Wednesday, March 10, 2010

What's the Size of Your R-Peen

Recently, there's been an uprising that I've seen from people in various LARP and Video games.  These people seem to have this idea that the way they're playing a game is right and the way someone else plays the game is wrong.

People make all kinds of justifications for why nerf and buffs should or should not happen.  A lot of responses are "don't worry, it's not a problem if people don't Power Game," or "There's an RP way to deal with it."  All of these arguments are intended to be a social way to bully people from playing the game they want to play.

What the hell do you care how the other side plays the game?  They come to the game and keep playing because they enjoy playing the game they do.  Are they keeping you from playing the game you like to play?  Are they directly affecting your level of fun?  If not, shut the fuck up.

People assume that just because it's a "Roleplaying" game, that focusing on effectiveness is all of a sudden forbidden.  Everyone wants to be effective.  The truth is that every player has their threshold where they trade RP flavor for effectiveness.  This threshold is a reflection of their Roleplaying penis, or R-Peen.

Some people have a very small R-Peen (Power gamers), while others have bigger R-Peens (RP enthusiasts).  But they all have a level at which they say, "I'm sorry, this is just too ineffective for me to use this, regardless of how it fits my back story for my character."   Now, there are a few people who pretend to be blind, deaf, and worthless in these games.  The people who do play those extremely disabled roles are really an elitist group that likes to compare themselves to others via R-Peen.

Let's get one thing straight.  Social Pressure is not an excuse for bad mechanics.  If something is broken, you, as a player are not justified in telling someone else that they shouldn't do it, or more accurately, that they're doing wrong.  The only people who can actually limit what is allowed are the people who operate the game.

I think John Stuart Mill was talking about R-Peen when he gave this quote:

If all mankind minus one were of one opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.

In Summary: Play your own game, and don't be a bitch about how others choose to play theirs.  Attacking someone looking to fix the mechanics for any RP reason is not appropriate, as this is an informal fallacy.

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