must agree on a common
language. The Gamestas intends to facilitate that by using the language of
people smarter than us who have already defined many parts of our hobby.
We must defy labeling, and seek to understand that all styles of playing
the games are valid, and the fun derived from them should be respected.
The Gamestas intends to do this by helping to recognize that trust, above
all other things, is an intergal part of any social cooperative, and in
the arena of roleplaying, trust between player and moderator, and player
and player can create an enviroment where everyone can get what they came
for. The Gamestas also intends to extend information on how to analyze
styles, and how to determine whether members of the group are having
stylistic differences or whether they are just truly destructive. Finally,
we must pool our knowledge, allowing people to express ideas without fear
of retribution for simply having an idea. The Gamestas will encourage
healthty debate and vigorous point and counterpoint, but we won't
encourage ridicule before an idea has been expressed.
Once we have rebuilt our community on the foundation of communication,
trust, and the free flow of ideas, we can then reintroduce ourselves to
the "mainstream". We must stop allowing those outside of our
culture to define us, and we must define ourselves. We are intellectual,
creative, social, and by God we've got swords! In a period of time when
things we enjoy are dominating the media, we must recapture the
imaginations of those around us and put our best foot forward. I believe
that the premise of the Gamestas and the people surrounding it, is a far
better example of our hobby than that which the "mainstream" has
been focused on. We want to show how exciting this hobby is, and how it is
something that more people should be apart of, and perhaps will be apart
ofif we eliminate the social stigma.
Were the goals of redefining a culture internally and externally that is
more than thirty years old not ambitious enough, the Gamestas has a holy
grail it's in search of. Along the way we want to find the perfect game.
We have yet to define what we search for; is it the richest setting, or
the greatest, most intuitive system? Is it a game that will facilitate all
styles? Is that game already out there? Can we create it? Without any
knowledge on where to start looking, or what we are looking for, we figure
we'll just talk to everyone we can think of and come up with some leads.
We don't know the answers just yet, but I will say that the journey is
almost always 99% of the fun.
-Tyler Nafe
March 15, 2006 |
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